Looking Is The Original Sin - Press Summary

Breakthrough Entertainment Looking Is The Original Sin Toronto Theatrical Premiere November, 2013 GAT PR Preliminary Press Summary

'Looking is the Original Sin' an emotionally charged drama http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1548038

Also ran in the following media outlets:

http://video.theloop.ca/watch/a-­‐quest-­‐to-­‐understand-­‐a-­‐mother/2847467800001#.UpP2p2RDtcQ

Looking Is The Original Sin: A Film http://www.cbc.ca/hereandnowtoronto/episodes/2013/11/22/looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐ sin-­‐a-­‐film/

For two decades, Gail Harvey had an idea for a film that explores a complex mother-­‐ daughter relationship. In that time, her daughter Katie Boland grew up and became an actress. Now, the two have created LOOKING IS THE ORIGINAL SIN. They spoke with us.

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Looking is the Original Sin

BY RYAN ENGLISH Published Sun, Nov 17, 2013 12:00 pm EST

New film by photographer and director Gail Harvey was inspired by the life of Diane Arbus and features drag http://dailyxtra.com/toronto/arts-­‐and-­‐entertainment/film-­‐and-­‐video/looking-­‐the-­‐original-­‐ sin?market=210

"I was a photographer for years before I was a director. I was the third woman hired by United Press in the world as a photojournalist," says photographer and director Gail Harvey. "I was with an agency in New York that Diane Arbus’ daughter was with and I often wondered what it would have been like to be her daughter."

Harvey’s new film Looking is the Original Sin opens Fri, Nov 22 in Toronto. Starring veteran Canadian actors Katie Bowland, Maria del Mar and Kent Staines, the film was inspired by the tragic life of Diane Arbus, whose candid and stark black and white portraits influenced generations of artists and revolutionized photography.

Looking is the Original Sin tells the story of a mother and daughter in peril. Anna Trueman (Katie Bowland) vies for the attention of her gifted, but tormented mother, Helene (Maria del Mar) who struggles to reconcile her talent and mental health issues with raising a family. Del Mar fully inhabits the character of Helene Trueman with bursts of mania and maddening, crippling bouts of depression. The onscreen chemistry between Bowland and Del Mar is impressive — unsurprisingly, the actors played mother and daughter on HBO Canada’s 10-­‐part series Terminal City.

Harvey says she identifies with Arbus’ experience working as a woman and mother in a largely male-­‐dominated industry.

"I don’t have a friend that’s not a mother who is not torn between career and family. So, that’s kind of what this story is about. She influenced me because she always stretched the limit of photography and was not afraid. She completely changed what the expectations of her were. She was born rich, got married and was an assistant to her husband, who was a fashion photographer, and then became an artist in her own right and went to the fringes of society," Harvey says. "She was the first person that I knew who really pushed the boundaries of photography. I found her pictures fascinating and what they said about the people she was taking pictures of. They were very humane, I felt, and you got to know these people."

Looking is the Original Sin also has queerness to spare. Kent Staines brilliantly portrays close family-­‐friend Brent. It’s a treat to watch him put his drag queen face on and the tough love relationship he forges with Anna as they down glass after glass of red wine is genuinely engaging and heartfelt.

Toronto drag royalty Heaven Lee Hytes is cast in a smaller role as herself, but shines with the few lines she has and helps craft some of the best-­‐looking and well-­‐executed moments in the film. Multiple scenes throughout the movie were filmed at Play on Church Street (now Church on Church) where Brent performs as Hytes.

‘I spent a lot of time taking amazing pictures of drag queens and they were very honest performers and I love personality. I have a lot of close gay friends and I wanted Helene to have a close gay friend,’ Harvey affectionately explains. ‘What I was able to do with the camera is take the drama into the real world. ‘

Harvey will also exhibit 50 of her most acclaimed photos and celebrity portraits during the film’s run at Carlton Cinema.

Looking is the Original Sin opens Fri, Nov 22–Thurs, Nov 28 Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton St

Looking is the Original Sin: A misguided portrait of photo pioneer Diane Arbus

JAMES ADAMS

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-­‐reviews/looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐sin-­‐a-­‐misguided-­‐portrait-­‐of-­‐photo-­‐ pioneer-­‐diane-­‐arbus/article15534082/

It takes guts to make a film “inspired by the life of Diane Arbus” – an homage Toronto writer-­‐director Gail Harvey baldly declares in the opening credits to her fourth theatrical feature, Looking is the Original Sin. Right off the bat the viewer knows he or she is in for a rough ride, not least because Arbus’s life was decidedly short and unhappy, ended by suicide at 48 in New York in 1971.

It’s also a risky gambit aesthetically. Arbus was a genius of the camera. Her famous black-­‐and-­‐white photographs of dwarves, twins, giants and transvestites, the distressed, asylum inmates – “freaks” she called them – still deliver a kick a half-­‐century after she took Rolleiflex and Pentax for some walks on the wild side. Nevertheless, that was then. To transpose that ethos to the second decade of the 21st century, as Harvey attempts here, strikes me as misguided enterprise. Not only does it invite invidious comparison, it gels the movie in an aspic of déjà vu while undercutting the pathos it aspires to provoke.

