I found this clip from a digital scrap heap and I thought I’d duct-tape it like a banana on my social media wall.
Ten years ago, I had the great opportunity to write and direct a film for the National Film Board of Canada. Naturally, I wanted to do what I can with this opportunity as a director of a studio film. So, I asked my editor Gordon Thorne to help me screw around with the NFB vanity plate logo at the beginning of the film just like so many directors I’d admired had done with their studio logos before me.
Tim Burton created a snowy version of the 20th Century Fox logo for Edward Scissorhands, for example. The Paramount Studios logo match-cut to an identical real-life mountain peak in Jurassic Park was Steven Spielberg’s take. I thought it was my time to be playful with the now instantly recognizable NFB logo. Something subtle. But —
We didn’t get past the first screening. “You can’t do that!” exclaimed the executive producer Silva Basmajian. What we had done was so subtle you can hardly see it. Nonetheless…
Ten years later, I think my film Twelve is actually even more relevant today. It was ten years ago that Twelve was broadcast on CBC Newsworld and I received three waves of emotional comments as the film made its way through the Canadian broadcast time zones.
In October of this year, I led a discussion to a packed classroom of international students at Fleming College. They helped set up a learning guide to go with the film. And I learned a lot from seeing the film again after a little while. The lesson that stuck out for be this time was “Be a kid.”
The role of play in life is often undervalued. I started seeing Twelve as a kind of self-care film: advice from your present self to your past self that keeps on giving with each repeated viewing.
Many have said that Twelve would be great to show to immigrants or children but I think it’s actually best for those who have or still struggle with feelings of belonging and the film’s lessons often resonate with those who feel they are alone or have reached an age when a look-back in life is needed in order to move forward.
To the class at Fleming College, I was surprised to realize that I followed up with my latest film Birthmark in some ways because I think failed at the ending of Twelve and I wanted to have a chance to repair it.
See the film Twelve on the NFB website. Are you interested in seeing Birthmark? Do you want to organize a screening? Just send me a line.