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Grey Matters

The Grandmaster at The Winnipeg Folk Festival

photo courtesy Sara Montour

Here's a great shot of The Grandmaster at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I was not there, but I did get some footage from a local videographer, Derek Eidse, who I hired for one day of the festival. Initial reports are that everything went really well and it sounds like Derek got some good footage. I won't see the tapes until I get to Canada next week, so I am very eager for that.

What strikes me about this photo is you can see that GM has a few white hairs in his beard. I just noticed that about him a few days ago when he stopped by after getting back from Winnipeg. Of course I too am starting to find the odd grey hair on my own head, so just who is giving whom grey hairs?

I can't believe that I will be in Calgary in less than a week. It will be great to get on the road and spend some serious time working on the documentary. But it will also be nice to be back in Canada for a few weeks as well. I love Belize, but it's nice to go back to Canada and not be the foreigner for a little while.

I have to send my post-production grant application off to Cinergia before I leave. I've got most of the paper work ready, it's just the task of cutting a trailer that is left to be done. Just that... cut a 5 minute trailer from 25 hours of raw footage. How hard can that be? Maybe I better get started on this weekend, eh?

See, my accent is coming back and I haven't even left Belize, eh?

Time

Here's a clip of The Grandmaster performing "Time" with Amarillo Cyan y Magenta at the Papaya Music Festival in Costa Rica.

Different Different

Here's a clip of The Grandmaster performing "Different Different" with Amarillo Cyan y Magenta at the Papaya Music Festival in Costa Rica.

I Cry

Here's a clip of The Grandmaster performing "I Cry" with Amarillo Cyan y Magenta at The Papaya Music Festival in Costa Rica.

No love from Canada

The folk festivals in Canada may love The Grandmaster, but obviously the Canada Council for the Arts does not. Or at least they don't love my documentary.

Last year I asked the CCA for $16,000 to shoot my film. They said no. But thanks to a $4000 grant from Cinergia I got enough cash to at least cover most of my out of pocket costs. That allowed me to still shoot my doc. Of course it meant I've been basically working for free on this thing, but hey it's a labour of love, right?

So this year I felt confident that if I showed the CCA how I was able to shoot enough material for a great documentary, with virtually no budget, then for sure they would want to get behind me with support for post-production. Right?

Wrong.

I got the PFA letter from CCA again. And this time they made sure to point out that my project has been turned down twice, so not to bother them again until I have a different project to submit.

The deadline for Cinergia is coming up at the end of July. So before I leave for Canada I will submit a grant application for post-production to them and hope that once again I'll find the love in Central America that escapes me in the country of my birth.

Let the festivals begin

Last night was GM's first performance of the summer festival tour. I was not there, but I hired a local camerman, Jacob Zehr, to shoot for me. Initial reports are everything went well and Jacob got some good material for the doc.

The folks at the Victoria Folk Festival were amazingly helpful. Big thanks to Colin, Shelly, and Tracy at the ICA!

GM plays at Winnipeg this weekend. I'm hiring another local shooter, Derek Eides, in the 'Peg to collect footage for me.

I just booked my flight to Calgary today. I'm arriving in Cowtown on July 27. GM is scheduled to perform on July 29 & 30 at that festival. Following Calgary I'm going to head to Vancouver to visit friends and family for a while. That will be my base of operations with trips to Regina and Salmon Arm festivals in August. I'm coming home to Belize via Seattle on August 23.