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Your new movie Oh...
Canada - in a few words, what's it about?
Oh... Canada is essentially a criticism of the artifice that surrounds the
federal branding of Canadian identity.
What
were your sources of inspiration when writing Oh...
Canada, and to what extent does it reflect your personal feelings
towards your native Canada?
One of my favourite steps when starting a project is creating a list of
my influences. Mainly so I can look back and remember what it is
I’m trying to achieve if I ever feel lost along the way, but also
for anyone looking for films similar to what I have created. So,
I’m very prepared for this question haha! On the list I have Jim
Sharman’s Shock Treatment, John Waters’ Serial Mom,
Gordon Fish’s Wild in the City,
and a few films that influence every project I do. Such as John
Paizs’ Springtime in Greenland,
Jean Palardy and Arthur Burrows’ Montreal by Night,
Peter Watkins’ Punishment Park,
and Kenneth Anger’s Kustom Kar Kommandos.
I was also very inspired by the 1940s-50s-era films from the
National Film Board of Canada.
I’d say this film pretty accurately portrays my feelings toward Canada,
albeit in an extremely absurd way. I think there’s a lot of anger in
this country, most justified, some ridiculous, that is ignored by our
governments. At least in terms of the face they show to other countries.
Our history as Canadians is built on violence with more and more
violence being uncovered and confirmed every year. Yet, we’re
portrayed as nationalistic utopian (if not straight-up goofy) beings. Our present as Canadians is also inherently violent. Some would
say that the reaction or lack thereof that our government had to things
like the “freedom convoy” or the native fisheries that were
terrorized in Nova Scotia to be tolerant or lenient. However, it
doesn’t take much research or thinking to conclude that there are only
two reasons these events were allowed to go for as long as they did: 1)
The government wants the votes of the people committing these terrible
acts, and 2) people from our “progressive” government are the ones in
the crowds. I also come from a province with an incredibly conservative
government that will deny the existence of systemic issues they are
intentionally creating. An example is how hard they are making the
French entrance exams that newly immigrated people must pass to be
granted citizenship in an attempt to grant more citizenships to people
they deem to be “desirable”. This also bleeds into why so many of
our films in Quebec take place outside of Montreal favoring the more
rural and white sections of the province. Not that I blame the
filmmakers for this but it is interesting. There’s a really good book
on that topic called Film and the City written
by George Melnyk that I recommend for those interested. Now I’m
rambling.
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How would you describe Oh...
Canada's brand of humour? The
sense of humor in Oh... Canada is
like what happens when you take too many edibles and have to lay in
bed while your body vibrates the puke out of your mouth. Fun until
it’s not. You just have to talk
about the very distinct visual style of Oh...
Canada, and what were your influences there? Aesthetically,
I wanted this film to feel like something you’d see when your
elementary school teacher rolled the big tube TV into class. In the
script, the film initially started with a TV rolling into frame but
I thought it was too on the nose. I was very influenced by that
sense of nostalgia and the budgetary constraints of 90s-00s Canadian
children’s television. Things like Nanalan, Mr. Dressup,
or the government PSA commercials. I would often say that I cannot
do anything that they wouldn’t have been able to afford to do. So,
I went with a very public access style which was helpful because I
probably couldn’t afford to produce an episode of Nanalan
anyway. In
the spirit of staying faithful to the time I also figured out how to do
the VHS style for real. I had done it digitally before, and it ends up
just looking pretty wonky and weird. For this one, I shot digitally on
like 4 different cameras and 2 phones, transferred that to my computer,
then used a capture card to transfer that 4k/1080p footage to an actual
480p VHS tape, and then transferred the footage from my VCR back to
1080p digital on my computer. So there’s a bunch of layers of
information loss that make it look compressed and muddy like it’s been
sitting in a forgotten corner of the library. What
can you tell us about your overall directorial approach to your story at
hand?
