Montreal director brings extra polish to doc about shoeshiners
When was the last time a film left you with the overwhelming urge to … have your shoes shined? More to the point, when was the first time?
Right. Probably never. Until now. Shiners is a documentary that will do just that and so much more. In her directing debut, Montrealer Stacey Tenenbaum has travelled the world to meet the men and women who put their hands — and hearts — into shining your shoes.
The film — which airs Feb. 25 on the Documentary Channel — offers incredible insight into a career which is largely dismissed as menial or taken for granted by many. Credit Tenenbaum for applying extra polish in bringing out widely different stories about those who spend much of their days on their knees — and who do so with pride.
Shiners is not only a quirky doc about a subject that is off most people’s radar, but it also touches on compelling social and cultural issues in so doing.
Tenenbaum begins this odyssey with these sorts of dismissive remarks from people as they pass by shiners: “Insignificant (work) … Derogatory … Do they make any money?”
Don, a 16-year vet of the shiner trade in New York City, has heard all the clichés. He is undaunted. “This is freedom for me. There’s no politics here. And it pays the bills.”
Don, “not Trump or King,” used to have a high-paying job as a pastry chef. He hated it. He felt constrained.
He now sees himself as something of a showman as he hollers out to passersby, all the while smiling: “How long are you going to ignore your dirty shoes? Your hair looks fine, but your shoes could really use a touch-up.”
Next, it’s off to La Paz in Bolivia. While the shiners there are diligent, there is clearly a social stigma attached, as they all have their faces covered for fear that family members or fellow students will spot them on the street.
No such qualms for Tokyo’s Yuya. He sports his finest suits buffing footwear at what has to be among the most exclusive shoeshine establishments on the planet. Not only that, but he doesn’t operate in the populous city centre or at a train station or the airport. He’s in a remote part of town, where customers have to find him. And they do. His goal: “Establish a revolution from the feet up.”
In Toronto, Tenenbaum hooks up with Vincent, who works out of a barbershop and for whom shining has proven to be most therapeutic after he suffered a serous leg injury.
Therapy is also what drove a recovering alcoholic into the business at New York’s Kevin & Co.
But one really has to admire the tenacity of Ramiz in Sarajevo. Like his father before him, Ramiz had to keep one eye on the sky to be on the alert for gunfire and explosions in the midst of civil war. Their mission was simple: To maintain some sense of normalcy during chaos.
Tenenbaum first had the notion to focus on shiners during a work stint in Mumbai 20 years ago. She would begin her days there by having her shoes shined by a young boy who had a special flair for the job. They had an unspoken connection.
“The idea had been percolating for years to explore that world,” says Tenenbaum, who has been working behind the scenes in TV production for the last two decades. “I knew there were good characters out there
— and everything starts with good characters — so I felt certain this could make for an interesting documentary.”
In spite of the various global pit stops, Tenenbaum was able to bring the doc in for the surprisingly moderate sum of $400,000.
“But, honestly, I got turned down by a lot of broadcasters at the beginning, because the subject is not an easy sell. They would ask how I could ever do this, or just say it may make a good short.”
One might come to the conclusion that anyone who decides to make a doc exclusively on shoeshiners either has a career death wish or is creative on a whole other off-the-charts level.
In Tenenbaum’s case, it’s definitely the latter.
Fortunately, she pitched the project to the more open-minded documentary Channel, and it was immediately well received.
It should also be mentioned that, after completion last year, Shiners made the festival rounds and has picked up numerous best-documentary awards. It also made several Top 10 film lists.
“There’s a lot of stuff wrapped up in the profession, apart from the social and class aspects,” she
says. “There’s also the whole ecological factor, which people don’t really think about. Shining extends the life of shoes and keeps them out of landfills. But that’s also why I felt that I could make a feature-length documentary on the subject, because I knew there were a lot of issues related to this profession.
“I think a lot of people assume they’re not going to like a film about shoeshiners, yet everyone I’ve met who has seen it is just been blown away. Hopefully, the film will change attitudes towards shiners, too.”
One might think Tenenbaum would be hard-pressed to follow this up. Nope. She’s already in the midst of production on Pipe Dreams, dealing with another seemingly obscure subject: the Canadian International Organ Competition, which takes place in Montreal every three years.
The organists are all under 30, and Tenenbaum has been following them in their home towns around the world as well as throughout the competition in Montreal.
“Hopefully, this will make the world fall in love with organ music,” says Tenenbaum, who notes that the documentary Channel is behind this one, too.
She’s not so sure folks will be as enamoured with the subject matter in her next doc, Scrap, but they will certainly take heed of the message she seeks to convey.
“It’s about these giant metal graveyards and deals with the issue of recycling as a large-scale international problem,” she says. “Planes, trains, buses — where do they all go when they’re done and how do different countries deal with this? Again, this documentary goes into a whole other world.”