Trigger

There has been enough Toronto hype so it is not a surprise to me that yesterday I made a point to go see the screening at Bell Lightbox. I didn't realize this was the official launch in it's regular run since it's debut during the Film Festival. So I was surprised that Bruce McDonald was on hand to kick it off and field a Q&A session. Don McKellar joined him on stage. Can you believe that in a screening room equipped to seat 345 people there were maybe 30 of us on hand? I'll give you that it was early, 5:15PM and there was another show at 7:30, fingers crossed the later viewing was packed. I also knew in a general sort of way that Trigger was a big deal at TIFF 2010 but did not know that it was the very first screening to kick off the new digs. My TIFF dance card was full and this wasn't an option for me but even if it was I do not think, no I know, I wouldn't have made any effort to see this then. But today as in yesterday was different. September 30 is my unofficial equinox and my mind was ready for Fall especially in Toronto. Vancouver is a different story with the seasons and I have a separate set of markers for the west coast. So camera in hand I hit the rails and made my way through Union Station along Front to Simcoe then west stopping for a Starbucks injection and then up into Discovery Park and Roy Thomson wondering if the rest of the world had any sense of the time and space. It didn't take long before the unconscious went to work and propelled me to Lightbox early. No line up, no fanfare and really no one any where in sight. Fifteen minutes before curtain there were three of us sitting in cinema one.This morning I did the research on the questions and notations I had made on my ride home and without anything specifically resembling a plan sat down to get it on paper as it were.

Bruce McDonald; I don't think you can be Canadian and not know his name but for me anyway I can't say I knew much more. An image for sure, the straw cowboy hat and some loosely undefined expectations. Don McKellar I know better and Tracy Wright somewhere in between the two. What I knew of this film for certain was 'Canadian Feature' which I have come to equate with CanCon, which I may discuss further as I get into this but for now the government legislation that mandates/dictates promotion of homegrown. Over the years and I mean decades I have understood this in broader terms namely a source for funding which is to say DEVELOPMENT.

There was a time in my life when Canadian film meant Toronto and Don McKellar and Tracy Wright were the visuals associated with the encyclopedia entry in my head. It goes beyond 'Monkey Warfare' but that in as much as anything painted the only picture I needed to buy a ticket into nostalgia. McKellar and Wright epitomize the Toronto Art scene as I chose to understand it. Having the feel and look of laid back and on the fringe Toronto, the sum total of my expectation was Toronto in close up and life as a series outtakes. The print ads for Trigger in the Toronto dailies and entertainment weeklies are of Tracy Wright and Molly Parker singing on stage. It is a film with Tracy Wright who coincidently died shortly after the film was completed. I'd have to say the impulse to see this now was probably this fact alone. I am ashamed that morbid interest played any role in my thinking but it is also an important pivot point on several levels. Before I get carried away make no mistake this was not a film with Tracy Wright. It was Tracy Wright's film.

Essentially, which is my way of saying the chronology I describe may not be entirely accurate, the script was in development for some time prior to Tracy's diagnosis in December 2009. I have read the credited origins of the script idea and if I was a stronger student of Bruce McDonald's work I'd feel better equipped to comment on this but I am not so all I can say is that, I wonder at the timing when considering The Runaways release. Apparently Trigger is consistent with Hard Core Logo and McDonald's general niche fame and this is an evolutionary step. A Globe & Mail or perhaps an Eye Weekly review/interview has a quote to the effect that the film band 'Trigger' would be something akin to Martha and the Muffins and Carol Pope collaborating on a project. Tracy Wright and Molly Parker both Canadians seem to make sense as casting choices the same way a midget is good at being short ( I stole this line and will footnote later). They are women and they are Canadian. Parker is twelve years younger than Wright and yes the wonders of make up whatever but strikes me as improbable given the story line has them sharing a common past in youth specifically adolescence and high school. I think the casting choice works because the Wright character is a recovering addict. The ashen, fallen hollow face works here but instead of heroine and/or makeup the device is accomplished by her very real pancreatic cancer.

I mentioned Tracy was diagnosed in December 2009 and the film was shot this past spring. Tracy Wright died in June. That she made this film is remarkable and that for me is the story here.
Everyone else aside from Molly Parker is a bit part. Parker reminded me of Mary-Louise Parker though ordinarily apart from the same surname I'd be at a loss for a comparison. Molly I think does an excellent job here. I would think the entire production would have been an eery landscape but at the same time recognize that it could have served as a crowning moment; joy in sadness or perhaps on reflection, in a line from the film, "the happiness not in the doing but in the accomplishment."

It is a must see because it is Canadian, it is Toronto in close up and Tracy Wright gives us art in dying.

The stolen line: used in this site before is about Marilyn Monroe credited to Clive James. It seemed fitting to watch Toronto on a big screen depicting Spring when the day was in commemoration of Fall. Night and umbrellas even for a minute. Postscript: Callum Keith Rennie among the executive producers. Suddenly I am very aware of this guy's presence.

Later today I will speak to the 'Breathless' screening last night at Lightbox. After I post it I will begin 'Level Crossings' and the blog will be dedicated to dailies of the work in progress.