Jason Stockfish | [email protected]
Habitat for the Arts screened the film 鈥淎rk: A Return to Robson Valley鈥� by award-winning filmmaker Michael B. MacDonald on May 25.
MacDonald, a cine-ethnomusicologist and associate professor of music at MacEwan University, created the film by mixing documentary festival footage he recorded in 2009 and a fictional story about two individuals, Kelci and Diana, at the 2019 Robson Valley Music Festival.
鈥淎rk blends two different decades to immerse the viewer into an ongoing worlding project that the McDonald family have dedicated their lives (to),鈥� MacDonald said.
鈥淢ore than a music festival, it is an ark.鈥�
The reference to the festival as an 鈥渁rk鈥� comes from an intriguing conversation MacDonald has in the film with Arlene McDonald, whose property plays host to the gathering.
The filmmaker explained that in the past he has tried making documentaries about music festivals, but he always felt the end results were too distant.
鈥淚t was just a sea of people. It didn鈥檛 make sense, and I struggled with how to have it make sense.鈥�
MacDonald said the reason people go to festivals is for the experience.
鈥淚 realized that I need to have people who are introduced to the viewers in advance, so that they can follow them through the madness.鈥�
He noted that his two characters are like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
鈥淵ou follow them down the tunnel and then you watch their experience through the entire thing,鈥� he said.
鈥淎nd somehow the familiarity of their faces over time allows you to pick them out of crowds (and) they end up organizing the movement of everything. They focus everything.鈥�
Over the years, MacDonald said he has come to realize he is not a documentary filmmaker.
鈥淚 want to make films that are as immersive as possible, and the way to immerse somebody into an experience is to follow somebody into the experience.鈥�
MacDonald said his film has just enough dialogue to introduce the characters and move the story along.
鈥淚 want to give you time to look. To just look at them and look at the environment they鈥檙e in and look at the people they鈥檙e with and look at the spaces.鈥�
The filmmaker said his films border on being really long music videos and the music videos he creates border on being very short films.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 make documentaries, I make short operas,鈥� MacDonald said, quoting renowned filmmaker Les Blank.
鈥淎nd when you think of it as an opera, and not as a documentary film, suddenly you have a musical overture and it introduces people, and you have this music that sets off these characters, and you have a little bit of dialogue (and) the story moves very much like an opera.鈥�
MacDonald said it鈥檚 not by accident that his work is centred around folk music, hip hop, and other DIY music.
鈥淭here is an enormous amount of culture being made individually and independently that鈥檚 intentionally being made outside of industry鈥� whether that鈥檚 because it can鈥檛 get support from the major music industry or it鈥檚 intentionally being made outside of that industry.鈥�
鈥淎rk鈥� is political in the sense that the filmmaker wants to convey that the Dunster-based festival isn鈥檛 held each year just for economic gain.
It is also a space where two different people from two different places can 鈥渃ome together and have an experience鈥nd build a social life in this world.鈥�
鈥淎nd that kind of transformative experience is really important in a society where you want to build solidarity with people across differences,鈥� MacDonald said.
鈥淭o build a healthier, more well-established society, we need opportunities for people to have that relationship with people that they don鈥檛 know, and we need to have spaces for people to be able to have these experiences.鈥�
