Non-fiction

For whatever reason I've been more reluctant to post in recent months. One could conclude that there is less going on, which would be true to an extent, but it's closer to the mark to say that the projects I'm engaged in these days are features, and have longer gestation periods and much, much longer development schedules than the last two short films I've worked on.

I just got back from Winnipeg and another weekend of meetings with my collaborators at 40 Below Films. Our (Bevan, Frank and me) collaborative partnership has really hit its stride, and I'll be processing the creative fallout for the next several weeks as I attempt to deliver the scripts for the stories we hashed out. More to come on that front in the following weeks and months...

On Friday morning we attended a filmmaker breakfast hosted by the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association and NYC filmmaker Paul Devlin, who spoke primarily about the business of filmmaking outside of the Hollywood studio system. But since he's American and, to date, has made only non-fiction films, (he doesn't like the term documentary), much of what he had to say didn't help us out a lot except in that it was inspiring to see someone just forging ahead in the face of overwhelming opposition. Even though his first film, Slam Nation, was a critical success he still couldn't find any financial backers for his next film, which didn't stop him from getting it made. Later that evening we attended the screening of Devlin's wonderful documentary Power Trip at the Cinematheque. In the current oh-so-heady documentary climate spearheaded by Michael Moore, Power Trip was refreshingly unbiased and compassionate. Which is what I thought a documentary film was supposed to be. Or was that non-fiction?