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The Biz Interview: Dorothy Woodend from DOXA

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In anticipation of the DOXA 2012 Documentary Film Festival, we spoke with Dorothy Woodend, the Director of Programming for DOXA. Having also worked with other festivals like the Vancouver International Film Festival and been a film critic for The Tyee since 2004, Dorothy spoke to us about this year’s festival and the current state of the documentary genre.

How did you first become involved with DOXA?

I first became involved with DOXA first as a film critic. I had followed the festival for a number of years, and thought their programming was really interesting. When I was working at the Vancouver International Film Festival, I called Kris Anderson (DOXA’s founder) and asked her if she needed anyone to screen the films, and she said, “Sure!” I was on the screening committee for the festival for a number of years, before joining the Board of Directors. I chaired the programming committee for two years, and, when Kris decided to step down from her position as Director of Programming, she suggested that I apply for the position.

What can DOXA fans and those who are new to the festival expect from this year’s program?

Every year at DOXA, we try something new, this level of curiosity I think it is really what differentiates DOXA from other film events in the city. Partly, I think this level of innovation stems directly out of the experimentation and creativity that documentary practice is enjoying at the moment. You see it very clearly when you’re screening films from all over the world. Some of my favourite films this year were the ones that set out to deliberately to question what documentary can do. Nowhere was this more explicit than in the festival’s opening film Bear 71, which plays with the form, not just in a narrative sense, but by expanding the very idea of how audiences can interact with a film. The use of different platforms of presentation, be it online, in a cinema, or an installation, allows people to see the story from a variety of perspectives. For a programmer this is a very exciting time. One of the things that I’m most thrilled about this year is the sheer diversity in documentary, whether it’s a film like Gary Tarn’s The Prophet, which takes inspiration from the famous poem from Kahlil Gibran, or Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, Jesse Vile’s film about a guitar prodigy who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and like the title says, didn’t die. There are so many exceptional films this year that it’s truly an embarrassment of riches.

What does DOXA represent for the film community and what makes it different from other film festivals?

One of the things that I have always really deeply valued and loved about DOXA from the very beginning is its sense of openness. Because we’re not limited to any one demographic or specific community, everyone is a potential audience member. I think it’s this coming together of many different groups of people that gives the festival its special flavour. Even as the options for seeing films continues to develop and proliferate at a blistering pace (i.e., the emergence of Video On Demand, online programming and web-based media) what endures in the midst of this evolution is the idea that film festivals are a means for a community to come together. DOXA’s intent is ultimately to foster a greater sense of active engagement with film as a collective event and experience and to promote the sociality of cinema.

For the film community, DOXA is a much more intimate affair than a lot of the larger festivals, where it’s easy to get lost occasionally. Because we’re an audience-driven festival (filmmakers aren’t necessarily here to make deals), they’re free to really interact with audiences, their fellow filmmakers, watch films, have conversations, etc. I’ve actually heard from a lot of filmmakers that DOXA is one of the most enjoyable festivals they’ve been to.

How do you feel that documentaries as a genre have evolved since DOXA originally started?

When DOXA launched in 2000, its mandate was to educate the public in the art of documentary. More than a decade later, I think that intent has arguably been fulfilled. In the previous 12 years, basically since the advent of the festival, there has been a veritable explosion of filmmaking, partly this is explained by the means of production becoming available to many more people. Cameras, editing software, etc. are affordable and accessible. Suddenly everyone has the means to make a film. I think this type of democratization has really benefited documentary in that you get to see stories that you would never have previously had access to. Films like Tahrir – Liberation Square, which is very much on—the-ground filmmaking that has the power to really put you directly in the midst of history in the making. There is a real immediacy to some of the films. I think documentary has come to occupy the place that used to be taken up by mainstream journalism. As traditional media has failed, or fallen away, documentary has rushed in to fill the void. You see it very clearly in a film like The Reluctant Revolutionary that was made in Yemen by British filmmaker Sean McAllister. When every other mainstream journalist had left the country, Sean kept filming and ended up being able to tell a story that no one else had access to. The commitment that documentary filmmakers have to the stories they’re telling is something that just blows me away every year. Whether they’re risking their lives, or, in the case of Fredrik Gertten (Big Boys Gone Bananas!*) taking on one of the world’s largest corporations.

