ALICE UNLOVED and living real in and UNREAL WORLD

 ALICE UNLOVED wil be my re-entry into fiction films... sort of ... since the method i use encompasses my particular set of skills learned, honed and refined over years of living 'real'.

Perhaps 'living real' is a new concept for some but for those of us who have done it most of our lives it's natural. Courage of course is a key element as is living on the edge... the edges of things are often where we learn the most about ourselves which is where our life resides i.e. In ourselves first then the external world after that.

When young and invincible it's easier to live that way but the real test of courage is in how we deal with life as we age simply because so many of us face so many disappointments that we give up .... i have at times joined that group but not for long and not willingly.

It's not complex; I simply see living the creative life as the most perfect life.

DIGITAL FLURRY OF IMAGE JUNK

 

Digital caused a flurry and a flourish of major movie making interest ... perhaps too much and too many. So many videos so few ideas... as someone once outlined and I paraphrase.

The vast outpouring didn't make an astounding original flow of amazing ways to make movies with real life content without the mediocre sway of huge studio interference... the happy ending syndrome.

Recently i re-watched FOUR BROTHERS which started out as a rather unique and interesting American feature but ended in a sad display of soup opera results. As it flowed along it became more and more predictably a copy of movies u've seen before several times.

Unfortunately this decline seems to be the 'cater to the lower end' type of holywoody movie too often seen in recent decades.

Some very interesting 'film noir' movies were made in America in the 30's and 40' that are now displayed on youtube free.

I recently watched all the Basil Rathburne Sherlock Holmes movies and much to my surprise since they were made from 1939 to 1946, they were well made and interesting to watch. Certainly they are as good as the more recent Granasa's versions featuring Brett as Sherlock.

Anyway, volume is not always the answer and often the damage done... so many images float around everyone's world and most of it cliche ridden nonsense; so, those old Sherlock's seem worth one's time.

ALICE UNLOVED my new drama about non conformity .... 'so many women fall in love with a pig.'

 

 Sometimes we falter.... sometimes we succeed... an old Uke adage is 'Life is not a feather'. Also 'Courage isn't easy.' 

 Nostalgia can overcome we elders as we hike along the trail of our memories.

 I got carried away with living life ... what i should have done long ago is creating ....using max skills to document my thoughts and life style using words, pictures and pictures that move and talk.  

 Not sure of how others feel their lives... most i assume are arrogant and silly enough to think the simple dullness of their 'normal' lives was perfect .... then along came C19 and they could show how wonderful they are 'toeing the line' of conformity.

My latest movie isn't a doc. but a drama called ALICE UNLOVED - following an indepent life style Alive believes that she can live/dream her life without love - a very difficult journey for a female since nature gave them an amazing capacity to love so that the species can survive with mother's that deeply care for family even above themselves.... then along comes a pig that changes all that. 'so many women fall in love with a pig.;

and then there was SONDERBERG's iphone7 shoot for UNSANE - but not cheap after all

The fim Unsane shot by 8 dop's usig iPhone 7 was Soderbergh entering into a completely new era... sort of.
Those of us who are low or no budget filmakers viewed digital as our miracle creative helper - we could get access to the equipment through the Film Co-op for a steal of a deal or buy it at a very reasonsble price, and make movies for peanauts and some chicken feed. Which for some of us meant no more chasing the beaurotcrats at various funding agencies pleading for money to make our films to create our dreams, thoughts and ideas of Canada to Canadians... how novel, eh?
For we low/no budget filmakers the film, Unsane became our flag raised high. Here was a great director making movies with an iPhone 7 or so I thought. Ok, making films with 7 iPhones and 7 camera people but making them for a million dollar budget...well well.
I was saddened when I found out on IMBD that the financing for Unsane is 1.5 million budget. I was disppointed because a million bucks in Canada means an enormous budget that few of us ever manage to raise to make our films.
Soderbergh of course has such a great track record and the fact that he’s a US filmmaker means that he has financing and distribution  and promotion with one phone call. Something that would never happen to a Canadian filmmaker since we never get the opportunity to create a track record of such huge proportions .... we don’t have Hollywoody North only beaurocrats and a very diminished NFB. We don’t even have talk shows where independents can voice their creative projects while the US has hundreds of promotional shows that highlight creative people.
I wondered, how did Soderbergh use all that money since he was using rented iPhone 7’s? Since much of the money for digital is in post and I can’t find out how all that money was spent on post. I surmised it was probably locations, actors, crew and post but a million bucks, that ain’t chicken feed.
Anyway you look at it, being famous before going for money is very helpful, being UNfamous like most Canadians isn’t. How the hell are we ever going to convince Netflix to pay taxes and support Canadian films which I think would be good for everybody.
That’s not INSANE that’s UNSANE...

