ORIGIN story
Documentary chronicling Shane Koyczan’s journey to find his father screens tonight in Penticton
Every hero has an origin story. World-renowned spoken word artist Shane Koyczan is sharing his at a screening of “Shut Up and Say Something,” tonight at the Cleland Theatre. “I have so many people in my life that say, ‘You’re my hero,’ and it’s like, ‘I don’t even know my origin story,” a laughing Koyczan said. “How am I supposed to be your hero? I need to figure this shit out.” The documentary has Koyczan embarking on a journey to find and meet a father he’s never met. After 90 minutes, the film ends, but the story continues for Koyczan. “When you go to track down family, you don’t do that with the intention of saying, ‘Oh, found them, good,’ and then turn around and walk out the door,” Koyczan said.
“It’s always challenging because you don’t know who you are going to meet.”
The film, directed by long-time pal Stuart Gillies, was shot over parts of four years.
“I went into it with a little bit of naivete in the sense of Shane and his dad, their relationship. The first time we flew his dad down to speak with Shane I thought, ‘This is going to be this huge reconciliation and they’re going to cry in each other arms, it’s going to be beautiful,’” Gillies said.
But the meeting didn’t play out quite as cinematically.
“Basically it was this standoff of communication. That was a really intense time – especially that first meeting,” Gillies said.
Koyczan described his work as a poet and spoken word artist as requiring a degree of “emotional nudity,” but the documentary experience was a different form of opening up.
“I don’t like being under a microscope. Poetry I think does that.
“You nail a part of yourself onto the page and people can see that. This was nailing a piece of myself onto the screen,” Koyczan said. Gillies agreed. “I couldn’t imagine having a documentary made about my life,” he said. “It’s super-intrusive, up close and personal. It’s not a documentary that just says Shane is the best, Shane is the greatest. It does say that, but there’s a lot of human points in it.”
Gillies said he is excited, but a touch nervous, for tonight’s screening, which will include a question-andanswer session. “My hope beyond hope is that someday he will be happy and proud of it.”
Tickets for the 7 p.m. screening are available at the Penticton Art Gallery.
They cost $13 for gallery members and $15 for non-members. Looking ahead, Koyczan and Gillies are continuing their long-time artistic relationship with a new web series, “Literally,” based out of The Book Shop on Main Street.