Michael Buckley is a filmmaker who creates powerful, resonant images. As serendipity would have it – and most fortuitously for the coproducers of Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story – he is very familiar with shooting with Canadians, but his life and home are in Cape Town, South Africa.

So when Motion International of Montreal and South Africa’s Ballistic Pictures planned the crew for the $4.6-million tv movie that would tell the inspiring story of Dr. Teasdale’s medical career in tumultuous Uganda, Buckley made a logical choice for dop. His efforts to give the film a natural feel, to capture the ‘hot light’ characteristic of Uganda – although South Africa stood in for Teasdale’s adopted country – have earned him a Gemini nod for best photography in a dramatic program or series.

Buckley, who made a good name for himself shooting commercials out of Toronto and who still travels to Canada now and then, served as dop in the early ’90s on a lovely, low-budget feature called Digger, starring a young Joshua Jackson. In the spot world, Buckley’s Canadian best-known work includes stunning direction and photography on an anti-smoking film trailer produced for the Ontario government.

But his approach was understated on Dr. Lucille. ‘I must admit I tried to keep it quite simple. It’s a very strong story. The dialogue drives it so much I just felt it needed to be seen easily. It was pretty naturally shot.’

In response to a question about capturing ‘African light,’ Buckley points out there’s very little of African vistas or wide-open rural spaces in the film. He had to think more about the light typical to the town and hospital where Teasdale spent much of her time. He says that outside her hospital, the people often lit fires. For the night interiors, he says, ‘I tried to keep a feeling that there was firelight from outside coming in, rather than moonlight. It’s quite a hot light, Uganda. I tried to show a lot of that heat.’

While the medical scenes were ‘a bit tricky,’ there weren’t too many of them. Buckley says what did require a lot of attention was moving quickly during scenes in which the actors – especially leads Marina Orsini and Massimo Ghini – had to be ‘aged’ via latex. ‘It was so difficult for the actors,’ says Buckley, ‘in the heat of the African light.’ As soon as you put that [latex] on in the heat of the day, it’s not long before it starts to bubble.’

One of the more gratifying experiences on the shoot was when Teasdale’s husband, Dr. Piero Corti, visited the set. ‘It does help when you see their [real-life subjects’] approval on the direction you’re going. You feel a little better if they like it,’ Buckley recalls.

All in all, he describes the shoot as having ‘a simple approach. It’s a people film. It’s very much in the performances. Marina was just fantastic.’ *