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my life B.C.. i.e. before cancer ....COURAGE &. CREATIVE LIVING WITH CANCER is my LIFE

O f course like so many others i was hoping my elder years would be spent in a reasonably healthy manner creating my legacy ..... so to speak i.e. doing creative work for the love of creative art.

Well the best laid plans of 'mice and men' as that adage goes- cancer has taken over a major portion of my life as i find it more and more difficult to make movies .... most are on standby.

Instead i've returned to my writing and my photography creating Marveous Realism with my partner H.L. - a series of very unique art  works are made where both hi tech and tradional methods are used to  give the viewer an outstanding way of seeing the worl around us.

Of course my spinal cancer and lower back cancer isn't making things easier.

I no longer can hold my larger camera outstreched to get a shot so i've purchased smaller ones that allow me to continue shooting but slower and less often than when i was healthy i.e. B.C.

Depression is a hard journey and one must work hard not to fall into that terrible state - i keep exercising and healthy living and resting as my daily life. As most know, exerecise is vital to a helathymind . Combined with the creative life one can life as successfully as possilbe - stress is a killer.

People often tell me how good i look for someone that has had 4 major surgeries,  can hardly turn my neck from the two neck surgeries, my shoulders are seperated and require replaement surgery , I've had so much radiation that i can no longer tolerate it and now am on chemo.... my future looks bleak given all that but i do't see it that way - creative work and a positive attitude, exercise, rest all have contributed to help me still see the world as a positive place that i want to contribute to and live in.

I welcome each morning regardless of my pain or soreness or my diminishing energy. That i can rest well and face my illness with courage and live as fully as i can .. is my gift or so a nurse told me.

IMAGE ARTICLE by : Peter Evanchuck

HAD a GREAT adventure road trip/shoot for upcoming shows and movies - Toronto was like summer one hand on bike handle other on my pan770 shooting

yeah it's something all creative people should do.

Take off 'get outta Dodge' pronto tonto as often as u can - and get invigorated and get those sleepies outta ya.

RL Stevenson when asked why he travels his answer was simple and real , 'I travel to move.' - shake the foundation of ur lethargy by travelling to new adventures that offer some level of risk - the braver u are the bigger the risk and, i think, the greater the creative rewards.

Well cancer has curbed my great adventures but i still have some reasonable juice left in me to 'get the hell outta Dodge' - now if u don't know that that exprssion means let me enlighten ur old school notions of ur life in the slow lane.

Getting outta Dodge does not mean a place but a mind set. IT means that a creative person has to shake their brain as often as necessary to keep it acitve, alive and functioning at some higher than normal creative level.

so if u're stuck in the muck of ur dull existence don't blame or shame the messanger but look in the mirror and see the culprit.

grab ur keys, grab ur lunch and put a bunch of k's on ur RAV and make some movies....

good luck and enjoy the moment and the 'ALL TIME' of ur life.

adios amigos & amigas

Well .. damn REMNANTS mini doc givng me problems with sound tracks FCPro7 seems a bit out of date might swing into FCProX or Premiier - theKNOWIdALLclub continues

Had rather a comical event happen when i encountered an email from someone i knew decades ago who informed me how he knew all about kayaking and shooting video from a kayak - the irony of that guy is that he never kayaked or made/shot digital in his life.

U see when u actaully do things/complete things there seems to be a longer list of 'nay-sayers' than congratulators in Canada - seems we are a 'down' country where the arts are concerned.

I know so many filmakers who struggle to rise above the freebees of the profession to the pay-the-rent ability that it's rather disheartening. So many of us take other venue to make out living and create movies as a sideline rahter than a livingline.

The co-ops and schools are real testaments to this reality.

