The Meaning of Life

Jun 25

Notes from Hugh

The Meaning Of Life is centred on the stories, experience and concerns of inmates at the Kwìkwèxwelhp minimum security prison in British Columbia, Canada. Situated in the Fraser Valley, the prison is a facility in which ideas of Aboriginal healing and spirituality form the foundation of rehabilitation programs. This is a unique partnership between Correctional Service Canada and the Chehalis First Nation, on whose territory the prison is situated - a partnership which has been evolving for ten years.

Over the course of two years we were given unprecedented access to the inmates and could move freely throughout the grounds without being chaperoned by guards, going from room to room, sitting with the men, sometimes without a camera, sometimes with. We were able to film many long interviews with inmates, in which they told of their lives, experiences in prison and reflections on punishment, healing and Aboriginal culture. As well as these interviews inside the prison, we shot sequences at ceremonies in the local Chehalis community which some of the men attend as part of their rehab, and followed them as they participated in work crews outside the prison fences. As well, several of the men allowed us to accompany them on parole and after their release. In all, nineteen prisoners participated in the work. The film grew out of these interviews as well as the filming of activities and life in the prison.

I realised early in the development of this project that the best outcome would come from not planning the course of the film, but letting it emerge from the material. The slow, cautious access to the men and the institution meant that we had to follow possibilities rather than a structural or even content approach. The men let the camera into their lives, and let themselves into the filmmaking, in hesitant and unpredictable ways. Thus I needed to be able to let the film take its form from their initiatives, their leads and the particulars of their stories, as also from the daily life of the prison.

This kind of filmmaking is only possible if there is a great deal of time to do the work and also a great deal of latitude in how the final film will be structured. We were able to take the time in the last stages of production and then the full post-production process that was needed for the form of the film to be found. We could not go into the edit with a plan, a theory of the film, that had been set out in any plans or film treatment at the outset of the project. Instead, we had to follow the voices, concerns and strengths in our footage to see where these would lead. So our form is very much shaped by the men in the film. This was a rare opportunity for giving a film the form that is true to the process itself as also to the voices of the men who, step by step, took the central place in the filmmaking.

The practice of the filmmaking has thus been able to follow its course without being urged into either a truncated process or a predetermined shaping of any particular kind of film. The taking of time, the listening to the men, the allowing of process – these have been the key elements of the practice that have been at the core of this project.

Accompanying Documents

Meaning of Life - interview with Deena Rymhs PDF ⇢
Meaning of Life - 2009 Interview PDF ⇢
Meaning of Life - Synopsis PDF ⇢

Synopsis

The Meaning of Life is a journey into the thoughts and voices of the inmates of Kwìkwèxwelhp, a unique prison in British Columbia Canada, where the Chehalis First Nation provides all rehabilitation and spirituality, and Correctional Service Canada provides the prison structure.

Production: 2008 / 82 min

Where to find this film:

DVD available or digital file on request here

Cast & Credits

With special thanks to:

Inmates & Staff at KWÌKWÈXWELHP and The Chehalis First Nation

This film was produced in collaboration with the University of the Fraser Valley, with the financial assistance of the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, Heritage Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canada Research Chair, the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Directed by

Hugh Brody

Editor

Haida Paul

Director of Photography

Kirk Tougas

Produced by

Betsy Carson

Location Sound

Kirk Tougas

Boom Operator & 2nd Camera

Tomo Brody