At heart Looking is the Original Sin is a mother-­‐daughter story. Maria del Mar (Blue Murder, Street Legal) plays the mom, Helene, a celebrated photographer who, in the throes of some vaguely sketched artistic and existential crises, decides to abandon the family home in contemporary Toronto – and 19-­‐year-­‐old daughter, Anna (Katie Boland, Harvey’s real-­‐life daughter and one ofLooking’s three producers) – to pursue her muse and escape (embrace?) her depression. While she professes undying love for her daughter, she says, “I have to love life, too, right? … There are places I have to go and I can’t take you with me.”

Hurt by the abandonment, Anna is nonetheless determined not to lose her mother and begins to rummage through Helene’s past and prints, even to the point of taking up the camera herself. As events unfold, she befriends Brent (Kent Staines), a drag queen who’s been the subject of some of Helene’s photographs and a major booster of her work.

Thing is, the work the viewer sees in Looking is the Original Sin, isn’t terribly prepossessing. Photographs of drag queens, the marginalized and the urbandemi-­‐monde may have seemed daring, transgressive even in Diane Arbus’s heyday, roughly 1961 to 1971. But now? After the “perversities” documented by the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin and Joel-­‐Peter Witkin, Helene’s oeuvre seems tame indeed and hardly the stuff of the reputation we’re supposed to believe she has.

Looking is the Original Sin isn’t, of course, the first film to riff on Arbus. Seven years ago Steven Shainberg directed what he called “an imaginary portrait” of the doomed photographer, titling it Fur and casting Nicole Kidman in the lead.

Response to the movie was mixed but at least Shainberg set his story in Arbus’s milieu and time so that the restrictions and anxieties she felt had a palpable presence, her breakthroughs and breakdowns a source. Looking is the Original Sin, by contrast, relies too much on a soundtrack rife with emo songs, long, pseudo-­‐meaningful pauses and an accumulation of actorly tics from del Mar to depict inner psychological states. The film’s one saving grace is Boland who invests her part with ache and tenderness. At 25, Boland’s an increasingly in-­‐demand talent, the proof plainly evident here.

Perhaps if Looking is the Original Sin hadn’t been so beholden to the mystique of Diane Arbus, it might have found a fresher, more modern way to explore the perennial tensions between art and life, domesticity and bohemianism, the nurturative impulse and self-­‐expression. Looking at it, you won’t feel so much sinned against as disappointed.

Looking is the Original Sin: Look, don’t connect: movie review Toronto writer-­‐director based Looking is the Original Sin on the life of pioneering American photographer Diane Arbus. Katie Boland and Maria del Mar star.

Linda Barnard http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/11/21/looking_is_the_original_sin _look_dont_connect_movie_review.html

2 stars

Starring Katie Boland, Maria del Mar, Kent Staines and Jayne Eastwood. Directed by Gail Harvey. 83 minutes. Opens Nov. 22 at the Carlton. STC

Prolific Toronto director Gail Harvey was inspired by pioneering American photographer Diane Arbus in writing her drama Looking is the Original Sin, a story of an emotionally lost daughter’s attempts to connect with her tortured artist mother.

Photographer Helene (Maria del Mar, of TV’s Street Legal and Terminal City) pinballs from being glib one minute, to hurt and defensive the next, living an existence devoted solely to capturing the unusual with her camera.

It hardly makes her a good mother to daughter Anna (Harvey’s own daughter,Katie Boland). But now that Anna is 19, parenting is less of an issue for Helene, who was once so engrossed in her work, she left her infant daughter alone in her pram.

Often-­‐petulant Helene demands empathy from Anna for putting work first, yet she has none to spare for others, like the woman Helene all but assaults with her camera to get the less-­‐than-­‐flattering shots she craves.

Anna often finds herself playing the maternal role as Helene disappears for long stretches to shoot photos with furious intent.

“You’re a terrible mother,” Anna tells her.

Soon enough, the two are pals again as Harvey’s story skips ahead. We’re never sure what made Helene who she is, or how she survives and supports her unemployed daughter.

Helene abruptly takes off to do her work uninterrupted, aided by friend, female impersonator Brett (Kent Staines), leaving a desperate Anna unsure of what has happened to her mother.

Anna is forced to play detective, using Helene’s photos (black-­‐and-­‐white images shot by talented photographer Harvey) as clues to where Helene might be and, more important, who she has become.

Jayne Eastwood has a small role as a well-­‐meaning café owner who helps with some puzzle pieces, while average folks and familiar faces from the Beach and Queen St. E. play themselves.

Harvey’s use of photography and Helene’s confessional — a self-­‐made, black-­‐and-­‐white video — serve as artful punctuation marks. The film itself, however, never entirely comes together. Helene, not intended to be a likable character, doesn’t earn our sympathy, while the free-­‐form dialogue has only varying success.

The camera loves beauties Boland and del Mar, who are captivating onscreen, but the loose-­‐limbed story never quite clicks.

