IN LIMBO AT FILM FEST
Director has no FFM venue
Benjamin Ross Hayden was more than a little taken aback Thursday morning to learn that his film The Northlander would likely not be screening as part of the 40th Festival des films du monde (FFM) after all.
The Calgary writer-director arrived in Montreal on Wednesday with his lead actor, Corey Sevier (Fox’s North Shore), but had received no word of Cineplex Entertainment’s announcement the same day that the company would not be partnering with the FFM this year.
The FFM had scheduled the majority of its screenings — including three for The Northlander — at the Forum. The remainder, including the films in competition, are safely slated for the Imperial Cinema, which the festival owns.
Due to the disastrous state of things at the FFM, this journalist had the unenviable task of informing Hayden of the news.
“I’m pretty shocked to hear this,” he said, reached on his cellphone at the east-end hotel where he and Sevier are staying, on their own dime. “Oh my goodness. I guess I’ll have to go down to the festival.”
Hayden brought his 30-minute film Agophobia to the FFM in 2013. That film also screened at Cannes as part of Not Short on Talent, a selection of shorts chosen by Telefilm. It was there he met with producers Jeremy Torrie and Adam Beach (the actor known for roles in Smoke Signals and Suicide Squad), who signed him to a development deal that led to The Northlander, which they executive-produced.
Hayden returned to Cannes this year with The Northlander, as part of Telefilm’s Perspective Canada showcase. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the year 2961, the film follows a hunter named Cygnus (Sevier) who travels across a desert valley to protect his tribe against a band of heretics.
Aside from Sevier, The Northlander stars a strong cast of Canadian aboriginal actors including Michelle Thrush, Roseanne Supernault, Julian Black Antelope and Nathaniel Arcand — something that Hayden, who is Métis, says is central to the film.
“When looking at the story, it’s uniquely Métis in its themes,” he explained.
“It’s like the (1885) Battle of Batoche, in which members of the band fought colonials to protect their way of life. The Northlander has struggle and people travelling vast distances to discover their identity. It was shot on the edge of Alberta, in the Badlands, looking out on the mountains of Montana where Louis Riel took sanctuary.
“There’s a scene in The Northlander where Cygnus longs to return to his people. I wanted to make Northlander about a quest for identity.”
Science-fiction elements have long attracted Hayden. The Northlander has esthetic similarities with Agophobia, a boldly atmospheric tale of a primitive being who tries to escape a digital world. Agophobia also screened at Spain’s revered genre film festival Sitges.
“I’ve always liked futurism and working outside the present,” Hayden said.
“My first films were set in the past, my next films are set in the future. It’s a way to make commentaries on issues and the milieu of contemporary society, and doing so in a way where you can explore the question without it being an assault on the topic.”
The filmmaker has a deal with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network to screen The Northlander over the next three years. It’s almost but not quite enough to make up for the fact that he and Sevier may not be able to screen their film here as planned. (The Montreal Gazette was unable to reach FFM president Serge Losique for comment about Hayden’s situation Thursday.)
“If I may ask, will this article be about two guys who are down on their luck?” he inquired, as the news sunk in.
“Sometimes things get out of hand,” he continued. “One way or another, when The Northlander is distributed in Canada, it will be seen by audiences in different cities. Oh, gosh — it’s a lot of news happening in such a short frame of time . ... As a director, you have your film and at the end of the day, when it comes to festivals, it’s not something you can truly control the workings of.”
Regardless of what happens with the FFM, Hayden will be sticking around Montreal for the next couple weeks to work with story consultants on an upcoming project. We arranged a photo shoot in front of the Imperial Cinema for Thursday afternoon, but he called back a half-hour later to cancel.
“To speak honestly,” he said, “after having time to process it, when it comes to film festivals and communication, I think that is the biggest factor that should be considered at such an international event: the communication aspect should be a lot stronger for a festival that is into its 40th edition.
“It’s not a fair deal when an internationally classed film program becomes adversely affected by sponsorships and business affairs. We came to Montreal for the festival as we once knew it (in 2013), when it was intact.”
As a director … when it comes to festivals, it’s not something you can truly control the workings of.