One of Canada’s newest film production companies, operating from the Montreal home of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, is bringing its English-language documentary debut to the Vancouver International Film Festival next month.

JuJu Films, set up last year by the third of Trudeau’s four sons, Alexandre, and his longtime friends and partners Booker Sim and Malcolm Hearn, is currently translating the 60-minute film Liberia: A Documentary into English in time for its festival screening. The doc debuted at the Vues d’Afrique festival in Montreal last April. Trudeau says they are also re-editing the film into a 46-minute version to pitch to broadcasters both here and abroad.

According to Sim, the few broadcasters who have seen the film have rejected it as ‘a little strange, a little radical,’ so the producers are spending the summer ‘trying to make it a little more accessible.’

To date, there have reportedly been nibbles from CBC Newsworld for its Passionate Eye strand, but the filmmakers figure most of the interest in the project will come from overseas, particularly the u.k.’s Channel 4 and zdf in Germany.

‘Hopefully the interest for this kind of story is better in the u.k., which normally has more of its eyes turned towards Africa than Canada does,’ says Trudeau.

The film was shot over three months in spring 1997 in the war-torn country on digital video, 16mm film and Hi-8 with a budget of about $85,000. (The trio took their company name from the Juju warriors in Liberia.) The original version is crudely shot and edited, a style Trudeau says reflects his lack of experience as a filmmaker.

‘We didn’t need a big crew, or a lot of money, or a lot of film experience to tell this story,’ he explains. ‘It’s not that the production values weren’t important but that it also seemed somewhat appropriate that it should be done in a raw way. In fact, it couldn’t be done otherwise. It probably would have been impossible to bring in a big crew. It really had to be done guerrilla style.’

Alexandre Trudeau, more commonly known as Sacha, has largely avoided the spotlight since his father left public life. In 1996, he made headlines when he was disciplined for going awol from CFB Gagetown while serving as a second lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Hussars. Last year he graduated with a degree in philosophy from McGill University.

‘Philosophy is my passion in one way, but it’s quite clear to me that the relevant way to express oneself in the world today is through television and film,’ explains Trudeau, now 25. ‘It’s always been clear to me that I wanted to do films. My passion for film is enormous, too. I love cinema.’

Trudeau admits his pedigree hasn’t hurt his efforts to promote the film.

‘I don’t think it necessarily helps because obviously my name has nothing to do with the story,’ he says. ‘It certainly doesn’t harm. It helped in the past to make people aware of the movie, if not necessarily for the movie itself.’

Trudeau says he hopes to make a living as a doc filmmaker and has signed on to produce a short film for Newsworld which he hopes will let him explore Canada’s Inuit and Native people. ‘I guess you can’t help it if you’re a doc filmmaker in Canada, having some awareness of the north as an incredible place to make movies,’ he adds.

The Newsworld gig is only a diversion, though, before Trudeau and his JuJu partners take on another project. ‘We all want to take a bit of a breather,’ he explains. ‘It’s a question of clearing my mind space and then take on the burden of another project.’