This Week in Film: Nebraska, Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, John Akomfrah, the Coen brothers, and Planet in Focus Posted by Blake Williams / NOVEMBER 21, 2013

http://www.blogto.com/film/2013/11/this_week_in_film_nebraska_vic_flo_saw_a_bear_john_a komfrah_the_coen_brothers_and_planet_in_focus/

Also opening in theatres this week: Looking is the Original Sin (Carlton)

Looking is the Original Sin Photo copy

By RADHEYAN SIMONPILLAI | N O W R A T IN G :

N N

http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=195395 L O O K IN G IS T H E O R IG IN A L S IN (Gail Harvey). 83 minutes. Opens Friday (November 22) at the Carlton Cinema.F o r tim e s , s e e lis tin g s .

The art, voyeurism and depression of photographer Diane Arbus inspired Gail Harvey’s Toronto-­‐set drama about a distressed mother-­‐ daughter relationship.

Looking Is The Original Sin stars Katie Boland as Anna, a 19-­‐year-­‐old mostly ignored by her mother, Helene (Maria del Mar), a successful but unstable photographer.

Uncomfortable in her maternal role, Helene moves out of her home without warning, hiding from Anna to focus on her work.

Much of the film revolves around Anna’s attempts to get to know her absent mother by perusing her photographs and tracking down associates and former lovers. Meanwhile, Helene intermittently delivers a monologue to the camera (the only thing she has an open relationship with), communicating her turbulent emotions and thoughts about photography – much of which mirrors discussion surrounding Arbus’s work.

These reflections parse the photographer’s relationship to her craft, subjects and life. Too bad writer/director Harvey frames them so awkwardly within the story.

Despite fine performances by Boland and especially del Mar, the drama is stilted, underdeveloped and unconvincing, with behaviour and interactions that often feel on the nose. When Anna confronts her mother with questions like “Can you photograph a lie?” Harvey forces lofty dialogue into scenes that should instead feel intimate and human, like Arbus’s photos.

http://dailyxy.com/article/interview-­‐maria-­‐del-­‐mar/

A veteran actress, Maria del Mar has been in Street Legal, Terminal City, and Murdoch Mysteries. She can currently be seen in Looking is the Original Sin with Katie Boland, where she plays a self-­‐destructive photographer based on the life of Diane Arbus.

Looking is the Original Sin plays at the Carlton from November twenty-­‐second.

DO YOU AGREE THAT THE CAMERA MAKES PEOPLE MORE INTERESTING THAN THEY REALLY ARE?

I think that entirely depends on the kind of person you are. Some people allow themselves to be more indulgent then they would be in real life. Others would panic at the intimacy the camera can demand at times.

IT’S A REFRESHING CHANGE THAT TORONTO IS PLAYING ITSELF IN THIS FILM; DOES IT HELP YOUR PERFORMANCE THAT YOU’VE LIVED HERE?

I loved that it was shot here in Toronto. I have filmed in Europe, throughout the USA as well as in

South America. There is a comfort and reference that you inherently feel when you are working at home.

IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY PART, UNDER ANY DIRECTOR, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

This question could possibly take me several weeks to think about let alone decide on.

For that reason I will throw this one out there with out thinking about it too much . . . I would love to take over Jessica Lang’s part (all seasons) in American Horror Story with all of the directors she has been working with.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE COCKTAIL?

Martini, dry, extra GOOD olives but not dirty, in an old fashioned martini glass. Straight up, and make it two!

http://dailyxy.com/article/interview-­‐katie-­‐boland/

With forty-­‐five roles to date, including in films such as The Master, Adoration, and Daydream Nation, Katie Boland must be busy as hell. She has four films releasing this year, including Gerontrophilia, which premiered at Venice and TIFF, and Looking is the Original Sin, a film about a girl living in the shadow of a talented but trouble mother.Looking is the Original Sin is playing at the Carlton from November twenty-­‐second.

HOW MUCH OF THIS FILM IS A COMMENTARY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MILLENNIALS AND BABY BOOMERS?

I think the film is a commentary on mother-­‐daughter relationships, therefore a parent-­‐child relationships. I think, if anything, the mother is less mature than the daughter and I don’t know that that could really be said about millennials and their baby boomer parents. That’s an interesting thought, though—my mom wrote the movie as well as directed it, so I will ask her what she thinks. I would say millennials and baby boomers have more shared interests and more commonality than previous generations with their parents and you can see that there’s a lot of friendship between the mother and daughter in the film, as well as tension and strain.

ANY PLANS ON DIRECTING YOUR OWN FILM?

I would love to do that. I need to write a good one first, but I hope to direct a film within the next five years. I think it would be really fun.

SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL: WHO HAS WORSE TRAFFIC, LA OR TORONTO?

It used to be LA hands down, but I have to be honest, I would say Toronto on a day-­‐to-­‐day basis.

Rarely though in Toronto are you just stuck in traffic for two hours without moving, and that can happen in LA, but Toronto has been brutal lately.

IF YOU COULD PLAY ANY PART, UNDER ANY DIRECTOR, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

I would love to play Cate Blanchett’s role in Blue Jasmine. She was so amazing in that movie, I found that performance so inspiring. That is a dream part. I am really interested in mental illness and alcoholism/addiction as a human condition so I could think about that role for years and never get bored.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE COCKTAIL?

