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JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us what you want the public to know about your recent project you are actively working on. What is it, why is it, and how is it done?
CHRISTOPHER DARTON: Thanks James. Well, I’m working on my first feature length non-documentary film; after eight years of shooting documentary films and doing very well with it; making two feature length docs and a third unfinished one, on The Cameron House on Queen Street West in Toronto … as well as five short documentaries. It’s been a really good run. I’ve had films screened in festivals all over North America, in particular a number of Indigenous Film Festivals. Most recently two of my docs screened in the First Nations Film and Video Festival in Chicago and last weekend I won Best Editor and Best Director at the Hollywood North First Awards in Toronto. No complaints … documentaries have been very good to me. But also in there I’ve shot a couple of music videos, promo videos, you name it … most importantly though I produced a couple of short horror films that did well and the end goal has always been to produce or direct a feature length genre film. I love all forms of films but horror is where I first found a real love of film and the reason I attended Sheridan College for film in the 80’s. So here we are in 2021 and I’ve been working on this film since last November; it’s written, it’s about 95% cast and crewed, I’m scouting locations, FX are being designed, storyboards and shot listing is being worked on and musical compositions created. It’s a huge project for me and unlike my documentaries where everything hinged on me and the story because I acted as a one-man band, this new film is a team effort. But it’s a real challenge because for a film of this size it’s a small group and I’m handling all the producing chores. So on any given day I’m sourcing out prop weapons that we really can’t afford, hotel rooms, food services, locations, coordinating crew meetings on Zoom, our first script reading is in a week with the cast … you name it. To say there’s a lot of moving pieces is an understatement. It’s overwhelming really. But I feel like I’m finally “doing it” after this over 35-year love affair/obsession with making a horror feature … so I’m not complaining. It’s all part of the process.
JS: Please tell us how you fund such a project. How can others help?
CD: So the film will be financed via crowdfunding and the goodwill of family and friends and of course if I have to reach into my own pocket to make it happen that’s what I’ll do. I’ve applied for a grant through the Canada Council for the Arts but that’s a really crap shoot. The grant coming through would be the equivalent of winning the lottery. I’ve structured the budget in three tiers: a low $12,000, medium $27,000 and a high $55,000 if the grant happens; but I’m not counting on that. So, we’re in the midst of year two of a pandemic and I’m running an Indiegogo campaign shucking and jiving for money throughout the month of June. Talk about uphill battles. So, no matter the outcome of my budgets it’s going to be tight making this film but I’m prepared. I’m extremely organized. My cast and crew are talented and dedicated and ultimately when we get backed into a corner instead of being able to throw money at it as a way out … we’ll get creative. Our Indiegogo campaign can be found under The Damnation of Dracula or by this link https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/thedamnation-of-dracula? utm_medium=email&utm_source=lifecycle&fbclid=IwAR1REXLiMZGp Ygnb3n21U4fVZ9NvXeBm84LyWH2NAOVfdKVI49jnQLY40WE#/
JS: What kind of audience will this project interest? What new audience are you also seeking? Why to both questions?
CD: Horror fans are probably the most passionate and dedicated film fans there are out there. I decided early on if I was going to take a year and a half of my life to work on something this big it had to be something I would want to see on screen myself. I didn’t want any easy ways out, so it’s not your typical micro budget project … it’s very ambitious. I think it will appeal to fans of horror, Canadian cinema fans because it’s very very Canadian in tone and finally I think that there’s always a built-in interest from Indigenous people when a film gets made that speaks to them, relates to them and portrays our people as real living breathing thinking entities. We gravitate to these projects because there’s so few of them. Jeff Barnaby made the fantastic Blood Quantum a couple of years ago and that’s certainly a positive model of what I was shooting for with the script … a smart, socially relevant Canadian Indigenous piece. As far as a new audience, well I think it will appeal to anyone that’s not a horror fan too because it’s astute and not over-the-top, so really anyone might appeal in the characters who are very real.
JS: In what ways is this project easy to do and in what ways is it difficult to realize? How long will it take and why that long?
CD: I’m not sure any of it is easy. Without the cash hose to wash away your problems you really need to burrow in and stay determined. Be tenacious. Filmmaking like this takes guts, it really does. I said to our director Sebastien Godin, “if this doesn’t kill all of us a little, we’ve problem done something wrong.” That said … I don’t want to sound morose … I’m thrilled and, really, I’m going at this with a very stoic philosophy, “the obstacle in the path; is the path.” What brings me great comfort is I’ve got friends working with me and we’re like family. I’m the catalyst but they’re a talented group of creators that I’ve helped bring together. So in that sense, we’re all in it together and we’ll make it happen together. The impetus for the whole project was Seb Godin asking me to do some work in his last film The Abominations of Frankenstein, a $3000 feature he shot in his hometown of North Bay. I knew Seb from Facebook and running into him at an occasional horror convention. He was a huge fan and out there making films, and even though he was about 21 when I first met him, I admired his perseverance. So, I had the idea that Seb is out there making film after film, I’m making documentaries but want to venture into a feature horror film … what if I produced his next film? The objective being we bring together his resources with mine, we up the budget some, bring in some better equipment, some of my crew and friends and just really shoot for something bigger and better. He agreed. We chatted and I left it to him what we would shoot … he pitched me Dracula. My heart sank. How do you do Dracula in a 2021 setting? Dracula is costumes, castles, horses and buggies and exotic locations. I asked Seb if he wrote, he said not really, more or less story concepts but not screenplays, so I decided to write it; which was a huge leap for me. I wrote screenplays for over 20 years but never really “made it” and I hadn’t written a feature in at least 11 years. So, I just really burrowed in, watched a ton of vampire films, read a lot of books on writing, reflected and decided to re-image a Dracula set today, here in Ontario and make it socially relevant without being pretentious and added in a healthy dose of me and what I know. I had just graduated University online getting my degree in Indigenous Studies so those teachings were fresh … so I just kept it real and grounded despite how fantastical the situation. It turned out to be the fastest screenplay I’ve ever written by far because I set definitive deadlines and goals. We’ve been in preproduction since January and will been shooting in November 2021.