Recently i read about how busy and productive movie-making is now in Manitoba. So busy that they can't get crews to cover all the work. Despite this the government intends to take away the tax credits which of course makes much of the work viable/possible - it seems strange that this is an easy way to provide employment and yet like NB and other provinces , the government wants to take away that credit as though their coffers needs that money - for what or why we never know.

of course that means so many exceptional filmakers are heading south as usual and this is obvious in Quebec where many of the best filmakers are made. Instead of turning out those great movies of a Jutra, Arcand, or Breault they head to Hollywoody and get huge budgets ot me whatever that factory throws at them and never is it about stories that created them, never is it about their home towns, their home country but business as usual, it's usally about the good ol USofA.

sad and true the way the world works almost never in mysterious ways.....

ooops i got on a wrong rant and so forgot about my problems with REMNANTS so that'll be covered in next babble.....stay tuned

CANCER, CONCERNS & CASH - LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE & my FUNNY 'KNOW IT ALL CLUB'

Well it's been a long while since i got back into the Babble with the Rabble of my mindless and mindful thoughts....

well got another emergency call from the General Hospital to attend a meet in 6 hours with the spinal radiation specialist; so, instead of enjoying a moderation of the arctic -30temps that have haunted my outdoor life in Ottawa's Sandy Hill, i had to cancel my ski-out of the day to prep for this meet and jusst went for a one hour hikeAlong the Rideau Riverside.

My thoughts turning to a recent email received from one of my former associates when i produced, cooked for and hosted a Toronto Soup Kitchen at St. George's.

Haven't heard or seen him in a decade or more and receiving his email about his robotic cancer surgery but nothing about how i feel or what state my cancer is at.

Instead he offered his solution which was to write poetry to my Cancer as though it would listen or cause me some relief.

Being an avid lifelong filmaker i sent him my most recent mini-doc called SOLITUDE - shot from my kayak during the water woods of NB i.e. Spring floods produced a 'lakeinthewoods' thus i was able to kayak which a month later would become impossibe since the earth would absorb the water.

It's one of the miracles of daily kayaking most of the year to have this amazing experience. Very meditative and very wonderful kayaking ...... floating thru the woods instead of hiking over them.

To help the viewer experience this meditative miracle i put a Tibetan Bhuddists chant under the image.... and told my former collegue this was my poetry ( he was well aware of my creative filmaking lifestyle . )

Instead of showing any interest in it at all he went into a tirade of ridiculous ways of how to shoot image from my kayak - i would point out that  he's never been in a kayak, never been in NB, never been kayaking in any kind of water source and never shot one inch of film/video footage; thus, he qualifies to be the next PRESIDENT of the KNOWitALL CLUB.

Because the PRESIDENT must know it all and do absolutely nothing about anything....


p.s. i should mention i know or knew many guys those years back who would qualify for the PRESIDENCYof the KNOWitALL club not unlike that idiot who now is President of America .... sad very sad.... he reminded me of the patience I used ot have for such creatures of negativity... and sometimes still tolerate them but not as often mmmm.

IMAGE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - The Secret of Video Shorts

Synchronicity, Life & Peter Evanchuck

Filmakers Helene Lacelle and Peter Evanchuck are right in the thick of some projects. ( photo by Anthony Knox )

 VIEW : NB FILM CO-OP  ON-LINE ARTICLE

It's rather amazing how Jung’s concept of Synchronicity can affect one’s creative  life  - when I accidentally met Nelson Adams in Fredericton through a friend, I had no idea he would restart my film career since I had long before self terminated it due to the tiresome, annoying control others had of my work. But he did and as they say the rest is my history as once again I’m making films or rather videos. All due to the advent of Nelson and digital technology – now that’s a living example of sychronicity.

Like many independent filmmakers, I've always admired artists who’s work is very personal; from beginning to end, they create it according to their own self-awareness … very admirable indeed thought I.

"I wish filmmaking was like that," I often thought… well with digital it is – no question. We now can personally ‘make a movie’ like an artist ‘makes a painting’ i.e. completely alone using all our talents and skills to arrive at our personal view of the subject through our world experience. Not tainted by the big shots, the boys in the back room, the majors, the broadcasters, etc., etc...

We can arrive at a finished creative piece of ‘art,’ and then screen it on Youtube or Vimeo. This freedom is astounding for me and all independent, highly creative people who dislike to compromise their creations. So for the past few years I’m back at it – making my movies using digital technology.

The second occurrence that shaped my present ‘way’ of looking at movies happened in a manner that could be construed as negative but  I saw it as a positive – a lesson of learning in the modern age. I halted my movie making to review this 21st century way of achieving one’s art. 

We all want to make feature fiction films not shorts, not docs. We want to see our movies in theatres and get the recognition and get big compensation. Well of course that was my folly as well. 

Then through a series of mishaps, I learned that it was shorts and short docs that one can make like an artist, not the big features which depend so much on so many, but videos - short docs were the answer.

