An interview with Youth Filmmaker Will Inrig

When you sit down with Will Inrig it is obvious that there is something unique about him. Not quite sixteen, he is currently working on his first full length documentary and is also producing a feature film, for which he has insisted on scaling a mountain to film on top of, in order to achieve “authentic desolation”. 

But I wanted to speak to him about the former movie, his summer’s project, in which he set out with a camera and microphone to capture the essence of one of his neighborhood families, whom he has lived next to for as long as he can remember. He tells frankly of how the family has deeply affected him, he has grown up with the two children and mentored to the parents. It was the family’s great influence on his own life that motivated Inrig to create a documentary following their everyday, sometimes extraordinary, routines.

The subjects, Gila and George Valettas, along with their children Constantine, 12 and Laura, 7, opened their home to Inrig and his camera team for two months this past summer. The documentary, entitled ‘The Exceptional Jivatma Valettas’ seeks to collect specific events in the family’s lives that exhibit their inspiring nature. From the opening statement in the documentary, ‘Every family has a story’ Inrig displays experiences of the family that reveal their unique spirit and yet can evoke within the audience feelings of family they can relate to--even if your childhood did not include a father who is a founding his own opera company, a mother who avidly collects European antiquities, and cosmopolitan siblings who talk of destiny and soccer.

            The result is a deeply personal film for the filmmaker. It is raw and touching, charged with enthusiasm and passion. I sat down with him to speak about his opinions on the now nearly finished product as well as the process he had to go through to see it made:

 

Michelle Olding: In the title of your new movie you use the term Jivatma. What does that mean?

 

Will Inrig: Good question. It’s a very ancient Sanskrit term, meaning the singular soul of one person or one distinct group. It is very spiritual and profound, so this is why I took to it so well, I thought it described the aspect of the Valettases that I was trying to capture in the film. I wanted to find something deeper than their spirit. I wanted to show their jivatma.

 

MO: Let’s go over why it was that you chose them. Why it is that you decided to make this documentary?

 

WI: Well, I’ve never done a documentary before and it is something I’ve wanted to try, but in order to do that I needed a subject I was relatively familiar with. But you must get a topic that a viewer can find interesting for an hour so you can’t choose just anyone. So I thought, and one of the most interesting families I know is the Valettases. I am very close to them and I spend a lot of time at their house, so I was certain that I had enough know-how to get some substantial material. Also, there is the issue that what filming a documentary entails is basically following your subject around for a great amount of time with a camera in their face. I knew they would be at least modestly comfortable with me doing this, so this is why I chose them. It is certainly a bonus that they live just next door

 

MO: And how did you possibly approach the Valettases with this idea?

 

WI: George, the father, had joked that I should make a documentary about Constantine, his son, who wants to be a soccer player. At the time I was looking at working on another film which would have proved to be much more difficult to produce. So I decided to take him up on his suggestion, a documentary wouldn’t be so bad. I think that they were a bit apprehensive at first but they were extremely helpful and supportive. It was always difficult for me to make sure that I wasn’t being too intrusive; I had to make sure I wasn’t crossing that line to much. It was a battle between me striving to capture a certain level of intimacy while making sure not to be too annoying. But I think I eventually became an annoyance, it could not be avoided.”

 

MO: Is the family the total focus in the film?

 

WI: Almost exclusively, but as the film evolved I realized that I had to include some others. I did not seek these people out but their inclusion happened almost organically. It was natural that they be part of the work.

 

MO: For example?

 

WI: For example we have another neighbor Liam who has lived across the street from us for seven years or so, and he is moving soon, and we had spent one day filming a water-fight that he was involved in, and afterwards I was up in his room and we ended up talking about his pet lizard, and I realized that I must capture this on film, so I did and have included it. Unfortunately I have been exploring the length of the film, and how long I can keep the viewer’s attention for, and I may be looking at doing some substantial cuts in the future, so I can’t assure you that those who are not directly part of the family will still be included.

 

MO: But why did you feel it was important to document these events for people to see?

 

WI: They are a truly exceptional family, unlike anything or anyone I’ve ever met. They are so intrinsically inspiring to be around. They think big ideas, they all have big brains, they are cultured, sophisticated, yet totally different from anyone I’ve met, not in a particularly monumental way, but in their own modesty. With the time that I have spent with them they have truly changed me, they have influenced my life quite significantly. I saw them as something which must be revealed to others, if that makes sense, their spirit, their jivatma. I think that people will be able to relate to them, and learn from them. I believe that when the viewer watches them they will be reminded of things they did in their own childhood. I wanted to be very careful to capture it in this way, not like you were looking in at the family as if they were a zoo exhibit, but as though you were part of them, like I often feel that I am.

 

MO: But you do this through a lot of interviews, as opposed to just letting the camera go with what happens.

