Second Take

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Of Games & Escapes

How easy it can be, says Winnipeg filmmaker Bevan Klassen, for idealists like himself to lose perspective on reality. So he decided to make a movie about it.
   
That big theme, of "trying to make sense of reality crashing in," undergirds Klassen’s debut feature, Of Games & Escapes, which had its world premiere at this past summer’s Gimli Film Festival, and which opened last night for a five-screening run at Cinematheque. His central idea is one Klassen has considered in three shorts, and which has prompted him to consider "maybe making a comedy for my next project.
   
"I grew up in a conservative Christian environment, and learned to see the world in big, epic ways: life, death, good, bad, the meaning of it all and finding a way to live in the world.
   
"These have been concerns of mine for a long time."
   
The psychological drama Of Games & Escapes expresses those concerns in the story of Patrick (Lyle Morris), a sales worker who’d like to make a difference. He tries to find expression of his idealistic worldview through the creation of a board game, but instead steers his way into even greater mental and emotional turmoil.
   
Klassen himself is appearing to personally introduce the film at each screening, as well as participating in a post-screening panel discussion Sat., Jan. 21, with Stan Rossowski, the programming director of Cinesanity — a local monthly film-screening program that focuses on mental illness, health and wellness.
   
"I had local filmmakers in to talk about work when I ran Catacomb Microcinema," Klassen says. The miniscule venue, located in the Travellers Building in the Exchange District from 1998 to 2002, certainly facilitated a more intimate experience.
   
"Having filmmakers there to introduce their stuff allowed they and the audience to connect," Klassen continues. "That’s especially since every small indie film tends to be personal. I wanted to continue to share that." (Among the local auteurs that appeared at Catacomb were Jeff Erbach, Sean Garrity and Jaimz Asmundson.)
   
Shot on video, Of Games & Escapes wears its small, DIY nature.
   
"Less expensive, more accessible technology has just become part of the low-budget filmmaking process," Klassen says. "You make your film however you can, however you have to."
   
Yet especially with the ubiquity of video today, Klassen’s hope — and intent — is that it becomes of secondary concern.
   
"People do notice the aesthetic differences, and those are important," he says. But if a filmmaker can get viewers to engage with the film in terms of the story and characters, "that can sweep aside the low-budget nature of the film.
   
"And for that matter, video may actually be appropriate for this story: it enables something more realistic about the everyday, ordinary characters."
   
Klassen’s first feature may have already carved out a distinguished place in the annals of local film: no less than former Winnipeg wunderkind Guy Maddin blurbed the movie, declaring the near-surreal image of "the planted man getting watered" to be "perhaps the greatest shot in Winnipeg filmmaking history!"
   
"Wow, huh?" Klassen beams.
   
Of Games & Escapes screens until Sun., Jan. 22 at Cinematheque. For complete showtime information visit http://www.winnipegfilmgroup.com/cinematheque/of_games_escapes.aspx.