When cancer struck me again last summer, I decided to put that theory into practice and make a series of 5 or 6 short docs fast and furious using digital technology. Then while convalescing from surgery and 42 days of radiation, I would use my time completing those shorts while I upgraded my skills using a great professional editing software called FinalCutPro7. 

So far I’ve managed to put 4 shorts ‘in the can’ as we used to say in the film world and have two more to complete. I should mention they are such fun to make… such fun and after all life lived fully is the best life of all.

To view Peter Evanchuck's recent docs called Peter’s shorts please go to: http://www.movieshandmade.com and scroll down to the bottom of our web page where you will see the posters and the links to youtube.

my life has slowed down even more CANCER has returned

Whoever said FREEDOM 55 obviously never had a life before 55 - growing old is no fun for the highly active person who lives life not only fully but often dangerously by the standards of anyone who's says his life begins at 55... anyway, we all have our way of interpreting and understanding our lives and the lives of those who have history and those who have almost non.

Cancer has overtaken my life again after being told i was clear of cancer a couple years ago now i'm told that it has returned and so i'm waiting for surgery to remove the larger tumours and then 42 days of radiation to remove the smaller tumours - meanwhile i'm carrying on like someone who has and believes in the future.

I've returned to volunteering at a local Soup Kitchen after having done cooking/running soup kitchens in Toronto for almost a decade off and on and then easing off to return to renovating, doc. making, book making, curating, and travelling.

my partner and I have a rather full life going from one creative enterprise/event to another over the past years - hard work, hard thinking has as it usually does , paid off so we've advanced our lives and our future by tackling all sorts of creative work.

ok that's an update and now ... while waiting for my surgery dates , i've completed a short doc using that to upgrade my skills in FCPro7 - u can view it on youtube and soon on Vimeo ...

THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND

yeah i never thought they would ever end when i was in the thick of it but all things end eventually some last longer than others but i had far more than my 15 minutes - i recall the time i drove to New York to meet up with Andy Warhol at The Factory for a movie I was hoping to make called something like ANDY WARHOL LIVES HERE but these were film days not video days and that meant a ton of heavy cameras and gear in my Pristine Ford van crossing the border when it was normal and easy and fun and driving non stop to N.Y. into lower Manhattan and getting into The Factory but not really meeting ANDY since no one really met him ... he was too too famous

TIFF tiff tiff.... and so it goes

well sad as it is to reveal TIFF is not my thing - from the early years of excitment/energy to the present holywoody commercial BS that causes people to rush around trying to become somebody or something instead of creative creators is rather disapointing and tiresome - too bad - i'm glad i knew it, felt it,saw it, heard it when it was wonderful way back ....

LET ME BABBLE A BIT LIKE A HORSE WITH A BIT

I ONCE again see the CBC teetering on the brink of a steep cliff as long as the Harper and his harpies are at the helm of the Canada BOAT - THAT benchmark of Canadian CULTURE is fat and needs some trimming but with the harpies at the helm it'll be more than trimming it'll be the wrecking ball - once again the Conservative lie their way to success like that last election with robo calls now no longer is the voter able to counter the cheats with Harper's new laws hell lie and cheat his way back into his dictatorship unless we consider our CULTURE important and our peaceKEEPING views from our past that is B.H. ( before Harper ) important enough to get rid of tyrants like Harper and return to excepitionally peaceful leaders after all 'a proof is a proof when it's a proof. ' isn't it JEAN ? He was a good LIBERAL who kept us outta IRAQ's fiasco .... WMDestruction what bullshit?

Things take time - ROBERTS book done draft hard copy today HUMAN ANIMALS thinking feeling like humans

Been working away on the ROBERTS' book selecting a few of his animal stories that will best represent his huge outpouring of such content. Few Cdn writers can equal his vast contribution to Canada's literary history. This book called HUMAN ANIMALS focussed on his animal stories. He and Ernest Thompson SETON originated stories that treat animals with brains and feelings not unlike ours. Since Roberts was raised in the vast, wild Tantramar marsh of N.B. he aquired a studied and deep knowledge of animal life which he drew upon to write his stories which became enormously popular during his lifetime. As a boy i read most of these stories and many linger in some memory cells so to return to them was a pleasure ... i had forgotten how well written they were, how philosophic and honest they were. Roberts sees nature as it is rather than as many armchair humans imagine it to be.

