Exclusive Interviews

Exclusive Interview: Oscar-winner Brigitte Berman on Hugh Hefner doc

Wednesday, 21 July 2010 20:43

brigitte_berman
Photo © 2010 via KinoSmith

The exceptionally prolific and Academy Award-winning Brigitte Berman is no stranger to fascinating subjects. Her latest, is the legendary (and colourful) Mr. Hugh Hefner.

Opening in August, Berman’s documentary “Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel” looks beyond sexual escapades, Playboy mansion and multiple girlfriends. Instead, the documentary zooms Hefner's contributions to the civil rights movement, the sexual liberation movement, and even feminist causes.

Given unprecedented access into Hefner's world, Berman dives deeply into the man behind the Playboy empire. Borrowing from his journals, drawings, and archival footage, she pieces together a deeply compelling portrait and sheds light on a side that is not typically told.

First Weekend Club caught up with Brigitte to discuss the film, Hugh Hefner, and adventures in documentary filmmaking:

K: When you first bonded with Hefner it was over music – in particularly a film you made about Bix Beiderbecke. Can you talk a bit about that?

B: Sure. When I won the Oscar for the Artie Shaw film that’s when Hef actually discovered me. And he found out that I made a film about Bix Beiderbecke who happened to be his truly favorite musician. So it’s one of those extraordinary things where a film you’ve made some time ago kind of leads you full circle to this incredible opportunity. I met him and got to know him. We kind of shared [love for] movies and music and jazz and stuff like that. And over the years I’ve become very friendly with him and with his executive assistant.

When he heard that I had made the film on Bix she called and asked – could you send a copy of it down to LA. And first I thought this must be a joke really. You know – Hugh Hefner calling me in my little apartment in Toronto, Canada. Give me a break! And I said to please ask him to send me a letter. And a few days later this letter arrived – really, really friendly letter asking for a copy of the film and I sent it to him. It was quite amazing. And that started it all. When he celebrated his 80th birthday about four years ago now – he’s 84 – that’s when I decided I was going to make this film. He was celebrated for Playboy – you know being Mr. Playboy – his entourage of women. But I knew there was a more complex side to him. When you go to his movie nights, especially on Friday nights, he reads the notes. And afterwards we discuss the films. You sit around the screening room at the mansion, about 10 or 12 of us, just talking about the movie that we’ve just seen. And it’s quite remarkable. So I knew the depth that he had. So I researched some more and found out a lot of very amazing things and decided to make the film.

K: You’ve known Hef for a number of years – so why did you choose to wait until now to make this film?

B: It never really struck me before. I was at his big birthday party and there he was being celebrated for who everybody thinks he is. And I knew he was more than that. I don’t really know why ideas suddenly come into your mind – into your imagination, but I was flying back on the plane and I said I really want to make a film about the other side of Hugh Hefner. That’s what I want to do next – and began to research that. It was a real responsibility but also a real privilege. And he gave me total creative freedom.

K: Hugh Hefner – at least to me – he’s just such a fascinating subject. Probably one of the most fascinating that you could have for a documentary film. How did you choose which specific elements of his work and life your documentary would focus on?

B: First of all, he has over 2,000 scrapbooks in his attic at the mansion. I started by just reading and going through his scrapbooks. That’s what I usually do. I just begin and I make notes on everything and I just let it all kind of pour into my brain. I looked at everything that had been done about him – all the interviews he’d done over the years – starting with the Mike Wallace interview in the 50s. I then put together a list of people that I would want to interview – both yay- and nay- sayers. I started to contact them and continue the research. I made my list of questions for every one of them – with everything – civil rights, freedom of speech – and I looked at different areas of his life that I thought would be interesting. And the more I researched – the more that opened up. New people came into my sphere that I had to interview. And of course the Playboy After Dark shows that Hugh Hefner literally designed and put on the air. They had a lot of amazing people in them. Some of these people I also interviewed - like Joan Baez – who was an anti-Vietnam person. So was Hef very much so. So they had a lot like that in common. And also because I thought she was the best – most amazing person that I wanted to meet. (Laughs)

K: Yeah. (Laughs) That’s always a good excuse.

B: Yeah. But it was a great interview. She really gave me a tremendous, tremendous interview about Hef and the period. She was real treat – one of my favorite interviewees. Barry Melton too. He used to buy Playboy Magazine, as he jokingly says – of course as everybody always says – only for the articles. Hef wanted them to do [an anti-war] song which nobody else would allow them to do on television. When Ed Sullivan found out that they were going to do the song on his show he paid them not to appear.

That’s what I found very inspiring about Hefner: He stuck his neck out in whatever way was necessary.

K: And there was the blacklisting going on then as well…

B: The blacklisting with Dalton Trumbo – absolutely. Hef asked Dalton to write an article on the Academy Awards for Playboy Magazine and Dalton thought that obviously he’s going to use a pseudonym like everybody else has. And Hef said “absolutely not – you wrote the article and your name is going to be on it”. It totally infuriated Ronald Regan who was then the president of the Screen Actors Guild in California. He wrote a long, incensed letter to Hef – which of course was in the archives – in the scrapbooks.

He accused Hefner of being anti-American. And how dare he – and he’s hurting this country. Hef said: I think you’re the one who is un-American by what you’re saying and by your actions. I am doing what is in our Constitution and what is, most definitely, the American thing to do. And he did. Later, of course, he was on several presidents’ enemies lists like Nixon, Hoover, and Regan.

