DAY OF THE ANIMALS: THE MICHAEL DAHLSTROM INTERVIEW

Despite offering up one of the most confronting film experiences of the MIFF 2014 program, director Michael Dahlstrom is a happy man. His documentary, The Animal Condition examines our complex relationship with the animals we exploit and had just played to packed audiences for its World Premiere when he chatted with SCREEN-SPACE about the unique narrative structure he employs and finding the balance between harrowing expose and hopeful advocacy filmmaking…

“We sold out both sessions, which was surprising and great,” says Dahlstrom (pictured, below), a NIDA graduate, on the final day of an extensive media schedule that has accompanied the premiere of his debut feature. Audience reaction was exactly what he had hoped for, a passionate chorus of opinions from those involved in both the trade and protection of livestock. Says the director, “It became a spirited Q-&-A debate afterwards, lead by an intensive farmer and a free range farmer and a vegan activist, as well as plenty of the vocal public.”

Shot over four years, The Animal Condition underwent extensive shifts in focus and tone before it became the expansive, insightful advocacy work it is today. What begins as an adventure about four angry, wide-eyed inner-city types (at one point, rescued baby chickens dance on a piano keyboard) soon becomes a multi-tiered examination of industrialized farming and the emotional issues inherent to animal exploitation.

“In the beginning, we were definitely making a very deliberate activist film,” says Dahlstorm, who appears on-screen alongside producers Ande Cunningham, Sarah-Jane McAllan (pictured, below) and Augusta Miller. “Initially, we weren’t going to film ourselves. But as we started arguing about different points, we realised it might be interesting to capture the decision-making process we were going through. You can clearly see the filmmaking style change and us change as individuals as the narrative develops.”

The four friends engage the services of a radical animal activist who helps them gain illegal access to a battery hen factory; the sad footage turns shocking when, during the course of shooting, the live export controversy erupted and smuggled film of barbaric slaughter practices surfaced (see footage here; viewer discretion advised).  “That footage was informing the wider population at the same time as it was informing us and our filming,” says Dahlstrom, who remained mindful that the horrible minutiae of slaughterhouse reality is not always the most effective tool an activist can employ. “If you show really extreme footage, then people will have a knee-jerk reaction and they will switch off or react with the own extreme views.”

“What we wanted to capture was the realities of intensive farming facilities, but also the transition of animal welfare issue from fringe activism to something that all of Australia was talking about,” he says, confirming that The Animal Condition was designed to preach beyond the converted. “The audience that we had in mind was certainly the Australian public. We wanted to create a time capsule of what happened in 2009 up until the end of live exports.”

Ultimately, Dahlstrom’s film impacts due to a very even-handed approach, ensuring all parties involved in modern farming practices have time to air their points-of-view. Corporate heads, political leaders and intensive farmers are given as strong a voice as the pro-animal liberationists and traditional farmers. The film captures a turning point for a country that has proudly boasted of the wealth it has attained by ‘riding on the sheep’s back’, i.e. exploiting the rich, natural world for economic gain.

“I think for us to grow as a country we have to be self-reflective,” says the director. “If having an international eye on us makes us conscious of what we are doing and the example we set as a population, and this film helps to shine that kind of spotlight on us, then that can only help us as a nation.”

Michael Dahlstrom will be in attendance when The Animal Condition screens at the Sydney Underground Film Festival un Sunday, September 7. Full details can be found at the event website here.

LITTLE BIG MAN: THE ANDREW LEAVOLD INTERVIEW

It all began with For Y’ur Height Only, a no-budget Filipino Bond rip-off starring an 83cm tall Primordial dwarf named Weng Weng. Cult movie aficionado and guerilla filmmaker Andrew Leavold recalls happening across an “8th generation VHS tape of the film in the early Nineties”, a fateful event from which an obsession grew, leading Leavold deep into the Pinoy film sector to unearth the truth behind the legend that was Weng Weng. Seven years in the making, his documentary The Search for Weng Weng chronicles the journey, from the bewildered faces of those who have no idea who Weng Weng was to the palaces of Imelda Marcos to the dark truths about the diminutive actor’s brief stardom. Ahead of his films’ screening at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, Leavold chatted with SCREEN-SPACE about the extraordinary project… 

How many forms did the film take over the long course of the production’s history?

