cArtographies

Sitting in a local cafe, I had the opportunity to talk with director/cinematographer Brian Johnson and co-director/editor Brendan Woollard, of the brilliant new film, cArtographies.  British Columbia is a vibrant province inhabited by some of the most creative and inspiring artists in the country. cArtographies is a beautiful collection of short films that gives us a delectable taste of what they have to offer: and it's all right there in our own back yard.

Wendy Dallian: Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves. 

Brian Johnson: I went to Simon Fraser University in 1992 to study film after a degree in Communications in Alberta. I dropped out after my third year. Since then I've just been doing a lot of different stuff, mainly lots of different work in the world of cinema and the continuum of cinema. Everything from DP-ing Hollywood MOWs (movies of the week) and stuff like that, to doing cinematic art installations. I'm interested in a broad range of work that evolves around cinema and temporal work. The form of cinema is something I'm really interested in, like the language and mechanics of cinema and how those impact our culture and society. 

Brendan Woollard: I was trained at UBC in film and I won some awards as an editor, did a lot of commercials and music videos, and recently have been doing a lot of documentaries. I've directed two TV series for Global and TVTropolis and am really happy to be working with Brian on cArtographies. 

WD: Can you tell us how this film came to be. 

BJ: Knowledge actually approached our producer Leah (Leah Mallen) with this concept of doing a lot of short films about BC artists that we would then put into a longer hour format for television.

At that point we pitched them on a more specific concept which turned out to be cArtographies. They gave us a formal framework to work within, but otherwise they let us do whatever we wanted. We chose the artists. We, in collaboration with the artists, chose what we would do with each artist. In a way it was kind of cool because they gave us this very loose framework to work within, but otherwise they let us do whatever we wanted. 

BW: ...and so we did. So we did whatever we wanted (laughs). 

WD: And how did you find the artists. 

BJ: It was kind of an organic process. I think Brendan and I, and Leah as well, are all active in the arts world here in Vancouver so it kind of started out as, “I've always wanted to work with this person” or, “I have worked with this person and I love them and they would be great.” 

We maybe had an idea of what we would do with a particular artist we were acquaintances of so we approached those people. It started with ten or so people then they'd turn us on to somebody else, or somebody would be having a show and we'd think, “we should talk to that person.” 

BW: Some people said, “no.” But they were mostly quite charming.

WD: Was there a reason you chose specific kinds of artists.

BW: I think our main goal was variety: geographic and informed in how they worked. 

BJ: That's exactly it. Also, we wanted to represent not only Vancouver art stars, because there are lots of those and we could have just focused on those, but we wanted to also see some emerging artists, some obscure artists or people who the art world itself would probably not normally consider when they think about the community of artists in this province. Some outsiders, some wild cards, emerging, mid-career, and established artists. We just really wanted to try and show the full spectrum of the kind of stuff that goes on in BC.

BW: And I think that the result was a sense of what is going on in BC. A sense of place in the work in general I think happened almost inadvertently through the process of doing the project. Hopefully when you watch it you feel BC throughout the pieces. I think that's a large part of what ended up happening. 

WD: It's got a really cinema verite feel to it. How did the film change from your original concept to the end result. 

BJ: Talk about the Stan piece. That's a good example of how one changed. They didn't all change. 

BW: I think a lot of them were largely what we intended to do. There were a few that weren't clear to begin with and they sort of got their form as we worked on them. The Sol Maya/Mark Mickie piece for example or with Stan Douglas it was largely his interview that ended up driving a lot of the visual parts of it and it wasn't really what we had in mind going in. Some of the ideas we were originally going to do didn't seem as good as what came up when we started working on the project. 

That tended to be the main thing. While having a plan, taking advantage of strengths or new ideas that came up as the process went on. With Stan, we wanted to do a much bigger piece on the process of what he was working on and it ended up becoming more a thing about Vancouver and the way he looks at Vancouver and the way Vancouver actually is, and the erasure of architecture that happens here. The lack of nostalgia and things like that. I don't know that we were going to concentrate quite as much on that until we interviewed him. 

That sort of thing happened with a lot of them. For example, the Crystal Pite piece was a choreographed piece. We wanted to show her working on her piece, and it sort of developed into a thing where it became something where she was frustrated and got more of a feeling of success throughout it. 

We had music that worked with that kind of a change that came from a composer that she'd worked with directly. We weren't necessarily expecting that to happen.

A lot of things happened that were just nice accidents that ended up making the whole piece a lot better. 

