Chatham twins make directorial debut in new film

Kat and Karissa Strain are premiering their film Call of the Blackbird on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre in Chatham. (CBC Windsor - image credit)
Kat and Karissa Strain are premiering their film Call of the Blackbird on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre in Chatham. (CBC Windsor - image credit)

Chatham twins Kat and Karissa Strain are making their debut as directors, and bringing their new movie, Call of the Blackbird, to their hometown.

The Sisters Strain — as they like to be called — will premiere the fully self-funded film in Chatham. It tells their story of leaving their acting careers in Hollywood behind to come home and re-evaluate their goals during the pandemic.

Along with acting in the film, the twins served as writers, directors and producers for the project.

LISTEN: Kat and Karissa Strain on Afternoon Drive 

The twins, whose film credits include the 2013 Carrie remake and 2018's Twinsanity, hope the movie inspires others to keep fighting for their dreams.

"When we came back from L.A. specifically, we've always been writers, more creative writers, and wrote poetry, but that experience being such a big shift in life, we had a lot of different emotions and were really discovering who we are as women and artists," Kat said.

"We started writing a lot more poetry and songs. So we've been sitting on them for years thinking what do we do with all this stuff?" she added.

The Sisters Strain will be premiering Call of the Blackbird in Chatham with a red carpet event at the Capitol Theatre on Friday, Oct. 11, before the film heads to the LA Femme International Film Festival.