What can you share about the selection process that goes into the films chosen to screen at DOXA?

DOXA has great screening and programming committees, who watch all the submissions that come through our open call that goes out in October. We also invite a lot of films to the festival. This year, I also attended IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam), the world’s largest documentary festival that takes place in November in Amsterdam. It’s a bit of a wild scene, a true gathering of the tribes. The one thing that has changed in the way that you see films, is the emergence of online screening rooms. IDFA pioneered this idea with DOCS for Sale, which is a service that allows programmers to watch more than 500 films online. A number of different sites are now offering similar access (i.e., Festival Scope, Cinando, etc.). It’s terrific, in that it allows you to see so many more films, instantly. But it can be a little overwhelming occasionally, in that there are so many films to watch that sometimes you don’t leave your house for days on end.

Why do you think documentaries have had such a lasting impact on the film world?

Documentaries have a lasting impact simply because they’re dealing with reality, in all its myriad complexities. It’s easy to watch a narrative film, walk out of the theatre, and have it instantly leave your head. The thing I find most fascinating about documentary film is that it really has the power to galvanize action and engagement, to change the way people think and behave in the long term.

The ability of documentary film to deeply examine ideas and issues is only one small aspect of what the genre currently encompasses. A number of recent articles have cited the ability of films such as End of the Line, Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth to act as a catalyst for social change, fundamentally altering people’s behaviour. (Joe Berlinger’s film triptych Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, arguably made a significant difference in saving three men from the death penalty.) Given the potential impact that documentary film has had, we feel a great deal of responsibility at DOXA to seek out the very best in contemporary nonfiction cinema, but also to carefully define the our own curatorial vision.

What elements do you think are critical to create an effective documentary film?

The thing that it is most critical is the same as it’s always been, commitment, passion, and for lack of a better word, authenticity. You see a lot of films when you’re screening submissions that are issue-driven, but are lacking a really deep engagement with their subject. There’s a lot of parachuting in from outside to make films about problems around the world. This is not to take away from the very pressing issues themselves, but an issue does not a film make. There still needs to be a level of artfulness, since ultimately that is what films are, an art form. This is no less true for documentary, than it is in narrative cinema.

What advice would you offer to new documentary filmmakers?

“Write what you know,” is always the adage that they give to new writers, but in the case of documentary filmmakers, I would tweak it slightly and say make a film about the thing that means the most to you.


The 2012 Doxa Documentary Film Festival runs from May 4th to May 13th, 2012.

Please visit DoxaFestival.ca for more information.


Posted on April 24, 2012.
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The Biz Interview: Richard Wolfe and Rick Maddocks of "The Meal"

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The Meal is a new guest production at Pacific Theatre by The Lost Gospel Ensemble. Taking its in part inspiration from The Exterminating Angel and several Gnostic gospels, The Meal is the creation of writer Rick Maddocks and director Richard Wolfe. These two creative minds spoke to us in advance of The Meal‘s opening to discuss the production in more detail.

What inspired you to take on this production?

Richard Wolfe: I was invited to participate by Club PuSh co-curator Tim Carlson because of my admiration for musicians in general, my interest in theatre and music hybrids, and my admiration of Rick Maddocks as an extraordinary songwriter. I’ve always felt this project demonstrated a fresh and bold vision on his part.

Can you briefly walk us through your creative process for this production, from the early stages all the way to opening?

Rick Maddocks: I wrote the songs before we got together as an ensemble, a process that took months of research of the Gnostic gospels, working their imagery and ideas into song structures. The vocalists’ individual styles prompted some lyrics to change or get switched from one singer to another. The ensemble members made subtle suggestions about the structure of songs, plus our movements onstage. I was more ruthless; some songs were thrown out or cut in half, a prelude or two was added.

