A DOCUMENTARY
BY VICTORIA KORCHIKOVA-MALOVICHKO
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RIAD CHEBLI
ORIGINAL MUSIC JOE SABBAGH
PRODUCTION COMPANY BIPOLCOM INC.
Key project details of the documentary: The Art To Live - Holy Land
Length: 52 minutes
Video Format: HD 1080p
Genre: documentary: lifestyle - portrait of Toronto through images of six characters/dwellers and their dreams and ways of life
Editing style: using of re-enactments in editing, and parallel style of cutting, based on Lev Kuleshov’s and Artavazd Peleshian’s styles of montage
Intended audience: 16 years and older, all over the world
Brief Summary:
Dreams, moods and lifestyles of the characters are captured at the moment of creation of their art in the documentary film ‘The Art To Live: Holy Land’. It is about the simplicity and the originality of Toronto dwellers – making the art in their Holy Land... The motto of the film is that ‘a person needs not a lot to be happy: just a favorite hobby, a roof over the head and a couple of shoes for the rainy day’. The characters are not celebrities, but unique and original artists in their own ways. They are creating the art in order to live and to keep the spirit up …
Brief Synopsis:
The project aims to depict a portrait of Toronto through images of its dwellers. The film invites the audience to ‘travel’ with the characters through their dreams, houses, studios, and in their city, in their ‘Holy Land’. It also gives us the opportunity to ‘go into to the corners of their lives’ and be with them at the moment of creation of the art. The characters tell us stories about themselves on their own, without narration, about their art and dreams. The style and tone are friendly. Simultaneously the montage enables the characters to communicate with each other in the film as if all the six characters of the film know each other and constitute one big family of the city. The arc of the story helps us imagine how the communication among the characters was created
Treatment of the documentary ‘The Art To Live: Holy Land’
The documentary consists of three parts: first - the introduction of the characters as if they were one family of friends though each of them is independent from the other; second - a detailed portrait of each of the characters is shown in the second part; and the third - the last part is devoted ‘to the moment of the dream’.
In the first part of the film, the hum of the wind, the wave sounds of the lakes and noises of the surroundings were used. Original music composed by Joe Sabbagh is used as a background to give the ‘mood’, tempo and rhythm of the first part of the film. The sound of the second part of the film consists of noises of the ambient surrounding and the commentaries and stories of the characters as well as ‘make up dialogs’ among them. The background sound of the last part of the documentary is also the original music of the talented Canadian musician Joe Sabbagh.
A Brief Description of the Artistic Concept
Dwellers and their way of life, their art to live, make the city a ‘Holy Land’...
Everything and everybody is inter-connected in a certain way, physically or mentally. Nowadays people are increasingly living exclusively in a material-physical cocoon, keeping themselves far from true happiness. They have long forgotten their childhood dreams and got lost in everyday life. Dreams are an essential ingredient in order to live peacefully with one’s self. People who can make their dreams come true often reach a state of self-satisfaction that allows them to survive in the ruthless world of big agglomerations and cities.
The chosen characters live by creating the art and making it in order to live. Their life is the art. They obviously enjoy the flow of their life and feel happy. To reach happiness, equilibrium or self-harmony, you need not too many things – just a roof over your head, your favourite hobby and a couple of shoes for the rainy day. These people are the heroes of our documentary, they are neither celebrities or public figures, they are just ordinary men and women who really enjoy the simplicity of their life in their city – making the art in order to live and creating their own ‘land’.
In the film, ‘the art’ means any type of craft or activity, like collecting trains, teaching, cooking, playing musical instruments, painting, making photos, etc. In other words, ‘the art’ means the way of living – any activities that people are eager and happy to do or carry out in order to live.
People selected to be featured in our documentary are simple people, persons that you bump into on Toronto’s streets. They can be your neighbors, but they possess something particular and interesting: they are in harmony and honest with themselves in their own way. They carry on their dreams and make them come true. To live they create the art and their lives become the art itself. That is why the project’s title is ‘The Art To Live’. You can ask me - Why does Toronto deserve such a brilliant name as ‘Holy Land’? The answer is open and I leave it for the audience. I like it when a film can be interpreted in different ways and I always love to leave in film a certain space for its audience...
