To Spirit Island - A Documentary

To Spirit Island explores how five young friends from Toronto cope and engage with a Canada reminiscent of a past century. We will follow them on a journey to a remote, secluded old log cabin on the southern beaches of Manitoulin Island in order to put modern society and technology in a context and give the audience an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of both.

PREMISE

This documentary investigates how five acquaintances from a world city experience a secluded patch of northern wilderness. Through following them on their journey, throughout their stay and later to-camera interviews we get an in-depth look at how each of them dealt in this remote refuge away from modern technology of smart phones, Internet access and electricity. As the location starts to impose its own necessities and rhythms the viewers become part of dinner conversations and debates in a rustic setting. The remote environment sparks and brings to life discussions of who they are and how they relate to a Canada both old and new and make sense of modern life in a multicultural metropolis and a remote place that evokes feelings of nostalgia and romance of something lost.

THEME

Our personal histories and where we are situated have a major impact on us. But it is also in how we engage with significant others that we define ourselves. Personal and Canadian identity, identity individually and shared are the dominant theme of this documentary as these five characters from modern Toronto experience this unique, remote place that is reminiscent of an older Canada, of a century past, a place of wilderness and untouched by modern civilization.
We are leaving from Toronto, an alpha-world city and fast-changing multicultural metropolis. Life here is dominated by people that are more and more fully immersed in media and communication devices through a growing number of platforms. Social networks, smart phones, tablet devices have permeated our everyday lives in unprecedented ways. We are constantly in contact with something or other whether it be our work, our facebook friends, the twitter group we follow, the latest breaking news on our news channel. But as a result our lives have become more fragmented and traditional borders of public and private seem to disappear. Travelling towards the shores of Manitoulin some of these preoccupations fall away for a time and as our senses adjust we might see and relate to our surroundings differently. As this journey is a return to a place that I came to deeply associate with what I thought to be Canadian other themes of memory, nostalgia and even romance of a place lost become minor themes that will be textualized and interwoven throughout the documentary. It will be fascinating to find out how these themes will contrast or resonate with our other four characters and how the cultures of a modern and old Canada speak to one another.

POINT OF VIEW/TONE

The journey from Toronto to Manitoulin and our stay there reveal two very different places. We start in Toronto, the capital of Ontario also known as the “world in a city”, a mosaic of different neighbourhoods and cultures. It is a place of modern technologies, of fast pace and little reflexivity, a North American city with all its complexities and social problems.
In contrast Manitoulin presents itself as a refuge, a romantic and nostalgic vision of an older Canada, northern and wild, a picture that is filled with nature, with fresh air and clean water, with canoes and campfires. How do those two places relate? What connects them, if they are connected at all? The POV of this documentary is somewhat ambivalent on these questions but hopeful that an exploration of the controversies can shed some light on how the two places can complement each other.


CONTENT

Place

Manitoulin island is the largest freshwater island in the world. It is situated in lake Huron one of the five Great Lakes. The island is about 160 km long and a continuation of the Bruce Peninsula and the Niagara escarpment. From May to October a daily passenger-vehicle ferry “MS Chi-Cheemaun” operates between Tobermory and South Baymouth on the island. The cabins themselves are located about another hour from the South Baymouth and can be reach via a logging road that ends approximately 10km from the cabin. The bigger cabin was found on the western side of the island and disassembled and rebuilt and restored in its current location. Without electricity the cabin is lit at night with antic oil lamps and heated with an old iron stove taken from an old school house.

Characters

A … just came back from his cottage getaway about a week ago. He is very social and loves the outdoors. He seems to be quite a hands-on person and open to new experiences.
B … is finishing her PhD in English literature. She is very familiar with Canadian novelists such as Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood and Joseph Boyden has an interest in the Canadian arts. To her this place might speak to a last century of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.
C … is of Trinidadian, Chinese and aboriginal origin. She is funny, blunt and not afraid to voice her views. But she is easy to be around and doesn’t hold a grudge. She is character that might provide comic release and lighten the conversation.
D … is a young man who grew up in Toronto. Among the four he is probably the most citified and it will be interesting how his views will contrast with Mike’s. He is immersed in modern media technologies such as iPhone, iPad and Facebook but also likes to read. He has a sharp intellect, tends to think for himself and come to his own conclusions.

Secondary Characters

Ron Tasker is an old friend who introduced me to the island and is coming along on the trip. He grew up in a Toronto of the seventies and eighties and has been to going to the island and the cabins his whole life. When I first met him he was very much an individualist. He still loves the outdoors and enjoys the solitude of Manitoulin. He will provide texture and history to this place and will help in providing us with the context of different chores and tasks.
I will be one of the four characters in the documentary. When I came to Canada in the 90s I worked in Kingston. My friend Ron convinced me to come along on a trip to Manitoulin Island and I immediately fell in love with the place. It was this place that I started to associate with Canada. The solitude of the cabin, the expanse of Lake Huron, the raw beauty of the place worked its magic on me. Now after coming back to Canada over ten years later, I live in Toronto, a very different place. The modern and diverse city differs from my earlier experiences in Canada. The larger GTA is one of the five biggest urban centres in North America. It is a place of fast pace, highways, technology and modern media. Whereas Toronto is a place of modern civilization Manitoulin is a scene of nature and solitude. Now over ten years later I will take along these four friends to see how they experience and make sense of two places that lie only five hours apart but speak of two opposite worlds.