In terms of lyrics and staging, I wanted to explore the power of absence and what an audience might project onto that absence. There’s no mention of Jesus or Lord or Saviour or Christ in The Meal, and neither does such a character appear, not to our eyes anyway. There are no crosses or Christian paraphernalia onstage either, though there are healthy amounts of bread and wine.

At the same time, The Meal has drawn some controversial images and ideas from these “heretical” texts that were banned for centuries. So it might be an equal-opportunity offender—it could ruffle the feathers of believers and atheists alike.

Are there any books or specific authors that have been influential to you so far in your creative journey?

Richard Wolfe: I’m re-reading Hans-Thies Lehmann’s Postdramatic Theatre at the moment.

Rick Maddocks: In hindsight, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot has been a subconscious touchstone in relation to The Meal. The “lost gospels” of Thomas, Mary Mary and Judas were primary sources.

Other authors that have been influential are Juan Rulfo (Pedro Paramo) and Jose Saramago (Blindness), plus the films of Robert Bresson and Luis Bunuel.

What were the biggest challenges for you as a director in developing this production and how did you deal with them?

Richard Wolfe: Theatricalizing this series of songs was a collaboration with Rick of course, who wrote the piece in a thematically unified way and with a very clear vision. A great deal of the flavour of our show was also brought by our lighting designer Jeff Harrison. As is so often the case, time and money played a factor in how far we could go. There’s a Luis Buñuel side of things that Rick was always interested in exploring, which is the surrealism connected to primitivism, visions and the elasticity of time and place. We had notions of including abstract video, and I had ideas of dance as well, but this would have taken a lot of rehearsal and a couple of other creative partners to achieve. Also, there’s only one actor in this project, the others are musicians from a variety of Indie bands. There are four vocalists and a three musicians playing instruments in this production, along with a choir that’s flexible in its numbers. It’s something like an Indie “super-group”, so in many ways this is a pretty unique hybrid and we’re discovering it as we go along.

What can you share about any future projects that are in development?

Richard Wolfe: Although I can’t announce the title of the play quite yet, I can say that Pi Theatre will be producing the Canadian premiere of an extraordinarily mind-bending play next February.

Rick Maddocks: I am currently at work on a long work of fiction that may end being a novel. It features an alternate history of Canada’s Pacific Coast.

The Meal runs from April 11th, 2012 to April 14th, 2012 at Pacific Theatre. Please visit PacificTheatre.org for tickets and performance times.

Posted on April 8, 2012.
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The Biz Interview: Carl Bassai - Director of "Sisters & Brothers"

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Sisters & Brothers marks the third chapter after Mothers & Daughters and Fathers & Sons of director Carl Bessai’s FamilyX trilogy. A production that is primarily improvised, the film features a who’s-who ensemble cast of Canadian talent including Cory Monteith, Ben Ratner, Gabrielle Miller, Jay Brazeau, Amanda Crew, Tom Scholte, Gabrielle Rose, Camille Sullivan, Kacey Rohl, Leena Manro, and Dustin Milligan.


After successful film festival showcases in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Sudbury, the film opens in Canadian theatres on March 23rd. We spoke with Carl Bessai to get an inside look at his creative process and learn more about his latest critically-acclaimed contribution to Canadian film.




Can you briefly walk us through your creative process for the production from the early stages (writing, casting, etc.) all the way to the theatrical release?


This is a tough question because the process varies so much from project to project.


In the case of Sisters & Brothers, the pre-production phase really consisted of a lot of discussion/workshops with the actors because we didn’t have a script and we were building the narrative as a collaboration. What we came up with would go into a written outline so that I was able to break down the shooting plan.


