Local filmmaker Ron Mann’s new documentary, Go Further, makes its Canadian debut this week at the Toronto International Film Festival. Incredibly, it’s his ninth film to screen at the fest over a 20-year career that includes the acclaimed films Comic Book Confidential, Twist, and the popular Genie Award-winning effort Grass. In addition, he has been a driving force in cataloguing the Alliance-Atlantis film archives for educational purposes. Mann is consecutively promoting his latest work alongside the launch of his new film distribution company FILMSWELIKE, a partnership with friend and music promoter Gary Topp. Their rationale is to say, “Look, there’s some great films out there that will be played at film festivals, and then they’re gone. So if we can help these films, great. Let’s try to do that. Especially films that we like.”
Go Further’s title is taken from the legendary bus that housed ’60s author Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters” on their trip across America, which Mann cites as an inspiration for the film and the journey itself.
“You know, for me this film was a road movie. I’ve said this before, but it really was an inspiration for me in making the film, and that was Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. And this is sort of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test on tofu.”
Go Further marks the re-teaming of Mann and his Grass narrator Woody Harrelson, and follows the actor and eco-activist in his efforts to spread the ecologically conscious philosophy of “leaving a light footprint” along the way. To this end, Harrelson and friends cycle their way along the United States’ West coast followed by a bus fuelled by hemp-seed oil, in order to present an alternative to today’s increasingly unsustainable lifestyle. Mann says the film presented him with new challenges as a director because it was quite a departure from his usual methodology.
“That’s why I love documentary,” he says. “I mean, I had never made a cinéma-verité film before. I love starting with no script, and life is really interesting, you know. Truth is stranger than fiction in that way.
“I took a dramatic form, the literary devices and merged them with the documentary, so the film is kind of like a hybrid,” he continues. “The film is created almost in a three-part classic dramatic way. And I had no idea, obviously, in starting the film, what to expect. I asked Woody, ‘What would you like the audience to feel at the end of the film?’ and he said, ‘I want people to feel hopeful.’ That’s all he said to me, the input that he gave me.”
While Harrelson’s journey provides the framework for the film, it’s really the transformation of his Will and Grace production assistant Steve that constitutes the dramatic arc of the film. As Steve changes from self-professed chain-smoker and fast-food junkie to eco-conscious yoga guy, he provides the audience with an extremely likeable anchor who they can relate to along the way.
“I had no idea that Steve was going to be on that bus,” Mann offers when asked about Steve’s entertaining role in the film. “He’s perfect, and Linda-I mean, how does that happen? To go along with the documentary thinking you’re making one movie, and then you go left.”
The Linda in question is a San Francisco University student that Steve tries to pick up along the way, and who ends up being recruited for a leg of the journey. While Mann had over 400 hours of footage to work with, as he began editing, he came to the conclusion that he had to let these characters’ real-life stories play themselves out. Steve also provides much of the humour of the film, something that Mann wanted to make sure he got across, especially in light of the public’s seeming distaste for environmental messages.
“From the 400 hours that I came back with, we had to really shape it so that it took a dramatic structure, and use comedy, because I think that comedy opens up ideas. Ideas happen,” Mann explains.
The director also uses what he calls “the elegance of Hollywood form” in order to reach as many people as possible.
“For me it was important to make a film that was accessible,” Mann points out. “Because it’s easy to get preachy about this. The environmental movement has been pretty earnest in its message, but has turned a lot of people off. I wanted to use music, for example (the film features interviews with and music by the likes of Natalie Merchant, Dave Matthews, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others). You know, you reach a lot more people through pop culture than you do through lecturing or sloganeering.”
With its timely message, Go Further is destined to be a festival hit as well as attain mainstream notoriety (especially coming on the heels of last year’s hit documentary, Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine). Chronicling an alternative lifestyle and demonstrating that one person can make a difference, it’s an extremely funny, moving, and entertaining film. In light of recent events such as mad cow disease, deadstock/Walkerton scandals, and the recent Big Blackout, Go Further is an important and opportune document (á la Columbine) reminding us that there are other facts and opinions not prescribed by mass media. Mann sees this phenomenon growing and says that it takes something like the blackout to make us see the folly of “the wrong road” that we as a society have taken.
“(When the blackout occurred), there was that idea that we somehow have to fear each other-what you expect to happen is that there’s going to be chaos, and instead what happened was that it was very orderly, and just the opposite,” Mann recalls of the recent power outage. “And it was great. I was very proud to be in this city. I mean, ultimately it’s about people power. I know this is going to sound so idealistic, but when I listen to Patti Smith’s song ‘People have the Power’, I still get stirred by that.
“‘People have the power/To move, to dream/To wrestle the world from fools…’ You know, that whole idea that somehow there’s this illusion that everything in the media is the way it should be. It’s just so wrong. And the blackout just takes away that veil, you know, and says, ‘No, this is the way we are.'”