Conflict

In the documentary I want to explore the significance of this unique place on Manitoulin through the eyes of our characters as they experience and explore parts of the island. The location and its needs impose their own obstacles and rhythms that takes all participants out of their everyday life. They will have to deal with the absence of cell phone access, the lack of electricity and or running tap water. They will also have to participate in some of the work that is necessary to run these cabins. The cabins need to be opened up after not having been used or visited over the long winter. Water tanks need to be cleaned and fresh water needs to be pumped from lake, the place needs a thorough clean and some maintenance work might be necessary. This involves hard work and it will come as a surprise to some of the characters that this idyllic getaway also requires hard work to run and maintain. There are a lot of small details that all participants will learn about. Garbage needs to be separated, some of it composted, fire wood to be split and meals to be prepared. It will be fascinating to see how the characters will adapt to their new surroundings and how they will be able adapt to or avoid some of the tasks that are put in front of them. Also, participants are being asked to contribute or bring a few things to the trip that speak to them personally. At the end of the day we will see them around a dinner table, gathered around a meal. All of them will have brought, prepared or cooked some of the meal and this will help to further contextualize their personalities and background. It is here that their experiences are shared and some of the interpersonal conflicts of the group play out. I expect their differences in character to contribute to the development of this part in a very organic way.

Structure

The documentary will be one hour in length. It will start with an opening tease that will speak of a memory and of a different place. It will then continue in the form of the journey. We will be following them on their way to Manitoulin, their stay at the cabin, their return and their reflections two weeks after coming back. At this point they will have seen a rough cut of the entire trip and get a chance to voice their own reflections on the journey. They will respond to a few questions, clarify and explain some of their reactions on the island. The outcome of these interviews is to be included in the final documentary.
Any form of crisis or conflict will most likely occur during the dinner conversions at the cabin. Both their reflections and the history of these cabins (including a poem that is associated with the island) might provide material for the falling action or a form of resolution for the project.

Style

The documentary will have a look and feel not unlike cinéma verité. I decided to include myself in the documentary as it provides a way into the story and a point of view. The camera work outside the cabin will be mostly hand held to give the viewer a sense of personal and close involvement in the experience. The dinner table conversations will be filmed with three cameras to capture both action and reaction shots during the conversations. Warm colours will help to invoke a sense of nostalgia. The location at Manitoulin Islands will add an important dimension to the story as it evokes the image of an older Canada and what it might represent. The to-camera interviews after the return will be direct shots, using a long lens with the interviewer close or behind the lens to give the audience the feel of facing the interviewee directly.

First sketch

Difficult Birth,

So here it is. A first proposal feels a bit like joining a nudist group. Except you really aren't into nude beaches, you don't know anybody, and everybody gets to have a peek. Well, what the heck. Here it goes. Let me know what you think. Seriously from the tiniest thing to the most devastating critique, I'd appreciate it.

“Forborne Identity” (Working title)
Proposal for a New Documentary

Identity is not fixed, but something made and discovered in vital negotiation with others
-John Cassavetes

LOGLINE

"Forborne Identity” is the journey of a man born and raised in the former East Germany but now living in Canada trying to make sense of his national and personal identity during the twentieth anniversary of the reunification of both Germanys. Despite the celebratory mood surrounding the reunification, he is asking simple, provocative questions that lead us to doubts in national identity, examine clichés of modern news and Cold War narratives. His encounters, uncertainties and inner struggles lead us to reflect on the paradoxes of modern identity.

Project Summary

The Idea

This idea grew out of interviews I, as a German of the former East Germany, was asked to do by a number of Canadian broadcasters on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Publicly narrating my personal experiences to a large Canadian audience had a profound effect on me. It sent me on a journey of revisiting my own past, starting in the late eighties and the end of the GDR, the fall of the Berlin Wall, my studies and travels, working abroad, and finally immigrating to Canada. Through this journey I was again and again confronted with a German past and identity that felt alien to me and I struggled to relate to a shared history and new emerging identity that is yet to be defined.

What is identity?

Personal identity (WordNet 2.1) (2005)

The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity
"You can lose your identity when you join the army"

National identity (A. D. Smith 1991)

A named population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for its members

It became apparent to me that the dialogue I found myself engaged in about my identity as a German spoke to the need to address not only my own personal questions about identity but also larger questions about the construction of modern national identity and how personal and national identities are enmeshed within one another. While questions of both a personal and a larger sense of identity are universal and speak to a human narrative that all of us share insofar as we all need to make sense of who we are and how we see ourselves in the larger world, I believe that the question of contemporary German identity illuminates the inadequacy of the usual framework of national identity/historical construction of identity.