As far as casting went on that project, I really approached that film as I would planning a party… I just invited some of my friends and in some cases, when I was stuck, I would get their recommendations on who else to invite! but that is really rare. On a scripted drama like Repeaters, it’s obviously much different. You have a team that you are working with (producers, financiers, distributors) and their is a lot more discussion and prep around casting and hiring and all the issues that go into bringing a creative team together.


Then in production, my process is varied of course depending on the size of the film. With a larger scripted drama, we obviously have a more conventional shooting style, with lighting, blocking, rehearsal and shooting… multiple takes… but with the improvised films, it is a lot more like a documentary with things being invented on the spot and new things being tried – some kept and some thrown away… there are usually a lot more takes in that process as well because we are trying to iron out a scene that is being written as we shoot – it’s a lot less structured. In the end, the process toward promoting each film – festivals, screenings and theatrical release – are more or less the same project to project. You run like crazy and hope that the critics are supportive, and that you can get enough friends and family in the various cities to attend and keep each film in the theatres for as long as possible… which is obviously a challenge when you’re competing with The Hunger Games!


For audiences who have seen the previous two films in the FamilyX trilogy, which common themes are present in this film and what are some new ones they can expect this time around?


I think the thing that is most common between all three films is the sense of the universality of families and relationships within families. We all see aspects of our own relationships in these films – some characters you will relate to and some not so much in terms of an individual experience but I guarantee anyone watching any of these films, they will recognize one of their own family dynamics in the scenes. In S&B there is a lot of sibling rivalry, tension and animosity… I’m not sure why… siblings just compete like crazy and so this film is a little more caustic than the others – more swearing (you better have a strong tolerance for the f-bomb) and a lot of scrappy behavior… that said, these characters love eachother. I relate to this mess a great deal in my personal life!




Are there any books or specific authors that have been influential to you during your journey as a filmmaker?


I have always been a fan of Salinger for his family stories…‘franny and zooey’ is a favourite of mine – these wonderfully dysfunctional people who love each other but can behave so strangely about their emotions. He is a writer who touches on the complexity of siblings, even though he only wrote a handful of books.


You’ve had several films screened at film festivals around the world. What’s the most important piece of advice that you would give to filmmakers who are trying to enter the festival circuit?


Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get invited to Cannes or Toronto or one of the big ones… of course these festivals are awesome if you are lucky enough to be invited, but chances are if you do go, you will be one of the smallest fish in the pond and sometimes, it is better to go to a smaller festival anyway where you’re film will be genuinely supported and there will be so much audience enthusiasm for the ‘smaller’ film… I have had great experiences in Toronto, of course, it is in my opinion the most supportive festival in the world – especially for CDN films… but a boutique festival like thessaloniki where you can be in competition or a real audience festival like Seattle… these are fantastic affirming experiences for a filmmaker.


What is the biggest obstacle facing Canadian filmmakers right now?


It’s probably a big cliche, and I’m sure this is true in any country, but financing films is the hardest it has ever been. Quite frankly, the global market for films is tough and is really pre-occupied with a relative handful of movie stars, so unless you have a major actor in your film, getting the money to make your movie is really challenging. That’s the reason there is so much DIY (do-it-yourself) filmmaking going on… it’s refreshing to see people go out and commit their ideas to film (or chip) and not wait for the unlikely event that tom cruise will be available for your epic.


Are there any upcoming projects that you’re working on that you’d like to mention?


I’m keeping a balance between my bigger projects and my low-fi efforts. I love the idea that even if everything falls apart with a big film, I can still go out there with my SLR and shoot a DIY movie… So in that spirit, I am working with Brent Butt (of Corner Gas fame) on his new movie – a big comedic noir epic called No Clue which is going ahead in the fall, and a DIY horror film with a turkish producer starring Jodelle Ferland that we are shooting in Vancouver in the next month or so (still a moving target!)… and then I have my LA projects.


Sisters & Brothers is now in theatres. For more information, please visit SisBroFilm.com.