I don’t really drink cocktails. Honestly, my favourite drink is coffee. Does that count?

http://theimageinterview.com/katie-­‐boland-­‐gail-­‐harvey.html

CDNRisingSTAR: An Interview with KATIE BOLAND Kindah Mardam Bey http://canadianfilmreview.com/cdnrisingstar-­‐an-­‐interview-­‐with-­‐katie-­‐boland/

Katie Boland seems quite prolific with a published collection of short stories (EAT YOUR HEART OUT), a web series she produced and wrote (LONG STORY, SHORT) and an extensive career in television and film with her most recent projects being a regular on REIGN and starring in her Mother’s feature LOOKING IS THE ORIGINAL SIN premiering on friday (Nov.22) at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto.

Katie Boland looks like one of those damsels in a Pre-­‐Raphaelite painting, has an affinity for red lipstick, is only twenty-­‐five but one thing is for sure – she is tenacious. In a sea of young actresses terrified of showing their intelligence and initiative, Boland is a refreshing change of pace in both Canada and across the border.

I am excited about what path Katie Boland’s career will take in the future, and you should be too.

Watch the interview and you will see why.

Director GAIL HARVEY Talks LOOKING IS THE ORIGINAL SIN Kindah Mardam Bey http://canadianfilmreview.com/director-­‐gail-­‐harvey-­‐talks-­‐looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐sin/

Gail Harvey has had an illustrious career behind the camera as a photographer but her feature film was a passion project loosely based on the life of Diane Arbus and starring Harvey’s own daughter, actress Katie Boland alongside the elegant and timeless Maria Del Mar. LOOKING IS THE ORIGINAL SIN starts its theatrical run this friday (November 22nd) at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto along with a photo exhibit of Gail Harvey’s stills.

The film is about a mother and daughter who are at a turning point in their relationship, the struggle between art and family, and of course, the poetry and passion of photography. The Canadian Film Review sits down to talk with Director about her film, the relationship between mothers and daughters, and why a conversation with Clint Eastwood inspired her to take the leap and become a filmmaker….

Interview: Gail Harvey

By Andrew Parker http://dorkshelf.com/2013/11/21/interview-­‐gail-­‐harvey/

Walking in to meet filmmaker and photographer Gail Harvey briefly feels like walking into a scene from her latest film, Looking is the Original Sin. The location where we are meeting, the Toronto Black & White print shop in the heart of Regent Park, makes several appearances in the film, and it’s also where Harvey has been working most of the day gathering, organizing, and putting the finishing touches on some of her favourite photographs both past and present) that will be hanging in the open gallery space at the Carlton Cinema during the film’s theatrical run.

Harvey, who has directed numerous television shows and films in Canada over the past several decades, also has a reputation of being one of the most hotly sought after still photographers and portrait artists in the world. A quick glimpse of some of her work hanging around the print shop (not all of which will make it to the exhibition) reveals shots of Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, a particularly dapper looking Christopher Reeve. A lot of the pictures are also just shots from everyday life, including shots of her daughter, actress Katie Boland, who plays the lead in her latest and most personal big screen effort to date.

Boland stars as the embittered and genuinely concerned daughter of a Diane Arbus-­‐like photographer (played by veteran character actress Maria del Mar), whose recent pushing of artistic boundaries has worried her daughter greatly. It’s not an autobiographical story, despite Harvey directing her own offspring as someone else’s daughter, but rather an amalgamation of feelings and thoughts accumulated over her lifetime photographing celebrities and creating her own art.

We chatted with Harvey about being able to share such a personal project – both in terms of the film and the photography – with an audience, how she originally transitioned from taking pictures full time to directing, the influences on her film, the meaning behind what people can see in a photograph, and what it was like working with her daughter in a leading role.

Dork Shelf: It must be nice after all this time and throughout your career to finally be able to share with people a story that’s really close to your heart.

Gail Harvey: It is! It’s wild! Just the other night when I was watching the DCP to check it out before I went to the Carlton and again when I was waiting to go on Canada AM in between their breaks, all I could think was “This is something I shot in my living room all on my own.” So this is something new for me.

DS: And you’ve been around for a while, but this is the first time you’ve been working in a feature filmmaking climate where you could do something like this and still be able to show up on something like Canada AM . In the past, that never would have been a possibility.

GH: Never. Never would have happened. And to make the film is so much easier. I couldn’t even finance this film.

Well, I mean, I didn’t even really try that hard to finance it, really, because I knew it was a personal story and film, but now with digital filmmaking it was so much easier. I mean, it wasn’t FREE to make the movie. (laughs) But Telefilm did come in with completion funding, and ACTRA let us do a co-­‐op, which means the actors are co-­‐owners of the film, but on top of that stuff it still costs money for post and everything. But to actually just be able to go out and shoot it is just amazing.

But now I want to do another one. (laughs) I was so exhausted by the end of it, but when I watched it again last night, I thought I had to do another one.

DS: I can imagine it’s pretty exciting after all the time you have been working in the industry to be coming back to have full control over something you have been working on rather than just partial control.

GH: It’s been really great for me lately. Between this and the web series I did earlier this year it’s been wonderful.

Now, I don’t know how successful the film is going to be, but it’s certainly all been creatively gratifying.

DS: Well, I think just getting a movie of this size completed and out into the world means you’ve already been successful with it to some degree.

GH: (Laughs) That’s right! That’s true. The fact that it exists, and that even The Globe (and Mail) is reviewing it. Should I be worried? (laughs) A friend of mine said “Hey, even if they don’t like it, just the fact that they’re reviewing it is a good thing.”

