Interview with Victoria Day Filmmaker David Bezm
Filmmaker Looks at Growing Up in the '80's in North Toronto
Jun 14, 2009
Mark Rendell plays Ben and John Mavro his best friend. They face a difficult time as they sense their youth slipping away. Their classmate has disappeared from a concert at Toronto’s lakefront Ontario Place Park, Ben’s starting to question his parents’ dreams for him, and he’s falling in love with the missing boy’s sister. The ‘wonder years’ seem to be giving way to the harsh realities of growing up. Bezmozgis tells me he based the film on his own experiences.
AB – Why did you focus on the story of a schoolmate of yours who drowned in Lake Ontario after a party at Ontario Place?
DB - You need a conflict. I remembered this incident that did happen. I vaguely remembered and then I started researching what happened in the summer of 1988 and it just all came together. And I discoverd he Stanley Cup Final and this very peculiar game and the pieces just started to fit and had emotional sense. That the story could be predictable, causal, but I wanted it to feel unpredictable and believable.
JM - David was telling us about the story. He rewrote the ending to this film. Originally they had Brandon, the guy who went missing, wandering into the lake and around the rocks by the lake. And then he moved it to a construction site, but he cut it out. So it’s the way it is now.
AB – It’s stunning that a nearly identical event took place this spring 2009 - a boy vanished at Ontario Place. How did you feel on hearing that as the film was about to be released?
DB - It’s an unfortunate coincidence, that’s all. In making the film we wanted to do was to have a realistic and respectful portrayal of what happens to a famiy and community when a tragedy goes down. It is a shame it has happened again, but hopefully I hope people will realise we were trying to be realistic and respectful.
AB – The politics of friendship is alive and well for the teens in Victoria Day. I don’t remember such manouverings that young. Did it reflect your experiences?
JM - Yes, my character skipped out of the search for Brandon for his own reasons. I could totally see that now. I have friends who are, not douchebags, but they have the teenaged mentality that I’m number one.
MR -I have certain relationships, like with my best friend, where I’m always going off and leaving and doing things. And in the film, we’re talking about a field party and it’s like man, I’d rather be at home.
DB - When people talk about acting, people talk about the objective and super objective, what does that person want? That’s just life, transactional. Someone always wants something. Even from an early age.
AB – Speaking of acting, Mark did such a great job in the lead. He’s in nearly every frame.
DB - I didn’t realise what a big deal it was, an enormous job it is to carry a film. The call it carrying a film, it’s actually that. It’s a weigh, physically, to be in every shot the physical endurance. And beyond that is hard. He’s so smart, natural, his instincts are so sharp. What a professional. He really is. That’s saying a lot and a wonderful really nice guy, brought a lot to the film every day.