K: It’s one of those things where, after the fact, you are thinking – of course – that’s the right thing to do – you would have done that. But at that time he would have been facing such danger…

B: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. He never looked behind himself. He wasn’t afraid. He was absolutely fearless. He did things because he felt they were the right thing to do. He was for human rights – very much so. Not just civil rights. Not just freedom of speech – but human rights.

K: And he took action…

B: He took action. That’s exactly right. You take a look at the forum in Playboy Magazine over the years. Letters would pour in from around the world where people would write in about something that was wrong. And the post office in the US opened people’s mail. They wrote in. Hef and Playboy took on the American post office. Not an easy thing to do…

K: And Playboy was then considered to be, beyond just the pictures of pretty scantly clad women, a literary magazine…

B: Absolutely! It’s not quite the same magazine that it once was. I mean it was really way out there. All magazines change and they change with the times. But when you look at the early magazines it is just astonishing some of the people in them. I’ll tell you one case – for instance. In the early 70s a woman wrote in from Florida – she’d been given 15 years in prison for having an abortion. Hef and his legal team heard about that. So Hef sent one of his legal people to meet with her. This person then drafted an argument and opened up the case and presented that to the judge. Her prison sentence of 15 years was changed to a year and a half – or something like that – house arrest. The judge asked for the argument to look at it and to use it to help update the abortion laws in Florida. A lot of this also led to Roe v. Wade decision that came down later on. Quite astonishing!

K: With such a rich treasure chest – or goldmine, I imagine that it must have been very, very difficult to edit this film?

B: The story I just told you – the abortion story –It is not in the final film. I just couldn’t find room for everything. It’s a dynamite story, but I had to make choices. My first cut was seven and a half hours long. We slowly cut the film down from seven and a half hours to two hours and the credits.

K: You used animation a little bit throughout the film. How did that come to be?

B: Well, Hef also wanted to be a cartoonist, but he ended up not becoming one. He created the magazine and very strictly, strongly oversaw the cartoons in the magazine. He still does today. Along with keeping scrapbooks and letters and photographs and mementos from his entire life starting when was 15 years old, he also did cartoons about his girlfriends, life, being at school, working, creating Playboy, etc. He even made cartoons about a B&W film he made when he was very young.

So I looked at all those cartoons and they are wonderful. They are so meticulously made. The first frame where the title is he would say – Drawn June 1950 – Colored August 1950 – with the exact date. He kept track of everything - which told me a lot about him. It showed me just how finicky and perfectionistic he was. Because he told the story of how he decided on the name Playboy so well in the cartoons, I thought it would be fun to actually use the cartoons to tell that story [instead of having him or other people talk about it]. Let the man from 1953 – as he’s drawing it – let him tell the audience today how he came up with Playboy.

K: Do you have a favorite part in the film?

B: Yes. I love all the Playboy After Dark [bits]. I really do. I will tell you one other favorite part that always cracks me up is when Hef goes back to his high school reunion. And there he is sitting – an icon – forty years later. He is holding the banner with his classmates. And I think to myself – How many people would do that?

K: I wonder what life was like for him in high school. I wonder if he was popular or not.

B: He always says the high school years were some of the best years of his life. He was very popular. He wrote for the newspaper. He drew cartoons for the newspaper. And he starred in plays. He had girlfriends. Got great marks. Very active.

K: So he was a Playboy already.

B: No, he wasn’t. No. And he was quite serious. Even then if something was wrong, he wrote letters to the school newspaper complaining about the kind of dances that the principal insisted on – the kind of music that could only be played at the dances. And he kind of rebelled about that and wrote an article on that. And, naturally, got in trouble for it. So you can see that rebellious spirit in him even early on. Which is what I find fascinating. I love tracing and seeing where the man from today – the man who created that magazine – where he first appears. And you can really see it.

Even the very fact that he did so much already then. Just to keep that scrapbook takes a lot of time. To do all those cartoons. To write for the newspaper and still get great grades. But he loved, loved high school. He loved being part of a gang. He was very popular.

K: Before you met Hefner you must have had some preconceived notions about him – and so will the viewers of the film. Did you find that the audiences would come in and see the film expecting one thing, and were surprised by the focus of the film or by Hefner himself?

B: I remember when I used to baby-sit at one of the houses they had Playboy and I would kind of sneak a look at it and would put it away. I was surprised – what is this magazine doing here? I heard about Playboy and Hugh Hefner and was like this guy is crazy after women and all that. Which is why when I got that phone call I was like – come on – give me a break, he’s interested in Bix Beiderbecke? But when I met him I found him tremendously charming and so smart. So smart and focused. Which I really admire very much.

When the film came out I found at first the reaction was quite controversial. A lot of people just couldn’t get their head around that fact that this man who was Mr. Playboy, who loved all these young women, who lived with so many women, and – at that time was free – could really be this kind of a smart, freedom-fighting, totally serious and rebellious [person]. And still there are people who cannot absolutely get their head around it. And when the film gets reviewed, there are certain people when they review it, they do not review the film – they only review Hefner.

K: I wonder why people have such a hard time seeing both sides. To me, it’s really not beyond the realm of possibility that somebody that publishes Playboy (and is a playboy) is also somebody who could be very smart and care about specific causes. I don’t know why that is so difficult for some people to come to terms with…

B: I would agree with you. What Hef usually says it that the way people react to him is like a Rorschach test. It says more about them than about him.

K: Has anything surprised you about the reaction to the film so far?

B: I guess what has surprised me is when I got a review calling it a fawning love letter. Because I know it isn’t. It’s not. It surprises me when they say that. But then they can say anything. It is unbelievable how varied the responses are. But generally the responses have been incredibly favorable which we’re delighted about. Really delighted. But I am always nervous. Very, very nervous. Even when I show the film.

