THE CHALLENGE: GIVE SHORT ANSWERS TO LONG QUESTIONS
Actress keeps her responses to 5 words — max
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, we took inspiration from long-vs.-short filmmaking styles to ask actress Sarah Gadon, ambassador for The Shortest Day free film celebration, five painfully long-winded questions. Her challenge in five words: Short answers, five-word maximum. The free screenings of short films on The Shortest Day slate will be held in more than 80 venues across Canada and not just in movie theatres but in cultural centres, community spaces, schools, coffee shops, shopping malls, hospitals and public libraries. If you were in the hospital, would you welcome the chance to watch short films?
Yes. Movies transport you.
You have appeared in shorts and you made your directing debut with an episode of the Movie Network documentary series Reelside, which could indeed be considered a short. Why do you think shorts are a good method for you to explore your creativity as an actress and filmmaker? Shorts = less money to make. There are 28 shorts organized into four thematic programs for this festival: Kids, Family, Musical, and Dramas and Comedies, and as someone who has worked so extensively with David Cronenberg (Maps to the Stars, Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method), what would you call a program that was made up of Cronenberg shorts? “Indigestion: Brief Encounters With Pain” (18A)
As The Shortest Day’s 2015 Englishlanguage ambassador, it begs the question: do you see an ambassadorial role elsewhere for yourself now that you have the experience — perhaps in the diplomatic service, working at an embassy or the United Nations, or as the Canadian ambassador to a country of your choosing? Yes. Global film ambassador, please.
If there was an opportunity for a filmmaker to collaborate with you on a film project that could eventually and after much consideration become a short film about you and your life, perhaps your day-to-day existence and how you spend your free time away from the cameras, what would this short be titled? “Codependence: A Small Canadian & Caffeine” (PG)