Stories are the most important aspect of being human. Stories are how we understand our history, our culture, ourselves and each other. Folk Stories, fairy tales, legends, myths and fables all have their roots somewhere, and that ‘where’ was originally in a community; beginning with a single storyteller and then morphing and shifting with each telling and with each storyteller who tells it.
Stories are alive.
For Bowen Fables we selected several stories from the Bowen Island Museum and Archives and used them as a - once upon a time - for our short films. All of the stories in the Bowen Fables collection have a kernel of truth in them; they are all based on events that happened, right here on Bowen Island. But, like fairy tales and myths, over the course of the workshops and with the various community members who dropped in to contribute time, ideas and expertise they have spun off into the fantastic.
I was invited by Bowen Island Museum and Archives to develop a community arts project using images and other archival materials. At the time, I was making a self-directed shadow-puppet film and experimenting with transparencies as backgrounds.
Shadow puppetry is labour-intensive, but that makes it well suited for a collaborative, hands-on project: there were many different ways for people to contribute.
I partnered with artist, puppeteer and fellow islander Liz Nankin to bring the community together to create stories that drew on old maps, letters, postcards and photographs while weaving in local legends and commentary on Bowen Island community life.
We began the project by meeting with historian and museum Executive Director Cathy Bayly to discuss periods in Bowen Island’s documented settler history.
The project’s budget and timeframe did not allow us to establish an appropriate relationship with, and properly compensate, Indigenous knowledge holders and creative collaborators. For this series we chose not to include an Indigenous storyline without Indigenous participation.
Over several months we hosted drop-in sessions on most weekends. During the script-development phase Cathy Bayly talked us through selected objects from the museum.
We selected four initial storylines through group voting. We approached the writing with a “never say no until we have to” attitude, saying yes to every suggestion. After two weeks of community input, I took the stories and edited them into shootable scripts. Sometimes we shot a scene two different ways and made the final decision in the edit.
Each film was created by the community members who came that day. There was always plenty to do: operating or making puppets, rehearsing puppet movements, organising materials by scene, or simply watching the mayhem unfold.
Once filming was complete, I edited the footage and gathered feedback from Liz, Cathy and participating community members.
We completed four films in the Bowen Fables series. They have since been screened on multiple occasions by the museum and Bowen Island Municipality. Audio-described versions have also recently been created for blind audiences.
MAGIC:
I was captivated the first time I saw pictures from a camera obscura. I loved the ethereal quality of the light, the upsidedownness that made it seem otherwordly. It seemed mysterious, despite the simplicity of the construction. I didn't believe it.
Years later I borrowed a book from the library on early motion picture technology, and there was a section on the camera obscura, and instructions for building a small version.
I built several increasingly larger models. Each time it was like magic, on the screen would appear the world, upside down, but so vivid, so familiar but not real, dreamlike.
It didn’t matter what you put in front of the camera obscura, just the context of it made it seem like something you might call art.
It might just be the mechanics of making it.
There is something crazy about poking a hole in a sealed cardboard box, taping a dollar store magnifying glass on it and then seeing an image of the world appear from a small ray of light.
I had become obsessed with making camera obscuras from various sized cardboard boxes, but I really wanted the experience of walking inside a room-sized version. I applied to build one at a local community festival on Bowen Island.
After finding instructions for building a camera obscura in a book about old-school camera technologies I began experimenting. I decided to build them so I could capture the image digitally, I had originally intended to build one for film, but as scale became more interesting I was focused more on creating the image and then capturing it on my digital camera. I built several increasingly larger models.
I was at the farmer's market when I had the idea of building the walk-in model from a pop-up tent and cardboard. After much experimenting I borrowed some theatre blacks, and just kept the front of the camera cardboard so I could cut the whole.
It became a central part of that year's bow-fest; people were fascinated by the idea that a simple ray of light could contain an image of the whole world.
Beside the camera obscura tent I placed a table with the prototypes I had made for people to play with, and I printed out diagrams of how the camera worked.
Young people in smaller coastal communities in British Columbia often have limited opportunities to explore filmmaking and other creative practices. Over three summers, I developed and delivered Mobile Film Camp, a programme that gave young people the opportunity to create their own short films.
Each camp brought together up to ten participants, divided into age groups of 8–11 and 12–14, for five full days. The young filmmakers developed story ideas, selected which films to make and worked together to write scripts, create storyboards and shot lists, rehearse, and design costumes, props and make-up—including buckets of fake blood.
Each group produced two films, allowing participants to try different creative and technical roles. They decided who would direct, operate the camera, act, and work on make-up, props and other production tasks. On the final day, each participant edited a version of the footage. After the camps, I completed any unfinished edits while preserving the young filmmakers’ creative decisions and prepared the films for public screening.
The programme was delivered in several coastal British Columbia communities, including Bowen Island, Sechelt and Squamish. At the end of the season, I returned to each community to present a screening of films made across all the participating towns.
Along with practical filmmaking, participants explored media literacy: how advertising and marketing work, how editing shapes a story, the social context of online media, and how to establish personal boundaries around screen time. The aim was to help young people become active media-makers rather than passive consumers.
"How to Tame a Man: Origins of Beauty and the Beast" traces the popular fairytale Beauty and the Beast to its origins through mythology, folklore, and literature. This video essay examines the symbolism of the "animal bridegroom" motif and how stories of taming the masculine have been woven into our collective unconscious for centuries. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Disney's modern adaptations, this essay examines how these narratives reflect shifting social and gender dynamics, while revealing the enduring fascination with transformation, love, and power.
My approach to production for COBD was not to shoot 'a video' but shoot content we could reuse over a number of productions at different stages of the Capital Campaign, for different audiences and across various platforms. This allowed for the maximum use of a small budget. This video is for use on social, under a minute and can be understood without sound, (or without picture).
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