Brian Stockton returns to TIFF this year with the fourth installment of  The Epic Story of my Life titled Whitmore Park. I had the chance to ask Brian a few questions about his film series, and the inspiration behind it. Brian will also be blogging about his experience at TIFF, so check back often.


1 - Whitmore Park marks the fourth installment in your continuing film series The Epic Story of my Life.  The first 3 films were entitled Saskatchewan, why the departure at this point to such a specific place?

The series is my life story in chronological order, so the first three, The Saskatchewan Trilogy, cover those early years where I have home movie evidence that I did exist, but I don't have much direct recollection of what it was like. So I think that's where the idea of dealing with the abstract notion of Saskatchewan came from, and how Saskatchewan shaped who I am. As I get older in the films I have more solid memories and stories so I think they will get more specific in that sense. In this case what's more important to a ten year-old than exploring their neighbourhood, which for me was Whitmore Park.

 2 - Have you ever considering making a film about Manitoba?

Zzzzzzzzzz.

 2a - Have you seen My Winnipeg, and if so, why do you think prairie filmmakers insist on feeding into the myths of their home provinces, and toying with stereotypes?

Someone made a film about Winnipeg? How bizarre.

But seriously, I can't speak for Guy Maddin, but for me there was always a feeling that Saskatchewan ? in a film sense ? was really unexplored territory. All the films we had to refer to about Saskatchewan were either boring old NFB docs that we were forced to watch in school, or heartwarming tales about growing up in the depression. Who Has Seen the Wind is a great film, but it felt like it it was time to move beyond wheat fields and gopher hunting. I think this urge was particularly strong for me because unlike a lot of people in Saskatchewan I had no connection to a family farm, so I always felt like a city kid surrounded by a mythology that was entirely rural.

 3 - How did leaving Saskatchewan and living in Toronto for a number of years help shape the process and humour you found in your home province and making it the center of your film series?

First of all there was simple homesickness. Second was how I kept encountering people in Toronto who had never been to Saskatchewan and therefore either didn't know anything about it, or had misconceptions. So again it just felt like really rich, unexplored territory and time that someone started mythologizing Saskatchewan in a contemporary sense.

 4 - You continue to work in the short film form, and in many ways are developing an episodic body of work around a central theme (although you've created many shorts not directly related to this series). Why the commitment to the form?

I love short films and making them comes quite naturally to me, but continually searching for funding can get quite tiresome. So around 2001  I was thinking about giving up film for a while and doing an autobiographical graphic novel. I'm a big comics fan, particularly the autobiographical stuff published my Montreal's Drawn and Quarterly, people like Seth, Joe Matt and Chester Brown. Ultimately I decided I was a better filmmaker than a cartoonist so I abandoned the graphic novel, but I decided to put the films out the way that comics are put out. Usually they publish a 32 page comic on a regular basis, then when you have a few issues or a complete story you collect the issues together in a book. I thought that would be a great way to do The Epic Story of My Life because I can put out a film every year or so, then when I have a few done I can collect them in a DVD. Right now I've got the first DVD done, which is The Saskatchewan Trilogy. So discovering this way of doing shorts was a great boon to me and reinvigorated my love of filmmaking.

 5 - Can you reflect a bit on your experiences at TIFF, and what you expect from this year?

TIFF is really the best festival to be involved in as a filmmaker because there's just so many people that come from every corner of the world and you never know who you're going to run into. I started coming to TIFF as a spectator in the early 90's and this is my fifth time as a filmmaker, so it has been a long and wonderful association for me. This year I'm mostly hoping to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and of course see some films.

 6 - Your early films The Blob Thing and The Weight of the World have their own style and rhythm compared to the Saskatchewan series. How many installments are there to your autobiography, and do you plan to depart from it for your films in the near future?

Over the years I've worked in a lot of different genres and I think that's why The Epic Story of My Life series has worked so well for me because I'm able to combine different styles and genres. Whitmore Park has dramatic scenes, documentary scenes, purely visual scenes, and for the first time I did rotoscope animation which was a lot of fun. So there's a varied body of work in different styles, but I think the sense of humour is the common thread in everything I've done.

I had always planned on ten short films for the series. I now have four full parts and two 'appendices', so four more films should do it.

I also have a desire to make a feature film, so I'm working on the script for The Weight of the World, a science fiction comedy based on my short of the same name.

7- Any advice to pass onto other filmmakers working in 'remote' parts of Canada?

My first serious exposure to Toronto was as a director resident at the Canadian Film Centre. I made The Weight of the World short there and after it premiered I had a nice chat with Daniel MacIvor. He said some nice things about the film and then asked where I was from. I told him and he said, "Whatever you do, don't move to Toronto!" I think he was reacting to an unusual perspective in the film and he wanted me to embrace that. Of course I'm an idiot so I didn't listen to him, but I think the point is that if you want to make films in the hinterland you can, and maybe we'll end up with a more diverse and original cinema. Regional film industries are also getting stronger and stronger (just look at Saskatchewan as a prime example) and new technologies are increasing the options for making films. But it's also important not to become isolated. Get out and enjoy TIFF, enjoy the whole world of cinema, and strive for an international audience no matter where you're based.