Director Michael McGowan Interview: 'All My Puny Sorrows', and Remaining Canadian
In the twenty years he’s been a filmmaker, McGowan, a son of Toronto, has remained one of the loudest voices for Canadian film and homegrown talent.
Born in Toronto, Michael McGowan, despite working with some massive Hollywood talent, is one of those cases that proves how we as Canadians can be a force to be reckoned with in the world of cinema. If we can hold on to some of our best, homegrown artists. Granted, no child with aspirations of making it big in the film industry dreams of being the biggest in Hollywood North, they would much rather bask in the sun next to palm trees rather than shive in the brisk freshwater mist of lake Ontario, but there is something to be said about building our identity as a filmmaking nation, and making our Canadian voices heard.
What is particularly notable of McGowan, despite being tempted by the seductress that is America, is he has told predominantly Canadian stories. Stories written by Canadians, films set in Canada and using actors who call the True North their home and native land. His latest project, All My Puny Sorrows, based off the book by Miriam Toews is yet another notch in the proverbial beaver skin belt; a sweet and sorrowful story about how a family is trying to deal with depression and suicide, through the art they create and their connection with each other.
McGowan recently sat down with Managing Editor of FilmSpeak, Michael Winn Johnson to discuss how the director chooses his projects, his lead actors, and continues to be an ‘accidental’ advocate for the Canadian film industry.
Michael Winn Johnson: As head of the Toronto Office of FilmSpeak, I was lucky enough to see All My Puny Sorrows at TIFF in September. Absolutely loved it. A great sweet and sorrowful film. But before we get to that, I wanted to talk about One Week.
The funny thing is, my wife's ‘claim to fame’ is that you apparently shot [that film] in the very classroom where she was a teacher. At Trafalgar Castle school. That's what she claims. I don't know if it's true, Michael, but...
Michael McGowan: No, that's true. Your wife is not a liar. We did film in Trafalgar Castle. Yes, that would be right.
McGowan (right) and star Joshua Jackson (left) during filming of One Week (2008)
MWJ: Whenever we watch the movie, that's the one thing she points out; “That was my classroom”. So she gets a gold star for that.
Someone called One Week, a “love letter to Canada”, which I think is so fitting for so many reasons, obviously with you being a predominantly Canadian filmmaker. When you were traveling making that movie, was there anything that we didn't see that you really wanted to include in the film? Or more importantly, was there any part of Canada perhaps that you wanted to shoot in and didn't get a chance?
MM: We were supposed to film the world’s largest Curling stone, but it turns out, it was going to take all day to get there, maybe 6 hours north of Winnipeg. So, we had left Winnipeg and arrived in Medicine Hat at about four o'clock in the morning, and we had already been shooting all day. It was myself, Josh (Joshua Jackson), our cinematographer and the First AD in the van. So we had to give up on the world's largest, I don't know, maybe curling rock or something like that. But we knew in Duncan BC was the world's largest hockey stick. So we just kind of cheated as you do in films, and edited to look like it was in Manitoba.
Then when we show the film, at the Victoria Film Festival, ad there were people in the audience going bananas. Some of them put their hand up and was like, “Do you know the world's largest hockey stick is actually in Duncan?”, as if I didn't shoot the thing… So I replied “Well, actually, there's also the world's largest hockey stick in Manitoba as well” and the person said “really?”. I was like, “No, it's not. But sometimes we cheat things in films”.
MWJ: That's the epitome of Canada, isn’t it? That kind of passive aggressive ”that's ours, we have to claim that” mentality.
Your background predominantly, as a Canadian filmmaker and television director, is it crucial? Because from your filmography, you seem that a bigger Hollywood picture, or something like a Marvel movie doesn't even interest you.
MM: (laughs) Oh no, it would for sure. I mean, there was a time after Saint Ralph, where I had a big US agent, I had a big manager, and I had a big lawyer, and I was getting sent a lot of stuff. I was going down for a lot of meetings, and it was interesting, but I turned down a couple of things. That makes you kind of wonder, should I have done it or not? Then I just wasn't really that interested anymore in the sense of trying to chase it, because I didn't really know the ground rules of Hollywood.
But I would for sure. If somebody said “We'd like you to consider for a Marvel movie”, I would, absolutely do it, but to chase rather than to find stuff and develop it myself, doesn’t feel rewarding. I don't know why I would spend so much effort on that kind of stuff, rather than trying to make One Week where you can just go do it yourself and produced it, and make it small, and have more control over it. And actually get something done that you actually believe in rather than try to chase something that you are fairly indifferent about.
Alison Pill (left, front) and Sarah Gadon (right, back) in All My Puny Sorrows
MWJ: You kind of touched on that perfectly, because some of the wording that I was trying to use in that question was, a lot of your work seems to have this intimacy to it. I think Puny Sorrows is definitely another story that that is very intimate. I'm curious, what about the original book spoke to you?
MM: I just read it just because it was around. I wasn’t looking at it like, “I'm going to read this and think about adapting it”, and really, I loved it. Then my wife was like, “I think that'd make a good movie’”. Then I looked at it again.
So there's a few things about that book that interested me. The examination of suicide I hadn't seen before. Even though it's a novel, it's [Toews’] own lived experience. So there's a truth to the book. And there's these three incredible female roles. You read all the time that after a certain age, actresses are saying there's no good roles, they have a tougher time finding stuff they want to work on. And so so you're always sort of looking at, ‘have I seen this before?’, and that's sort of the [formula] I used to sort of try to go ahead and, and get it made.
MWJ: I want to talk about some of the great lead actors you've worked with. I wanted this interview to possibly become an Alison Pill tribute piece, but Joshua Jackson has always been a favorite of mine, and you just reminded me of the great James Cromwell in Still Mine as well. What is it about some of these actors that you've cast in these fantastic roles that you think speaks to you as the director and often as the writer as well?
Mare Winningham (left, front) and Pill (right, back) in All My Puny Sorrows
MM: Well, if you get lucky and can work with great actors, your job is so much easier. Alison, for example, she's really, really smart. She drilled down on the script and she was really specific.
I don't go in as a director, thinking, “here's my shot list, and actors are just furniture and you're going to move the furniture as per my previously conceived notions”, rather, I watch it unfold. It's a bit more of a dance that I like to explore with the actors, and really good actors are always specific.
That's the interesting thing about filmmaking, with really smart people, crew or cast; that if you kind of are attuned to that collaboration, rather than it's a “I'm going to tell everybody what to do” situation. Best idea wins.
MWJ: Well, best of luck with with this film. I hope everybody watches it, because like I said, a very sweet and sorrowful film, but a beautiful film like all your others. So Michael, thanks so much for joining us.
MM: Oh, my pleasure. Great to meet you. Thank you so much.
