Peter Rowe’s Borderline Funny had its world premiere on Apple TV Tuesday. Part satire, part serious political statement, and part delightful romantic comedy, it is a remarkable piece of low-budget filmmaking from a veteran filmmaker.
At the age of seventy-nine, Peter is something of a Renaissance Man—filmmaker, author, artist, and sailor. Not only has he almost single-handedly produced a commercial movie that has something to say for itself, but in the process he may have created the template for how to produce great-looking films on a shoestring.
Having done well in real estate over the years, Peter was in a position to sidestep the complicated hoops involved in receiving Telefilm financing. “I’m too old to sit around waiting for the gatekeepers to open their purses,” he says.
Instead, Peter put up just over one hundred thousand dollars of his own money. That’s still a minuscule amount to spend making a movie in this day in age. He figures that doing a traditionally produced film in Canada would cost three million dollars. In the U.S., such an independent film would be budgeted at twenty-five million.
How did he do it so inexpensively?
Peter innovated. He deferred any fees he might have collected as writer, producer, and director, not to mention editor, and that saved money, and allowed him to make do with a skeleton crew of eight. Instead of looking for a name, he discovered two attractive unknowns, Michael Perrotti and Jessica Rosales, wonderful finds whose natural charm and onscreen chemistry helps make the movie so entertaining.
The film was shot in twelve days, an unbelievably short time for a feature. Most of all, Peter, aided by the expertise of his cinematographer, Michael Morrow, made extensive use of artificial intelligence to provide the kind of settings that a low-budget Canadian film otherwise could never imagine let alone afford.
The use of AI also has the added benefit of giving a whimsical look to the movie. You are reminded in a good way of Hollywood productions from the 1930s or 40s that transported audiences to locations around the world without ever leaving a soundstage on a backlot.
A political junkie, particularly since beginning of the Trump era, Peter says he was inspired to start thinking about a film that had something to say after reading about Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian actress arbitrarily incarcerated by ICE in the spring of 2025. Her story evolved into a standup comedian doing anti-Trump jokes who is stopped at the border on his way to a U.S. comedy gig. He ends up imprisoned in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, keeping himself alive by keeping the convicts laughing.
The script poured out of him in a rush of inspiration in less than a month. Originally, he thought of casting the Canadian comic Martha Chaves, but ultimately decided on a trained actor, particularly when he found newcomer Michael Perrotti from Toronto. Perrotti gives a leading-man performance, much of it requiring him to deliver comic monologues in the convincing Spanish he had to learn for the movie. (his co-star, Jessica Rosales, is Venezuelan).
It’s one thing to make a film in this country, it is another thing entirely to arrange for anyone to see it. Most Canadian films never receive distribution beyond the limited festival circuit. Borderline Funny is on Apple TV, available to a worldwide audience. That is thanks to Syndicado distributor Greg Rubidge, with whom Peter had worked previously.
What’s more, the film is on Amazon.com as well as Fandango in the U.S. and is available as a YouTube rental, immense exposure for a movie that is defiantly hostile to a president who, to say the least, does not like criticism. (It will also show up on Tubi, Peter’s favourite streamer, and a limited theatrical release is scheduled at Toronto’s Carlton Cinema December 3.)
It is indeed the little movie that grew.
Does the amazing success of Borderline Funny mean Peter is now a wealthy man? Well, it is Canada and so the riches aren’t exactly pouring in, although once he collects the Ontario and Canadian tax credits available for the film, Peter will probably get most of his investment back.
“But the money doesn’t make any difference,” Peter said. “This is my contribution to the resistance.”
Besides, he is already on to his next film. This one is a biopic of the great American singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson. Titled Robeson: All-American/Un-American, it’s an ambitious undertaking requiring sixty-two speaking parts and a budget of $250,000.
This time Peter applied for financing at Telefilm. His application was rejected, and so Peter once again is funding the production himself. He’s already found a singer-actor in London, Cavin Cornwall, who Peter says is the spitting image of Robeson. He plans to begin production in November with a fifteen-day shooting schedule and a slightly expanded crew.
Shooting a feature film about the life an iconic American in little more than two weeks?
Borderline…amazing.