DS: Was there ever a time recently where you ever wanted to get back to photography full time with all the new technology that’s available and all the different approaches that you can take now?

GH: You know, what? I never really left photography ever in my life. I really just stopped making it my bread winner.

Because I was a pretty successful photographer for a while, but that kind of took away from it as an artform for me, you know? When you’re talking about what I was doing, which for a long time was still working in the film industry, that was a different thing for me to get into. When I first started I was exhibiting a lot, and I still do sometimes, and then I started working for other people. And when I started filmmaking, people got confused because I was working as a filmmaker and a director, and people would always say and argue that I couldn’t be both. And they were right. I couldn’t. So I had to stop doing photography, which was a big deal, because I actually was making a lot of money as a photographer. But I really wanted to direct, so I stopped and I just started taking pictures for myself again, which I thought was really cool.

DS: There’s something interesting in the film that you touch upon, which is what it takes to actually be a photographer. You start with the Diane Arbus connection right off the top, but I think a lot of photographers, writers, painters, and other creative types can have a real understanding of these kinds of people who work best at night. Was there ever a time early in your career as a photographer where you would act like the characters in your film and go out all night just to shoot photos?

GH: Oh, yeah. Sure. Often, actually. I did that a lot. And in a connection to the film that is pretty close to my own experience, I would go out and shoot drag queens a lot. There was something about that pure performance and

putting on a show. It reminded me of being in church when I was a kid and you were branded while doing a show for them. They are such really cool and amazing people. I would do that a lot.

I was also a part of an agency in New York that Diane Arbus’ daughter would be around. And I always wondered what it was like for her to be around that sort of scene. And what ultimately happened with Diane in her life was what really stuck with me while making this film and I wondered what it much have been like for her daughter. As a photographer you take pictures of everything, so to be around someone who documented (that much) would have to be strange to some degree.

And my grandmother in Newfoundland was a photographer – and I still have her images and they’re amaing – and she would always take pictures of funerals. There’s a picture she took where someone had twin babies that died, and there was this mother with these dead twin babies in her arms. There were some chilling photos, but they were great.

And when it comes to my own kids, I have cupboards full of negatives that they can go through and see what I’ve seen, so it’s great to be able to share those kinds of things. Those are all things that triggered these thoughts for the film a long time ago, and it’s interesting to think about that connection to family now, because at the time when I first started piecing it all together I never knew Katie was ultimately going to be an actor. So now it’s the perfect time to do something like this. And it also gives me a chance to share all the photos of here that I have taken.

DS: I think for a lot of people when they look at a well done photograph – not even of themselves, necessarily – but it can trigger an emotional response that’s tied into one’s personal memories better than any other art form. Great images can trigger memories even for people who weren’t there for the picture. Or it can also bring the artist back to the time when it was taken and remind them of a larger story behind a shot that an outsider wouldn’t necessarily know or understand.

GH: Right, because photography as an art is all about capturing life. And now with everybody being able to be famous and take pictures of everything in their life and post them on their Facebook page.

DS: Is it strange for you for people to infer a deeper artistic meaning from some shots that you have taken when you know more or less what was happening in a given moment that you have captured in one of your photos?

GH: I don’t really know if that’s true, especially with a lot of my older work. Now, you can look at what you have the second you have it. When you had to develop the film, there would always be surprises. When I shoot, I always shoot from instinct. I often say when I direct, I don’t just shoot the scene; I tend to fell the scene. With pictures it’s the same thing, particularly if I’m just out and wandering around. (pulls out a print of a man in a park feeding birds that will be a part of the exhibit) This is a great example. I took a picture of this guy feeding the birds, and if you look at it now, it looks like he was conducting the birds. I didn’t know at the time that it was going to look like that. So you can remember where you were, and what happened ,and what the temperature was like, and all of that, but the emotional sense of the picture is often sometimes more than you could imagine or feel yourself.

It was kind of the same when I was doing portraits. I think you can kind of over-­‐think things, and I try not to do that. It’s just instinctive, and I think the best actors and musicians work in the same way. If you can’t get to those emotional and instinctive levels, you can’t do your best work as an actor or as a director. You have to be organized and you have to know exactly what you are doing when you are on a set, but often you don’t use what you have figured out. You kind of just pull it all together based on what feels right.

DS: There’s something interesting about always going back to actors, musicians, and drag queens as subjects, because there’s a duality there that’s quite fascinating. If you are capturing them in a moment that’s being staged or when they are in the middle of performance, there’s a kind of magnetism to them when they are on top of things. But quite often if you catch them after a

performance or before one, there’s a really human element that lots of people don’t get to see that’s arguably just as poetic. Do you ever think twice sometimes that you might be getting at something people might not want the world at large to see?

GH: Well, one of your goals as a photographer dealing with these types of people is that you have to make them feel comfortable and relaxed. But what you are getting at was kind of the big thing with Diane Arbus. That happens, and we have a little of that in the movie because I think we needed to have a little bit of a statement in there about celebrity photography because I did it for so long. I never worked like how you see in the film because I always had access to people, and I would always try to make them feel comfortable so they would be more giving and open.

Certainly when I was working as a photojournalist, there were definitely times that I would be with someone famous, often a politician, and I would just know that this was an off the record time, and I wouldn’t use it. I had a lot of things when I was working with United Press that I wouldn’t give to the wire service because I just knew there had to be a balance. When you’re a journalist, I think it’s on you to tell the story, but I don’t believe in taking advantage of someone when you’re close to them as a journalist because you still want to get access to them. Especially when it’s a politician or something.

But, I mean, now there are ways to have your picture taken and not even know it was taken, and that’s a little creepy, but some people have actually found ways to make it work to their advantage. If you’re a celebrity nowadays, everything you tend to work on is often available on the internet. For example, Joseph Arthur is a musician and a great friend of mine who has a few songs in the film, he said that every show he does on the internet, so if he goes out and he has a bad night, everyone can go out there and see it.

I’ve never seen him to a bad show, but I remember having an interesting talk with him about it. He said “Yeah, I’m kinda screwed because you can’t actually sell your music anymore, but look at how open the world is.” It’s a whole world of artists where you can see the other artists. It’s like what Marshall McLuhan was talking about. You could look at your work and everyone else’s work, and that’s an incredible time to be in.

DS: What’s it like making a film that’s so personal to you with your daughter in the leading role?

GH: Well, the Helene character isn’t me. It certainly isn’t autobiographical, but she does contain a lot of the ideas and things that I think about photography, and I guess she should since I wrote the darn thing. (laughs) But I have known Maria for a long time now. She was actually only about three or four years older than Katie is now when I first cast her in a film. She’s fantastic, and she and Katie had actually played mother and daughter before. They were together on a fantastic show that was on HBO Canada called Terminal City that was shooting out in Victoria, and they lived together in a house for that. Maria has known Katie since she was born, practically. So they already had a relationship.

I never looked at that character as me, but as a conglomeration of a lot of different photographers that I have known.

Me, for sure. There’s a bit more of me in Katie’s character, in a lot of ways. There’s a scene where she goes up to a stranger’s house and asks if she could go in and take photos, and I used to do that all the time.

DS: Was there ever a thought that you could have gotten to the same point that Helene gets to.

GH: No, because Helene is definitely mentally ill. I do know mental illness, and I had a friend who committed suicide that the film is dedicated to, and there’s a bit of her in that character, as well. She had a daughter that was 19, as well. I talked to her one time after she tried to kill herself and I asked her what she was doing and thinking, and she honestly thought that her daughter was going to be better off without her. That’s a concept that’s in the film. When Helene says that she would just drag her daughter down was an important line in the movie for me because that’s almost exactly what my friend said to me.

DS: It’s kind of neat that you’ll actually be able to have an exhibit in the same place where your film is screening all week. Is it gratifying to be able to share some old work and some new work alongside your latest film all at the same time?

GH: It’s really cool! There’s definitely some new work and some old work, and it’s not necessarily summing my life up until now. Sort of, in a way, but I do have a lot of other projects in my head right now that I want to work on. But it really is great to have a lot of the photos that are in the movie being exhibited, as well as a lot of the older celebrity stuff and some stuff that I have shot since the movie, it’s so incredible. I don’t think it’s had time to hit me yet, because it has been a lot of work and we’re still pulling it all together, as you can see, but it’s been amazing. I’m really grateful, and I wouldn’t say I am surprised that it’s happening because I have always dreamed of it as something that would eventually happen. I was never sure, but when I made the movie, I just wanted to shoot the movie and to be able to use my photography in it. I wanted to take stock of my photography and what I could do with it and make a statement of how time passes in relationship to photography that I think makes it all the more powerful.

Made in Canada Review: Looking Is The Original Sin (2012) Jordan Ferguson http://nextprojection.com/2013/11/21/made-­‐in-­‐canada-­‐review-­‐looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐sin-­‐2012/ Editor’s Notes: Looking Is The Original Sin opens in Toronto at Carlton Cinema tomorrow, November 22nd.

Greatness can be a gift as well as a curse. To be truly great, one must invest oneself fully in their work, must give up a large part of their soul for what they do. Selfishness is a negative trait, but in many ways it is an inherent aspect of greatness. The annals of cinema are full to the brim of “great man” stories that focus on the triumphs and downplay the collateral damage left in the wake of titanic achievements. Looking Is The Original Sin is a rare gem then, distinct in two ways: This is a story of a “great woman” and one focused intently, almost exclusively on the damage that strive for excellence can cause. Based heavily on the life of Diane Arbus, the film follows Helene (Maria Del Mar), a photographer dealing with depression and instability, and her tumultuous relationship with her daughter Anna (Katie Boland, Gail

Harvey’s real-­‐life daughter), who also finds herself adrift. The two ruin each other even as they strive to save each other, and the film is smart about the compromises they make and the validity of their choices.

Early in the film, Helene tells Anna, in a video she makes for her benefit, “You know I love you. I’ve always loved you.

But I have to love life too.” That Helene loves her daughter is never in question throughout the film; it is how she loves her, and how she cannot, that drives the narrative. Helene refuses to feel guilty about her need to live her own life, and ultimately, she refuses to let being a mother stand in the way of being an artist. This is a difficult choice to watch, and its portrayed as a devastating one for both Helene and Anna, yet the film is also wise about how it may not be the wrong one. It’s certainly not the best choice for Helene as a mothering strategy, but she is consumed with larger concerns, and while she finds herself wracked with guilt at her own failings, she will not let that guilt stop her from making her art, even if it destroys her mind and her family in the process.

Helene is the perfect portrait of an artist fascinated with her own openness and in love with her self-­‐constructed freewheeling spirit. She speaks into the camera in the video she makes (which crops up throughout the film) as if she is dropping truths far more profound than she is, yet she sells every nugget as a timeless truth, and in the moment, she believes it. She covers up her weaknesses by pretending to see them as strengths, but she can never bury the truth deep enough to make it disappear. Del Mar gives a wrenching performance, so achingly earnest it can be hard to watch but it remains almost impossible to turn away from. She plays Helene as a woman who knows the consequences of every decision she makes and realizes that if she ever stops to consider them for too long, she’ll drown. In lesser hands, Helene would be played as painfully aloof or coldly unloving, but Del Mar is neither. She plays the artist as an open wound trying to be her own scab, a woman driven by her demons even as they threaten to consume her fully.

Boland is similarly excellent as a young woman desperate to understand her mother and terrified of losing her. Anna is forced to be a mother but cannot completely shed her status as a daughter. She tries to follow in her mother’s footsteps even as she makes her own tentative movements toward forming her identity. The relationship between the two forms the cornerstone of the film and provides its shattered soul. Each woman is on her own journey, but the two are linked together in ways that may destroy them, or may provide each her own salvation.

Writer-­‐director Gail Harvey has crafted a painfully beautiful portrait of a toxic yet vital mother-­‐daughter relationship and a film that smartly plays both sides of a complex debate. Nothing in Looking Is The Original Sin is reductive about the questions of work-­‐life balance for Helene, but that conflict doesn’t swallow up the film, either. There’s an artful plotlessness here, and the movie unfurls naturally from start to finish. Things happen, but they never feel constructed; there’s a story, but its one that feels drawn from life rather than constructed by the writer. This is a smart screenplay that feels writerly only when Helene is flattering herself as brilliantly introspective. Otherwise, the script seems to disappear entirely as only the best can. Similarly, Harvey has an uncanny feel for mood, balancing close-­‐ups and medium shots in a way that shows a mastery of perspective, and utilizing a handheld shot better (if perhaps no more originally) than I’ve seen in quite some time.

The soundtrack to the film is also stupendous, a series of crushingly gorgeous songs that might feel on the nose if they weren’t so perfectly deployed. Each needle drop feels timed to the tee, and each song elicits exactly the emotion it seems intended to convey. Often in film the musical montage can feel painfully contrived or overdone, but these feel wonderfully paced and excellently placed for supreme emotional impact.

Looking Is The Original Sin is quietly devastating, an emotionally resonant film that treats a complex subject matter with suitable weight. Carried by two phenomenal performances, the film tells the story of their relationship, but it also allows each to develop her own sense of self along the way. Helene is a hard character to love, but in Del Mar’s hands she is an easy one to understand, and its impossible not to empathize with her. Anna, on the other hand, is easy to sympathize with, but Boland also allows her to be self-­‐destructive, impulsive, and flawed. In telling the story of this mother-­‐daughter pairing, Gail Harvey has created a compelling portrait of an artist torn between devotion to her art and to her daughter, a shattering story of a strained relationship, and a wonderfully observed look at a young woman coming into her own, weathering bumps along the way. This is a great film, not afraid to look in places most others ignore, terrified yet somewhat resigned to what it will find there.

82/100 ~ GREAT. Looking Is The Original Sin is quietly devastating, an emotionally resonant film that treats a complex subject matter with suitable weight.

Review: Looking is the Original Sin http://thetfs.ca/2013/11/25/review-­‐looking-­‐original-­‐sin/

Looking is the Original Sin centres around a troubled relationship between Helene Truman (Maria Del Mar), a brilliant and unstable photographer, and her 19-­‐year-­‐old daughter Anna (Katie Boland). When Helene decides to run away from home to live and work in her studio without leaving any message for her daughter, Anna searches through Helene’s old photographs to find out the life she’s been living and kept from Anna. From there she finds out about Brent, a drag queen and close friend of Helene’s, and a man Helene may have cheated on her husband with.

There is something poignant about the fact that Anna has to find out who her mother is through photos even while Helene is still around and in her life, but you’re left wondering, why now? Why is Anna just starting to investigate now, after all this time, knowing what her mother is like? The film seems to begin at an arbitrary point in their relationship; they clearly have issues, Anna gets fed up with her mother, they fight, but then they make up. Nothing new, here. When Anna expresses an interest in photography Helen invites her along on one of her shoots and is shocked by her behaviour. Wouldn’t she have known by 19 that her mother is a bit wild? This seems to cause a greater rift in their relationship, and propels the story forward but it feels forced. Little of the drama that follows is earned.

The dialogue is very casual and loose, perhaps too loose in contrast to those moments of high drama that feel stilted. Anna wanders the city trying to uncover her mother’s

secrets, and just as the beginning seems to come out of nowhere, so does the climax, cutting the narrative short when things seem to get interesting.