K: Still?

B: Oh yeah. Can’t help it you know.

K: Well, that’s good in a way, I think. What do you want audiences to take away from the film most of all?

B: What a good question. I think first of all I would like to have them put aside their preconceived notions for a while. Just watch this as a film and see that a man who is a Playboy has become known for being a Playboy... This person also is one of the most extraordinary human beings in the sense that when he sees that something is wrong – he will act on it. Be it for himself, for a friend or somebody he doesn’t even know. He hears about the cause and he acts on it. The integrity with which he does that. There are few people that I know that will actually act on what they believe. And he has all his life. I would like for people to see that because I think it’s important to act on what you believe. It’s frightening sometimes. It’s not an easy thing to do. But I believe the more we do that in the best of ways the better we become as human beings….

K: I think that’s a great answer. I think we’ve almost become apathetic in many situations as a society.

B: Too apathetic. Which is what is so refreshing about Hefner. Absolutely. And just recently he saved the Hollywood sign. Suddenly he’s the hero in Hollywood.

K: It’s been all over the news! One thing that I learned in the documentary that I didn’t know was that he had this TV show that featured jazz performers and how instrumental he was in the civil rights movement. This is not a side that we hear so much about.

B: No. Which is why I wanted to spend time on that in the film.

K: It’s such a big thing to undertake at the time. Usually when there are conversations about Hef, they’ll maybe focus on his stance on sexuality and anti-censorship in that arena. But he also stood up against blacklisting in the McCarthy era and human rights in general. These are not things that are generally discussed. And they go largely ignored by the public.

B: That’s right. And the Vietnam War. And people being put in jail for many, many years for smoking marijuana. He stood up for that.

K: Why do you think that doesn’t get the same attention as his other endeavors and Playboy habits do?

B: I think one reason is that it is more out in the open. He doesn’t stand out there and wave his flag with the other issues. He just doesn’t. If you read Playboy and you read all the forum letters, you begin to get an inkling of it. The other thing is that when you see the Girls Next Door on television he sometimes comes across – I don’t want to say a silly old man – but I do think that people who see him think that.

K: It seems like there is almost this artificial façade – that once you cut through that there is…well, the title of your documentary in there...

B: That’s right. In this funny sneaking suspicion that I had, too, is that he has fun with it… You can see that there is a real sense of humor in the man. I think that it is this sense of humor that I believe also delights in people maybe being fooled a little bit.

K: Well, the very fact that he wears pajamas…

B: But you know what – to him it’s comfortable. He’s comfortable. He works in his house. He lives in his house. People come to him. He is able to do. And he does it. It’s just kind of become one of those things that he does. Actually when he goes out, he won’t go in his pajamas. But at home he is in his pajamas. At the mansion – he is in his pajamas.

K: Having known him for this many years – was there anything that you uncovered while you were filming this that really surprised you?

B: Well, there are two things. One I put in the film. And the other I didn’t put in the film. The one I put in the film is about the orphan babies that he transports – which I just love. There it was buried in one of the scrapbooks and I suddenly saw. And when he was just starting out with Playboy there was quite a delicious thing that I discovered. There was a hoax that he did in Chicago where he and his friends all dressed up as prehistoric people in togas. They went into the subway and started to paint the subway walls. When the police found out about it, they came to them and tried to stop them. They actually had a letter that they had gotten that said they could do it. And it wasn’t until the following morning that it was actually found out it was illegal and that they had no right to do it when they tracked the letter down. But what was amazing was that Hef was one of the people who did that. He actually started it. It was like an incredible hoax that he did, but then it became a story in Playboy. It was like he was creating his own stories. Do you know what I mean?

K: I know exactly what you mean, actually.

B: They had to go to court for it. It became quite something. But the audacity- I just thought wow! (Laughs)

K: Now, Hefner he is a big fan of the cinema – even going as far as organizing movie nights at the mansion. You attended some of them. Can you describe your very first movie night?

B: Oh my goodness gracious. Oh. I cannot. But I am going to describe an early one for you. It was in December, like in my second year that I was there. And Don Adams from ‘Get Smart’ was still alive. Hef wanted to put a movie on that was in the Christmas spirit. It was a Friday night movie so he read the notes and then there was a discussion in the movie theatre. Then afterwards the discussion continued in the dining room around the table. There was a religious flavor to the film. And Don Adams – who is a very staunch Catholic – began to talk about Catholicism. And then another person jumped in about Catholicism and religion. I am listening to this. I am putting myself outside of the scene. And I am thinking nobody would believe me that I am sitting here at the table at the Playboy mansion and we’re talking about religion and Catholicism. It was so absurd. (Laughs) It was great.

K: My one last question for you is – When this film comes out a lot people are going to get an idea of the real person behind this Playboy fantasy for the first time. There is also a feature film being written about him by Diablo Cody. When all is said and done, do you think Hugh Hefner actually cares about what people think of him?

B: Yes I do. Very much. It may not come across like that but I certainly think so. When I have shown the film at the mansion and when he came up – he flew to Toronto for the Toronto Film Festival. Every time – even the fourth time that he had seen the film – he was genuinely moved to tears. Every time. Which really surprises me. It touches him very deeply. I think what really – the biggest compliment for me was the first time he saw the film – he just looked and me and said ‘you read me very well’. For me, it was an incredible compliment. I think one of the reasons he is doing so many interviews about the film at this time is that he is proud of the film. He had no idea what I was going to come up with – he never saw any of the footage. He didn’t really look over my shoulder. I just worked on my own. I think he was really quite tremendously surprised and delighted by it. I do think he cares.

