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L~E Abtjelit Oi14u~T • F I L M M A K E R 5 • ~ .... C1l .0 c: a:;, u ro OJ :;, o o • Bogue (Greg Malone) answers reporter's questions for a dazed President Bidgood (Andy Jones) as they leave the Capitol Theatre l~e AbtJelit oI14U~t"~ '$ibfoob first feature film has been viewed, re­ remains of a junk food gorge, and malevolence, he sits behind his desk. by Joan Sullivan viewed, celebrated, dismissed, slotted grunted "If the Christian Brothers could His co-workers Phyliss Meany (Maisie into the cult film category, toasted, see me now ... " He also directed Mary Rillie), Heady Nolan (Mary Walsh), "I f Ingmar Bergman had directed hosted, and seen in several film festivals Walsh in her one-woman show Frank Dollar (Tommy Sexton), Henry Monty Python, he might have in Canada and Europe. Bloomsdays, a tribute to the female Harry (Beni Malone), and Margaret come up with something like The And what is The Adventure of characters of James Joyce. Mary Stackdeck (Cathy Jones) ignore or Adventure of Faustus Bidgood," Faustus Bidgood? What is Total Edu­ Michael helped form the II-year old torment him. Unable to respond in any I (Robert Joy, The JournaL.) To expand cation' Where is the poet Premier? Who Newfoundland Independent Film Co­ normal manner, he wrecks bloody on that, if Ingmar Bergman had read a has Billy's boots? Who are Michael and operative (NIFCO). As a high school havoc on them in his mind. His Mephis­ lot of James Joyce, asked Monty Python Andy Jones, and what are they doing to teacher in the early '70s, he made sev­ topheles, Bogue (Greg Malone) visible to work with him, and then involved Canadian cinema? eral films with his English students, in­ only to Faustus, urges him to catch hold one of CODCO's mentors, Andy Jones, cluding The Bullies and Grand lar­ of reality in his swirling fantasies, before he might have come up with something "There is no luck, there is only grid ceny. By the mid-'70s he had combined he is swept into the Dark Ward. like Faustus. He might. But Michael reality_" (Fred-Bonia Coombs) forces with CODCO on several short But Bogue is helpless against the de­ and Andy Jones got there first. films. signs of Faustus' boss, Fred Bonia­ It took a while, ten years to be exact. Michael and Andy Jones are brothers As for what they are doing to Cana­ Coombs. This raving lunatic is deter­ Their determination to make an inde­ from St. John's, Newfoundland with two dian cinema, they have created an inde­ mined to inflict a system of Total Educa­ pendent fIlm made it even harder. And decades of involvement in fIlm and pendent feature film which charges the tion on the province, and involves Faus­ whether alI the intensive work and theatre. They have written, acted and rear guard of mass-produced, processed tus in a black-mail plot to this end. Total dynamic energy that was poured into directed in a myriad of plays and fIlms. cheese film stories, and challenges any­ Education is based on grid reality, a keeping Faustus independent came Andy, acting since university, toured one's idea that Newfoundlanders exist concept that bloomed in Bonia­ from a need "not to be taken over by Europe with Ken Campbell's solely to provide some joke's punch­ Coombs' mind after witnessing the other forces," or as a "rebellion against Madhouse Company before returning line. death of a close friend, accidently the formulaes that pervade American home and joining CODCO, Newfound­ Faustus Peebles Bidgood, "closet beaned on the head by a bag of frozen media," Newfoundland's long-awaited land's premiere comedy group. He human being" and ex-patient of The soup thrown from a window during a wrote and performed a one-man show, Mental, has found a niche in the New­ lovers' quarrel. Faustus' oOIy escape Joan Sullivan is a freelance writer ~nd Out of the Bin, alternately shocking foundland Government's Department of from this violent and demented man is the editor of Arts In formatIOn and hypnotising audiences as he lay on Education Special Curriculum Develop­ to fantasize that he is President of a free magazine in St.john's, Newfoundland. an unmade bed, surrounded by the gory ment Branch. Brimming with quiet Newfoundland. 