Next week, Family Law takes its final bow after four critically acclaimed seasons on Global Television and Stack TV. The Lark Productions comedy-drama series – which follows a group of flawed family members who reluctantly work together at their father's law firm in Downtown Vancouver – was the brainchild of showrunner and award-winning author Susin Nielsen. Susin is an exceptionally gifted storyteller, and she’s got the awards, accolades, and stats to back it up: more than one hundred hours of television; author of seven best-selling young adult novels, some of which have won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the UKLA award, and over a dozen young readers’ choice awards; recipient of the Writers’ Trust Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work, which now includes a book for adults, Snap (about three people who meet in a court-mandated anger management class).

In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Susin discusses what she learned about storytelling and this crazy biz in her four years at the helm of Family Law, the time Family Law star Jewel Staite gave her the middle finger for real, and turning real-life rage into comedy gold in Snap – and she also takes the time to say goodbye to Family Law’s viewers, crew, and cast.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Filmmaker Corey Payette swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about Starwalker, his critically acclaimed movie musical about drag queens in East Vancouver. Starwalker is the story of Star, an Indigi-Queer Two-Spirit call boy, who becomes entranced by the House of Borealis, a popular drag house in East Van. Blending drag performance with their grounded cultural spirit, a new, powerful persona emerges on stage: Starwalker.

Corey – a renowned writer, lyricist, composer, producer, interdisciplinary storyteller, and director in theatre and film – is the force behind the critically acclaimed stage musical Children of God, about the echoes of residential schools. On the film front, he directed film festival favourites Stories That Transform Us, Guide My Way, and Les Filles du Roi.

Corey’s next stage project is On Native Land, and it has its world premiere in April at the York Theatre – but not before Starwalker screens seven times in Vancouver at the Vancity Culture Lab.

Corey’s work is searing, life-affirming, and abundant with soul-stirring indigeneity and what the Hollywood Reporter once described as “joyful rebellion.” In this wonderfully entertaining episode, Corey and avowed “musical theatre girlie” Sabrina riff on joyful rebellion, musical theatre as a vehicle for social change, their admiration for previous podcast guest Andrea Menard, and all things Starwalker.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Sachin Sahel and Dhirendra return to the #YVRScreenScenePodcast for a raucous chat anchored in A Nice Indian Boy, the 2025 American romantic comedy film directed by Roshan Sethi and based on Madhuri Shekar's play of the same name. The film follows Naveen, an Indian-American doctor, who brings his fiancé, Jay Kurundkar, a white man adopted by Indian parents, to meet his traditional family. It stars Karan Soni, Jonathan Groff, Sunita Mani, Zarna Garg, and Harish Patel. Sachin plays Manish, an orthopaedic surgeon who marries Naveen’s sister – he’s the first nice Indian boy we meet in the film – and Dhirendra plays a very capable but utterly terrifying wedding planner.

Not only is A Nice Indian Boy everything we love in a rom-com, but it builds on the genre, bringing Queer and Indian stories into that well-established North American rom-com space, and with nary a cliché in sight.

Some of the best moments in A Nice Indian Boy are those that take place around the dinner table; thus, for this episode, Sabrina invites Sachin and Dhirendra to join her at the YVR Screen Scene table to raise a glass, break some bread, and talk about A Nice Indian Boy, our industry, and how they choose to stay joyful during challenging times. Also: what it’s really like to work with Jonathan Groff (spoiler: he’s a delight); chasing ghosts at Riverview; disco cobblers.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Supinder Wraich returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to chat all things Allegiance, the wildly popular CBC crime procedural that is both filmed and set in Surrey, British Columbia. Supinder is Sabrina Sohal, a brilliant and empathetic detective in the serious crimes unit of the CFPC who is simultaneously a bright light in her department and a serious threat to anyone who traffics in corruption.

There’s a lot to love about Allegiance. It’s a showcase for Vancouver actors, from veterans like Vincent Gale to Stephen Lobo, to emerging talents like Hudson Williams (yes, Shane Hollander of Heated Rivalry fame). It explores pressing issues like mental illness, addiction, income inequality, xenophobia, and the impact of gang violence on communities and families, without being preachy about any of it. It centres beautifully diverse Surrey as a main character in its own right. Its foundation stone is an intelligent and compassionate women of colour who is at once vulnerable and extremely capable. In short, Allegiance shows us what’s possible when we centre hyper-local stories and Canadian talent.