Does it matter?

Who am I? What makes me unique as a person? How am I different from others? Am I just defined by how others see me or the way I see myself? What does it mean to be a German? How do I relate to a history shaped by two world wars, the Holocaust, the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, and an emerging European Union? Who decides what German identity is? Can we resolve German identity with the multiplicitous meanings that have evolved historically? Can German identity transcend its history and historical construction?

The example of the German makes for an interesting story. It provides multiple opportunities to bring to the fore many of the difficulties that arise with a notion of the “us” and the “other”.

I believe I am suited to tell this story because of my own experiences as a German who has spent most of his adult life living outside of Germany.

NARRATIVE SYNOPSIS

Every venture is a difficult undertaking with obstacles and roadblocks. Mine was this. Personal and national identity are a relevant and modern topic deserving a documentary. In the case of Germany it is also convoluted and complex. How do I try to give it justice and appeal to a wider and more diverse audience?

My original approach was a participatory documentary featuring interviews with authoritative voices on the topic supported by archival film and historical material. Yet I came to the conclusion that this approach would be deficient in that it would be premised on that which it is actually trying to discover and therefore it would overlook the ideas and challenges posed by the questions of German identity.

After much research and discussions I realized the reflexive nature of the project. Not only am I interested in how Germany is perceived and in trying to penetrate and uncover an emerging national identity, but I also started to question my own motives in starting this endeavour. In the end I decided on a self-reflexive documentary. Not only will it help to give the viewer a sense of emotional urgency and a sense of inner struggle to come to terms with a complex subject but it will also shape the project into a coherent whole

The narrative I am creating is a work in progress. I envision this production as a living dialogue that would be shaped and generated by the process of interviewing a broad spectrum of individuals from diverse communities throughout Toronto who are historically connected to Germany supporting their narratives by drawing on historical materials from various public sources.

WHERE I START is downtown Toronto, showing people talking about what they know or perceive about Germany and German identity. This will likely include historical references such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, a divided Germany, the Third Reich and the Holocaust, and it may include Turkish immigration; as well, stereotypical aspects of Germany such as automobiles, beer, public transport, and classical music will likely be mentioned.
The main character and interviewer just arrived recently to live and work in Canada. Being of East German origin he is confronted with these stereotypes and forced to make sense of them, identify with some while rejecting others. His first reactions are sincere if somewhat simplistic. He tries to identify with positive images while repressing and avoiding others. He is also outside of his comfort zone and quickly realises that he has to explore his own identity and the idea of a national identity in order to come to terms with his new home.

During his journey:

• He visits a German-Canadian family that immigrated to Canada in the mid-sixties, discovers the difficulties and stigma the parents encountered contrasted to the story of their children
• He visits a Korean-Canadian in exploring the idea of a unified Korea and an existing/non-existing identity of a unified Korea.
• At a war memorial he is interviewing a Canadian second war veteran, inquiring about his experiences and how they ultimately shaped his personal identity and his identity of being Canadian
• He gets in contact with a family in Toronto’s large Jewish community. Here a number of options are available to peel away at the narrators own self-defences and narrate his historical upbringing
• Interviews young Canadian artists. Here another image and experience of a more contemporary Berlin and Germany emerges

The story of the film emerges through the lens of a somewhat narrow starting point of the narrator. He is not authoritative on the subject himself. He is exploring but limited in his vision. It is a delicate story as it will have to unfold in the dialogue with the interviewees that will open up larger questions of who we are and how we relate to one another.

STATUS OF THE FILM

The film is a work progress. To further support the depth of research I have established contact with a number of individuals including: Mark Webber and John Paul Kleiner at the Canadian Centre of German and European Studies; Ruth Renters, the Deputy Director of Goethe Institute Toronto; Karen Thuernau at the German Consulate in Toronto; Inaugural Director, Doina Popescu at Ryerson Photography Gallery and Research Centre; and German Coordinator, Erol M. Boran at the University of Toronto.

SUPPORT AND TARGETS

Throughout this project I will be able to draw on the expertise and insights of my mentor, Holm Taddiken, managing director of Cine Impuls Leipzig Inc. and founder of Neufilm Inc. (http://neufilm.com) which is an organization in Leipzig, Germany committed to supporting aspiring filmmakers. Furthermore, Roger Walch, an independent Swiss filmmaker and musician (http://www.rowmuse.com) based in Kyoto, Japan, has also expressed interest in assisting with this project. A successful completion of this project could make a timely contribution to public discourse throughout Germany about national identity along with Europe as a whole about the European Union, and I believe that central European broadcasters such as Arte, ARD, ZDF or MDR would be interested in the production I propose here. Furthermore, I believe that this project would have the potential to draw interest from Canadian broadcasters owing to its focus on national identity.