WHEN THINGS FALL APART ... so slowly so surely so endlessly

Came across another fighter the other day - not in WaawaaHarperLAND but in BigCIty - he's also a man who's gone thru a lot; lost a lot; and is trying to get some of that 'lot' back ... not easy when u're well into or past middles age and when things u know have fallen apart - newspapers are not the same, getting press coverage isn't the same, promoting shit isn't the same so the learning curve always climbs upward - people flock like ants on the hill to view the latest Apple event which is really nothing more than more shit for people to buy stuff they usually don't need but somehow they have been convinced they do need it ... what happened to common sense, purpose, individualism and stuff like that? Rather sad how we all gather wool ... and baaaa baaa baaaa but today and for a long time life has been just fine, thank ya'll... as BOB says, 'Don't worry be happy; cause everythings gonna be alright.'

PETER EVANCHUCK and 'then there were none' views on views

Winter is always a time many Canadians view the white world from cozy places others just view it as being Canadian ... for the homeless and the homed who have experienced 'living the streets' its a hard time, a desperate time, but the living of it gives them a remarkable view from the inside out. I've had some modest experiences of it, have living 'rough' but not for prolonged periods of time and there's the rub... ROBERT PAYNE recently got 'homed' after 8 hard winters/years living rough and his 'new life' of having a room without a view' but a room in a cozy warm basement apartment, secure and worry free has got to be an exceptional new experience for him that should be documented.

Toronto's Queen west was and perhaps still is the homeless capital of Canada. The street that used to provide a home for dozens of poor, ill, survivors of life is now being gentrified. The condos are replacing everything and what was great about it as a living working creative artist is almost all gone. Even ROB's former alley home has been fenced, gated, locked and barred from his use. That life style in that area seems to be getting more and more to be history of the past as the homeless, poor and ill will have to find their new home with a view or without a view but a home that's no longer in familiar surroundings of Queen West but pushed further and further away .... sad in many ways that our old neighbourhoods that we cared for so much are now almost all gone and replaced by condoWORLD.

Director/Producer Peter Evanchuck wonders what to do what to do - how to market/sell one's docs

Before all the elder illness' i was taking my two docs around to health and educational places to give talks about poverty, homelessness, mental illness, art, poetry and photography - explaining to many who don't really know about 'the real truth' about how people who are in this state survive from day to year to decade. THE POETRY OF PAYNE and MARKO's MANIA both show a raw reality of two personal views on such matters and as many have said after viewing these docs 'They have to be scene by people.' And that's the purpose of me taking them around and giving a personal viewpoint on the problems and achievements of a homeless Poet ( Robert Payne ) and a bi-polar photographer ( Marko Polakiwsky ) both achieving remarkable 'art' while dealing with their 'condition'..... these talks and events that i've been giving are well received and i find them often informative for all concerned.

Peter Evanchuck's year that was ... tough - first time in an ambulance as kidney stones doubled me up UGH but life goes on and that's good

Yes it was not a fun year .. well not all of it some of it was did a lotta kayaking, movie-makihng, book-making, biking, hiking and then was hit with incredible stomach pain so severe had to call the ambulance to take me to hospital ( i live with cancer so hat's always a concern when such pain occurs since i'm hoping it's not some outbreak again and more chest splitting surgery required ) - my new life style excludes a lotta the night life fun i used to have until the cancer hit me. Unlike many of my comrades, amigos, colleagues and friends who died, i managed to survive to become an elder. An elder a everyone knows, has a life of moan&groan and 'freedom55' isn't any freedom for most. But that all said i enjoy life and have no interest to not enjoy it so i turned my energy, talent and moola into making creative work thus along came bookshandmade.com and movieshandmade.com and GOOP gallery. With my partner HELENE we have fun making art and making all sorts of creative things .. and thus a happy new beginning to a life lived hard and rough and now lived more thoughful, contemplative and productive... and that's good...

the ongoing story of Sir CHARLES GD ROBERTS the book the doc .. going going ( my HERNIA operation yesterday recovery slow but sure )

HELENE LACELLE's illustration of the crying oxen creates a totally modern 'look' to the hundred year old animal stories of GD ROBERTS, a NB born and raised writer who 'created' the animal story wherein he treates so called 'wild beasts' as humans i.e. they think and feel and react as we human animals do - along with E.T. SETON he was the first in the world to do so and as a result became world famous for these stories - his first collection of anmal stories sold 80,000 copies in N.A. which considering it was about 100 years ago this was fantastic.
  The book on his collected animal stories should be out end of this month - the doc. progressing slower due to my cancer tests/scans, my Kidney Stone problems and my recent Hernia surgery, i've relaxed on the doc. and chose to continue forward with the book - much easier to work on.