.7

by a long shot

he made his first film when he was 13, an 8mm family picture. ‘When I got behind the camera,’ recalls John Pozer, ‘family films took a sharp turn in their normal rendering.’

His first feature rendering had the same effect. Placing first in a field of eight impressive directorial debuts to win the Claude Jutra award, feature filmmaker Pozer now has great expectations to fulfil.

The film that enchanted the Claude Jutra award jury, The Grocer’s Wife, is set in a small town simmering in the pall of noxious fumes pouring from the huge factory that dominates it. Upon the demise of his demanding mother (she succumbs to the poisoned air), the protagonist, a smelter emissions checker, becomes the unwilling host to a stripper who refuses to leave… until the grocer’s wife gets involved.

It was a film that touched a chord internationally. In addition to honorable mention for best Canadian production at the Toronto Festival of Festivals (1991) and for best Canadian screenplay at the Vancouver International Film Festival (1991), The Grocer’s Wife took the Critic’s Best Foreign Film Award at the Prix Georges Sadoul in France (1992) and the Grand Prize for Drama and Prize of the City at the Figuera Da Foz International Film Festival in Portugal (1992). It was also the opening film for the French film critic’s week at the Cannes International Film Festival (1992).

Born in Kamloops, b.c., Pozer’s first foray into the arts came at the tender age of nine when he first began to appear in professional stage productions in b.c. He went on to pursue a formal arts education, and rounded out his masters degree in film from Concordia University with experience behind the camera, screenwriting, editing and directing.

His first professional film debut was in 1986, 156 and counting, which won a top-five placement at the b.c. Festival of the Arts. However at festival time, Pozer couldn’t help noticing they had curiously decided not to screen it. An auspicious yet ironic initiation into the film community.

The Michelle Apartments, his next project, so anxiously awaited by the Jutra award jury, promises to continue the Pozer tradition of taking people on a cinematic sharp turn. He’ll be working with producer Stavros Stavrides (H) and Steven Hegyes as assistant producer. The new feature is written by Ross Webber (they’re still friends after Ross camped in Pozer’s living room for eight months doing the sound edit on The Grocer’s Wife).

Pozer came in after first draft and they did revisions together. According to Pozer’s one-sentence pitch, the new film is about a tax auditor who goes to a small Ontario town to audit a large industrial factory; during this sojourn he takes a room at the Michelle Apartments where he is plunged into a world of sexual menace and anxiety.

Pozer plans to shoot in Ontario, and says he would like to work with the same team that shot his first feature, dop Peter Wunstorf, production designer Lynne Stopkewich and the Grocer’s crew. As to when, Pozer says, ‘The picture is already rolling in my brain,’ adding he was hoping to shoot last year, this year, and now next year. The budget is over $1 million.

In the meantime, Pozer is developing a screenplay from a stage play written by Simon Webb (Grocer’s lead). Fishtales is about four elderly women who sell their old rambling estate, move into a deluxe condo (with elderly parent in tow) and suddenly begin to croak.

He’s also working on some ideas of his own while trying to sort out his personal apartment scenario. Pozer just moved to Vancouver, his furniture still resides in Montreal and his clothes in Toronto.

As to what impact the Jutra award will have on his career, Pozer says: ‘This is an award for all the new talent in Canada. I think it’s going to help things move along in every way. The memory of Jutra, at the top of his craft… being a first-time filmmaker, it’s a challenge to live up to. I’ve got a long way to go in my craft.’ And a lot of ground to cover. Pozer is interested in honing more than just feature skills: ‘theater, commercials, I’m interested in a lot of things.’