Allegiance’s third season kicked off in January, and has already served up heart-pounding episodes that touch on drug cartels, serial killers targeting marginalised women, domestic violence, and migrant workers. In this funny and fascinating interview with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Supinder reflects on Sabrina Sohal’s journey to date, and also heads down some roads we haven’t gone in our previous episodes, namely: the shows that raised us (remember Passions?), what she remembers about working with Hudson Williams in one of his first television roles, and where Sabrina Sohal ends and Supinder Wraich begins.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Kashif Pasta returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about his new short film, The Muslim Guide to Prayer in Space, which screens this weekend at the DGC BC’s Spotlight Directors Conference. The Muslim Guide to Prayer in Space stars friend of the pod Osric Chau as a Malaysian astronaut endeavouring to find a direction to pray in orbit, where there is no up or down. Kashif’s film is inspired in part by the experience of Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Muslim astronaut who made history as the first Malaysian in space and actually ascended during Ramadan, which presented all kinds of challenges that he and religious authorities worked to figure out. Kashif’s film was funded in part by the DGC BC, who awarded Kashif the DGC BC Established Greenlight Award at the 2024 Spotlight BC Directors Conference (full disclosure: our host – Sabrina – was on the jury that awarded Kashif this prize). In this wildly entertaining episode, Kashif reflects on the hows and whys of his thought-provoking, funny, visually stunning, and soul-stirring film. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Filmmaker Zach Lipovsky visits the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to reflect on his past, present, and future. His past includes placing fifth out of 12,000 on Steven Spielberg's filmmaking competition show On the Lot; collaborating with Adam Stein on the 2018 genre hit Freaks, numerous episodes of genre television, and 2025’s Final Destination Bloodlines, the last of which was the first Final Destination movie to cross $100 million in domestic earnings and gross more than $315 million worldwide. As for his present and future, there’s Gremlins 3 – which Zach and Adam are currently co-writing with Chris Columbus (the iconic director of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire who also wrote the original Gremlins) – and the sequel to Freaks. Beyond the writing, directing, and producing, Zach has and continues to mentor emerging and aspiring filmmakers through organisations like Crazy8s and the British Columbia District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada (AKA DGC BC).

This weekend, the DGC BC will recognise Zach’s many contributions to the film and television scene when it honours him with the Industry Builder Award at its annual Spotlight BC Directors Conference. On the eve of the conference, Zach sits down with Sabrina Rani Furminger to talk filmmaking, his love for Vancouver cast and crews, Final Destination Bloodlines, Mogwai, his longtime collaboration with Adam Stein, how he helped save Vancouver’s Park Theatre, and what it means to be an industry builder. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Filmmaker Kate Green (NarcoLeap) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Menopause: Coming In Hot, her audacious documentary that was produced through Telus Originals and has its world premiere this week at the 2025 Whistler Film Festival. Inspired by Kate's own journey through menopause, Menopause: Coming in Hot features candid personal accounts and expert insight about perimenopause and menopause. Fascinating, relatable, and often hilarious – spoiler alert: there’s a vulva puppet – the film reframes menopause as an empowering stage of life, helping women feel seen, heard, and understood. Not only does the film break the stigma that exists around perimenopause and menopause, but it acknowledges the existence of both, which is groundbreaking in and of itself. As Kate’s own mom says in the documentary, “Women need to know.” Another line that sums up the experience of perimenopause and menopause AND Kate’s execution of this film? “Shit gets done when women get angry.” In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Kate Green talks vulva puppets, “the change,” breaking the stigma, and the kind of shit that gets done when women get angry.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Jay Brazeau is an icon of the Vancouver film and television scene, and he’s got the filmography to prove it. He’s appeared in iconic television series like The X-Files, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, Da Vinci’s Inquest, and 21 Jump Street, Hollywood fare like Watchmen and Best In Show, and critically acclaimed indie fare like Eadweard, Down River, and Carl Bessai’s Fathers and Sons. He actually won a Leo Award for Fathers and Sons, which is a role that required him to get in a knife fight with Ben Immanuel, get drunk, and talk dirty over a coffin at a funeral. Jay is also an in-demand voice actor whose credits are many and include Sabrina: The Animated Series and the Academy Award nominated National Film Board of Canada short The Big Snit, the latter of which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. On stage, he’s starred in productions of Hairspray!, Fiddler on the Roof, The Cat Came Back, and The Battle of Georges Boivin.

There are plenty of reasons as to why Jay has been a go-to character actor for the Vancouver screen scene for decades (his versatility; his reliability; his intuition; his artistry), but if you ask Jay, it’s because he’s lucky and (his words) “every production needs a fat guy.”

In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jay reflects on his journey from Winnipeg to screens and stages large and small, appearing in a whopping 10 productions of Fiddler on the Roof, and how he confirmed that his improvised knife fight in Fathers and Sons was true to life.

Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA