Michael Greyeyes as Gooch, Adam Beach as Frank Fencepost and Ryan Black as Silas Crow in DANCE ME OUTSIDE: TEENAGERS FULL OF PISS AND VINEGAR

With Roadkill, Hiptma_y_ 61 and Mince Me Outside, McDonald has created an un- official Northern untario twilogy

The opening scene of Dance Me Outside keys the audience right into the film. A crow is sitting in the middle of a highway. A cool looking native guy offers the crow a cigarette, his last one it turns out. The crow leans over, bites the hand that wants to feed him the nicotine and flies off. As usual, we have to expect the unexpected — we're back in Northern Ontario, on the road again with Bruce McDonald, Canada's outlaw filmmaker. ii The commercial release of Dance Me Outside seems a good occasion for reflecting where Toronto's favourite "bad boy" director has been to and where he's going. In Vtle

14 KE ONE more than a decade, Bruce McDonald has moved from Ji97ing his films o walls to being produced by Canada's "king" (or, at least, r-ent aristocrat-fl : Norman Jewison. Although the production values for L ew film are su above those for Roadkill and Highway 61, his style appears unchanged. Lik music that he loves, McDonald has retained in this film , his funky approach to story- telling. If his route to popular acclaim has been, to some observers, "a long strange trip," McDonald appears to be both humorous and humble about such concerns. Emerging out of Toronto's Ryerson College in the early '80s, McDonald found him-L' self in the midst of a scene that was beginning to form in downtown Toronto. Young artists were fueled by punk and new wave music and fashion, confrontational theatre and performance art and transgressive graphics and photography. Bruce hit

ER 1995 New Wave, and onald, saw them- on casts, true es they were d not to any notion past that was Canadian

the street at the time when filmmakers like Peter Mettler, Janis Lundman, Adrienne Mitchell, Alan Zweig, and Colin Brunton started to make their first works. A space was needed where people could work, strategize and generally hang-out. McDonald was instrumental in getting the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) off the ground. McDonald is characteristically modest about his role in starting a co-op that now numbers over 500 members and has become an important feeder organi- zation for the Canadian film industry. "I always do things for practical reasons," he recently recalled, "I needed a home. I'd do my LIFT stuff during the day and unroll the old blanket at night and have my little place to stay." While living at LIFT, Bruce began to cut films, most notably Scissere for Peter Mettler. An experimental narrative, Scissere was important for the neophyte Toronto film community because it was an inde- pendent feature, produced without industrial assistance at a time when seemingly only U.S.-bought and -con- trolled product was being made here. "Pete [Mettler] would shoot the footage on a borrowed camera, Henry [Jesionka] would process it for nothing, and I would find a place to cut it...it was just a weird kind of black market economy." The outlaw phase of McDonald's career began then, making work that had to be done — even if nobody except the film- makers and their closest friends wanted to see it at the time. On the road again with BRUCE MCDONALD, Canada's outlaw filmmaker Although McDonald directed one short film during this time, the quirky mock-documentary Knock, Knock, it was as an editor that he really established himself. Technically adept and creatively adaptable, he edited Mettler's astonish- ing and esoteric cosmic travelogue Top of His Head, Atom Egoyan's psychodra- matic duo Family Viewing and Speaking Parts, and Ron Mann's complex pop- cultural non-fiction feature, Comic Book Confidential. His work on these films not

TAKE ONE only established his reputation as a were creating and not to any notion of a the Toronto-City Award for the Best potential director of features, it helped to cultural past that was exclusively Canadian Feature and its $25,000 prize, create the verve and excitement around a Canadian. To Bruce McDonald, in par- a pleased McDonald cheerfully an- group that was touted as being "the ticular, the idea of the hipster, riding on nounced that the money could come in Toronto New Wave." a Harley, long hair and scruffy beard handy for a nice purchase of hash. Rock The collaborative atmosphere of the blowing in the wind, was surely irre- and rollers understood the sentiment, period spurred on the development of a sistible. If that image still made him but some of Canada's uptight producers number of young filmmakers — produc- Canadian, so be it; the important thing and arts bureaucrats were non-plussed by ers Camelia Freiberg, Alexandra Raffe, was that at least he and his group were the remark. director Patricia Rozema, and others — getting noticed. A couple of years later McDonald was who began to create work at the same The rebel persona — one that is radi- back on the Festival circuit with his sec- time. Looking back on his editing days, cally different from that of the standard ond rock'n'road epic, Highway 61 McDonald recalls, "I didn't feel like it Canadian artist and is certainly anti-aca- was a craft thing...I was given that much demic — works for him. He has made welcome [from the directors] in the cre- himself approachable, like a "rock guy"; ative process...that I felt that I was actu- he isn't Mick Jagger, but more like the ally writing the screenplay with them... leader of a bar band gone solid gold. It is They were great role models for me, an image with humour and roots. The people like Ron and Atom and Peter. I New Wave's first proselytiser has become thought 'well, if they can do it, how popular himself. hard can it be?' Not to put them down, Looking back on the features that but, I thought, I know them. They're McDonald has made and the public walking, talking people and they're out interventions he has engineered is there doing it, and so can I." enlightening. The man knows how to McDonald took on another editing make cool, controversial scenes in life as function during that time. He convinced well as in films. Roadkill (1989), his first Connie Tadros, editor and publisher of full-length film is replete with bizarre Cinema Canada, to let him take over an images. There's the issue of the magazine, then the best pub- sequence where Ramo- lication on film in English Canada. The na, the would-be rock whole point of the issue was its celebra- promoter who wants to tion of the new group of filmmakers learn how to drive, who were just beginning to assert them- finds herself picked up selves in Toronto. "Nobody else was by Luke, a hard-driving doing it," McDonald recollects with 15-year-old. He takes some astonishment. "It just seemed like her to a drive-in where a complete vacuum. Nobody was really the local Northern promoting themselves, their own work, Ontarians imagine the or the group of people they were with." film that could be on With Tadros's approval, he constructed the screen. Eventually, a "fun" issue filled with funky graphics, the teens and twenty- articles written in the main by filmmak- something Ramona end ers and, most intriguingly, "portraits of up dancing to rock everybody, all the community — they'd music on the radio, have their mug shot, their crime, the their movements lit by names of their films." the headlights of the Calling it the "Outlaw Issue" was the cars that surround the capper for the project. It signalled the impromptu dance floor. existence of a cool group of artists whose This improbable, ro- films would be exciting to watch. Urban, mantic scene is neatly sophisticated and decidedly aware of sex, contrasted with such drugs and rock'n'roll, these filmmakers moments as the deca- did not want to make documentaries dent "costume" party in about the wheat fields in the prairies. the travelling van and Their work would speak to an audience the bizarro shoot-up in

of Canadians who delighted in the hip, a rock club that nearly above, Shawn Bowring as Matthew, the transgressive, the rockin', the new. culminates the film. lead singer for the Children of Even if all rock musicians don't main- McDonald topped all of Paradise in ROADKILL: REPLETE tain an outlaw image, McDonald can the demented imagery WITH BIZARRE IMAGES; below, always take inspiration from Dylan's of Roadkill with his HIGHWAY 61's Valerie Buhagiar as infamous acceptance Jackie Bangs: A ROCKER DETER- line, "To be outside the law, you must MINED TO G9 ON A JOURNEY be honest." The Toronto New Wave, speech at that year's and surely McDonald, saw themselves Toronto Festival of as iconoclasts, true to the images they Festivals. The winner of

