We interviewed filmmaker Marie Clements and artist Niall McNeil, the star of her movie Lay Down Your Coronary heart. They tackled the challenges of filming a people-centred movie throughout COVID, the chosen households that usually emerge inside theatre communities, and the numerous methods artwork invitations you to open your coronary heart.
What can audiences anticipate from Lay Down Your Coronary heart?
Marie: We hope that they’ll be launched to Mr. Niall McNeil and his work. How he creates and the way he has introduced each his blood household and his theatre household collectively on this distinctive creation.
Niall: I believe the viewers will be capable of see the film, and after the movie we could have a talkback about what we bear in mind.
Have you ever ever been part of a movie like this one?
Niall: No, truly, I’ve executed different movies. This one is all new to me. I used to be in Marie’s different brief movie. I used to be in Marie’s two brief movies already, and I really like making movie. I wish to work with Marie behind the scenes.
Lay Down Your Coronary heart, Marie Clements, supplied by the Nationwide Movie Board of Canada
How did you two meet, and is that this your first venture collectively?
Niall: Effectively, let’s return all the best way to once I first met her. I met her when my aunt Paula [Danckert], which is my aunt, launched us to Marie. She’s been a long-term good friend to Marie for a number of years, and Paula involves Bones of Crows, which is her movie—she’s a dramaturge. So which means, I believe, me and Marie are pals, we’re not truly full companions. So yeah, like I stated, this movie, I’ve expertise in movie and I’ve obtained to be actually affected person together with her [laughter], and in addition I used to be in one other movie known as Pilgrims that Marie directed—it was me and Kevin [Loring].
Marie: I used to be launched to Niall by his aunt Paula, who’s within the theatre and who I’ve labored with carefully on and off for 20 years. I met Ni and his mother, Joan. They’d come to completely different productions that I used to be doing, and I began going to completely different productions that Niall had written and was performing in. And so we simply sort of met and commenced to go see one another’s work, supporting one another after we had premieres after which going out for dinner and speaking about our work and the folks we had been working with, good and dangerous [laughter]. After which I used to be casting a brief movie, and I solid Ni in it with Kevin Loring and Lorne Cardinal they usually actually did a tremendous job. Typically Ni comes on set in early manufacturing and does work of what he hears within the first reads of a script. So this started a good friend/household relationship.
What was it wish to work collectively on this movie?
Niall: Engaged on this movie collectively was a bit bit difficult. I needed to be smarter, and I really like working in movie as a result of I need to be skilled for NFB, however I’m a part of the NFB for six years and I’ve been working together with her since. I used to be her video digicam takeover—his title is Mike McKinlay and he labored on The Highway Ahead with Marie. It’s one other movie I labored on with him. I did the behind-scenes documenting and utilizing my digicam, and she or he’s directing, and I movie that means.
Marie: Yeah, Ni got here and did a number of the background classes on The Highway Ahead, after which after all we labored with Mike McKinlay. He was our DOP on The Highway Ahead, but in addition on Lay Down Your Coronary heart. And James Boatman was a manufacturing designer on The Highway Ahead and now Lay Down Your Coronary heart, so we have a tendency to love to work with the identical crew as a result of they’re actually good and it may be enjoyable.
Marie, what impressed you to make this movie?
Marie: Paula and I had been speaking about Ni’s work, and I used to be excited about his physique of labor that was stacking up. He’s simply been creating and creating, and I assumed it might be cool to ask him questions like ‘What are you creating now?’ and ‘What conjures up you?’ We initially began speaking about household, after which our relationship got here up. And since I didn’t know some issues, I requested Ni about it. He had advised me early on I used to be his ex-wife and he was my ex-husband, and I didn’t know the way that got here to be.
With so many artistic folks on set, what was the working dynamic like on this movie?
Niall: Effectively, it was sort of, it was actually sophisticated at first. Folks in Montreal, we needed to go there, Colin and Manon are pals of ours. Manon’s mother and father are handed away, so I turn out to be their dad. Ajneen is one among my ex-wives. It’s sophisticated, . And a part of it’s we discuss how I meet them, the way to know them—I’ve been figuring out them since 1991. I’d return to Montreal, Quebec, for my son’s sixtieth birthday. So yeah, it’s laborious to create a household, as a result of my mother and father… properly, my mother is a grandma however not technically but.