JS: How are you planning to promote, market, and sell this project to the public?
CD: That’s the wild card … always. For me it’s always the Field of Dreams philosophy … build it and they will come. We’re really hoping on a distribution deal on this one. I think it’s going to be that good, despite the budget. I feel confident that we make this one for however much it ends up being and hopefully the next one is a $75,000 or a $100,000 film. That’s the goal. That’s always been the path for me since producing the horror shorts, that the progression would be a couple of shorts and then a low low budget feature and then hopefully something moderately budgeted. I really firmly believe that whatever I do make will come out well enough to attract an audience or at least interest someone enough to say, “hey I wonder what this guy could do with a little more money?” .
JS: Please give us a brief autobiography, some stuff about yourself, that is relevant to this project.
CD: I’m a filmmaker and writer always. Since graduating last December from Laurentian University in Indigenous Studies I’ve gone on to work for the Métis Nation of Ontario as an educational officer. We do a lot of preserve the Michif language, perpetuate our history, culture and traditions with grade school, high school, college and university students. I’m just in the final stages of Illustrating a book written in Michif, English and French. It’s fantastic and I love it. On top of my Bachelor’s degree from Laurentian I studied Illustration for a year at Sheridan and then did three years in the media and film programs. I’ve had a magical approximately eight year run of shooting documentaries and everything else that crosses my lens. Stories that range from blues musicians like Gary Kendall and Danny Brooks to suicides going over Niagara Falls; Ornithologist, scientist, musician, philosopher Harold Axtell to Angie Sandow who was born was a congenital birth defect in her right arm and overcame that obstacle to play guitar in her own band and ride motorcycles. I’m that guy that when the first 10 or 15 people on the list say no to making a film someone mentions me and I do it. I’ve embraced that and kind of relish in it. It seems like being a hotshot never worked for me; the role of the underdog is much more conducive to a healthy creative life. With regards to this project, I have a couple of really fun award-winning horror shorts I’ve produced, I’ve watched horror films my entire life and at 55 I like to feel I’m finally ready to tackle something this big. All the chess pieces are in place. I just feel it’s time, not just for me but for the people I’ve surrounded myself with. My oldest son Tobe is shooting the film, it will be his first feature after some fine work on shorts and music videos in Toronto … so this is a golden opportunity for him as well. He’s a talent and it brings me a lot of pride to be working with him.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s COVID society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
CD: It’s been a long haul. It’s sad because I see people struggling everyday between losing jobs and mental health; illness and the challenge of separation from family. Artists are resilient but the fact that many have had their livelihood swept out from under them, that makes it tough. For me personally, I was in University online for the first part of Covid and then was hired by the MNO, working from home. So, I was in training for this isolation stuff. I’ll be honest, I’m almost embarrassed to say it but I’ve thrived during this period. I love being at home and creating. I released two films last year and both have done wonderfully. I wrote the screenplay to the new film, started pre-production … it’s been good for me. The only issue I had was due to the lockdown’s and everything that goes with it, I had a new documentary derailed. It was a short, 30 – 45 minutes that I was ready to go on but put the brakes on because it was unsafe. I would have been shooting out in the streets a lot, around vulnerable people. It was unsafe for them, unsafe for me so it didn’t happen. It’s a shame because it would have been an important one but I get it, these things happen in life. I’m hopeful that we’re in the final chapter of this thing. Maybe we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel finally. I find it really disheartening though that like anything that happens on this scale, like a pandemic, you see the absolute best in society and the absolute worse. But I fear the worst outweighs the best. What we saw this time around is something we’ll live with the consequences of for a long time, there’s no easy fix to this division or righting this ship. When it comes to changing a culture it’s a monumental undertaking.
JS: What’s next in the coming few years of your creative life?
CD: I’ve got a couple of other docs in the waiting and if the horror film goes well, or even if it doesn’t, I’ve got a next feature idea that I’ll write and produce and maybe even direct. I work constantly, being busy is extremely healthy for me creatively. As well I’m going to write a book. That’s always been in the cards for me to do. So, as I get older and hauling the equipment all over gets tougher, I’m getting close to that moment. The book writing has been very patient waiting for me to be ready. I love making films but making films on a big scale like this current project brings a lot uncontrollable dynamics to the table … like money. It’s great to be able to “pull it off” like a magic trick but to do it time after time wears on you. The little docs I make or even the features … I was in control of every single aspect of those processes. That’s comforting to me knowing that if it’s good, it’s because I’ve made it so. My instincts and decisions were right. And if it’s no good … that’s on me too. No one else. It helps that I have ultimate support system in my wife Katherine. She loves that I do what I do and never waivers when I say … “hey, this Friday I might drive to Ottawa to interview David Wilcox for the new film, I’ll be back the next day.” Or when I hang up the phone as she walks in and I say … “I was just talking to a guy with only one leg that we need for an effect in the film.” That’s not normal in a relationship that your partner rolls with that kind of lunacy. But that’s us and it brings me great solace.