Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints

Maxime in Les Petits Géants.

Normally I would write this in French, but many francophones who read this blog will already know about this film, and it deserves to be widely distributed. So here goes…

Les Petits Géants ( The Small Giants) is a documentary about children from low-income neighborhoods who take on the challenge of performing Verdi’s opera The Masked Ball. ( the expression ‘on the other side of the track’ applies nicely here, as this is across the tracks from upscale Westmount) The film was directed and shot by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and Émile Proulx-Cloutier, two young Quebec filmmakers – Anaïs is far from unknown though, having successfully directed both documentaries and fiction – and was the closing film at the annual Rendez-vous du cinéma Québecois last winter. The film follows five boys, 10-12 years old, through the rehearsals to the final performance, but also spends a lot of time with them in their families. The strength of the film lies here, in the terrific closeness to the characters and the seemingly complete access to their domestic environments. Having seen their family contexts which feature all manner of cultural handicaps, poverty and emotional deprivation, we completely understand that the discipline and self-confidence required to perform operatic roles in front of an audience don’t come easy. There are some very moving and sometimes funny moments when the youngsters express their insecurities, their dreams and aspirations.

Émile and Anaïs

I saw the film at the theatrical debut at the Cinéma Parallèle in Montreal, where it’s still playing.

In the discussion afterwards the filmmakers answered questions. Someone asked about the extreme close-up framing often used in the interviews with the guys. They explained that their whole objective was to see the experience from the point of view of the kids, or at least very close to them – which is also why the camera often stays on their faces while we hear adults giving instructions or opinions off-camera. I asked them why they followed five boys and no girls, something I found surprising given that there were some very interesting-looking girls in some of the rehearsal shots. Anaïs and Émile explained that they had discovered that in this particular age group, 10-12 years, girls are a lot more self-conscious and controlled than the boys. They found it much easier to have access to the boys’ emotions, and didn’t want any political correctness concerns come in the way of finding the five best characters for the film.

The film was produced by Amérimage-Spectra.

Thanks to Jessica Berglund for the help with this blog post.

An image from Helene Klodawsky’s documentary ‘Malls R Us’

Last week I had a chance to see Malls R Us, an excellent new documentary by an excellent Montreal filmmaker, Helene Klodawsky. Helene has made some terrific films, my favourite being No More Tears Sister, a story from Sri Lanka which beautifully illustrates the notion that ‘the personal is political.’ Not in a didactic or sloganeering kind of way, but just by telling a personal story set in the context of civil war and exile. One of the most interesting things about that film is the way colour has been manipulated through chemical treatment of the actual film stock.

Here’s a trailer for Malls R Us.

Malls R Us (produced by Ina Fichman of Instinct Films and Luc Martin-Glousset of Point du Jour) is about shopping malls, and the film gets inside the malls, from North America to Dubai, India and Japan, in every conceivable way. Rather than standing on the outside looking in – or spitting at them for that matter – the film takes us inside the mall not just physically but mentally, inside the heads of the people who conceive, design and build malls as well as the people who use them. One way Helene does that is by interviewing an impressive cast of key characters (kudos for convincing them), the other is by capturing some revealing conversations in the mall context. The film is also very thoughtful, about the deeper meaning of the prevalence of malls. Are they the cathedrals of modern times or – as author Ray Bradbury suggests in the film – today’s version of the town square? Or are they monuments to an era dominated by consumerism to the detriment of higher values? In her narration Helene takes care not to hit us over the head with any ready-made conclusions, which actually makes the film scarier, in a deeper and more subtle way. I asked Helene to talk about her creative process and editorial choices.

Helene Klodawsky

In 2006, while editing Family Motel (an alternative fiction film on a Somali refugee family’s journey into homelessness), I read the initial research on a new project being developed by Instinct Films. Writer Harold Crooks and researcher Terri Foxman were working closely with producer Ina Fichman on her idea about the global spread of shopping malls. I soon signed onto the project as director. Right from the start, there were many challenges as the film had been developed and sold as an international coproduction with many themes, contrasts, characters and locations. I needed to find a way to tell the 70-year-old story of these huge temples to consumerism, describe why malls hold such appeal for the billions of people who visit them, as well as provide a critique of their worldwide proliferation. Added to this was the complexity of getting into to malls to shoot. Think of gaining access to a prison; most of the time it was that difficult, and hence we were extremely limited in what and when we could shoot.

Early on I decided to focus on characters that were intensely involved in the world of malls – whether out of passion or despair – rather than intellectuals or social critics who observed malls only from a distance. I felt it was important that my intended audience (those who both adore and despise shopping centres) listen directly to those people who are fully committed to bringing malls to every corner of the globe. I knew I would have only a few days in each location and hence decided to construct a highly stylized post-modern collage made up of mini portraits of each character alongside malls that represented an issue or struggle. Wherever we shot I was surprised by what we found. For example, who would have thought that Science Fiction guru Ray Bradbury would be a proponent of malls, or that young men travel the US mourning the loss of once thriving, but now dead, malls? I am most proud of capturing the little known anti-mall protests in India – as in most of the world, mall developments seems to be a done deal, quietly accepted by most of the population. Audiences tell me how much they appreciate the complex reading that Malls R Us provides – waking us up to ways in which culture and the environment are being shaped by the everyday places that dot our cities and suburbs.

Thanks to Jorge Bustos-Estefan for help with this blog.