K: And I guess also at this point in his life he maybe cares even more.

B: Yes. But I think even when he was younger he cared because of the scrapbooks that he kept. He is going to give them to his alma mater – university. You wouldn’t be keeping such a record if you didn’t care.

HUGH HEFNER: PLAYBOY, ACTIVIST and REBEL opens August 6 in Toronto, August 13 in Montreal, and August 20 in Vancouver. It is distributed in Canada by KinoSmith.

Interview with Kari Skogland

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There is no doubt that Kari Skogland is one of Canada's most verstile filmmakers, having worked in a great variety of genres and mediums.

This year's thriller/drama "Fifty Dead Men Walking" (starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers) is written, directed, and produced by Skogland. It has premiered at a Gala at the Toronto International Film Festival 2008, won Critics Top Ten, won the Vancouver Film Festival top prize and earned Skogland a DGC Best Director Award. The film is presently nominated for 7 Genie awards and was also nominated for a Spirit Award.

Skogland's previous film (also as director, writer, producer), an adaptation of the best selling book "The Stone Angel", starring Ellen Burstyn, Ellen Page, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007 – Skogland was nominated for DGC Best Director/Best Film and several Genies including Best Actress and WGC for Best Screenplay, it won a Genie for Best Music. Not surprisingly, she was named by Hollywood Reporter as one of its "Ten Directors to Watch" for her debut as writer-director of Liberty Stands Still.

Skogland's career began in Canada by directing award winning commercials and music videos. She then moved into television where she started with the enormously successful and multi-award winning series Traders (nominated for 9 Geminis including Best Director and won Best Series). White Lies, a movie for CBC, was nominated for several Geminis and an International Emmy and won a Tout Ecran. Her films The Size of Watermelons starring Donal Logue and Paul Rudd, Men With Guns starring Donal Logue and Callum Keith Rennie, Liberty Stands Still (written by Kari as well) starring Wesley Snipes and Linda Fiorentino, have all screened and won awards at major festivals in Canada (Toronto FF, Montreal FF), the US (Slamdance, Chicago, Houston, USA, New York, Cinequest, Seattle) and around the world. She was also nominated a for a DGC best director and a Gemini for her work on The 11th Hour -CTV and for her film Chicks With Sticks and won the DGC Best Director for her work on the mini-series Terminal City. Kari was the honoured director at the 2008 Female Eye Film Festival.

First Weekend Club's Katherine Brodsky caught up with Kari Skogland to discuss her multiple Genie Nominations this year for "Fifty Dead Men Walking", including a nod for Best Director.

Congratulations on your Genie Award nominations! What does it mean for you to have "Fifty Dead Men Walking" receive these nominations?

Thanks so much, of course it is fantastic to have my work noticed by my peers. Making any film is a tremendously difficult thing to accomplish and there are many ways it can go sideways so, it is part of my role as the director to keep the vision and hope like hell I get it right -to have the results validated at any level is of course a terrific sense of accomplishment. It also gives my future partners in film a sense of confidence in my ability to create a watch-able movie so there is a practical side to it as well.

Recently, Kathryn Bigelow was the first female director to win an Academy Award - what was your reaction to that?

Well, I do a lot of advocating for women directors as we are a very under represented gender in our industry so, it was like the arrow hitting the bulls eye. It was a great film and she busted any notion that women can't direct action so, I hope it is a crack in what has been until now, a heavily guarded door.

Why do you think it took so long? Are things similar or different in Canada?

Hollywood is a very big machine, fueled by box office results. So, while any film is a gamble, Hollywood tries to hedge it's bets and of course track record becomes everything when financing your film. It is very hard for a female to build a sellable track record if she can't get access to making films in the first place so it's a bit of a catch 22. In Canada, because we were becoming dwarfed by our big neighbour to the south, we are blessed with a system that has been building it's filmmakers via Telefilm for several decades now. Telefilm will support a filmmaker - no gender issue - with a developed vision and nurture that filmmaker as they grow. It is now paying off as we have some internationally recognized Filmmakers, and many of them are women so, we are ahead of the curve so to speak, by virtue of a more progressive notion on how to build an industry in the shadow an over powering Hollywood machine. It should also be noted that the Toronto Film Festival - probably the second most important festival in the world (second to Cannes), has also always supported women as filmmakers so it has consistently given them a very important platform - all this is critical to the recognition of a filmmaker in general, and particularly critical for marginalized groups, ethnic filmmakers and women.

"50 Dead Men Walking" is not typically the sort of movie that the public tends to associate with female filmmakers - yet you wrote the script, directed the film, helped produce it & got a Genie nomination for directing it to boot... Why does it come as a surprise when a woman directs a film in that sort of genre?

Fifty was a synthesis of my sensibilities - it has deep human drama, high stakes, topical: it is politically important for us as a society to examine events like these from the past , and on top of all that, some hot action which is always challenging to execute. I suspect many other women would also be inclined to direct movies like this, but I've had the fortune to build up a body of work that introduced me to all the different sensibilities I would have to draw on for this film.

How did you come to work on Fifty Dead Men? What sparked the interest in you?

A friend and one of the Exec Producers brought me the book. I loved the true voice, it was from an angle I had not considered before when thinking about "The Troubles"; an "every man" forced to examine his own morals and ethics who becomes a hero because for him, there is no other choice but to save lives no matter what the politics. I grew up with the Irish conflict as a back drop to the news, much like Iraq is to our kids today but, I never had a real understanding of the issues at hand, or how this could have happened in our "enlightened/democratic" western society. So, when I read the book, my curiosity and politics were engaged and I knew I had to tell this story as a filmmaker because it was very relevant in today's landscape of religious conflict.