Posted on March 23, 2012.
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The Biz Interview: Ron Reed - Director of "Doubt: A Parable"

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In Vancouver’s theatre community, Ron Reed is best-known as the Founder of Pacific Theatre. When he’s not working behind the scenes as the Artistic Director, Ron is often a contributing to productions as an actor and writer. On Pacific Theatre’s newest production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, Ron is handling directing duties. He spoke with us in advance of the play’s opening to share some insights into the process.



What inspired you to take on this production?


When I read this script, long before I ever had the chance to see it, I knew it was pure, absolute essential Pacific Theatre material. John Patrick Shanley wrote it for us. He didn’t know that at the time, but he did.


I also knew it was one of the great scripts I had ever read. The subtleties, the economy, the complete mastery of the ebb and flow of our sympathies and understanding, the revelations about character and event, the carefully managed perceptions and misperceptions. Absolute mastery. In service of an important, powerful, utterly human story that simply had to be told. On our stage. By our artists.


It was just as clear to me that Erla Faye Forsyth had to play Sister Aloysius, one of the great original creations in all the literature for the stage. That Erla is precisely the actress to bring an audience the elusive and intricate balances embodied in this most complex and misunderstandable – and perhaps misunderstanding – of human beings. We need to dread her, but we need to love her – and it’s darn hard to find an actress who embodies both. Effortlessly. And we’ve got her. Think of the starch of Erla’s Miss Daisy, combined with the winsome charisma of her clown character in Lucia Frangione’s Holy Mo, and you’ve got a pretty amazing, and distinctive, Sister A.


Can you briefly walk us through your creative process for this production, from the early stages all the way to opening?


No bells and whistles, no extras, no clutter. Design-wise, to match the lean economy of the script with a spare, elegant, impassioned production. Clear, uncluttered attention on actors and text: truthful, direct, un-performed; characters absolutely connected to one another, dancing, boxing, interrogating.


Are there any books or specific authors that have been influential to you so far in your creative journey?


Writing In Restaurants by David Mamet. For a vision of the necessity of live theatre. I have a great deal of difficulty with what Mamet says elsewhere about the practice of acting, but find his manifestos about the power of embodied storytelling endlessly invigorating.


Backwards And Forwards by David Ball. There is no better, clearer book about the irreducible mechanism of storytelling than this. Obviously essential for playwrights and dramaturgs, but equally so for actors and especially directors.


Story by Robert McKee. There is no more thorough, detailed book about the complexities of storytelling than this. There are important differences between telling stage stories and screen stories, of course – language predominates in theatre, image in film – but truly, nearly all the rest of it applies. (Well, except all that stuff about genre: marketing-driven Hollywood has niched its product in a way we theatre types can mostly disregard. Consider it “helpful problem-solving tips” rather than gospel.)


Playwrights John Patrick Shanley, Lanford Wilson, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Helen Edmundson, Bill Shakespeare.


What were the biggest challenges for you as a director in developing this production and how did you deal with them?


My job as director: keep the audience in doubt. Achieve every reversal in audience sympathy and judgment that Shanley wrote into this intricate, confounding story. It’s so easy to let the audience settle too easily into one perception or another – which is not the playwright’s intention. Quite the opposite.


What can you share about any future projects that are in development?


Once Doubt opens, I get back in my Artistic Director chair and polish up details on Pacific Theatre’s 2012-13 season, which we announce March 15. Then I’m up on my feet again, acting: I rejoin the cast of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot at The Cultch in April, playing Butch Honeywell. After that, the thing I’m most excited about — I’m back in front of the keyboard again as playwright in May / June / July to start work on my first new script in a decade! My last three projects – A Bright Particular Star, You Still Can’t and Refuge Of Lies – were all about completing or reshaping earlier scripts I’d set aside. Since then, the fields had to lay fallow for a few years, due to the demands of running a theatre company. But now, three projects all think their time has come (in order of increasing difficulty): a stage adaptation of a film, a stage adaptation of a non-fiction book, and an original play about the waning friendship between two of my favourite literary figures. I’m borderline giddy to be getting back to writing – which I’d begun to thing might not ever happen again. Whew.


