| iR:
How did you first get involved with film? Did you always
want to be a producer? |
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| I can't say that I had any great plans about
working in film. I studied music and anthropology at Benningting
College in Vermont. After I graduated, I went to Toronto
where my family was and ended up doing some journalism
for a black community newspaper. I wrote about different
cultural events like reggae shows, and I also covered
the Toronto Film Festival, which was very small at that
time, 20 years ago. The festival was very open and it
was easy to have access to filmmakers. I interviewed amazing
people from all over the place such as John Sayles, Franco
Rosso and Mirnal Sen. |
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| I was very impressed with Charles Burnett's
film "Killer of Sheep" which was shot in blank and white
on short ends. It was a labor of love that went on to
be recognized as an American masterpiece. He was such
an impressive artist and there was something about that
film that moved me and made me believe in the power of
cinema. |
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| After I interviewed him, Charles asked me
to send him a review and gave me his address in California.
He later asked me to read his new script and I sent him
notes. Then he asked me if I would come down to L.A. to
work on his new project "My Brother's Wedding." An incredibly
low-budget film, it was produced with money from a ZDF,
a German broadcaster. We had a budget of something ridiculous
like US$60,000 to make a 35mm film. There were a lot of
heavy weight African American filmmakers involved in that
project like Arthur Jaffa and Julie Dash whose couch I
slept on during the shoot. Arthur later shot "Crooklyn"
for Spike Lee and Julie Dash went on to make "Daughters
of the Dust." |
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| Although it was a tough experience to work
with such a small amount of money, it was a great teaching
ground because I learned so much and the rules and roles
of the production weren't all that clearly defined. Because
it was low budget and non-union, I got to do a bit of
everything. I basically did whatever had to get done,
such as a little bit of casting, location scouting and
AD work (working as an Assistant Director). I think I
ended up getting a Second Assistant Director credit on
the film, but it was really a very amorphous role. |
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"Screwballs"
|
When I returned to Toronto after Charles' film, I did
more journalism work and then I met Maurice Smith, the
Roger Corman of Canada. He was then gearing up to produce
a teen comedy called "Screwballs," sort of his take on
"Porky's." I worked on that as a Second Assistant Director
for Rafal Zielinkski. It was a good experience, and I
learned the ultimate equation in the real world of filmmaking,
which is TIME = MONEY. Then I went on to work on "Oddballs"
as a unit manager. Although they were both good experiences,
both were dreadful films to watch. At the end of the day,
when I watched my name come up on the credits, I realized
that it was embarrassing and that I didn't want to be
associated with these films. I thought that if that was
what filmmaking was about, I was ready to move on. I had
to find an artistic point-of-view and get involved with
work that I could be proud of or I just had to give up.
|
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| At the time that I was about to drop filmmaking
altogether, I started to hang out with a group of people
at Ryerson Universityincluding Peter Mettler, Bruce McDonald,
Jeremy Podeswa and Atom Egoyan (who was at University
of Toronto). I started working on all their student films
and eventually got to work on their features when they
were out of school. I brought a certain amount of the
TIME = MONEY to those films, and my organization skills
and I got to be surrounded by great creative talents. |
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| iR:
Would you say that almost all the films youıve made
were independent? In fact, aren't most Canadian films
independent? |
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"Sweet
Hereafter"
|
There really is no studio system except to some degree
Alliance-Atlantis. Even for "The Sweet Hereafter" (which
was made for Alliance), I still had to do all the financing
and stuff. Robert Lantos (former head of Alliance) was
very smart. He understood the kind of relationship needed
to make an artistic film so he gave us complete creative
control. He never came to set once, never watched a single
frame of rushes. He was smart enough to understand that
Atom was an artist and allowed him room to make his film. |
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| iR:
How do films get made in Canada? |
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"Fishing
Trip"
|
There are different levels of filmmaking. If making a
film for a small amount of money, like your first film,
you look to grant money available on both a provincial
(like the extinct OFDC, Ontario Film Development Council)
and federal level (like the Canada Council for the Arts).
This level of filmmaking happens in the range of $200,000
to $300,000, where you have to scramble together grant
money or maybe with a small TV or distributor presale.
There is also a lot of deferral. It isnıt a lot of fun,
but itıs definitely one way to make a "calling card" feature
but still have creative control. Both "Fishing Trip" and
"Eclipse" were made that way. We werenıt able to get financing
from Telefilm Canada and OFDC but were later to get some
post money from them. |
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"Exotica"
|
|
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| "The Adjuster" and "Exotica" were made with
more of a classical Canadian (independent) model where
we got a distributor (Alliance) to give us an advance.
With that advance we were able to leverage money from
OFDC ( the now extinct provincial film financing agency)
and Telefilm Canada. It was still a relatively simple
scenario. But things got more complicated when OFDC dropped
out of the picture. So when we financed "The Sweet Hereafter"
or more recently, "The Five Senses" you have to seek out
more partners and while the "pie" gets bigger, there are
more pieces that make up that pie. For instance we have
had a lot of support both in development and equity financing
from the Harold Greenberg Fund, there's also The Movie
Network, and tax credit money. Basically when the pie
gets bigger, the recoupment and financing agreements get
more complicated. |
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| For "The Five Senses," CBC (Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation) came on board and that helped us access other
money as well an early presale to Germany (once again
to TiMe) was critical in putting together the financing
picture even before Alliance committed to the project. |
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| iR:
How creatively involved are you on a project? |
| |
| That depends on the director. Different directors
are open to creative input at different stages. I have
a good collaborative relationship with Atom Egoyan, who
tends to develop his script with a certain degree of privacy.