What were the challenges in basing a film on a true-life-account? Obviously one of them involved Martin McGartland's denouncing some of the liberties that the film takes with his story...

Well, Martin as it turned out, had a very political agenda for the film, one I did not share. I wanted to tell the human drama and not get into whether the cause and the struggle was good or bad, who was right or wrong - this movie was about murky truths, how in war, truth is the first casualty. I think also, he had personal anxiety as we got closer to the premier as to how it would be embraced, not only by the critics, but by his family back in Belfast who he cannot visit. Once he saw the film, I am told he got very emotional and liked it very much, in any case, he recanted his concerns immediately

Your previous feature before "50 Dead Men Walking" was "The Stone Angel" - a completely different genre and your work in general has a lot of variety in it... Why do you have such a variety in your genres?

Well, people started to pin me to a very specific style and look, but for the most part, these were not movies I had written and I was feeling off track. I think as I have entered my middle years, I have found my voice as a filmmaker and the stories I feel compelled to tell. I'd be uninterested in my own work if I was telling the same story again and again so, I hope each one is different and represents a bit of my own curiosity as I explore uncharted territory whether it be political, emotional, ironic or just plain fun. I think I will always look for material that has soul and that can be meaningful because I am very type an and am conscious of how little time we have so, I don't want to spend my energy on material that is not going to provoke me in some deeper way.

"50 Dead Men Walking" is a story that takes place in Ireland and Great Britain - what is the Canadian connection? What makes it a Canadian film (aside from you being Canadian), or relevant to Canadian audiences?

Well, I believe we Canadians have a unique perspective on war and peace so when we look at an issue/story, I'd like to think we come at it sideways allowing an audience to jump aboard without the baggage of a more black and white, Indians vs. Cowboys mentality. I also think there is a lot of British and Irish heritage in Canada that has helped shape the country so, there are many roots that would suggest Canadians have an interest in knowing this past. More to the point, are Canadians not curious about the world? I believe they are so, if a Canadian goes to India, or Australia or Cuba to explore and come back to Canada with a story to tell, I hope that is what we developed and invested in our creative industry to be able to achieve. Of course we want to continue to tell stories that are core Canadiana, whether old or new, but, isn't the goal of a sophisticated culture and community to import new and interesting ideas / entertainment alongside the more traditional stories? Fifty is about a man who has to make impossible decisions and discovers that at the end of the day, he's the only reflection in his mirror. That cautionary tale is as relevant to a young man or woman on Hastings in downtown Vancouver as it is to a soldier just leaving for Aghanistan or a banker on Bay St. We are a diverse culture, I believe our stories should reflect that. Can you imagine if someone said to Danny Boyle - hmmm...you're British and there is British money invested in this movie called Slumdog Millionaire you want to make so, good god, you better not do it because it's not a British story....

What's next for you?

I have adapted a book called The Prisoner of Tehran, a true story that takes place during the first wave of the Islamic Revolution, another story I hope told from a unique Canadian perspective on a subject we in the western world are living with in the news every day and perhaps need a little insight to decode.

Spotlight on: Raindance Canada

Written by Katherine Brodsky Monday, 19 October 2009 23:00

Raindance Canada, one of our beloved partners, is dedicated to fostering and promoting independent film in Canada and around the world. Raindance spans the full spectrum of the art, craft and business of independent movies - from guerilla style low or no budget productions to big budget indie blockbusters. Their tagline is: "We don't Teach Filmmaking. We make filmmakers." And they live by it.

Raindance Canada, an affiliate of Elliot Grove's Raindance UK, was founded in 2005 by Hector Arenas, who passed away October 17, 2008, but the organization continues to forge on in his name "with the same passion, vision and dedication to the film industry and exceptional talent we have here in Canada," according to Anthony Young, Raindance Canada's current Director.

First Weekend Club caught up with Anthony Young to discuss the organization, their roots, vision, programs, and of course, the Canadian cinematic landscape:

1) What is the philosophy behind Raindance Canada?

While we are based in Toronto, our philosophy is to foster and promote a strong independent media arts community in Canada, and around the world, with an ever increasing emphasis on working with minority groups and the underprivileged. Raindance spans the full spectrum of the art, craft and business of independent movies, from guerilla-style low or no-budget productions to big budget indie blockbusters. We make it a point of always offering a free course during our premier bi-annual spring and autumn events, and strive to keep our courses affordable as we know how difficult it can be to be able to afford an education in film or break into the industry.

Our courses are the backbone of what we bring to the table, and are designed to offer insight and knowledge from the novice to the seasoned filmmaker. We believe Canadians have great potential to compete and be recognized on the world stage of independent filmmaking and its movement, but we also realize this can not be accomplished until the Canadian public start supporting our homegrown work and talent. The Canadian independent filmmaking industry will progress in proportion to the rate of support it receives. We focus on the business of the film industry because while many have the talent to make film, they don’t always know how to navigate the business end of it – so we teach them how to do exactly that. This is exactly why at Raindance, we don’t (just) teach filmmaking, we make filmmakers.

2) Why was Raindance Canada created? I know it stems from the Raindance Festival in the UK... What's the connection?

We strongly believe the market for independent filmmaking movement has flourished over the years, and that we have only touched the surface of the potential available to and from independent filmmakers in our country. The 17th annual Raindance Film Festival, founded by Elliot Grove, was just held in London, England with a record increase of 83.4% in box office sales. Even in the present financial crisis, the percentage increase speaks for itself.