16/Cinema Canada - November 1986 • F I L M M A K E R 5 • President Bidgood is also a troubled Michael Jones: There's a big rebellion man. It is his last day in office, and the against the formulae and sameness that masses are agitating for him to stay. En pervades American popular media. The route to the office he is disturbed by a popular culture that dominates t~e dream that he is actually a clerk in the country is based on control, on provId­ Newfoundland Government Depart­ ing limited acccess to ideas. Change ment of Education Special Curriculum comes at a very slow pace. I've always Development branch. Vasily Bog­ resisted that. We made this film for donavitch Shagoff, the philosopher/con­ Newfoundlanders, in the belief that sciencelbrain behind the revolution, Newfoundlanders have a good sense of wants him to resign and preserve the judgement as to what is funny. spirit of the new regime. The President wants to finish his dream before he de­ Andy Jones: There was a feeling of not cides. explai ning things, of leaving the refer­ As both men are drawn toward their ences as they are, as if there were personal catharsis, Newfoundland "0 thousands of movies made in New- ~ searches for her poet Premier, Jonathan Q) foundland and this was just one more. Moon (Nelson Porter). The Find the §' Like we all know New York from Poet Premier Crisis Centre has been u:: movies, that gets shoved down our reactivated by the Minister of Culture, £ throats all the time, we all know Fifth Claud Squires (Bas Jamieson). Viewers o Avenue . So that was a consistent theme can write or phone in their suggestions 2 from Day One, and that's the most on the premier's location. The right i-====---...::....-------=====::==-::::=-:::-..:..-----------"1 a. chancy thing we've ever done. guess could win you ... a waffle iron from West Brook! The local paper gives daily Michael Jones: The whole film turns coverage of the search, along with a on Eddie Peddle having rejected his series of child murders. The killer has ing began on Faustus. It was mainly a (The following interview took place in homeland and posing as a flamenco completely stumped the police and hand-held shoot - collective, impro­ St. John's.) dancer in Toronto. That's the most claims to be the famed child educator, vised and exhausting. Writing and film­ dicey scene in the film because it really Uncle Henny Penny. Meanwhile, gov­ ing Faustus left both Michael and Andy Michael Jones: There is a satirical ele­ gets local at that pOint. ernment employees prepare for their impoverished and exhausted so Andy ment in the film. I delight in hearing "A annual Crippled Childrens Benefit, returned to the theatre while Michael Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" "I'm a Spaniard. I'm a real Spaniard. while the cabinet ministers rehearse had a "pseudo mid-life crisis." 50,000 sung on the stage (during the annual I'm from Spaniard's Bay!" their traditional roles in Billy's Boots, "a feet of negative was not developed until Government Benefit for Crippled Chil­ (Eddie Peddle) great epic that spanned generations." At 1980 dren). That sort of prim and proper ar­ one pOint, Faustus imagines President It was 1982 before they started edit­ rangement and presentation (of folk Andy Jones: It seemed to be a real Bidgood viewing a movie that contains ing Faustus. After a year editing to­ music) has always annoyed me a lot. It fl aw, but I think people will just say 'Oh, scenes of an earlier documentary and gether Andy returned to the theatre pleases me to have that there, with the that must be something to do with that glimpses of a childhood birthday party, again, and Michael spent two more jazz dancers dancing to it. That's a place.' You do that all the time, watcn­ which Faustus has flashbacked to sev­ years in the NIFCO (Newfoundland In­ minor one. There's certainly a very ing films. It doesn't seem to be that im­ eral times earlier. dependent Film Co-op) editing room in black view of politicians. portant. St. John's editing, re-writing and shoot­ People talk about it being very sur­ Interpreting and structuring this net­ ing new material. Finally in March, realistic too, but the film seems very Michael Jones: I think in the end we work of plot lines took many years of 1985, Barry Cowling and Les Halman normal to me. It gets very strange at the work. Michael and Andy started work­ see the whole film as one connected came to St. John's from the NFB's Atlan­ end, the way the whole crowd ignores piece. There's an energy running ing together in 1975, after both had ti c Studio in Halifa..-x. After a day of Faustus when the premier comes out of spent years away from Newfoundland. through it that I hope makes that unim­ watching Faustus they invited Michael the piano. It's a very odd thing, we're portant. There's S.o much more to the Andy studied at universities in Halifax, to Halifa..-x for final editing. obviously in another world by then, Alberta - and Toronto while Michael film than those particular plot details, When the Atlantic Studio ran out of we're swept away by reality." because the fact that there are so many spent nine years with the Christian money they sent Michael to Montreal to Brothers in New York and Vancouver.
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