Zeen, come again; learning to laugh at ourselves

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

Grenada, Ecuador, Jamaica, Canada and Guyana; these are the nationalities of the people that came together in a unifying move to create a short comedy film called Zeen. Some interesting things happen when different cultures begin working together; topics like: race, privilege, leadership, slang, language, attitudes, and fighting are highlighted, and amongst all the drama there seemed to be a genuine need to get serious work done.

Toronto Caribbean Newspaper spoke with two of the players in this documentary, Calyx Passailaigue, who played Chad, and is also the Director, Co-Writer and Co-Producer and Tarick Glancy who played Ben, Director of Photography to find out what makes them tick and how it all started. Passailaigue told us that the idea started when a friend of his who started a movement to bring artists into Markham, reached out to him, and as a former resident of that city he had to contribute.

Passailaigue who has roots in Jamaica, Haiti, Scotland, and France played Chad a director, who is a real jerk with a huge ego that most of his cast and crew just can’t stand. He told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “It is a case where the cast and the crew initially try to be nice and go along with Chad, but eventually things fall apart very quickly because of my character’s ego and subtle forms of racism in the film.”

Passailaigue said, the mockumentary (as he likes to call it) was almost entirely improvised, which one would agree really brought out the raw talent in the actors. When asked how hard it was to put this together, he said, “It was just a matter of casting the right people and that was definitely one of the hardest parts of this process. As a director, I always try to keep it low-pressure so as to let them be creative as well.”

Speaking of creativity, Tarick Glancy (who wore two different hats in this film) played a character named Ben in the film, as well as being the Director of Photography. Glancy told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “I really enjoyed doing the film and working with Calyx; overall it was a good experience. When you are doing things off instinct, then the character just does you instead of you trying to impose something on the character. I want people who come and see the film to walk away laughing.”

Other characters in this film include:

• Angela Kaiser as Megan (Production Manager)
• Yannick Francis as James (Actor)
• Jacob Currie as Terry (Sound Recordist)
• Danny Roberts as Martin, (Actor)

The mockumentary runs from September 14^th – January 5^th, as part of the exhibition “Tout-Monde: Markham,” which opened at the Varley Art Gallery (216 Main Street Unionville, Markham, ON L3R 2H1). The film will be on loop at the gallery, and the best part about it is that it is FREE for the community. Here is an opportunity to embrace the cultural clichés that exist in our community and learn to laugh at them.