Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Canada

Birth of the Smoked Meat
2006 Winners of the Kodak Imaging Award at the 37th Canadian Student Film Festival; Jeannette Pope and Zoe Mapp

For Zoe Mapp and Jeanette Pope, showing their short documentary “Birth of the Smoked Meat” as part of the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Program at Cannes was an opportunity to display their cherished community to the entire world. “It exposed [us] to an international market, the likes of which I would never have access to in Canada,” Says Mapp. “We have since played our film in five countries since last year, all through having seen our work at the Short Film Corner,”  adds Pope.

“Birth of the Smoked Meat”, about the making of a Montreal delicacy, was made at the behest of the filmmakers’ friend Stanley Lewis. Lewis, a Montreal sculptor, was the subject of the filmmaking team’s first documentary “Where’s Stanley”. “He insisted we take on this project, which brought us the success we’ve had,” recounts Pope. The filmmakers even pay homage to his influence in “Smoked Meat”, as the food makes its way from delivery at the back of the restaurant to Stanley Lewis’ dinner plate.

Mapp and Pope’s third project, “Berson Boys”, concerns the art of headstone engraving in the oldest business on the Boulevard St. Laurent and completes the trilogy of films regarding this bastion of the Montreal community. Lewis lived above the Bersons’ engraving business, and the chronicle of their workday brings the tour around  Montreal’s culturally dense zone known as “The Main” full circle.

The area has been so inspirational to both Pope and Mapp, that Pope’s next project, an animated short titled “Up & Down the City Road” also concerns the gentrification and destruction “The Main” faces today. Since an animated project heavily relies on planning every image, Pope and Mapp used their documentary trilogy as an opportunity to capture the spontaneous reality as it took place. “The whole time we took chances as this was documentary, it was real time, no second take-we had one chance and that was that,” explains Pope, “we had to have ears, eyes and feet everywhere. We had to be very fast as well as balanced.”

Filming a documentary that encompassed the entire routine of the Bersons in a short schedule proved difficult, especially considering the sensitive nature of the Bersons’ work. “It was the close of the season,” recounts Pope, “the Boys, who work the session intensely, were very tired, we had to be very careful how we treated them as well as stay out of the way of grieving families…we only had four days to get what we could.”

For “Berson Boys”, Pope and Mapp shot on Super 16 Kodak 500Vision color film. Rather than using video, they opted for film, “because everything about film fits with the organic nature of our project,” Pope explains, “’Berson Boys’ needed the saturation film could give.” The two previous films were shot in black-and-white, but “Berson Brothers” marked a shift to color film. “We chose [Super 16] in order to maintain aesthetic continuity with the two other short documentaries shot in a similar style,” says Mapp. “As a good portion of the film was shot in low lighting conditions, I was not confident that video would register the blacks with the same richness as film.”

The documentary continued the filmmakers’ collaboration with Mexican cinematographer Glauco Bermudez. “Once the aesthetic has been discussed and planned, we leave the work to the DP,” says Mapp of their collaboration. “We had worked with him for ‘Birth of the Smoked Meat’, and I had worked with him for ‘Where’s Stanley’. We loved his angular way of shooting, and due to a very close relationship which has lasted over 5 years, we could push for what we wanted, and he instinctively understood,” says Pope.

Pope and Mapp used very simple setups to get their desired effect, as the documentary style required them to move quickly. Bermudez proved very flexible with these demands, and Pope recalls how he managed to get unique, detailed shots eve under such restrictions: “Lighting was sparse. Two 500k lamps. When Harry is sandblasting the stone, we go deep into the matter of inscriptions. Glauco built his own lens protector so he could get right into the sandblast sparks. This was a handheld moment, but one of great stillness.”

A variety of lenses were employed during filming-10mm, 16mm, 50mm, and more. “We like to work with the wider angled lenses,” jokes Pope. Bermudez’s dramatic use of lenses, rack focuses, and still tripod shots allowed for a “dramatic, 50’s look”, while still allowing much of the stillness and contemplation Pope and Mapp saw in the Bersons’ work.

As Mapp and Pope’s work on their documentary trilogy come to a close, a slew of new projects are presenting themselves. They will be expanding “Where’s Stanley” into a feature-length documentary in honor of the artist, who passed at the age of 75. Also, Pope will be making her short animated film based on “The Main”. Despite exposure to the international community through the Cannes Film Festival, Jeanette Pope and Zoe Mapp’s home’s affect on the filmmakers is as indelible as ever.