Getting the Thumbs Up from Guy Maddin

For aspiring filmmakers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it's hard to beat an endorsement from the town's cinematic godfather Guy Maddin. In the case of Bevan Klassen, director and co-writer of Of Games and Escapes, that thumbs up came to him after the release of the movie's trailer.

Bevan, that looks wonderful! That shot of the planted man getting watered is perhaps the greatest shot in Winnipeg filmmaking history! I love it. Hope to catch it!!!! Congrats! xoxoGUY

The shot Maddin is referring to can be seen towards the very end of the trailer (below). The movie, completed earlier this year, premiered at the Gimli Film Festival in late July and is screening this weekend in Klassen's childhood home of Brandon.

 

This is Klassen's first feature. He previously made the shorts Retired (2007), On a Sunday (2005) and Wildlands (2003). In this 76-minute psychological drama, he presents a salesman trying to answer the meaning-of-life question by developing board games. From Klassen's Director's Statement:

What trigger's the protagonist's journey is a discrepancy between how he views the world and how he wants the world to be... Co-writer Andre Laplume and myself have struggled with this issue and have found some of the answers in the ideas of psychologist Clare Graves. His theory is called “Spiral Dynamics” and is a model of adult psychological development that helps explain the complexity in individuals and societies through human history.

Adding to the complexity of this weekend is the fact that Of Games is screening at the Evans Theatre, where Klassen watched formative classic films growing up. Many programmed by Brandon University professor Jim Skinner.

[Of Games and Escapes]