WD: Can you talk a little bit about the animation between the pieces. 

BJ: We felt that we needed a way to connect these very different patchwork pieces and the map motif seemed to be the thing that unified these people. They all live and work in BC, to some extent at least.

We started this crazy process making these maps. I would do the drawings and then Brendan would take them into After Effects and do the motion graphics on them. It was a very tedious, laborious process but I think it kind of works. I think it's a good way to situate everybody. You can indicate how far flung everyone is geographically without spending a lot of time talking about that. 

BW: I think that one of the main challenges of the piece was that it's so varied. In one way that's the strength of the piece, because we were free to do whatever we did and we didn't want to stick to any formula, but in the end that created a challenge. How do you order them and connect them together because they don't necessarily fit nicely if you just play them back to back. They just seem too varied. So we wanted something that would connect them all and also find an order that would somehow take the viewer along on a journey and provide a cohesive understanding. 

BJ: It's almost like ordering a record or something. The narrative almost partly comes out in just the way that they're ordered. The montage of the individual pieces becomes like a meta-level of narrative. 

That became really the crucial thing in making it. Some of the moments that we really love in the way the final thing works is when we would establish some kind of logic, like when you'd see a map between each artist, but then deviate from that logic we were trying to establish. Sometimes those were our favourite moments. It was a real process of playing around and combining all these things. 

WD: What do you want your audience to take away from this film. 

BW: I guess if I really want there to be a social effect I hope that people realize the value and the strength of the artistic community in Vancouver and BC. I think sometimes we take it for granted what's going on and I think sometimes people don't realize just how valuable this is. I hope that when people watch this they'll realize that this is something that should be encouraged.

BJ: ...hear that Gordon Campbell? 

WD: Besides Gordon Campbell, who do you want to see this film. Who's your ideal audience. 

BJ: I wouldn't want to think that this is something that only people in the arts would enjoy. Hopefully it could reach a broader audience. 

I think that it's really important that people understand how crucial the arts are to our culture and I think a lot of people in BC, outside the lower mainland maybe, don't have as much contact with the arts so if they can see something like this and find it interesting then maybe you start to change some attitudes in the province that lead to things like massive cuts in arts funding and lots of creative people, people that work in the culture sector essentially, leaving the province: which is what's going on right now.

It's kind of a massive exodus. 

BC would be a much more boring place without these people: the kind of people we worked with on this project. 

BW: A lot of times in the mainstream media you get the sense that art is something that you should do or that you should be aware of. A lot of people come into contact with it through announcements of government programs, or government cuts, or protests, or things like that. 

What would be great is if people watched this and realized that it's a lot of fun and it's really interesting and it's actually something that makes their life fuller.

I'd also like to think that a lot of these artists will get a more expanded audience. There are a lot of people in this piece that are really talented and you get a sense of them and an introduction to their work that's going to cause people to be more curious. That would be a good thing.

WD: Where can people see your film right now. 

BJ: It's online. If you go to the Knowledge website you can watch it online. And I'm sure they'll be broadcasting it again although there's not a specific date set for additional broadcasts. 

WD: What's in the future for you. 

BJ: Got to get a job (laughs).

BW: I just finished editing a feature documentary called Eco-Pirates which is about Paul Watson from the Sea Shepherd society. As far as what's coming up, we'll see what happens after that. Get another job. Maybe we'll do something together. 

WD: Any plans for a sequel.

BW: We'd have to ask Knowledge about that. I'd be interested in working on things like this for sure, and I know Knowledge is producing other arts docs. I don't think there'll be a sequel to cArtographies but there'll be more programming of its type. 

BJ: It would be kind of a cool project to go across the country and do something similar in each province but Knowledge is just a BC broadcaster so they wouldn't be interested in doing something like that. The thing is, I think there are some copyright issues with the format. 

BW: There are certainly more artists here we could film. 

BJ: Provided they don't all move to Toronto (laughs). 

BW: ...well, If they haven't moved there in the last couple of years, I think they're intending to still live here (laughs).

~~~ 

Here's hoping so! 

cArtographies is a film for the entire family. It is sure to get you talking, and who knows, maybe you'll be inspired to dig out that box of paints, that book of plays, or sign up for those dance classes you've always dreamed of. 

There's an artist in everyone of us, and everyone, a work of art.

Go online at Knowledge and see what strikes a chord with you. And if you really feel inspired, drop them a line and tell them what you thought of the film. Every voice counts and with enough of us, we may just get that sequel.