Marie: I simply felt actually privileged to have the ability to discuss to everybody, and it was nice to go throughout the nation Zoom-wise and discuss in a deeper means about {our relationships} and about how Ni creates them, how he creates with them, who they’re to me and who they aren’t to me. Are they my son? Are they my daughter? Every single day, each second was alive, and nothing was staged. We didn’t actually know what was going to occur, it simply occurred within the second, and I felt it was very true to who and what we’re. All of those persons are extraordinarily gifted artists, however they’re additionally actually cool folks. So we had lots of enjoyable.
Niall: Yeah, we did.
What was it wish to movie through the pandemic?
Niall: Oh boy! The pandemic is hurting us. Throughout the movie we needed to put on masks, and I needed to hold myself and she or he and I needed to cut up up. Effectively, that’s the explanation why we’re doing Zoom, as a result of Colin and Manon had been on one facet of the opposite room as a result of we don’t need to cross any COVID. That’s why we had conferences and let folks know to offer house. Working in movie is nice, however not with the COVID.
Marie: It was a bit of labor to determine how we may do it, as a result of we initially thought we’d journey throughout the nation—fly there, hang around and do it in particular person.
Niall: It was simply me and Marie within the crew and probably not my mom. Mother is the one caregiver I’ve. If we did go throughout nation, I might be so drained.
Marie: There was a little bit of pleasure doing it throughout COVID actuality, as a result of we did get to speak and we had been capable of see folks on Zoom and create one thing, hopefully, that was distinctive to us, but in addition distinctive to the time it was. We couldn’t all be in the identical room, and households like to be in the identical room, so it was a present to have the ability to do that.
Marie, since working with Niall and on this venture, what have you ever taken from his household construction? Do you apply a few of this openness of bringing folks into your individual household?
Marie: I believe we’ve been fortunate, rising up in theatre, to know that having a blood household is a given, however lots of occasions in theatre and movie you are likely to undertake folks that you simply love. Our households develop after we acknowledge one another with our hearts, and I believe that’s what Ni has all the time led with, and it’s actual. He advised me very early on in our relationship that I used to be his ex-wife and that we had been going to be pals. We broke up however we’re nonetheless lifelong pals. And I believe that’s one thing Ni could be very clear on. He understands that higher than most individuals I do know, that relationships morph.
Niall: Yeah, that’s true, however the true half is Marie is an effective good friend of mine. And what’s actual is Marie and I had been working collectively, and never the opposite means round. I do need to work together with her continuously, however proper now she’s doing a TV sequence, Bones of Crows, and so as we speak is the one day I can see her. And I’m probably not deep in love together with her—I missed her as a good friend, not the “ex” elements.
Marie: Relationships change they usually transition, and it doesn’t imply that our hearts will not be nonetheless related ultimately as pals.
What are your plans for after the movie?
Marie: He’s doing lots of stuff—he has a lot on the go.
Niall: Effectively, I’ve a composite grant for 3 tasks. One is for Cowboy Tempest Cabaret with Lucy and I. We’ve been figuring out one another since… a very long time, long-term pals since 2016. We discuss what’s happening with Tempest and all that sort of stuff. That’s my venture there, that’s one.
The opposite one is completed, it’s known as The Originals. It’s a documentary and I doc individuals who began the Caravan Farm Theatre—that’s Elia Kirby, Tallis Kirby, Sergio Kirby and Paul and Nans [Kirby]. These 5 folks began it up in 1971 or 1972. That’s two.
And I’m doing Magnificence within the Beast My Life, and it’s all about me as an artist and the way I dictate my phrases. And I get a brand new pc fairly quickly. After which I’m doing a pair little clips of Vancouver as properly, to doc, and I’m actually busy. I work in a grocery retailer so I can’t actually focus.
Going again to Lay Down Your Coronary heart, within the very starting, my character is sort of taking part in the commander and my character is unhappy I obtained shot within the mind. Do you [Marie] need to discuss that?
Marie: What I discovered is that I met Ni when he got here again from the conflict, and he had suffered a extremely dangerous wound within the head. That’s once I noticed him and hopefully helped him, after which that’s after we obtained to know one another. He was a commander within the conflict.
Have you ever seen Lay Down Your Coronary heart?
Niall: Sure, I believe it’s rather well executed. I actually need to see it once more, however on a giant display screen. We have to discuss to any person who can. I need to go to the whole lot with out the COVID hassle. I used to be considering the COVID-19 assessments, and if we don’t have COVID that’s good after which we are able to journey to see folks in Toronto and put up the movie and go to the movie festivals.
Was the movie what you pictured it might be?
Niall: I believe so, yeah.
What do you hope the viewers takes away from the movie?