Gail Harvey captures some lovely, seemingly unscripted, moments between the characters, a fitting analog to Helene’s need to capture the vulnerability and frailties which people try to hide. The strongest aspect of the film are the performances by Maria Del Mar and especially Katie Boland, who seem at ease in the lives of these characters.

Unfortunately the script itself doesn’t deliver as much as they do.

Is Looking is the Original Sin opening weekend worthy?

The film clocks in at 83 minutes, which in most cases is a relief. There is so much underdeveloped territory that makes that length unsatisfying. It’s worth seeing for the performances, but on opening weekend? Not necessary.

Looking Is The Original Sin Addison Wylie

http://wyliewrites.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐sin/

Everyone has their own type of vice. Helene’s is her camera. Although she’s able to enthral people with her stunning photography, it’s an interest of hers that she chooses to take up a large portion of her life. The high she gets off of the perfect picture is that of a drug.

Like a drug would do, Helene’s talent keeps her in her own world while others are kept out. Her daughter, Anna, has always recognized that she’s not a high priority in her Mother’s life. She watches Helene sleep her days away after late-­‐night parties and exhibitions, and feels cross but frustratingly numb to it all.

With Anna’s case in Looking is the Original Sin, after trying every trick in the book to coordinate her way into her Mother’s life, she takes deliberate steps to walk in Helene’s shoes in order to establish some sort of connection.

Partly inspired by the life of artist Diane Arbus, Maria Del Mar (who plays Helene) and Katie Boland (who plays Anna) take a challenging dynamic written and directed by Gail Harvey and create outstanding results. Both actresses are able to stand their own ground and take movie goers through their own emotional journey.

Both characters have their own discrepancies – to which are easy to believe – and the struggle between who’s the parent in a situation always makes for compelling role reversals.

Harvey and Del Mar’s representation of a dedicated yet troubled artist is also handled very well and giving viewers the freedom to think what they want. A black-­‐and-­‐white video diary recording Helene is spread throughout the film, offering her personal thoughts. It’s vulnerable, and we see inside Helene’s soul, but Harvey doesn’t leave any hints of semi-­‐pretentious behaviour out of the picture. These characteristics are very apparent during Helene’s self-­‐reflection getaway.

Helene is very protective of the world she has built around her art, and other supporting characters see this as well. Kent Staines plays Brent, a close friend of Helene’s who extends his hand out only to be turned down frequently. Staines brings an energy to the film that’s comforting. It’s fun to watch him interact with other people in the film.

However, remembering the character of Brent starts to bring back the main qualm I have about Looking is the Original Sin’s screenplay.

It feels as if a lot of key motivations jump the gun and the outcomes are a bit too pat. They aren’t fully fleshed out before the character carries through with their choices. They’re rushed for the sake of moving the story forward.

With Brent, he may bring his own life to the movie, but his intentions are fuzzy at best. His need to keep Anna away from Helene could exist because he’s trying to protect Helene’s artistic integrity, but that teeters between being coherent information and a big “what if?”.

With that, even some of Anna’s motivations during the latter part of Looking is the Original Sin are a bit flimsy. A scene between her and one of her Mom’s old flings feels oddly out of character for Anna and overall preposterous when compared to everything Harvey is getting right.

Looking is the Original Sin, however, is fascinating. Even during its missteps, Harvey’s film is very interesting. It’s a notable indie where everything leads up to one heck of an ending that seriously moved me.

Looking Is The Original Sin

http://firstweekendclub.ca/site12/films/film-­‐database/item/looking-­‐is-­‐the-­‐original-­‐sin

Looking Is the Original Sin, a challenging and deeply affecting portrait, is a mother/daughter story about life, art, alienation and two women discovering themselves.

Anna just turned nineteen. Her mother, Helene is her best friend. Or, she was. Lately, Helene has become tired of playing the dutiful wife and loving parent. Helene is a celebrated photographer but she longs for more. Now that her daughter is older, she is drawn to a life completely different than what’s expected of her. She becomes fascinated by the suffering faces of those living on the fringes of society. Underneath, something darker lurks. Motivated by her ego and depression, Helene’s photographs are strange, disturbing and remarkable images. Excited by the power of her new work, she feels she must leave her daughter and all that’s conventionally expected of her to become the artist she’s meant to be.

Confused and hurt by her mother’s behavior, Anna fights to be close to her still. She wishes she could be exciting and artistic like her mother, to feel life with such vibrancy. As her mother slips farther and farther away from her, eventually running away to her new artistic community and sinking deeper into her depression, Anna decides to take matters into her own hands. She

searches through Helene’s photos and negatives, trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance. Her mother’s life is fascinating. Though not invited, Anna continues her search, meeting her mother’s friends and uncovering her many secrets, searching for clues to explain her disappearance. Anna tries to be a photographer too, hoping the camera will open some doors and help her be accepted. She very literally takes on her mother’s life, determined to be interesting like her and trying to understand her. Above all, she wants to save her.

Director:Gail Harvey Genre:Feature Release Date:Friday, 22 November 2013 W riter:Gail Harvey Producer:Gail Harvey, Maria del Mar, Katie Boland Production:Gail Harvey Productions Distribution:Breakthrough Entertainment Inc. IM DB:Imdb.com

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