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My directorial approach to this one was a bit more carefree than on my
other films. It’s a goofy movie so I didn’t want to mess that up
by taking it too seriously during production. It was also the first
time that I was mostly directing myself. Everything besides the
singing segments and the beaver/bird animation was done alone in my
apartment. My mom helped me move a bunch of blow-up dolls around
(which surprisingly we had to redo like 4 times). My crew was mostly
comprised of friends who I had complete faith in and had wanted to
work with for a while. Joey Mac Intosh (the teacher) was an actor in
my first-ever film, Marco Carreiro (VFX) is one of my oldest friends
and has worked on every single film I have ever made, Walid Jabri
(the gas station attendant) is an amazing cinematographer who I had
wanted to work with in some capacity since my first year of college,
Charlie Galea McClure and Vivien Forsans are two of the best
animators in the world in my opinion, and Lorenzo Gutiérrez
(assistant director) has been my creative partner for about a decade
now. Everyone on the film is amazing so my job was fairly easy. I
bring people onto the project because I like their minds. I don’t
want them to parrot my ideas. I want them to bring their own ideas
that make my initial idea sound like garbage. Do talk about Oh...
Canada's cast, and why exactly these people? The
cast was a big mix of friends, people I’ve worked with before, and
some new people thrown in there. This is the biggest cast I have had
to work with on one of my own films. So, a lot of it was about who I
get along with and who I know that could deliver what I needed. I
worked on this list with my casting director Marco Carreiro, and
together we focused on who looked the best in the role. Also,
because the parts weren’t particularly demanding, we could get
non-actors to join us which, in my opinion, adds a sort of
naturalistic feeling to the cast of a very unnatural movie, haha. For
the role of the hunter, I knew I needed somebody with great physical
performance because I wanted him to feel like a cartoon with the
beaver. So, we cast Denis Moreno who is a trained mime. For the
housewife character trimming the hedges, we cast ‘Spark’ Patty
Keach because I knew she would have the perfect look and would add
an entire layer of fun to the character that I could not see coming.
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A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? The
shoot was the best shoot I had ever been a part of. This is due in
part to the fact that my team (when I had one) was the best and I
shot bits and pieces over the course of around two years. So, the
environment was as stress-free as these things can be. For the
musical shooting day, we ended up so ahead of schedule that we could
just hang out! The
$64-question, where can Oh...
Canada be seen? Oh... Canada
will be coming to a festival near you soon enough (I hope) before it is
unceremoniously dumped onto the internet with Subway
Surfers footage included. Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of Oh...
Canada? This
is the first film I have made that is outwardly political, so it has
been interesting to see how dependent the reception is on where the
viewer’s own political beliefs lay. It has also been fun to hear
people stop singing along once heads start exploding! Any future projects you'd like to share?
I think I have two shorts left in me for the moment. One I am working
on to co-direct with Lorenzo Gutiérrez and the other will hopefully
lead into a feature I am currently working on. Nothing I can talk
about in any concrete way just yet!
What got you into filmmaking in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject?
Cinema has always been my special interest. There has never been a question
in my family’s mind that this is the road I would choose to take.
I vividly remember being like 5 or 6 years old and organizing my VHS
tapes by distributor. That probably tells you a lot about my brain.
I went through six years of film school and have a BFA in Film
Studies from Concordia University here in Montreal. I loved film
school and wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today without it.
KNOWLEDGE!!!
What can you tell us about your
filmwork prior to Oh... Canada? Prior
to Oh... Canada I spent many years trying to find my actual voice as a filmmaker. I
made some films I loved and some films I thought would get into
festivals. The two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
It’s not until Oh... Canada that
I feel I have made the film that was in my head and that I would
have loved to see. How would you describe yourself as a director? I
think that I am very collaborative as a director. I believe that
this is how directors must be. I’m also not precious so I’m
generally always on schedule. The key to running a set is to make
sure that everyone is having a good time, even during the dull
moments. If people don’t feel like they can joke around and be
calm then I have failed. There’s no worse feeling than being on
set and feeling everyone deflate and drag their arms around while
they run down the clock. Yack! I’m also extremely minimalist
despite how overstimulating my films might be to some. I try to do
the absolute most with the absolute least. It’s like a challenge I
set for myself. The less resources I need the better. Filmmakers
who inspire you?
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Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned) |
The links below
will take you
just there!!!
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John Paizs, John Waters, Jane Schoenbrun, Joel Potrykus, Cecelia Condit,
Matthew Rankin, Guy Maddin, Kenneth Anger, Matt Johnson, Sarah
Squirm. Your favourite movies?
My top 4 are Punishment Park, Green Room, The Twentieth Century, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
Bonus 5th film is Relaxer. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? Oh, Canada by Paul Schrader. Your/your
movie's website, social media, whatever else?
I can be found on Instagram at @canuxvince and on Vimeo as Vincenzo Nappi.
Thanks for the interview!
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