Peterson doc aims for balance
CBC will air profile of controversial U of T professor on Friday
Patricia Marcoccia set out to make what she thought would be an interesting, but relatively low key documentary about a professor and his friendship with an artist.
In between, she got sidetracked — and ended up making perhaps the most insightful film yet on controversial University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson. Shut Him Down: The Rise of Jordan Peterson airs on CBC Friday at 9 p.m.
It chronicles the rise of an academic superstar who has been a contentious figure on university campuses over the issues of freedom of speech and gender rights.
“The original idea was to make a documentary about his interactions with an Indigenous carver on the West Coast and then it turned into something completely different,” said the 34-year-old Toronto filmmaker in an interview.
The original concept was a film about renowned carver Charles Joseph adopting Peterson into his family. She first learned about Peterson as a psychology student more than a decade ago and became interested in his work. Joseph was to be given equal weight in the film, which Marcoccia says she still wants to do.
But in the fall of 2016, after the documentarian had already spent more than a year on the project, Peterson published his seminal video “Professor against Political Correctness,” thrusting him into the national conversation.
Peterson’s target was Bill C-16. He argued that it enforced the use of alternate gender pronouns for persons who don’t identity as male or female.
His views were described as offensive and dangerous by some, and a positive stand against political correctness by others.
“A few weeks into the controversy I had to make the hard decision. I didn’t have a choice. I had to follow where the story was taking me,” said Marcoccia.
The silver lining in her abrupt U-turn is that the filmmaker was on the ground floor before anyone else. She taped110 hours of footage, now distilled into a tight 44-minute film for the CBC. The doc will also be available in a lengthier theatrical version.
In the film, Marcoccia has unique access to Peterson’s family and rare footage of the professor on tour. And she is with him as his fame seems to spread exponentially.
That now includes more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and sales of 2.5 million copies of his latest book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
“The question of balance is a tricky one,” says Marcoccia. “Some people view it as positive. Others think that’s a negative, that you’re creating a false balance. But what I tried to do was dive into the world of opposing viewpoints and deeply try to understand where they’re coming from and what’s at stake.”
In this divisive age, if it’s possible to make a fair, even-handed documentary about Peterson that isn’t a raging polemic, this is it.
Marcoccia gives plenty of air time to critics of Peterson, including self-described non-binary U of T physics professor A.W. Peet, who says he watched Peterson’s YouTube video and “wanted to vomit into my keyboard.”
Peet argues that “Bill-C-16 is not about cisgender people, it’s about protections for transgender people.”
The documentary is also a handy shortcut to the controversy surrounding the man, for those not up to speed on Canada’s most polarizing professor, who comes across as angry, obstinate, tough-minded and thoughtful in varying degrees.
“I don’t recognize another person’s right to determine what pronouns I use to address them,” says Peterson. “I’m not doing it.”
As with most things Peterson, even his tweet remarking that the show is airing on Canada’s public broadcaster has elicited division.
Marcoccia feels that the messages are relatively evenly split with negative and positive comments.
“People expect a point of view: is it going to be for or against Peterson? There is a lot of skepticism.”
The show has already passed one test. Recently, Marcoccia aired it for Peterson as well as some of his critics featured in the show.
“It was a nerve-wracking process,” she said. “After so many years I had to hold myself accountable. I can’t speak for them, but I think in general they thought it was fair and accurate. Which is all you can ask for.”
“People expect a point of view: is it going to be for or against Peterson? There is a lot of skepticism.” PATRICIA MARCOCCIA FILMMAKER