Doubt: A Parable opens at PacificTheatre.org on March 2nd, 2012. You can also check out Ron’s blogs: Soul Food Vancouver, Sould Food Movies, and Oblations.

Posted on March 1, 2012.
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The Biz Interview: Joel Heath - Director of "People of a Feather"

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Noted Canadian ecologist Joel Heath spent five years developing his new documentary, People of a Feather. The winner for Best Environmental Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival and Best BC Film from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, People of a Feather opens on March 2nd in Vancouver. Joel spoke to us about the film’s road to completion and what he learned from the Inuit people during the making of the documentary.









Can you walk us through your creative process for the production from the early stages all the way to the theatrical release?


It was definitely an evolving creative process, but the key was to make something that wasn’t talking heads, that was something that people who don’t normally watch documentaries would want to watch so we weren’t ‘preaching to the choir’. I had worked on Planet Earth, which is a great series, but I knew I wanted to avoid that style and let the images speak more for themselves. I was particularly interested in the traditional recreations given that Flaherty, the grandfather of documentary had got his start on the same islands as a geologist and explorer 100 years earlier. His footage from the islands was destroyed, and he ended up making Nanook of the North somewhere else.


People are still hunting eiders for food throughout the year, but there weren’t really many people left in town that knew how to make traditional eider skin clothing and we wanted to try and capture that part of their oral history while we still could! I also wanted to tell the story of the eider, show them diving under the sea ice, where this all started, and use the story of the eider to connect the past and present.


For the modern sequences, I had always had a camera before we every planned to make a film, so people were very comfortable and I just wanted to try and capture things as they happen in a way that wasn’t impeded by a big film crew. Let the scenes create themselves, adapt when circumstances change and focus on capturing the genuine moments. And try and capture the connection between different types of Inuit ingenuity – be it interacting with the environment, building a qamotiq (sled) monster garage style, or making a hip-hop video!


Simeonie, the lead character was talking his son Daniel winter hunting for the first time, and so that provided the core of the modern storyline, and takes us back out of life in town and onto the sea ice.


Of course many other creative processes began with editing, music and the rest of post-production!


What was the most important discovery that you made about the Inuit people during the making of the film?


Learning about how hydroelectric dams can influence sea ice ecosystems was pretty important! More generally is is about learning another way of knowing and experiencing the world. I had received my PhD, but as they often reminded me, I was still kindergarten in Inuit knowledge. Using a harpoon, understanding sea ice, fixing a skidoo, and a more holistic way of thinking about the environment. I think I’m maybe grade 5 now someone told me! Still a long ways to go, but not bad for a white guy.


What advice would you give to aspiring documentary filmmakers?


If you believe in the project enough to make it happen, it’s worth making. Meeting other filmmakers has been great. Of course no one making documentary is in it for the money, just really great passionate people and anyone can do it!


Are there any books or specific authors that have been influential to you during your journey as a filmmaker?


Quite a while ago, I hadn’t been reading much fiction, but after seeing the movie Contact, I ready the amazing book by Carl Sagan on a recommendation from a friend. It was the only piece of fiction he wrote, a scientist writing science fiction. Then I read a bunch of his stuff. He was a major inspiration for me philospically as well as for finding simple ways to communicate complex ideas.


Are there any upcoming projects that you’re working on that you’d like to mention?


We have some other film projects in the works too. I’m particularly interested in producing an animated short about our hydrological cycle and energy solutions that can work with the seasons instead of against them. We created a charitable society to use proceeds from the film to try and address the issues. We are accomplishing this, for example, through providing meaningful employment to Inuit communities using their traditional skills to monitor sea ice ecosystems and understand the problem better. You can find out more about the activities of the society and how you can get involved at www.arcticeider.com


People of a Feather opens in select theatres on March 2nd, 2012. Please visit peopleofafeather.com for more information on the film and screening locations.

Posted on March 1, 2012.
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