When I started shooting in 2006, I had absolutely no idea how the narrative would take shape. 
I was stumbling around in the dark trying to piece something together. Initially I kept running into brick walls 
and suspected that the "search" part would end up just that: a collision into a wall of silence, indifference or forgotten memories.
 It was only on the second trip to Manila in February 2007 that Weng Weng's story began to take form.
 His personal details, childhood, his rise to fame and subsequent betrayal by his producer/manager/adoptive parent figures. I knew that I was sitting on a dynamite story 
but didn't have the detail, or the narrative frame, to piece it all together. That took another six years, right up to the end of editing, to nail properly. So you could say it's taken many shapes over the years, not least its morphing into Machete Maidens Unleashed for three years! I thanked (Machete Maidens… director) Mark Hartley for that at our MIFF screening. Machete Maidens freed up the film, (allowing us) to focus on the personal journey.

What is your take on the role played by Peter and Cora Caballes, the husband/wife team who controlled Weng Weng’s career? At best, they emerge as estranged parental figures; at worst, a film industry version of the freak show operator.

I desperately wanted Cora on camera, giving her side of the saga 
to give the documentary an even-handed focus. She issued me a challenge over the phone: come to California and talk to me face to face. So after two phone calls to arrange an interview, Daniel (Palisa, co-producer and co-writer) and I flew to the US 
and rang her answering machine every day with no response. To this date, I have received no replies to hundreds of emails.
Instead, we have the testimonies of several of her closest team members - the two directors for the Caballes' Liliw Productions, who both call them "Godmother" and "Godfather", who say some pretty damning things about their lack of care and financial culpability. Also, you hear Weng Weng's brother telling the family's side of things
 so personally, I think that speaks for itself.

When the home-video market exploded and action reined, every country had their enigmatic action hero. Was Weng Weng's success just a case of 'right place/right time' or did he somehow transcend the one-dimensional action hero figure he played?

In the Philippines and overseas, he was more of a novelty act that a bona fide action hero. His contemporaries and co-stars like Tony Ferrer, Lito Lapid, Ramon Zamora and Dante Varona would all enjoy 20+ year careers, (but) not Weng Weng. The peak of his fame would last less than a year, after years of playing sidekicks. The very fact that his novelty transcended the Philippine borders is very much a case of right time/right place, as it has everything to do with Imelda's film festival in January '82 
selling his film to the world (pictured, below: press clipping from Manila media). That fuelled an intense fascination with Weng Weng in the Philippines but again, for a few months at the most. 
Primordial dwarves have a very limited lifespan, usually no more than thirty years. You can also apply that analogy to Weng Weng's career
- short, intense, then POOF!
-
 within a very finite time frame, he's back in his old neighbourhood, forgotten and ailing fast.

Your film begins small (the room full of locals bemused at this big Aussie and his obsession) and ends on a very small but achingly intimate moment, yet tells a vast story about celebrity and the Pinoy industry in between. Was it at all hard to remain focused on the personal journey at the heart of the story?

Some have criticized us for including too much "big picture" stuff. I disagree, as context is very important in understanding Weng Weng's place in Filipino culture. And for not concentrating on Weng Weng himself, which is absurd. We do give as detailed a portrait as is humanly possible, given the fact that the subject has already passed, archives have next to no material about him, and those closest to him have fading memories. I think those facts alone qualifies our film as a remarkable piece of research. A few audience members wanted more of me 
and the "search"
 so really, you can't win (laughs).

I'm glad you raised that because the current trend for documentarians to put themselves in their films frustrates me, yet you find a beautiful balance between your story and obsessive search and the focus of that obsession. Is it a tough balancing act?

To be honest, I wanted less of me in the film 
but structuring the film as a detective story rather than simple bio was an important narrative device. 
I deliberately avoided placing myself in front of the camera as much as possible, preferring to have my voice behind the camera as a guide rather than indulging in ‘Michael Moore’ moments like placing my hand on the grave or placing a polaroid of Weng Weng on Cora's doorstep.
 So yeah, it is a serious balancing act. 
From what audiences tell us, the majority think we got it right.

