The latest feature from Vancouver transplant Reginald Harkema (A Girl Is a Girl), Monkey Warfare is the writer/director’s wry, witty and anachronistic send-up of aging revolutionaries, Molotov cocktails and lots and lots of potent B.C. bud.
University of Toronto alumnus Don McKellar (director of acclaimed Can-con flicks Last Night and Childstar)and Tracy Wright (Picture Claire, Superstar) play an off-the-grid, anti-establishment, dumpster-diving bohemian couple, whose passion-both for political upheaval and each other-died out ages ago. They self-medicate by smoking bales of pot, trying to erase the lingering guilt from one night when their revolutionary agitation backfired badly.
The pair eke out their meagre existence by selling curiosities culled from the trash of Parkdale to collectors online. All of this is turned on its head when their pot dealer is busted and they must turn to Susan, a young supplier played by Nadia Litz, to deliver their goods. Susan takes an interest not only in the couple, but also what they have to say on the cultural lessons of the militant sixties-and their method of equipping bicycles with SUV-maiming armaments.
The Varsity spoke to Harkema by phone last week regarding his own self-described “sporadic” and slightly embarrassed involvement with politics.
“When I was a late teenager, under the sway and influence of punk rock, I got involved with the Green Party and did some canvassing and so on. But when you’re young and idealistic like that, you have no patience and you want immediate results, and the Green Party is a long-term project. So I drifted off from that, and became disillusioned with politics.”
Harkema recalls how his rebel spirit was reignited after 9/11, at the age of 34. “I remember printing up bumper stickers protesting big oil and slapping them on gas stations. But having printed them on the wrong paper, they all fell down. Seems to be a pretty good metaphor for my activist efforts.”
Wright and McKellar, a couple in real life, also spoke with us about their own flirtations with activism. While Wright plainly dismisses her involvement as a brief stint with a couple of anti-nuke protests, McKellar remembers living with activists. “I lived in a house-a sort of activist house-with a co-op on Beverly St. where you had to sign a declaration of your political commitment before you got in. So I met a lot of people there who were activists and anarchists, and people like the people in the film. I didn’t do a lot of protests, but I was involved with some ‘other action.'” He readily admits that sounds a bit weird.
The film itself is cleverly modeled after French New Wave, a film movement that had suggested that the idea of revolutionary activism may no longer hold a place in North American culture, where contentment with (and indebtedness to) the status quo overrides an outdated romantic need for change.
“People turn it into a fad,” Harkema comments. “To those of us in the western consumerist society, revolution has become more of a Che Guevara t-shirt to wear. I’ve been viewing political activism as kind of a quixotic affair. I personally think we’ve gone past the curve of saving the human species from extinction, and that those who are attempting to do so are taking a run at windmills. But at the same time, I’m certainly on the sidelines cheering them on.”
However, Harkema’s own anti-establishment convictions were loud and clear when it came to the subject of getting Monkey Warfare to the big screen. Receiving only hand-me-down support from Telefilm, Harkema’s production was majorly underfinanced, the total budget ringing in at just about a quarter of a million dollars. The effects of this can be seen in the picture, with a cast of only three leads and minimal supporting and extra characters.
Harkema explains that the lack of support for this distinctly local production was due to the fact that “it wasn’t a fluffy romantic comedy that aspired to be a big commercial hit like My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” In effect, the determined director, along with his producers, had to scrape together whatever financing they could receive, at times resorting to guerilla filmmaking. Harkema himself fronted about fifty-six thousand dollars from his personal line of credit, which forced him to keep retreating to work on other projects just to make ends meet.
“The biggest struggle for me is that I have to keep fucking off to Vancouver to edit projects. That keeps me away from my life, the woman I love, and my cat. Try going away from your life for five months to scrape together some money to keep the bank at bay. It’s not fun. Meanwhile Telefilm is financing all numbers of crappy movies to people who can stay, and have their home life, and perhaps buy nice pieces of furniture instead of finding it on the street like we have to.”
There is some bitter solace for Harkema though, as he notes the underperformance of projects picked by Telefilm’s former executive director Richard Stursberg.
“It’s very satisfying to me to see a lot of these films that were green-lit as an outcome of the Stursberg regime of Telefilm, which were essentially designed to be commercial romantic comedy hits for the American market, just fucking nosedive.” Meanwhile Harkema’s own film was deservedly awarded a special jury prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, for proudly exhibiting its “indie spirit of the north.”
Monkey Warfare is now bracing for its Toronto premiere at the newly refurbished Royal Cinema, which re-opens its doors on December 15. It promises to be an interesting affair, with Harkema, McKellar and Litz in attendance on opening night for a Q&A after the film. “I’m really excited about the Royal opening again,” comments McKellar. “Hopefully it will be a big blowout.”
FILM review
Monkey Warfare
Directed by Reg Harkema
Starring Don McKellar,
Tracy Wright, Nadia Litz
Rating: VVVv