SUMMER 1995 Tamara Podemski as Little by placing his native L Margaret, Sandrine Holt as Poppy, Jennifer Podemski as McDonald staged another controversial acters in The driver's seat, Sadie and Wendy King as Lucy scene at the Toronto film festival's in DANCE ME OUTSIDE: McDonald was able to INHERENTLY FEMINIST, WITH Perspective Canada party. A group of WOMEN CLOSING THE CIRCLE bikers showed up to celebrate Highway motor down the script's OF PAIN BY A CUNNING ACT 61 and Bruce. He recalls, "I think the twistiniroad secure in th OF REVENGE festival organizers were a little trembly about letting them in. But they came in knowlelIge that he was rator), a Thunder Bay bar- and had a great time. The only thing "making a film with them, ber who blithely accompa- they did there was a photo booth set up nies her and a corpse filled for The Falls [Kevin McMahon's feature not abort' them" with drugs down Highway documentary on Niagara Falls] and the 61 to New Orleans. girls were sort of flashing their wares for For a Canadian like the camera. It was pretty entertaining." (1991). The budget was up, from McDonald who loves music and the In the three years since Highway 61's Roadkill's quarter of a million to slightly mythos of the road, Highway 61 is the release, there was much speculation over a million, and with it came colour, ultimate fantasy. On its winding path about what Bruce McDonald would do more character actors, and some U.S. from the Canadian north to Louisiana's next. Dance Me Outside, the project he locations. The strategy remained the Crescent City, Highway 61 is the site decided to make, is one that had more same; the action was still jiving on a for the birth of Dylan, the Stax-Volt than its fair share of problems in the highway with plenty of quirky side-show Revue, Elvis's best recordings, and the planning and pre-production phases. entertainment pumped in to spice up jazz music of Kid Ory and Louis Norman Jewison optioned W.P. Kin- the proceedings. Valerie Buhagiar Armstrong. Cool scenes and characters sella's book of interlinked short stories returned as a rocker determined to go on buzz throughout the scenario: Peter about Native Americans more than half a journey. Her reasons for hitting the Breck, not-so-fresh from Sam Fuller's a decade ago. Scripts and treatments had road are more problematic this time as is Shock Corridor, stages a comeback as the been developed by several hands, includ- her character. Jackie Bangs is a roadie father to an untalented group of pre- ing Native playwright Tomson High- who scooped up some drugs as back teen female pop singers; rocker Jello way, before McDonald was brought on payment while leaving her gig with a Biafra lampoons the authority figures he to the scene in 1992. Although there band. Unlike Ramona, she is hardly hates as an all-American customs officer; were bound to be problems in adapting naive. She manipulates everybody she and Earl Pastko, in a brilliant perfor- Kinsella's conservative vision to a hip meets, particularly Pokey (charmingly mance, plays a self-deluded Satanic con- film audience, the story of Dance Me played by the exceptional Don man called Mr. Skin. Outside was so strong that McDonald McKellar, McDonald's writing collabo- Not to be outdone by his film, was eager to accept the challenge and

