Posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
writing on windfield 2017
writing on windfield 2017. . .
it is indeed my passion project. set in a small rural town in the central okanagan, it's a work of economic-fiction that tracks a small community in the aftermath of an economic collapse.
of course, it's a political story. in fact, in my first drafts i spent a lot of time looking back through a particular issue of the New Internationalist which had a brilliant comic that depicted the human consequences of the Latin American debt spiral. Indeed that comic was really at the root of my early political radicalization, so I'm reaching back to that core awareness of injustice and trying to repackage it and make it accessible to an audience.
in essence, it's a story that tracks a community of working class folks as they try to maintain their dignity and some semblance of control over their destiny in the face of some classic corporate land expropriation. naturally, they radicalize and fight the good fight. i'm really excited to be working with a character set that feels authentic (including kids, moms, dads, etc.) that a North American audience can really relate to as they engage in a land-based struggle.
while of course, there's a didactic interest in creating content that is potentially radicalizing, what is really making the project compelling to me is the way the characters are coming to life with complex inter-relationships and psychologies.
this project is really extending so far beyond political rhetoric to become a story about people caught in a difficult situation, making different difficult choices that are moderated by their temperaments in the world. at the end of the day, it's a story about human struggle.
starting the workshopping process with M yesterday i was thrilled to see how much the project started to come off the page and how readily the world could expand and fill-out becoming cohesive.
in a sense, this is the project that i've always wanted to write. political and human, richly nuanced by the love, passions and limitations of it's characters.
best case, it's years away from being in a theatre. but, for me, the reward of making it will be worth the long haul it will take to get it there.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Windfield 2017
When the North-West cartel rolls into the rural town of Winfield and disposes of the local elite there is a sense of quiet optimism. Power and irrigation water are restored and a new civic infrastructure is instituted to replace the old oligarchy. Small farmers become hopeful that they might scrape out a living on the hard dusty earth. However, the corporate cartel executes its agenda with wanton disregard for human life. As the locals begin to organize their own economic infrastructure, the cartel undermines their efforts by flying airplanes over Winfield, releasing a toxic pesticide from their holds. The crops are destroyed and sickness becomes pervasive. Winfield residents realize that their lives are forever changed.Windfield, 2017 tells the story of those who stay on in the community, banding together to fight against their poverty and the aggressive tactics of the cartel who are eager to drive the locals from their land. In this story, children forage for food to feed their siblings, a father carefully collects fuel, dreaming of taking his ailing family for one last motor boat ride, and a community learns to mourn for their dead in the heat of battle.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Chamber
Jan, a floundering 34 year old, lives a dissatisfied life in a Vancouver suburb. His life takes a turn when he receives a letter from Berlin informing him that he is a benefactor in the estate of his estranged grandfather. Jan flies to Berlin, curious of his inheritance, but compelled to unearth the mysterious disappearance of his mother 30 years prior.
In Berlin, Jan connects with Julien, his German half-brother whose emerging film production business and opulent lifestyle has left him riddled with debt. Jan becomes increasingly wary of Julien’s desire to draw him into an array of schemes including renovating and flipping the family home and finding a grey market buyer for their inherited valuable modernist painting whose provenance is under suspicion and whose ownership is subject to a lengthy court battle. Jan becomes increasingly frustrated with Julien’s ploys to repay the loan sharks that haunt him. In the height of Julien’s desperate coercion, he disappears in an apparent kidnapping.
Initially, Jan is indignant believing that Julien has left him high and dry with outstanding commitments. However, as Jan begins to deconstruct Julien’s affairs, he learns that his business is rife with inconsistencies and that his downward spiral has been deliberately orchestrated. Jan is able to conclude that the loan sharks who are pressing Julien to raise cash immediately are associated with the secret would-be grey market buyer of the painting who now only needs Jan’s signature to complete the sale.
Determined to get to the bottom of the intrigue, Jan must discover the true owner of the painting. He undertakes to unearth the murky family secrets that had remained buried in the debris of World War II. The closer Jan comes to discovering the truth about the painting, the more he understands that the disappearance of his mother, the demise of his brother, a string of unexplained deaths and the growing danger to his own life are all tied to a multi-generational plot to control the truth about the legacy of a formerly prominent Jewish family. The intrigue builds to a climax as Jan discovers that at the heart of the mystery is a man who is exercising a lifelong vendetta against his grandfather.
Jan’s journey through his family intrigue in Berlin draws him into a world of passion, intrigue and moral confusion previously unknown to him in his suburban Canadian world.
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