You must be heartened by the international acceptance and festival profile the film and your journey is enjoying?

2014 has been the payoff 
for what feels like seven years in the wilderness, staring at the sun and yelling to an empty desert about a two foot nine James Bond! To travel with the film, to share it with an audience and receive instant feedback, 
it's a dream. 
I'm sure Weng Weng, wherever he is right now, is clapping his hands together with pure glee. We took him back to Cannes 
after 32 years
 and last week took him home to Baclaran. We screened the film to his relatives, neighbours and classmates outside the house in which he was born and died.
We fed the neighbourbood kids pizza and soft drink, then sat down with the adults with three bottles of brandy and got drunk with them! 
Seriously, you can't get more profound a moment than that. When the people who knew him best all say "good job,” it makes the assholes that doubt your sincerity pale into insignificance.

Finally, does this mean your obsession has run its course? The very moving narration you provide over those final frames and the local’s acceptance you just describe suggest a closure of sorts.

Not at all. The book comes next. I keep running into more players in the saga 
and besides, I don't have Cora on the record.
 I mean, I talked to one of his neighbours about the Santo Nino thing, and he claims he was healed by Weng Weng! 
There are still so many holes to fill in the story
 and then there's the bigger picture stuff to tell in more detail, so I think my fate has been sealed. The Philippines is truly my second home
 and it's all thanks to that two foot nine avatar of mine.

The Search for Weng Weng will screen at the Sydney Underground Film Festival on Sunday, September 7. Full details can be found at the event's website.

SEA OF LOVE: THE GIRL SAVING OUR OCEAN'S ALPHA PREDATOR

Much is made of the notion that it must be the current generation of young people who will start to rebuild the planet, righting the wrongs of those before them. No one embodies the spirit of global change more than Madison Stewart, currently travelling the world with her documentary Shark Girl, a moving account of her life amongst the ocean’s alpha predators and a blistering indictment of the brutal exploitation they suffer. Her actions and words are generating a groundswell of global support; just don’t call her and activist…

“I hate being called an activist,” the 20 year-old Queenslander says with a laugh from New York City, where she has slotted in a few minutes to chat with SCREEN-SPACE as part of a hectic US media schedule. “People hear that term and think that what we do is part of some ultra-radical green agenda, when the truth is I am just a normal Australian person who loves our oceans. I can’t just sit down and let injustice occur.”

Shark Girl traces Stewart’s deep bond with the ocean, from her childhood living on the family boat on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to her acceptance of the role as global ambassador for shark conservation. “I spent more time growing up in the ocean with sharks than I ever did with people, so to me they are just such a normal, everyday part of my life,” she recalls. The film features footage shot by her father of a pre-teen Madison swimming with schools of reef sharks and her first dive amongst Tiger sharks. “I couldn’t imagine growing up without them.”

Offering an international perspective with footage from Mexico, Palau and The Bahamas, the film balances Stewart’s personal journey with insights into the worldwide slaughter and trading of sharks. At times, the footage is harrowing and the truths behind fishing industry claims remarkably affecting. “The laws pertaining to our oceans are allowing destruction and failing to protect the protected species,” she says, hoping that education will inspire action. “Reaction from the public is now required, the kind of reaction that I have been having for so long that it has become a normal part of my life. As long as the injustices keep occurring, we have to fight back.”

Although the filming duties on Shark Girl went to co-directors Gisela Kaufman and Carsten Olt (pictured, right), Stewart is an accomplished underwater photographer with several documentary shorts to her credit. The latest is Obstruction is Justice, compiled from footage while on location in Western Australia to cover the introduction of the controversial shark culling policy. Says Stewart, “What is happening in Western Australia is an unfair, misguided gross injustice. The culling will never stop shark attacks and any shark expert will tell you that. To see these amazing animals, these beautiful Tiger Sharks, being so randomly killed is such a tragic thing.”