Marie: I hope that individuals take into consideration their very own households and the households that they’ve created in a means that’s open-hearted and with out judgment. And that there’s pleasure in recognizing folks for who they’re. I hope that individuals get to know Mr. Niall McNeill and his artwork work and the way his course of as an artist has all the time been this inclusion of all issues—and generally on the similar time, which affords unbelievable pleasure.
Niall: I believe it’s good to have my children will go, ‘Yeah, go Dad.’ I believe it’s good to have a celebration on the premiere, and I believe which will occur in Vancouver/Toronto. We didn’t discuss concerning the travelling, however we’ll discuss to my producer Shirley Vercruysse about if we are able to journey, and we have to get some papers to signal about following the principles about COVID. I need to begin that so the viewers can look, watch it, suppose, sleep on it and say, ‘Hey, properly executed and the way can we donate? If Marie needs that or not. It’s actually as much as her and her firm.’
Marie: What we wish is folks to donate us cash for our subsequent venture [laughter].
What do you’re feeling once you watch the movie, Marie?
Marie: I don’t all the time know the place we’re going, however I’m completely happy to go along with him and completely happy to see what’s forward. ‘What’s the chance? What now? The place are we? What’s going to occur?’ Plenty of nice questions for artwork minds, but in addition that we now have discovered a sort of residence that features what we do and who we’re.
Niall, you might be such a flexible artist, what’s your favorite medium?
Niall: I generally go into my studio and do some collage. If I did have a nap that day, I rise up recent and my head is clean after which I’m going to my studio. I sit for a minute and resolve what ought to I paint and what’s my story in direction of the paint. It’s not simply portray, it’s sketches. As a substitute of doing artwork I do filming—I’ve to practise that with Alex, within the morning half I’d try this. Practising with hand grips, to get higher with my digicam for filming. And the appearing half I’m actually good at, and I can’t bear in mind off the highest of my head what I did.
How lengthy have you ever been appearing?
Niall: Since I used to be 5. The yr I used to be born was 1982. I used to be born in Ottawa and all of my life my mother and father took me to the farm, the Caravan, since I used to be a bit child, till I’m 40. That’s 40 years in the past I used to be on the farm. So I’m a real authentic Caravan child.
What’s the message of Lay Down Your Coronary heart?
Marie: I suppose what I discovered from it was to be open and to obtain folks in our lives and allow them to take their place as rightful relations, as a result of it’s less complicated and extra sophisticated and it’s typically excellent. That these relationships are essential and are available to us for a cause.
Niall, what was it like having all your loved ones working collectively on this movie?
Niall: My massive household, my-blood associated household, is my dad and his kids. And he’s so far-off and he’s getting older, and having household is tiring. I’m going to see my dad, I don’t know what month. And my household that me and Marie made, like Steven, Lois and Colin, they’re adults now they usually have their very own children, and she or he’s the mother, I’m the dad. And the opposite household, the Niall McNeil household, one of many kids stated, ‘Hey Dad, wanna hang around with me, Dad?’ That’s the one one phrase they’ll say—they’ll say my title or a father or mother’s title. I agree with Ms. Clements, saying earlier we must always journey nevertheless it’s not secure. I’ve my day program tomorrow, and Mother’s coming too, from 10 to three.
Marie, how did the movie evolve from the preliminary thought?
Marie: Ni and I had jammed on some concepts that he was enthusiastic about speaking about and taking a look at and investigating, after which we proposed that to the NFB. After we obtained into manufacturing we ran with Ni’s creativeness, and so a few of these authentic concepts are completely within the movie, however then we went to locations that we didn’t anticipate to. It’s consultant of how artists work, how we suggest issues and the way we modify issues after we are inside it. We had been true to that. The character of it was all the time shifting, altering, getting greater or brighter or weirder. In order that’s actually the way it all developed.
In the event you needed to describe the movie in a couple of phrases, how would you?
Marie: I really like the title, as a result of actually it’s suggesting that you must lay down your coronary heart—lay it down, be open, lay down your life and see what occurs. I believe the title actually fits it: witnessing folks laying down their hearts, not being afraid to have interaction with one another and being open to no matter occurs. How would you describe it, Niall?
Niall: Effectively, I really like the title, I need to hold it that means. I did a script and stage manufacturing of King Arthur’s Evening, with Marcus Youssef, and I named that music “Lay Down Your Coronary heart” from the lyrics I made up for King Arthur’s Evening at Neworld Theatre.
What’s subsequent?
Niall: After the movie is finished, I’m going to relaxation. I don’t know what Marie goes to do. I believe that’s good for me. I believe this truly may be a kick-ass movie.