On rare occasions, when all elements and planets are aligned and our creative willpower is unstoppable, providence will step in and spur a project along, far beyond our wildest dreams. This is what happened with a short film I made many years ago, called Off Key.
In the 1990s, I was even a worse overachiever than I am today. While working full-time as a set decorator on a TV series at Lionsgate Studios in Vancouver, I was also taking a double master’s degree in creative writing and film production at the University of British Columbia. However, I had no idea what my thesis project would be until one day in a bar…
Every Thursday, a group of artists and a few of us aimless film buffs would meet at the Railway Club to discuss creative matters. This time, the talented photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward was highlighting the greater aspects of the female body and how much he enjoyed photographing female nudes. Being convinced that the aesthetic appreciation of human form should venture beyond gender boundaries, I asked him What about male nudes? Alex immediately made it clear that, as nude male bodies weren’t his thing, he would not photograph them. Being provoked by his statement, I went home and wrote a short story where the tables were turned. The protagonist was a female photographer who photographed a young Russian pianist whom she gradually, but consciously, stripped of all his clothing during their short session.
It should be added here that, having been born and raised in Scandinavia, I never understood why North American TV would allow all kinds of graphic violence, but not nudity. Certainly not full-frontal nudity – and guaranteed never a male subject.
I had this photographic encounter so clear in my head that I brazenly brought the script to my executive producer at work, asking him to help me shoot it.
Perhaps in a meeting of serendipity and synchronicity, not only he, but also half the crew on our set agreed to help. My husband at the time, who was our producer and director of photography, also managed to get a commercial agency involved. Soon we had a casting director, a professional cast, a 30-person crew (including an animal wrangler and a piano double), a set designed especially for the occasion, and equipment and gear to shoot and edit a short movie in 35 mm (1.85:1) – all pro bono!
We even got two agency producers, our musical score composer and a grip to play the piano movers – with a real piano!
Everything has a short shelf life these days, and that is certainly true of today’s movies. A short film can expect an even briefer life in the limelight (if any…), but Off Key became a bit of an exception. With an excellent cast – including the internationally renowned Gabrielle Rose, the then-young David Lovgren, and the experienced character actor Kim Kondrashoff – and all the other colleagues, friends, and acquaintances involved, the film took off. It was selected for Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival, nominated for a Genie (the Canadian Academy Awards) and was shown on TV in France and England. It also won film festivals in Russia, the USA, Australia, Norway, and Greece. All because I was provoked by a photographer who did not want to photograph male nudes…
And then, as it happens, the film disappeared into distant memory.
But Off Key was not ready to be forgotten yet. This spring, I was contacted by the Drama Film Festival in Greece. They were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their short film festival and wished to screen some of their past Grand Prix winners, including Off Key. Did I have a digital screening copy to send them? I told them that, unfortunately, all I had was an obsolete Beta Master tape and that the actual film reel was likely sitting in a forgotten vault at the National Film Board of Canada, as NFB helped make copies of the movie when it did the festival circuit way back.
Again, my mixture of luck and blessings prevailed. With the combined efforts of a friend who heads the film department at a university in Vancouver and his technical gurus, as well as the festival’s technicians in Athens, the tape was transferred to a viewable, albeit grainy, digital format. So, Off Key will rise from the ashes 30 years later, to be screened at the festival on September 9th. (I never went in 1995 as I had a new baby. Therefore, knowing that I might be otherwise engaged during the festival’s 50th anniversary in the year 2045, I accepted their kind invitation to be present.)
It remains to be said that Alex, the photographer, ended up shooting the stills of the male nude that we used in the movie. To him, Gabrielle, David, Kim, and everyone who helped make Off Key, I will be forever grateful.
Never underestimate providence and never doubt that even the most far-fetched dreams can come true.