The footage captures fisheries officers breaching ocean-going rules and threatening the lives of Stewart and her crew. The stakes were clearly high for both parties. “It took a rather harsh turn,” she acknowledges. “My decision to film sharks in WA turned into this much bigger thing, a movement (that) was threatened with court action. They tried to take our footage from us, just because we wanted to film what the government was doing to the shark population.” But the fierceness of the fight against the state government’s policy only succeeded in highlighting her presence and the callousness of the cull. “Taking a stance like that is becoming a necessity for the everyday person and there were a lot of everyday people who became involved for the first time while we were in WA,” she says, proudly.

Madison Stewart understands that the inherent fear/thrill response human beings have towards sharks will be hard to alter. “Sharks are one of those few animals that we have not established control over. I can understand how that can be scary for people,” she admits. It is an easily exploited avenue for a modern media seeking a fresh sensationalistic angle. “(They) still love a good shark attack story and still exploit the images created by Jaws. That kind of media is just not realistic.”

What the young documentary maker does hope to achieve with her films and growing profile is a more balanced social acceptance of the ocean’s greatest predators. “I don’t need people to love sharks or not be scared of them,” she says, “I just need to people to respect them.”

Shark Girl is available on DVD at The ABC Shop in Australia and is currently screening on the Smithsonian Channel in the US.

HIDDEN TALENTS HAILED BY NEW GALLIC GALLERY

In her two decades as one of French cinema’s most influential producers, Anne-Dominique Toussaint has guided to international glory such award winners as Respiro (2002), Caramel (2007), The Hedgehog (2009), The French Kissers (2009), Where Do We Go Now? (2011) and Bicycling with Moliere (2013). While in Melbourne for the MIFF season of her latest production, Jacky and The Kingdom of Women, Toussaint (pictured, below) told SCREEN-SPACE that her latest project explores the multi-faceted creativity of the great film artisans…

“I’ve been a producer for 24 years now and have produced a lot of films but I felt it was time for a new type of challenge,” said Toussaint, a woman whose elegant, sophisticated presence draws many admiring glances during our chat in Melbourne’s Sofitel motel. “I have opened an art gallery in Paris called Galerie Cinema. We will be displaying artistic works but only those from filmmakers or other people who have a direct link to cinema.”

Having worked with so many of the talents synonymous with European cinema, it seemed a natural progression for the producer to find an outlet for the full scope and scale of her colleague’s visions. “There are so many people in the world of film who are creative in so many ways, such as photography or sketching or painting, so to discover this side of these talented people is so gratifying and so much fun,” Toussaint says.

Her latest curation will launch in September with a display of photographic art from French director Cedric Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnole, 2002; Russian Dolls, 2005; Paris, 2008; Chinese Puzzle, 2013). After a two month run, Galerie Cinema will present a tribute to the works of photographer Cindy Sherman from the American actor James Franco (pictured, right). Says Toussaint, “It is a very different creativity to what I am used to, the production and creation of films, but it is also the same thing, helping to bring the visions of talented people to an audience.”

Although the end result may be hung on a wall or stand on the gallery floor, Toussaint is determined to keep the link to her filmic roots intact. “It is still about cinema,” she says. “For me, it will always be about the world of cinema, but it is another type of relationship with the world of film.”

The unique endeavour is situated at 26 rue Saint-Claude (pictured, left) in the French capital’s artistic 3^rd arrondissement. The exhibition space has a long history with the display of creativity in many forms; until recently, it housed the renowned Eric Mircher Gallery as well as operating as a creative community hub known as ‘sometimeStudio’.

As is the case with all the most successful film producers, Anne-Dominique Toussaint does not lack for ambitious vision. Should the Paris location prove successful, expect a Galerie Cinema near you. Says the producer, “It is my dream to open up a Galerie Cinema in cities all over the world, in New York, and maybe here in Melbourne, and one in Beirut, a city that I love.” 

Full details of the exhibition schedule for Galeries Cinema can be found on their Facebook page here.