Considering the history of independent filmmaking around the world, there has never been a better time to break into independent filmmaking and the film industry than right now. We see there is a much needed market within this arena here in Canada, and because of the effectiveness and structure, we were compelled to implement and mirror the already successful model that our sister company in the U.K. has been using for many years.

Elliot Grove [founder of Raindance UK] is Britain’s premier independent film champion and founded the internationally renowned Raindance Film Festival in 1993, and Britain’s most important industry event: The British Independent Film Awards in 1998. In 2007, he founded www.raindance.tv - Europe’s leading portal for independent films on the internet.

Raindance Canada is an affiliate of Raindance UK, which is moral supporter of our mission and incentives towards what we see as necessary within the Canadian film industry. Raindance Canada is a subsidiary dedicated to advocating through the support and development of Canadian film and filmmakers’ skills and ultimately success in the film industry, here and around the world.

3) How connected is Raindance to Canadian cinema? And why?

We see Canadian cinema as oppressed and overshadowed by our neighbours to the south since the silent movie era. Understandably so, since there’s been very little support from community and government as a whole for this independent art form and business enterprise, however, we see this as non-absolute. Until the merit and potential is recognized for independent filmmaking in Canada, and this attitude and approach changes, both from the public and private sectors, we will not see much change or improvement. Nevertheless, Raindance Canada will persevere in voicing and championing the importance of continued support and advocacy of independent film and home grown talent.

4) Your tag line is: "We don't teach filmmaking. We make filmmakers." Explain.

As aforementioned, Raindance focuses on discovering, fostering and championing new talent and audiences – the lifeblood of the film industry. We know academia offers the technical knowledge necessary to know HOW to make a film, but it doesn’t always teach what experience and knowledge of the industry can inhibit creatively. We feel there is no other film organization equivalent in scope or influence offering what Raindance Canada offers Canadian filmmakers. We don’t solely concentrate on the educational curriculum, but provide the necessary tools, resources and connections to ensure our members get what they need to succeed in their filmmaking endeavors. We believe the success of an individual filmmaker requires a good base on the marketing aspect within the industry. Hence, we focus on a crucial component that filmmakers often don’t give much attention to and think much of - the business of filmmaking. The proven structure we offer works, clearly, and the outcome of the concept we have resulted in some of ‘A’ list filmmakers coming out from an association with Raindance over the years.

5) What's the best thing about Raindance?

Again, not to be repetitive, but the best thing we bring to our membership and to the film industry in Canada are the tried and true courses and workshops that provide the knowledge, skills and tools necessary for those that have the desire to pursue a successful career in this industry. Writers, producers, directors of Slumdog Millionaire, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Sliding Doors, Janice Beard 45 wpm, Waking Ned, and Memento have all attended our intensive masterclass Lo-to-No Budget Filmmaking class before making their first films. So did Guy Ritchie, Mathew Vaughn and Christopher Nolan…just to name a few. We offer the same to Canadians, and hope to focus our ongoing efforts on inspiring Canadian filmmakers to make their own breakout films, which will, in turn, feed the local industry to become a thriving industry in its own right. We feel this is the very best thing we do.

6) How has Raindance Canada changed over the years?

Since the inception of Raindance Canada four years ago now, we have been providing our much heralded intensive Lo-to-No Budget Filmmaking and Write & Sell the Hot Script masterclasses. These are the two classes responsible for launching some of the most sought after filmmakers today. We have worked diligently to create more cutting edge programs, events, information with bi-monthly newsbulletins, regular articles from filmmakers, and networking opportunities to filmmakers towards their success, and bring in established Canadian filmmakers to share their experiences and knowledge to our members and course attendees. By doing so, we are able to provide the much needed information for our independent filmmakers to succeed with the development of their projects.

Like anything in life, knowledge is key to success, and we work towards giving filmmakers the information they need to be successful, but at the same time help to save them money or keeping their film budget in line with their abilities to make film. We have been told time and time again that what we bring to the filmmakers is so needed within the community and simply isn’t offered elsewhere. Take the past two Filmmakers’ Foundation Certificate series we had this year in May/June and September/October which allowed Raindance Canada to provide the invaluable information about the Canadian film industry shared by local tutors as requested by our membership. The programs we have been hosting demonstrate that our members and the public are more aware of the importance of supporting Canadian independent films and filmmakers in order for the industry to survive, thrive and come into its own.

7) Where do you see Raindance Canada 3-5 years from now...where do you hope to take it?

We are looking to implement more programs in response to the changes in the industry on an ongoing basis in order to provide a solid place where up and coming and established filmmakers can gain the necessary tools, resources and connections needed to further their film projects. We have numerous hands-on events that we’d like to add to our program structure in the future. There’s been a thorough consideration of having a Raindance Canada Film Festival, which would focus on Canadian filmmakers, but want it to be open to international submissions because we know that the film medium is the most global forum there is today. We plan to begin offering special screenings of great, existing Canadian films with Q & A’s with the filmmakers in the new year, and it is our hope to eventually open an in-house editing and film production house, as well as to have the equipment on hand to help filmmakers with their productions. We also hope to establish the Hector Arenas Filmmaker’s Fund, a bursary award to newcomers to Canada who apply in order to jump start their film career here. We work towards the day that we have the staff and financial resources necessary to support these goals, and will be working towards gaining the sponsorship necessary to accomplish them.

8) What are some things in the immediate future for Raindance Canada that excite you?