 

WI: I do, because this is the best way to retain some structure and to guarantee some results. I obviously must consider the practicalities of filmmaking, the interview is something which audiences have seen before and can follow, and it forces the subject to talk directly to the audience, through, of course, the filmmaker. This works well for subjects who are not used to just speaking on queue, which was what I was faced with. I’ve never understood how people like the Maysles Brothers or Errol Morris managed to get people to just talk, it’s an interesting thing, and a different style. In my own life I like to ask questions, so it’s what comes more naturally to me.

 

MO: And you allow yourself to get involved in the story too. You make appearances on camera, and you quite often speak from behind the camera too.

 

WI: I don’t mind involving myself in the movie, as some documentarians do, I don’t mind hiding the fact that it is truly a movie with a film team behind the camera. If the audience is not happy with this than they shouldn’t be watching. I think this author’s involvement and the display of his own personal idiosyncrasies follows in an ancient tradition, the commentary is a wonderful thing, what would Don Quixote be without the magnificent preamble and then the continuous ramblings of Cervantes, for example.  Films are a personal connection, between the audience and the one telling the story, being the filmmaker, so the filmmaker should not be denied the option to make appearances and get implicated, especially in a documentary.

 

MO: What motions did you, or should I say, do you have to go through get this documentary produced?

 

WI: I did the same thing everyone does. I saved up and got some donations from people, I have borrowed a camera and a mike and a tripod. These things are not very exciting. I don’t have any funding from the mafia or any political radicals. What I have never done before is I have decided to partner with another student group to get the movie distributed. They are the ones who are getting it into festivals and putting the money up that I don’t have. They’re called Impact Films, but they are going through a name change, so by the time this article gets published they may be called something completely different.

 

MO: And how do you feel about what the movie has turned out to be?

 

WI: Although I have not worked out all the imperfections it’s a good movie, it’s entertaining, which is what I’m interested most, and I think it’s rather poignant. If I have achieved both these things than I’ve done well. It is a great lesson that a film never turns out as you had originally envisioned, and this difficulty is only accentuated in a documentary, because you have very little control over the material, and what you get is what you get, that’s it, that’s what you have to work with.

 

MO: What do you think it will mean to people, what do you intend for them to understand in it?

 

WI: It does not have in it any great metaphors or deeper meanings, I hate allegory, I hate analysis. If the analyst were allowed they would analyze even Teletubbies. I wonder if Shakespeare really intended his plays to be so full of symbolism and emblems. I find the dissection of films to be abhorrent and despicable, but perhaps that is a rather ignorant approach., which spawns from too many boring English classes. But as I have said before, if the audience finds the movie entertaining that’s great, but no more to it.

 

MO: You also said you think your movie’s poignant?

 

WI: That comes second, if the movie can affect you than that is a bonus, but I don’t hope to get the audience to attain a deeper understanding in anything. However I don’t want to sound too presumptuous. It’s just my theory.  I’m not good at inducing enlightenment, but there are filmmakers out there who try to and good on them. I should learn more about them.

 

MO: This is not your only project on the go. You are also doing one about a martyr?

 

WI: No, he is not truly a martyr, at least I don’t see him that way, although through urban myth he has entered the realm of martyrdom. Its entitled Ivanokov and the Blessed Virgin Mary, it’s the story of a young boy, about sixteen or seventeen, who had to seek out a particular Marian shrine which was hundreds of miles away from his home town in rural Quebec. He had to do this to be redeemed of stealing from the town church, which was a big no no, and he had to attain sanction from the Virgin Mary herself at this shrine before he could return to the town. Anyways, and this is a spoiler here, he ended up dying on the way and now we have his story, which I think is more embellished hearsay than truth, but the story serves to be a monument to complete devotion in the face of utter desolation, which I find to be quite fascinating. It has proved a bit difficult to make though, although I hope I will be finished soon. But I’ll show a preliminary teaser trailer for it at the opening of Jivatma.

 

MO: Here’s my final question. Does the fact that you’re so young affect you at all? The fact that you’re out making movies and you’re not even sixteen yet?

 

WI: There are lots of young artists out there who are much finer at what they do than me, and they’re my age or younger, so I don’t think it’s too unusual. Besides, age should not be a restriction. I think that the issue is that too many people my age are just not inspired, they’re not passionate. I am passionate about my movie subjects and that’s why I feel I can tell these stories, if you understand. I am enthused. And I have an enthusiastic team that includes lots of people with big brains, and that helps a lot.

 

‘The Exceptional Jivatma Valettas’ can be expected for release come December, through the assistance of the newly created Vibe Pictures.

Those interested in more information on the film and its yet-to-be-announced premier should visit Vibe Pictures’ website at www.vibepictures.com or search the film’s title on Google.

Also, please pay a visit George Valettas’ recently founded Ooh-La-La-Opera Company at www.oohlalaopera.ca .

 

Michelle Olding