He usually doesn't let you see anything until he feels
very confident with a very polished first draft. I'd write
down notes and have a long lunch or dinner with him, and
then he decides to listen to some notes and ignores others.
And that's fine. I see my role as a producer in facilitating
the development and refinement of the script until it
becomes more interesting, more complex and at the same
time more financable. |
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"The
Five Senses"
|
With Jeremy Podeswa, I'm quite hands on and development
usually takes a lot longer time. Atom tends to write very
quickly. For example, "The Five Senses" was developed
over a couple years of writing. Even "Eclipse" took a
couple of years. And, as well, financing a first or second
feature is a much more challenging job than financing
a film by a well recognized director. |
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| I'm somewhat involved at the casting stage.
But I've also been fortunate to work with directors who
are involved in the cultural scene. They watch local theater
and a lot of films, and they tend to have people in mind
already. I'm the one left with the not always fun job
of negotiating with actors and their agents. |
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| For the last few films, the financing and
business side of it was so crazy that I didn't find that
much time to be on set. But I don't see that I have to
be there unless it's as a watchdog, a role I've never
relished and rarely have to play. |
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| I always watch all the rushes, and can become
quite involved in the editing with a fair amount of time
and input in the picture cut and sound mix. |
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| iR:
What inspires you as a producer? |
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| When you make a film, it is such a personal
journey and yet there are so many people you have to gather
and bring on board to help create it. There is eventually
an amazing moment when you get it out to the real world.
"The Five Senses" was a difficult and long process. It
came down to the wire in terms of delivery schedule and
then when we premiered it at Director's Fortnight at Cannes
it all came together in this magical way. People got up
and applauded, and I got a sense that the audience really
understood what we were trying to do. That's really an
amazing moment because your art is finally communicating
and moving people. It's no longer just another document
or contract you have to slug through with the lawyers.
All the details and pain going into making the film come
together in an transcendental moment. Now that has inspired
me. |
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| iR:
Have you had any unpleasant producing experience? |
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| Well, the relationship between a director
and a producer is a type of marriage that has to last
over many years. It needs mutual respect. For the most
part, I've chosen well. But sometimes things happen. I
have miscalculated and at times reached an impasse, an
inabitlity to work happily and creatively with someone.
But for the most part I've had long-standing collaborative
relationships. But there are so many pitfalls and hurdles
that stand in the way of making a film, so it's not surprising
that there are difficulties in keeping the relationships
amicable and productive. |
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| iR:
You tend to work with writer/directors. Can you talk
a little about that? |
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| It just kind of happened that way, most people
I've worked with are writers/directors. They are true
auteur filmmakers with their own visions. In the exceptional
case of "The Fishing Trip," the director didn't write
the script but yet he worked very closely with the writer
on the script. Another project that I'm working on now
has no director attached, so I'm branching out beyond
auteur filmmakers. |
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| iR:
Are you open to filmmakers that you don't know bring
you projects? |
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| I have two young children and a farm, and
I feel like I have enough projects to keep me busy for
the next several years. But some things just happen to
find a way to fall onto your lap. Every so often,something
out of the blue finds me and moves me. More often than
not I don't even have time to look at things. It may take
me two years to get to a new script. |
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| iR:
So what advice would you give for someone who is looking
for a producer? |
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| I think it's really good to watch what films
are coming out and to take note of the filmmakers that
you admire and the people who are behind those pictures
from a producing and financing point of view. You look
for models that you admire and you start talking to those
people. Maybe the producers of those pictures are not
interested but their line producers are. That's one method
you could try. You can always send scripts out to big
studios and wait for ten years. But it's hard to be taken
seriously without a producer attached. I would suggest
the more proactive approach. |
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| iR:
What is it like being a mother and a filmmaker now? |
| |
| With two young children and a farm, my priority
is different then the old days when I was a film junkie.
I'm very protective of my time and I'm very careful with
how I spend it. |
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| iR:
So what do you want to do next? |
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| One of the dreams I have is to do more professional
development work. I have recently put together a master
level writing seminar co-hosted by Nova Scotia Film Development
Corporation. I'd really love to do more of that stuff,
because it's really where the filmmaking community is
most vibrant and it keeps me in touch with the talent
that's out there. |
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| Here in Nova Scotia there are always alot
of Americans coming up to shoot stuff... that's fine but
the indigenous film community really needs more development.
There is not that much happening on the masters level
or the creative level. There just aren't enough writers
and directors, even editors. I have a gorgeous property,
a farm with a couple of hundred of acres. Once we have
the infrastructure in place, I have a great opportunity
to do seminars and workshops right here. It can become
a crucible for people to meet from across the country
and find ways to develop their material in a supportive
and constructive environment. |
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| iR:
What are your current projects? |
| |
| I'm developing Amnon Buchbinder's " A Traveling
Medicine Show," which is a large sci-fi project, unlike
anything I've ever done. This picture will take a lot
to come together, but it has some interesting potential.
It will require international co-production on the financing
scale. |
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| I'm also working on a film with Daniel MacIvor,
a writer/director/actor who is originally from Cape Breton
but is living in Toronto.His script is called "49th Parallel,"
which is the line that divides U.S. and Canada. It will
be done for IMX Communications as part of an anthology
of five DV (Digital Video) features, each of which will
be directed by a different filmmaker. It will get shot
in the summer or fall of this year. It will be the first
digital project that I'll do. |
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Last but not least, I'm developing a script
written by a woman novelist from Newfoundland set at the
end of the First World War in a small town in Newfoundland.
It's sort of a lovely mix of humour and pathos. It's a
small drama with no director attached to it yet..jpg) |
