Sean Shaul
Sean Shaul鈥檚 career as a filmmaker began with his grandfather鈥檚 videocamera鈥攖he old kind that you would insert an entire VHS tape into. When they were kids, he and his brother used to take it and make skits on the weekend.
He made short films throughout his teenage years, and in high school the only course he cared about was his art TV class. So it made sense that when he graduated he took off to Vancouver and enrolled in a film school.
What鈥檚 surprising is that he dropped out not long after.
鈥淚t was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,鈥� Shaul said in an interview last week, talking about his decision to give up on formal education.
He still remembers sitting in an editing class, cutting and pasting film together on old Steenbecks, when his teacher told the class that what they were doing would be obsolete in 10 years.
That didn鈥檛 sit well with Shaul, who took his concerns to the head of his program, demanding his tuition back.
鈥淚 was like, I don鈥檛 want to work in a museum, I want to work in the film industry,鈥� Shaul recalled.
The program directors conceded, and Shaul took what was left of his tuition money, bought a camera and some books, and set out to make a film on his own. His short time in film school had given him just enough knowledge to feel like he knew what he was doing, but he was still ambitious and na茂ve enough to think he could do the rest.
鈥淭he more you know about something the less likely you are to jump into it,鈥� he said.
The result was his 2008 feature-length documentary Open You Mouth and Say ... Mr. Chi Pig, which explored drug addiction and mental illness. The film was generally well received, and even picked up a few awards.
Shaul admitted, however, that funding is hard to secure as a filmmaker, so over the next few years he took any job he could find in the film industry鈥攅verything from working in art departments to literally just sitting and watching a parking lot鈥攖o pay the rent while he worked on his own projects.
鈥淚 was kind of getting paid by Warner Brothers and Fox to sit and work on my own thing,鈥� he said.
After working on a few short narrative films (which Shaul said will never again see the light of day) and putting out another feature length doc about stand up comedians, Shaul鈥檚 latest work, Catch the Westbound Train, was recently selected to screen at the upcoming Jasper Short Film Festival.
The 30-minute film explores Vancouver鈥檚 struggle to deal with an influx of unemployed workers who travelled to the city during the Great Depression.
Shaul said he is thrilled to have it screened in Jasper.
To see the documentary, check out the Jasper Short Film Festival Sept. 27 at the Chaba Theatre.
Trevor Nichols
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