Making your first film can be an intimidating experience. The fear of failure can cause us to procrastinate indefinitely. That’s too bad, because you really don’t know what you’re capable of until you try. Just ask Doreen Wood, a Calgary artist whose first attempt at filmmaking resulted in the award-winning Super 8 short, I’ll Never Let Go of Your Hand. She describes the film as a ‘moving postcard’ that tells the story of a man going back to his birthplace in Croatia. Beautiful and melancholy, the stunning film earned Wood the Best of Alberta Award at the 17th Annual $100 Film Festival in March 2009.
While Wood had no previous filmmaking experience, she had a strong background in photography. This interest drew her from creating still images to shooting moving ones. A script supervisor’s course at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) gave her the opportunity to work on a movie set. The experience, while interesting, made her realize that she wanted to be behind the camera. An established filmmaker advised Wood to check out the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Wood had been thinking of making a documentary about a friend who left his war-torn home in Croatia and never returned. When a mentorship programme was established at the CSIF in the summer of 2008, Wood applied. She wanted to pair a documentary on her friend’s experience with images she planned to take while in Croatia. However, when her friend backed out of the project, Wood wrote a fictionalized version of his story instead, incorporating the pathos of his tale while omitting personal details.
The experience taught Wood an important lesson–its okay to start out with one idea and have it lead to something else. In this case, her flexibility wound up enhancing her work. I’ll Never Let Go of Your Hand is a touching film that speaks not only to Croatians, but to all people displaced from their homes due to war.
Despite the challenges, and the long hours in the editing suite, Wood says filmmaking is an exciting and magical process. She loves all aspects of the process, from developing the initial idea to finalizing the soundtrack. She credits the CSIF for being supportive of first-time independent filmmakers and fostering a creative environment where ideas can flourish.
Wood is currently in post-production on her next short, an experimental film under the working title Phoenix. This film was shot entirely in a wheat field just outside Calgary.
More about Doreen Wood:
Film/Music Explosion! Returns to the 18th Annual $100 Film Festival (March 4 – 6)
Doreen Wood discusses “True Love Forever”
Writer: Erika Walter
The first short, which tallies less than 10 minutes in runtime, is an obscure, United Nations-produced animated short about the disastrous possibilities of an encroaching crisis. Its imaginative metaphors and narrative encounters are succeeded only by its brilliant animation techniques that seem to morph 
perspective along with material. It is, as you might have guessed, a highly creative, albeit rather serious attempt to inform its audience of the dangers of Cold War-era arms racing. That said, its arguments still apply to a great many other ‘innovations’ that could inevitably prove to be just as destructive.
the warnings given and conclusions reached are surprisingly valid, perhaps even more so today because we have become so conditioned to mass-media ideology. This gem should truly not be missed – it’s not available for purchase (as far as I can tell) and it’s not even listed on Google or IMDb!
2009’ers though, the content has become somewhat outrageous, and the resulting prophecies and perspectives of a time passed now serve as a tongue-in-cheek look back to a society in the midst of a technological revolution. That’s not to say all the issues it brings to the table are utterly ridiculous (for it actually manages to offer some ahead-of-its-time commentary on gay marriage, consumerism, computerization, etc), but many of the segments come off a tinge surreal nowadays. Some of the highlights include: the scientist explained clip of ‘race-changing’ via face paint; the ‘modern man’ being hooked up to a portable battery with which to jolt himself (and his wife!) up from bed; and the ‘serious danger’ of shopping for babies at ‘Baby-toriums.’ Stitch it all together with a seriously epic Moog soundtrack, and you’ve turned what was once school-mandated educational material into a modern day comedic variety show. Did I mention Orson Welles features as the brooding host and narrator?!
Dr. Strangelove might not physically be in attendance, you can expect his odd, hilarious, and surreal spirit to be present in the air because, as usual, we’ll be having some discussion about the featured shorts. If you don’t feel like speaking up though, just grab some popcorn or a drink, sit back, and enjoy: this is the movies, after all!
