Maria Worton teaches, writes and makes curious films about people and the environment.
Malcolm Guy, camera in hand, is a familiar site at protests and sites of struggle here in Montreal. A seemingly unassuming fellow, if you live here you might well have seen him around and about and have no idea that he's won a number of prizes for his work, including in 2005 the prize for Best Documentary at the Roma International Film Festival for Rebel Music Americas that he co-directed with Marie Boti.
Malcolm and Marie also co-founded Productions Multi-Monde http://www.pmm.qc.ca/eng/who.html here in Montreal in 1987 largely dedicated, in their own words, to social themes, particularly North-South relations and intercultural experiences. More recently he's been showing another co-directed doc concerning Algerian non-status residents here in Montreal, Bledi, mon pays est ici (reviewed in this issue) that was televised this year on Tele Quebec.
Interview:
Hi Malcolm,
If I remember correctly we met momentarily a few years ago during a guerrilla theatre workshop during which, for one exercise, intended to break down personal barriers, I was required to give you a quick back rub! We met again, briefly, the other day at the screening of Bledi. That is as close as we’ve ever come to a proper conversation, so I was pleased that you agreed to this interview with Montreal Serai.
As a political documentary filmmaker, what issues are of particular concern to you at the present time?
Great to have a chance to talk with you, Maria. Let me see, what happens to be of particular concern as we speak is the case of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, a powerful voice for radical political change in the Philippines who was imprisoned last week in Holland, where he has lived as a political refugee for the past 20 years. He was arrested for a trumped up murder charge in the Philippines, where he has not visited for 20 years. As a result, it's been a crazy last eight days. Along with other supporters around the globe, we did two picket lines in Montreal to demand his release, one in Ottawa last Friday, along with a fax and e-mail barrage to the Dutch Embassy in Ottawa and voilà we've just learned he has been released. A great step in a struggle we're sure is not over. You can find more information on a blog I write for the Centre for Philippine Concerns here in Montreal at http://cap-cpc.blogspot.com/
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I guess that gives you some indication of where I get the ideas and motivation for my films. I've never separated the poltical from the personal from the artistic. It all blends together in a sort of artistic effervescence. Couldn't dream of it any other way and have trouble seeing how others manage not to get involved in the issues that drive their creative documentary filmmaking spirit.
Yet I realize the necessity to be able to stand back and look at the reality around me with the eyes, ears and heart of a filmmaker (often with the help of a co-writer or co-director such as Eylem Kaftan in Bledi, this is our home). We are after all creating a film that we want people to watch. I want to make films that go beyond the first-level stereotypical images of demonstrations and slogans and into the minds, hearts and motivations of the people who are fighting to change the world around us, or in the case of Mohamed Cherfi and the other protagonists in Bledi, are fighting against injustice and inspiring other communities by their actions. I enjoy that creative tension between activism and filmmaking and thus refer to myself as an activist who makes films.
What's your take on the immigration and reasonable accommodation debate currently being played out here in Quebec?
Maybe I could sum up my position with a couple of anecdotes. When I came back to Montreal in early April 2007 I began hearing this strange term being bandied about, "reasonable accommodation". I had really no idea what people were talking about. When my partner Marie Boti and I left in early 2006 for a one-year semi-sabbatical in the Philippines (where we have made a dozen films over the past 20 years) this term was not on the agenda. I quickly realized that the term had been dredged up by Mario Dumont and the right-wing ADQ to win some votes, particularly in the outlying areas of Quebec far away from the colourful reality of Montreal. The Charest government, not having really anything useful to say, and more or less the same political positions as the ADQ, wrapped in softer language, came up with the solution of a commission. Now people with backward ideas have a forum to say in public things they would not have dared say 18 months ago, and the media would not have reported, and racism rears its ugly head once again. I guess realizing the extent of the misunderstanding and fears of Quebecers could be useful, but whether the Commission is an accurate medium for this is debatable.
All this leads to the story of my partner Marie Boti's visit to the doctor's last week. As part of a friendly chat, Marie mentions she is just back from a year in the Philippines and has made several films about Filipina domestic workers in Canada, "Brown Women Blond Babies", which I produced. Suddenly the doctor starts going on about those "Philippine-ettes" that many of her neighbours have, and how they refuse to speak English and adapt to Quebec culture. She pursues about the Pakistanis and other inhabitants of Mile End who enter her office and demand she speak English when she greets them in French. They have been here for five years and they do not know a word, she exclaims.
Now when you work 18 hour days 6 or 7 days a week in a factory where no one else speaks French or in a middle class home with no contacts and little time for rest, making it out to take French courses in your "spare" time, forking out money that you don't have.... somehow seems well-nigh difficult, to say the least! Maybe that helps you understand how I feel about this false debate about... what is that term again?
As a documentary maker do you associate your work within a particular tradition?
An excellent question. I wish I had more formal training and therefore a better film knowledge so I could sound really intelligent at this point, but... I do want the films I work on to move people... to stir their minds by touching their hearts. I started off as a journalist writing for a communist newspaper in the 70s and then moved into film in the 80s with the help of a filmmaker friend, Steven Griffiths. He invited me along as a sound recorder for a film he shot and directed about the people power movement that eventually overthrew the Marcos dictatorship, entitled, Philippines: No Choice but Change. He had a TV journalist background and was close to the people and the political movements he documented, so I was influenced by him and that experience and his tradition. I guess I can sum it up by saying that I like films that touch and move me... and I'm marked by the political/activist tradition of filmmaking.