We will continue to advocate the importance of supporting and promoting Canadian indie filmmaking and its local arts and the sheer magic of movie making because everyone of us at Raindance is truly a lover of film and/or involved in film ourselves. Those who support Raindance Canada support not only our beliefs and mandate, but also to setting a world stage for Canadian filmmakers to move them out of the shadow of Hollywood. We will continue to bring more of what we see as essential for success to help enhance the awareness of our home grown film and filmmakers.

Knowing how integral it is to connect within the film industry, we recently began an informal monthly networking social event called Boozin’ ‘n Schmoozin’ which allows filmmakers the forum necessary to meet, connect, share and inspire their individual filmmaking efforts.

With the biannual return of Elliot Grove to Toronto in early November, we bring to the local filmmaking community our exceptional, uniquely designed pitch competition Live!Ammunition!, designed to give local up and comers the opportunity to pitch their film idea to a panel of industry professionals to gain experience with the pitch, feedback on how to improve their idea and or approach, and even the potential to get their project picked up and produced. We also have on the course roster our ‘FREE 99 Minute Film School’ to jump start people’s film careers, and the concise but all too essential ‘Creating a Business Plan’, and then the well established ‘Lo to No Budget Filmmaking’ masterclass, each tutored by Raindance founder, Elliot Grove, who brings a wit and wisdom that always inspire his students to get busy making film - and THAT excites us very much!

With the past and future success of what we bring to the filmmaking forum in Canada, we are looking forward to expanding our model and programs coast to coast to be more inclusive of the exceptional talent we have in this great country. We can’t help but be excited to be a part of that movement and honoured to play a role in fostering our home grown talent to help them succeed in film. It is truly our view that their success IS our success. Of course, in order for us to provide more quality programs, expand our incentives, and grow into the same force with the same reputation Raindance UK has at present, we need the support of the public and industry to accomplish our goals. With mutual collaboration, we know we can make the Canadian independent filmmaking movement a force to contend with in Canada and internationally.

For more information, or to become member of Raindance Canada, please visit their website at www.raindancecanada.com.

Interview with Steve Gravestock, Canadian Programming, TIFF

Written by Katherine Brodsky

Photo: Michael Buckner/WireImage

Steve Gravestock is the programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival that is responsible for Canadian films. So it's no wonder that he is the man with the "scoop" on all the Canadian film going-ons at TIFF. He shares his thoughts with First Weekend Club on this year's selections & much more in this exclusive interview.

What are some highlights for Canadian films this year?

There's a great group of films coming from BC, including new films from Blaine Thurier (A Gun to the Head); Carl Bessai (Cole); Bruce Sweeney (Excited) – all filmmakers we’ve featured before; plus a feature debut called Machotaildrop; and a BC/Ontario co-production, a charming and quirky romantic comedy, called Year of the Carnivore, which is directed by Sook-Yin Lee, and will open our Canada First! programme.

There are also a number of great films from Quebec, including two films which played Cannes: J'ai Tué Ma Mère by Xavier Dolan (which is already a huge hit in Quebec and won three big prizes in Cannes) and Denis Côté's Carcasses. Côté is one of the most interesting and unique filmmakers working today – his style, in only his fourth film, is immediately recognizable -- and this is one of his most distinctive works so far. We also have the North American premiere of La Donation, by Bernard Émond. This is the final installment in his trilogy about faith, hope and charity -- one of the most impressive film series ever made here. This is a genuinely intense and emotionally affecting work – with a great performance by Elyse Guilbault -- about a doctor trying to decide whether to take over a practice in a remote rural area.

What are some of the films that you're most excited to see people's reactions to and why?

It will be very interesting to see how people respond to some of the films in Canada First!, particularly Alex Craig and Corey Adams' Machotaildrop; Alexandre Franchi's The Wild Hunt; and Rob King's George Ryga's HUNGRY HILLS. They're all very singular, in some cases very strange riffs on genre.

Machotaildrop is about a young kid who wants to be a skateboarding star, but most of the action takes place in this surreal mansion/compound in the middle of nowhere, with this overt emphasis on recycled junk. It has less to do with the slicker explorations of skateboarding culture, like Dogtown and Z-Boys, than movies like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory or Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct.

Franchi's The Wild Hunt begins as a sort of fantasy then shifts gears — radically — at least twice. George Ryga's HUNGRY HILLS is set in the 1950s and riffs off of Westerns. It sets up this moral structure/conflict which it undercuts in an intriguing and rather audacious manner.

There a slew of other films which toy with genre, including Reginald Harkema's Leslie, My Name is Evil, a hyper-stylized look at the Manson trial, one of the first great flashpoints for the culture wars that consumed the USA in the 1960s, though it’s as much about Iraq. Thurier's A Gun to the Head is like a domesticated film noir, which is kind of a contradiction in terms since most of the heroes in noir are rootless. The hero here gets caught up with some extremely eccentric gangsters, but really he just wants to get back home. Carcasses begins as a documentary but turns into a strange sort of allegory. Phil Hoffman’s All Fall Down combines personal essay with a kind of regional history. It’s a portrait of a writer whose life goes off the rails which is beautifully, rigorously structured and very affecting.

Were you particularly surprised by any of the submissions?

There were a surprising number of films in genres one wouldn’t conventionally – or stereotypically maybe – see as Canadian. The most obvious is Peter Stebbings’ Defendor with Woody Harrelson as a mentally challenged man who believes himself to be a superhero. The movie also has Sandra Oh as the court psychiatrist who tries to determine whether Harrelson’s character, Arthur Poppington, is sane, and Elias Koteas as one of the chief villains, a corrupt cop. Kat Dennings, who was in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, plays a prostitute who befriends him. I’m a comic book geek and I liked it better than some of the big comic book adaptations I saw this year. It does what a lot of the more critically praised comics series have done - it injects elements of realism into a fantasy genre. It was shot in Hamilton, incidentally, and it’s really smartly designed. Harrelson gives one of his best performances.