For the documentary ‘The Art To Live: Holy Land’, six residents of Toronto were filmed: a retired professor of history who collects trains and different photo cameras; a retired photographer, born in Vancouver, making images by ancient carbon printing process using a large format 8x10 film camera in surrealistic style; an Italian painter and teacher, painting realistic canvas inspired by her trip around Europe; a creative young man from Windsor, an actor and artist creating his own dolls from scratch and managing an art gallery; an activist, freelance writer, born in the USA, teaching us how to prepare his favorite dish and discussing ‘the ingredients of life’ in the kitchen; and a musician, who never had musical education, but has dreamt of playing music all his life, and just in Canada his dream came true, originally he is from Warsaw, Poland.
The key characters of the documentary film ‘Holy Land’ are six residents of Toronto, whose style of living is like the art in order to live. The film shows their journey of life – poetic imagination, expressed through their pursuits that keep them happy and young in the soul on the journey of their life. All their childhood dreams came true.
A brief description of the characters’ backgrounds:
John’s journey:
In the film, John tells us about the secret of the Double Transfer Color Carbon Printing Process, his style of making images and the way he lives his life. We are observing his style of working and living in his house, his laboratory, and in the street.
The extract from his story helps us ‘feel and imagine’ his personality:
‘…For me, making my photographs – my children – are those rare moments when I can assist God in a miracle... ‘I am not interested in making monumental images. It seems my task is to elevate the ordinary, the mundane, to the extraordinary – and make it monumental’… The poetry of chance. Random brushing with a world where all things are equal, I feel like a receiver. As though the images come through me. I find myself drawn to places and often spend hours waiting to discover what it was that initially drew me there – waiting for the little secrets to reveal themselves. What interests me is born of my peripheral vision. Something I glimpse from the corner of my eye something much different from when I looked at it straight on. Sometimes no matter how long I wait what caught my eye won’t reveal itself again, or sometimes the light just isn’t right. Whole days can pass without taking a single exposure…’
Jacqueline’s journey:
Bright and light in the style of life, free and happy Jacqueline Treloar travels with us around her painting studio, where she also lives. She is originally from Italy, but graduated in Britain. Her artistic work is recognized by Ontario Art World. She got a lot of awards and trophy’s. Although to be able to live, she has to rent her Sicilian decorated apartment and live in the tiny roof on top of her house. She lives as if she flies.
Steve’s Journey:
He used to be a teacher of history who worked around the country. Now he is retired teacher, enjoying his style of life, being a tennis player, train collector and amateur photographer. He used to correct a numerous essays while he was working as a tutor. Recently he has written for us the essay about his life.
Steve starts his trip at the unique railway station layout that he created in the house’s basement. It is his own city that he dreamt to build since childhood. Then we move to his photo exhibition at his place, where he shows his surrealistic photos. Here the extract from his story is: “…I’ve used many types of cameras over the years and want to maximize both versatility and quality in both the initial image its final version. …In Toronto, I liked to make note of places that looked interesting and, as time and inclination coincided, would get my photographic gear together and make for a spot I felt had potential. This usually resulted in several rolls of exposed film to be processed in the bathroom and, in the fullness of time, turned into prints in the same location. I had a few pictures published and made a very modest amount of money. From the thousands of exposures made over the years, I would have to say that remarkably few had any real merit...’’
Christian’s journey:
He is the youngest character in the film. On the one side he is observed and estimated by older characters, but on the other, he is helping us to draw their portraits and create the dialogue among all the characters.
We travel with him around his art gallery and house. He is always busy and we caught him in the middle of the preparation to his premier film in the “Cinema Review”. His friends help us get more details for his portrait.
Tosiak’s journey:
The most mysterious character of the film is Zbigniew Antonii Sasal or for friends, just Tosiek. For the film, he invites us to his dream that came true. It is a place where he can enjoy being himself with his friends. He called the place – ‘Warsaw Bank’. However, it is not the bank in the meaning that we got used to with money and other assets to keep over there. ‘Warsaw Bank’ is a bank of ideas and for ideas to keep them there. It is a place where he and his friends play different musical instruments in a very unique way.
But he and the majority of his friends are not musicians, and the place is not a bank. Who and what are he and his friends and why they cannot imagine their life without that style of living? On the journey with him we discovered these things.
Stephen’s Journey:
Stephen Salaff is the oldest hero of the film. He was from the other world of art. He was creating the art with words and food. He lived in order to fight for the fair life. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, in January 1938 and died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in January 2012. He was not only an activist, journalist, father, brother, uncle, and a friend, but he was also the artist of his Spartan live. The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.
FOR ANY INFORMATION YOU CAN REACH US AT:
riad.chebli @ bipolcom.com
victoria @ bipolcom.com
