– Director/writer: Stephen Williams

– Producer: Paul Brown

– Diary by: Allison Vale

1991: Stephen Williams and his brother Peter hang out in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Typical scenario: buy patties, crash on one of those short, fat walls that divvy up Kensington Avenue. Talk.

David Smith, an actor in Toronto’s Jamaican theater community and a friend, often comes along. The stories, about being Jamaican in the city, about growing up in a drug-infested area of Parkdale called The Junction, about the racial tension that had come to a head in battles between the black community, the government, and the police, are film-worthy, Williams thinks.

He tells his brother, also an actor, and Smith, that he wants to make a movie with them in it. Goes home. Begins to write ‘what, in my head, had been a long time coming.’

Fall 1991: First draft complete, titled Cool Runnings. Personal circumstances are the impetus for the story, but the script is more a story ‘informed by the autobiographical, rather than about my life,’ says Williams.

In as much as he’s happy to have the film mapped out, his lack of experience writing feature films is obvious. In retrospect he says, ‘This animal was barely a script.’

In September, he’s accepted into the Canadian Film Centre’s Fall Lab and Cool Runnings is shuttled off to be workshopped in a group that includes Mina Shum and Clement Virgo.

How the script changed in the Fall Lab has faded from memory, but the experience left Williams ‘with the sense that I wasn’t working in a vacuum on issues that were important to me. Emotionally and spiritually, it was nurturing, which was fuel for further effort with the script.’

Winter 1992: Williams works as a director/dop making commercials, living the ‘working to live to buy time to write’ cliche. The script gets minimal attention. He applies to be a full-time resident director at the Film Centre.

Summer 1992: Accepted into the program, Williams applies for and gets development money: $10,000 from the Ontario Film Development Corporation, $15,000 from Telefilm Canada and $5,000 from fund.

The script is workshopped at the Centre, a couple of scenes are shot, but it becomes readily apparent that there isn’t a chance in hell that he will receive funding for a feature film without a short film credit.

He begins work on A Variation in the Key 2 Life under the supervision of Louise Clark, formerly with the ofdc.

Clark introduces Williams to producer Paul Brown (I Love a Man In Uniform). They hit it off instantly.

Winter/summer 1993: Disney releases Cool Runnings. It stars John Candy and a bobsled. ‘Obviously a change of name was necessary,’ says Williams. Ergo Soul Survivor.

Variation is priority. Shooting wraps in February, post is done by the beginning of summer. Norstar Entertainment sees Variation and decides to come on board as distributor for Soul Survivor, in for about $300,000, with the rights to domestic and foreign sales everywhere but in the u.s.

Applications are filed to the traditional funding agencies. The strategy: given that Williams, a first-time feature film writer/director, is the weak link, surround him with experienced people. Brown has long since committed to producing. Also carved in stone by the end of the summer are director of photography David Franco, who worked with Brown on I Love a Man in Uniform and A Fist, A Nail, Two Windows, and production designer Sandy Kybartas (Camilla, Zero Patience, Prom Night II).

Fall 1993: Variations premiers at Toronto’s Festival of Festivals.

In October, the ofdc comes through with $400,000 for Soul Survivor. Telefilm Canada negotiations are less smooth, meaning meeting after meeting in which investors query the marketability of a film with an almost entirely black cast, all speaking Patois. November drags into December, then January, but still no word. At the end of the month, Telefilm is in for $665,000. Budget tally: $1.3 million.

Winter 1994: Almost three years after the first draft is written, production has momentum. Casting calls begin, running more than a month. Accusations of nepotism because Peter is cast in the lead are squelched by the great number of casting calls. ‘It looked like I went out of my way not to cast him,’ says Williams, who signed his brother two weeks before shooting began in March. ‘Casting lets you see different people’s interpretations of the roles and that forces you to rethink them.’

No sweeping changes are made to the script, but Williams finds perfecting one line can take longer than writing an entire scene.

March 1993: The five-week shoot begins, wrapping at the end of April. Williams’ sensibilities (‘There is no such thing as too much preproduction.’) pay off in a mostly glitch-free process.

The set has ‘great vibes,’ spontaneous singing, and Williams has much time to get to know Leonie Forbes (G’ma T in the movie), a high-profile Jamaican actress and a longtime idol. The difficulty was in watching Peter bottom out in scenes where he was required to crumble. ‘It’s hard to push your brother to the point where he’s there.’

The set closed with a wrap party to end all wrap parties, ‘lots of music, lots of herb, lots of dancing.’

August 1994: The edit, which began in April, isn’t close to finished. ‘Editing really is the final rewrite,’ says Williams. Other elements are taking time. Music producer John McCarthy (Love and Human Remains) is working with the sound track. ‘He did an incredible job, a white guy from Riverdale dealing with a fairly eclectic mix of reggae.’

December 1994: Completed work is in the can, too late for the Toronto festival but just in time for Sundance.

1995: After Sundance, Williams gets a phone call from John Lefebvre at Telefilm’s festival bureau with an invitation to open Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, ‘something you don’t let yourself imagine or hope (for).’

Reviews are positive on either side of the pond. Monty Ross, producer for Spike Lee, loves it and has since contacted Williams to see if they can work together. Soul Survivor goes to Italy and opens Panorama Canada at the Montreal World Film Festival. The dialogue is a long way from that first draft but the final product ‘maintains the original emotional intent.’

September 1995: Soul Survivor screens at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of Perspective Canada.

Down the road: In the future, Williams wants to have more input into every area of filmmaking and make pictures not completely dependent on (diminishing) public financing.