Rob Stefaniuk’s rock and roll vampire comedy Suck, which features this amazing list of cameos (Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, and Alex Lifeson has a great cameo), which are very sharply conceived. Stefaniuk is the head of this band that’s going nowhere when one of them runs into this scary Goth type and comes back looking ... paler. Suddenly, they’re wildly successful.

Jacob Tierney’s The Trotsky is almost a teen comedy, though markedly different from most. It’s closer to Wes Anderson in some ways. It follows a teenager (Jay Baruchel from Million Dollar Baby and Tropic Thunder) who believes he’s the reincarnation of Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky. He’s so convinced that he’s the reincarnation of Trotsky that he expects that he’ll marry an older woman named Alexandra, and he’ll be exiled twice and ultimately assassinated, just like the real Trotsky. His father punishes him by sending him to a public school, where he immediately starts a movement for a student bill of rights. It’s got a great cast – Michael Murphy, Emily Hampshire, Genevieve Bujold and Colm Feore. It’s one of the funniest, sharpest comedies I’ve seen this year.

Gary Yates’ High Life is this energetic, frenetic heist-gone-wrong picture which is very concisely made with some very strong performances. Matt Bisonette’s movie, Passenger Side, is a very intimate take on the road movie, while Ruba Nadda’s Cairo Time is a really touching romance with some exceptional performances.

I suppose it makes sense that we’d have three documentaries which debunk received knowledge this year. Neil Diamond’s Reel Injun analyzes the stereotypes about Native Americans and First Nations people in Hollywood movies, while Peter Raymont and Michele Hozer’s film about Glenn Gould, Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, shows us a very different version of the icon, and Brigitte Berman’s film on Hugh Hefner, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, does the same.

Do you feel like the competition amongst Canadian films is getting tougher?

Every year we see really solid movies we won’t be able to program for a variety of reasons and this year was one of the toughest. There are a lot of good filmmakers out there.

Are you seeing any trends?

Well, the bending of genres is prevalent this year, as I outlined, plus there’s lot of great work coming from British Columbia. Bruce Sweeney’s Excited is a wickedly funny comedy about a man who has bedroom problems, hasn’t had a date in nearly a decade and meets a woman he’s very interested in. It’s really sharp. Carl Bessai’s Cole is a drama about a young man trying to escape his life in a small town and is very sensitively and intelligently directed, a lovely film.

The Toronto International Film Festival has gotten very big, very high profile and very international. Why do you feel that it is important to keep a strong focus on Canadian film?
It’s one of the core missions of TIFF to spotlight Canadian films not just at the Festival, but through our year-round programming as well - at TIFF Cinematheque through retrospectives such as that of the recent Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes programme, featuring many classic Canadian films; Film Circuit provides under-served Canadian communities with access to Canadian and international films through grassroots distribution, marketing and exhibition; the annual Student Film Showcase which celebrates a diverse and exciting range of emerging student work including animation, documentary, fiction and experimental films; the Film Reference Library publishes the only online encyclopedia exclusively devoted to Canadian film with over 850 entries written by knowledgeable experts; Canada’s Top Ten is an annual event that celebrates and raises awareness of contemporary Canadian cinematic achievements. We have recently published Toronto on Film, an anthology about how Toronto is presented on film with an insightful wide-ranging essay by Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star, which is the centerpiece of the book. (We’re doing a series of films based on the book at the TIFF Cinematheque in October.) With the University of Toronto Press, we’re co-publishing a book on Atom Egoyan’s The Adjuster by Tom McSorley. This extends to film-related projects and installations – our Future Projections programme at the Festival showcases talented Canadian media artists each year. Our new building at King and John, Bell Lightbox, will give us even more opportunities to showcase these kinds of projects.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions for us.

Exclusive interview with Jennifer Baichwal

Jennifer Baichwal

About Chance and Meaning

by Sarka Kalusova

Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 15 years. Her films have won numerous awards and screened all over the world.

Let it Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, her first feature documentary, won a 1999 International Emmy for Best Arts Documentary. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1998 and was nominated that year for a Best Feature Documentary Genie Award. It won Best Biography at Hot Docs in 1999.

The Holier It Gets documents a trek Baichwal took with her brother and two sisters to the source of the Ganges river with her father’s ashes. The film won Best Independent Canadian Film and Best Cultural Documentary at Hot Docs 2000, Geminis for Best Editing and Best Writing and was nominated for the Donald Brittain Award and the Chalmers Documentarian Award.

The True Meaning of Pictures is a feature length film on the work of Appalachian photographer Shelby Lee Adams. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 and was invited to the Sundance International Film Festival in January 2003. It won a Gemini award for Best Arts Documentary in 2003 and has played at numerous international festivals.

Manufactured Landscapes, a feature documentary about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, premiered at TIFF in September 2006 and won Best Canadian Feature Film. It has since received a number of other awards, notably a Genie for Best Documentary, Al Gore’s Reel Current Award and the 2006 Toronto Film Critics’ Award for Best Canadian Feature and Best Documentary 2006. It was released worldwide in 2007-8, after a prolonged and successful run in Canada.

First Weekend Club's Sarka Kalusova had a chance to ask Jennifer a few questions about her latest project - Act of God, a documentary about being struck by lightning. The film launches the 2009 Hot Docs festival on April 30th and opens theatrically in Canada on May 1st.

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