18 TAKE ONE Don McKellar as Pokey in HIGHWAY 61: THE MYTHOS OF Frank commit a great blun- role reversal, her hard urban style was THE ROAD AS THE ULTIMATE der, such as destroying changed by his softer rural ways. In FANTASY native leader Hobart Dance Me Outside, McDonald continues Thunder's car instead of his embrace of the notion of "the power the one driven by the of women." Sadie and her group are Federal agents, the audi- clearly more effective than Silas and his ence is encouraged to laugh gang of dreamers. The new feminism is at the situation rather than cool even to guys who like to ride on at them. The direction con- Harleys. sistently empathizes with Dance Me Outside closes another cir- the characters and their cle. The numbers tell us that McDonald aspirations: Sadie — to be has now created an unofficial Northern radical; Gooch — to be Ontario trilogy. What has sent him up mature and stay out of there three times in a row? McDonald's trouble; Silas — to become a reply is his usual mixture of candor and writer. bafflement. "It's weird. I don't even like By placing his native to go camping. We've never had a cot- characters in the driver's tage. As a kid, I didn't do the canoe seat, McDonald was able to thing. Maybe it's just a novelty to me, make his first adequately budgeted fea- motor down the script's twisting road the whole idea of space. There is a sim- ture. secure in the knowledge that he was ple, practical reason. To get a location in Silas Crow (a plum part intensely "making a film with them, not about Toronto is very expensive, but outside of interpreted by Ryan Black) narrates them." He continues, "The idea of the city, people almost pay you to shoot Dance Me Outside. The tale begins at Indian comedy is a contradiction in on their street." the local "rez" bar, where Little terms, because the tradition in this Whether he knows it or not, there is Margaret Wolfchild is "danced outside" country anyway, has been movies that another reason for Northern Ontario to by a white trash barfly, Clarence Gaskill are issue-driven. We thought, 'what be Bruce McDonald territory. Like the (Headstones singer, Hugh Dillon). would be fresh for the world, for this pioneers and outlaws of old, he may well While it is Silas and his pal, Frank country?' Nobody's really done a come- be looking for areas that more closely Fencepost (Adam Beach) who discover dy before and it hit me, 'why not do one resemble frontiers than do our modern her dead body the next day, Sadie with teenagers full of piss and vinegar urban environments. The covered wag- (Jennifer Podemski) is the one who and fill it with some of their funny sto- ons and trail bosses of the old American becomes radicalized. Silas's former girl- ries?' Anybody who has ever spent time West probably find their closest equiva- friend, Sadie was Little Margaret's best on a reserve or with Indian people lents in the Canadian and Alaskan friend and the leader of a "girl gang" knows that humour is a big part of their North. It is there that people can play that includes Poppy (Sandrine Holt), operating agenda." out their desires, untrammeled by the Frank's occasional squeeze. While Silas The story-line of Dance Me Outside is constraints of Canadian civilization and occupies himself with thoughts of enter- inherently feminist, with women closing its southern cities. ing mechanics' school down South, the circle of pain by a cunning act of Dance Me Outside is, like all McDo- winning back Sadie and helping his Ma revenge. When the tale that forms the nald films, based on the moods and in her mission to get his sister Illianna spine for the film was first recounted to desires of teenagers. One of the unspo- (Lisa LaCroix) pregnant, Clarence is me by writer/director Judith Doyle near- ken ironies of the film is that Native sent to prison for an unacceptably brief ly a decade ago, it seemed to me to be society, which is based on a profound term on a manslaughter conviction. A chillingly reminiscent of a Greek acceptance of the wisdom of Elders, is year later, Illianna's yuppie husband, tragedy. That Bruce McDonald has been represented by adolescents. McDonald Robert (Kevin Hicks) is integrated into true to those elements of the story is less boldly replaces the older generation and the family, Gooch (Michael Greyeyes) surprising when one recalls his previous their homilies with new groups of "guys resolves his feelings for Illianna and, features. and girls" led by Silas and Sadie. He most importantly, Clarence is "danced The narratives for Roadkill and High- endorses their powerful new communi- outside" where justice is meted out to way 61 centred on two arresting women, ties much as he promoted the LIFT- him. With that circle closed, Silas and Valerie Buhagiar's Ramona and Jackie based "New Wave" a decade ago. Sadie come together again, in a new, Bangs. While Ramona simply wanted Where should Bruce McDonald travel mature way. access to things — to the mysteries of dri- next? The North, Native peoples and the McDonald, writing collaborators ving, sex and rock promotion — Jackie Road have been the sources for his "cre- McKellar and John Frizell, and the Bangs had a much more difficult road to ative thievery" up to now. Perhaps he is native cast have combined to create a travel. She was outside the law, but not at a turning point, like Silas and Sadie. work that cheerfully resolves a number honest; her journey to New Orleans, like Recapitulating their ride down South at of the issues inherent in an adaptation of that of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hop- the end of Dance Me Outside, should he Kinsella's book. Unlike the original sto- per's characters in Easy Rider, was based head for L.A., Canada's fourth largest ries, where the character of Frank on the lie of counter-culture capitalism, city? Or like Silas, will any trip be a tem- Fencepost in particular is quite broadly the selling of hard drugs. It was only porary one, with the "rez" still the focal written, the film's scenario tends to through the love of an honest man, Don point for one's identity? Should Bruce endorse the late adolescent coolness of McKellar's Pokey, that she came to go slick or remain a very funky indie? the protagonists. Even when Silas and understand her moral dilemma. In a neat Only time and that road can tell • SUMMER 1995 19