How would you say that your documentary style has changed over the years? Can you identify any turning points?
I have spent the last 20 years producing and directing films and learning by doing, evolving from a more formalistic journalistic approach to a more filmic approach as I gained experience. I feel I'm starting now to get a feel for it and hopefully starting to have a real filmic voice and films that have real emotional as well as political impact. I have never made a first-person film... maybe it is time to go that way. I think there were a couple of turning points, the first was Moving the Mountain (co-directed with William Ging Wee Dere), about the struggle of the Chinese community in Canada against the Head Tax and Exclusion Act. We tried to tell a story that was in many ways an internal struggle... and find a way to bring the un-said to the screen. There were also important creative struggles about voice and the role of a white guy like me working on a film about people of colour. Then there was Turbulent Waters (co-directed with Michelle Smith), about the life of the seafarers, the 21st century galley slaves who work in the holds of the cargo ships and move the produce of globalization. This was one of those crazy attempts to do the undoable. We wanted to not just talk about conditions on board the cargo ships under flags of convenience (a Canadian ship flying a Panamanian flag, for example) but also to be present when a struggle broke out. It took us almost a decade to find the money and the right ship, but it worked and proved to me that yes, it can be done. You just may have to re-mortgage your home, like we did, to do it.
Do you feel artistically, politically, financially that you have the freedom to choose your subject matter? Has winning awards helped?
Hate to admit it, but I have no financial security and every film is a struggle. It's back to the drawing board each film, back to zero. Thank goodness that my partner Marie, who is also a filmmaker, is more talented than I and has another profession that puts food on the table. I also have a drawer full of projects that have not worked, including many I spent years developing. It's a tough world out there, especially for social, political docs in a country run by the right (both Liberal and Conservative). I think it's great that the profile of documentary has improved (thanks in large part to the bankruptcy of the mainstream media) and that Michael Moore is making some money, but it's the exception that proves the overwhelming rule. Don't quit your day job to become a social and political documentary film maker. You'll go very hungry.
Of course it's an amazing way to live one's life, and I wouldn't exchange it for much else. I have had the privilege of many terrific experiences and the chance to meet a world of wonderful people.
What other documentary makers rank among your favorites?
My greatest respect goes out to filmmakers in the Philippines and other countries who, with no money and at danger to their lives, continue to document the lives and struggles of their people. They truly amaze me. My friend King Catoy, for example, was along filming with a human rights group investigating murders apparently carried out by the Philippine military when he and 10 others were taken hostage by soldiers. He eventually managed to escape and survive. Two others in the group were later found strangled and mutilated. He still goes out to film today. Our small video camera remains in the Philippines, being used by King's collective after yet another of their cameras was smashed by the police during a rally.
Closer to home, I have great respect for Quebec filmmakers Yvan Patry and Danièle Lacourse for their films on Latin America and Eritrea and Magnus Isacsson for his films on the homeless choir and uranium. I have also been marked by several documentary films. A couple that come to mind are La Turlutte des années dures by Richard Boutet and Pascal Gélinas, an amazing song-filled look at the Depression in 1930s Quebec. I must admit I was inspired by this film when William and I made the historically-based Moving the Mountain. The other film is Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, about a drifter unjustly accused of killing a police officer in Texas. I guess the fact the very talented Morris had a budget of one million did not do any harm. But the film did manage to free Randall Dale Adams. And of course I can't forget the tough battles in the coal mining valleys of Harlan County, USA by Barbara Kopple.
Could you name documentaries that you believe have changed peoples minds?
It is progressive people's movements and the political forces linked to them that change history. I believe they influence us filmmakers and we condense, rewrite and hand back the people's force and creativity to enable them to move on to a new phase. A film without a political and popular force behind it may help people see things differently, but in the end it won't help them change the world unless they get up and get involved in the movement for fundamental social, political and economic change.
When you attend Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), how do you choose what you're going to see?
As one of the founders of the RIDM, I have had the privilege of seeing many films over the years. I decide mainly based on subject matter. But I prefer going to a Festival not knowing anything about the films so I can be surprised and do not have pre-set ideas going in to the screening. That is when I have had the most enjoyment and the strongest film experiences.
I read on your site that you're preparing your next Rebel Music film on Africa. Where has the project taken you so far? What stage are you at now?
Ah yes, Rebel Music Africa, probably should have revised that reference on our site. Got lots of help in development for that film and met some talented politically involved musicians in Africa - Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast... but no one wants, to date at least, to support the film in production. And despite the fact I believe the first two films in the collection, Rebel Music Quebec and Rebel Music Americas, are very good... besides being very fun to make. So, to my great disappointment and that of co-writer Hind Benchekroun, Rebel Music Africa is in a drawer waiting for a brighter day.
Do you have a great ambition that remains, as of yet, unfulfilled?
Great ambitions... only to help in my own small way the struggle for a truly peaceful, joyful, democratic world under socialism. Oh, and maybe make a couple more films that I can be proud of along the way.
Malcolm Guy
Productions Multi-Monde
mailto:mguy@pmm.qc.ca
Montréal mobile: +1514 574-9906 (txt et voix)
web site: http://www.pmm.qc.ca
Skype: malcolm.guy_pmm