POSSIBLE WORLDS OFFERS IMPOSSIBLE ROSTER OF FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

Given the bracing originality and unique visions of the films programmed, there is a sweet irony to the almost clichéd progression of the Possible Worlds Film Festival. The annual celebration of offbeat US and Canadian works began as a small, passionate project for Matthieu Ravier and his non-profit cultural collective, The Festivalists; nine years later, it is one of the key film events on the Australian social calendar. In 2014, an even split of nine US titles and nine Canadian features means audiences are spoiled for choice. To help your decision-making, here are the five standout films that SCREEN-SPACE rank as Possible World’s ‘must-see’ movies…  

YOUNG ONES (Dir: Jake Paltrow; 100 mins; pictured, above) 
What’s it about? Water is to director Jake Paltrow’s Young Ones as ‘guzzoline’ is to George Miller’s Mad Max. A landowner living in the dustbowl that was once civilization must protect his family from the ruthless drifters of the desert planet. But could the ultimate threat come from within the very walls of his own home?
Why should I see it? ‘Post-apocalyptic Western’ is reason enough; the striking trailer, another. An indie-sector dream cast (Michael Shannon, Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult and Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee) working dark and dusty with such grand themes of survival, morality and desire, perched on the edge of a new, dangerous world landscape.

TRIPTYCH (TRIPTYQUE; Dirs: Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires; 94 mins)
What’s it about? Robert Lepage’ theatrical head-scratcher Lipsynch become a live venue sensation (it played to sellout crowds at the 2009 Sydney Festival). Interweaving three vivid inner-city narratives – the bookseller, the jazz singer, the neurologist – into a compelling, confounding whole proved revelatory theatre. The celebrated Lepage, with co-director Pedro Pires, now brings his work to the screen, both honouring its stage roots while embracing, with new vigour, the technologies of the new canvas.
Why should I see it? Because I have absolutely no idea what to expect! Having earned an Ecumenical Jury Special Mention at Berlin’s Panorama strand, it is clear that this deeply personal vision will be a challenging experience. Lepage has the astonishing creative credentials to make this something special…

WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY (Dir: Alan Zweig; 89 mins)
What’s it about? Documentarian Alan Zweig takes a typically idiosyncratic stab at understanding how the cultural history of the Jewish people fuels the hilarious acts and inspirational neuroses of some of the greatest comedians of all time.
Why should I see it? Both the old (Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman, Jackie Mason) and the young (Howie Mandel, Marc Maron, Andy Kindler) are called upon to analyse the heritage that has helped them form their acts. It is not often that the words ‘exhaustively researched’ and ‘hilariously funny’ can be used to describe the same movie.

OUR MAN IN TEHRAN (Dirs: Drew Taylor and Larry Weinstein; 85 mins)
What’s it about? Ken Taylor was the Canadian Embassy chief played by Victor Garber in Ben Affleck’s Oscar winner, Argo. A great film, no argument, but littered with dramatic licence. In this Canadian doco, the real Taylor sets the story straight about his role and the compassionate view his country took when they hid the six American diplomats at the height of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979.
Why should I see it? For all the tweeking of facts that Affleck indulged in to make for compelling cinema, the true drama is in the feats of these very real people. Seeing their pure ordinariness and now knowing the heroes they became makes for a potent film experience. Won the Newport Beach Film Festival 2014 Outstanding Documentary trophy.

THE AUCTION (LE DEMANTELEMENT; Dir: Sebastian Pilote; 111 mins)
What’s it about? Bouchard & Sons is one of the oldest traditional lamb farms in rural Canada. But the proprietor Gaby (Gabriel Arcand), with no heir to pass the farm to and a daughter in dire financial need, is faced with the closure of his family business. Legacy, memory and the strength of tradition in a world of heartless progress are all examined in Sebastian Pilote’s moving drama
Why should I see it? Shot on 35mm film stock, the visual richness of the rustic, rural setting is reason enough; DOP Michel La Veaux won the Quebec industry Jutra Award for his lensing. A elegant, achingly melancholy script from director Pilote (which earned him the Cannes Film Festival SACD honour) and the Best Actor Genie Award for Gabriel Arcand certainly sweeten the deal.

The 2014 Possible Worlds US and Canadian Film Festival screen September 7-17 in Sydney with Perth and Canberra seasons to follow. For full details visit the official website.