Don’t let the laid-back, easy-going personality fool you. A conversation with director Pete Henderson requires research.

Know that Fred Flintstone had a Dinopeptic virus and had to be kept awake for 24 hours; know that the black widow spider crawls up Peter’s chest in part two, not part three, of The Brady Bunch Go To Hawaii; know tv subculture like the back of your hand, or be prepared to not keep up with the consummate Gen-X man.

At 31, Spy Films’ Henderson is at the mercy of a long-held slavish addiction to television, still amazed by the power of the tube to validate what the camera churns out, even on Super 8. It’s this weakness, though, that helped turn him into the strongest contender for arguably this year’s most coveted pool of beer ads, four spots for Molson’s ‘I Am Canadian’ campaign through MacLaren McCann, the last of which was released at the end of June.

‘Pete is the target group. He has their head space and really understood how to make it relevant for them,’ says Rick Davis, executive vp, chief creative officer at MacLaren McCann and creative director on the ‘I Am’ campaign.

Translating Henderson’s head space onto paper is arguably more difficult. The inflections aren’t scribeable, the delivery is impossible to communicate. The humor doesn’t translate well in print, but here goesÉ

Henderson is attracting a lot of attention this year after being selected to helm 24 days of shooting for Molson with two years of picture and sound editing, a Juno-nominated music video, and a couple of commercials under his belt.

Still two credits short of a degree in film from Ryerson Polytechnic University, he fell into freelance editing in 1988, joined The Revolver Film Company a couple of years later, and directed videos for The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo and Doughboys, and commercials for Kellogg’s and Pepsi. With Spy since last year, Henderson had worked with The Barenaked Ladies and The Watchmen when the Molson job came through in March.

The ‘I Am’ spots, which have been on timed release since May, come in the wake of a pack of Marketing Award-winning spots for the same campaign last year, directed by Imported Artists’ Richard D’Alessio.

He’d be the last one to show it, but Henderson felt some pressure going into the job.

‘Last year’s (spots) were great, but I needed to remember them and then forget them. If it looked copied, I knew that would cook me. But at the same time I didn’t want to take it away from what it is: unrehearsed, in the moment, from the hip.’

With the exception of a little squabbling that the first two montages are a bit like the first pool, the critics have been generous.

‘Artistically, I prefer this year’s batch. They’ve used some archival material and blended more elements, and I like the way it moves,’ says Peter McHugh, creative director at Fallon McElligott.

Whatever the critics have to say, Henderson’s work has left the agency excited. The core idea still exists, but it has moved ahead on an emotional level, says Davis. There’s more of a connection between the country, the people, and the brand and the visuals are richer, fuller, more expressive.

‘It’s bigger emotionally, and what Pete brought was this great enthusiasm and his innocence. He didn’t try and dominate it but he controlled it at the same time, which we really liked. Pete also doesn’t have a pretentious bone in his body, and this campaign needed to be very unpretentious in its approach. He’s incredibly eager to learn, but with all this talent,’ says Davis.

It seems all a little out of scale for a guy whose motto is I Can Glue Things (What did Bobby say when Mike Brady asked him what he would do for a living if he ran away from home? ‘WellÉI can glue things.’)

But in retrospect, it was a perfect project to launch a career on, says Henderson. ‘It utilized all the youthful energy I’ve had to tap into making music videos for the past three years.’

Shooting March through April, the crew shuttled from Mexico to Vancouver, Banff, Toronto, and Montreal, leaving behind a trail of token travel nightmares like pink eye, burnt feet, an attack by a flying fish, and latent Montezuma’s. ‘We left Mexico healthy, but four days later, in a little hotel room in Vancouver, Mexico finds you. Production meetings over the phone in eight bathrooms,’ says Henderson.

With the acid test behind him, Henderson isn’t sure what’s next on the agenda. He’s just back from a month in Europe. In the long run, it’ll be more commercials, with an eye to career management and moving forward not back with the next project. The ‘I Am’ spots have their place in a reel that stylistically flails all over the place, which may pay off in the end, says Henderson.

In the meantime, despite the attention, he’s not taking it too seriously. As incredible an experience as the last few months have been, it’s advertising, not art, says Henderson.

‘I lend what I am and the people react to me. It’s all these laser points coming at you and you’ve got to send them out in one direction. But this is easy. Watch enough tv, learn how to glue things, and you’re set.’