Proud to be a northern girl, Lorna Ingrid Strom grew up in Prince George where her parents always encouraged her and her two older siblings, Jon and Karin, to venture out into the world.
So she did.
She's lived in France, Montreal and for the last 22 years in London, and also spends time in Los Angeles for work.
Strom along with her husband, Jamie Brown, and her son, Alexandre, have run the independent film production company Studio Eight Productions Ltd. since 1994.
Being of Swedish descent, the Stroms spent many recreational hours cross-country skiing in the winters and swimming in the lakes around Prince George, particularly Cluculz Lake.
Her father Lars E. Strom of Strom Lumber Company was a successful lumber man, Lorna said.
"When I was about eight years old I was asked at school what my father did for work and I didn't know," laughed Lorna.
"I went home and asked my mother and she said, 'why, he's a lumber baron, of course!' Not realizing her mother Agnes (nee Stolz) was being facetious, Lorna went off to tell the class her father was a lumber baron.
Strom Place in Prince George is named after the family and Lorna's dad's lumber company was located on Planer Row. Her dad was head of the Northern Interior Lumbermen's Association for years, Lorna added. He had a planing mill in Prince George, some saw mills and logging camps as far away as Fort St. James, owned Vanderhoof Lumber Company and one in Fraser Lake, too.
"So I'm a real girl of the North," said Lorna, who still has many family members living in Prince George. She graduated from Prince George high school and still keeps in touch with many of her school friends.
"I'm very proud of being a northern girl."
Lorna went to the University of B.C. where she fell in love with theatre.
She spent a year at the University of Hawaii, where she learned how the Americans developed talent, and then joined Global Village, a repertory theatre, founded by Robert Swerdlow in Toronto.
Lorna married Jamie Brown, who started as a novelist and has written five books. Then came the move to France - a big, romantic move, Lorna called it.
The couple then settled in Montreal where Lorna got her history degree from Concordia University and they raised their family there.
The pair both worked for the National Film Board of Canada where Jamie was writing screen plays and Lorna went from the animation and drama studios, working with the Adventures in History series to CTV as a writer/researcher for public affairs programming.
During their time in Montreal Brown started a production company with partner Robin Spry, a well-known television producer. Back in the day they were known for co-productions with other countries.
"There are treaties with other countries so it was common to have a France-Canada co-production, a Canada-South Africa-Germany-U.K. co-production, which we've done," said Lorna.
Lorna and Jamie appeared on a movie and theatre-review program airing on CTV for years in the late '80s called Two On The Aisle.
That's when they moved to London.
They have three children. Their oldest son is living in Hong Kong, Jean-Pierre Brown, who is a furniture designer and artist. Alexandre Brown lives in London and shares Studio Eight Productions with his parents. Elizabeth Brown, also in London, is the youngest, and has a masters degree in European literature. She went into theatre production and now heads up the marketing department of a big company.
Lorna and Jamie are spending some time in Los Angeles developing three projects. The working title of one is Take Down to be directed by Jim Gillespie. It's a story about spoiled, rich, unmanageable youth who go into an outward bound scenario to learn some life lessons, only to discover the whole thing's a set up and it's really a kidnapping ring with the ransom being $1 billion.
The next project is an Italian film, working title Lorenzo the Magnificent, directed by Bruce Beresford, and they are in talks with none other than Al Pacino to star in it, said Lorna.
Another film on their roster ,also to be shot in Italy, written and hopefully directed by Michael Radford, the U.K. director who did Il Postino, said Lorna.
"It's all very exciting but I still have to do the laundry and make lunch," said Lorna.
"I remember growing up in the crescents, I remember the snow and cross-country skiing, and all the Strom families were filled with many cousins. I remember going out to the logging camps with my dad, picking out Christmas trees and swimming in the lakes and I miss it."
