If the first movie you see when youre five years old is Jaws, one of two things will likely ensue: a paralyzing fear of water and horror flicks, or, the spark of a lifelong love affair with all things macabre. For Karen Lam it was the latter.
Its my dads fault. He thought, Oh, she likes fish! Lam laughs, recalling that fateful trip to the Cineplex. And he always warped every story. Hed tell me about Robinson Crusoe, and [it wasnt until] I got into English Lit as my major and I read it again, and I was like, There are no cannibals in Robinson Crusoe! They dont eat Robinson Crusoe and his boy Friday! But that was my dads version of it.
Her fathers uniquely twisted storytelling buried itself deep in Lams subconscious. After high school, Lam went to UBC where she completed her law degree. After she articled, she went to work at BC Film and ended up producing films, reigniting her love of movies. And though she continues to produce, its her accidental career as a writer/director thats got people buzzing and landed her a featured spot at this years Vancouver Women in Film Festival.
It was only five or six years ago that I switched over to writing and directing as well, but it was out of necessity, Lam recalls. I was really inspired by Asian horror in the early 2000s. I was wanting to do things like Ringu and Juan, but I couldnt find anything here that was fulfilling that. I made my first short film not even expecting that I would. I wrote an outline and sent it to all my writer friends asking if somebody could put it into a script for me. They said, Well, youve already outlined it, why dont you just write it up? I ended up getting into the National Screen Institutes Drama Prize with my first script and my first time directing. The whole time there I was this belligerent person saying, Im not really a writer or director; Im just here to learn. I really fought it, I have to say.
Thankfully, she didnt fight it for too long. Since her debut short, Lam has made it her mission to make her films female-driven and feminist without being exploitative. Its a delicate balancing act that the majority of her colleagues have yet to achieve.
I read interviews with other male directors in horror and theyre considered radical feminists because they depict a strong woman at the end of it, but 90 per cent of the film is her being brutalized, just for that final 10 per cent [where she becomes the victor], Lam says.
Its something Lam continues to explore in her recent short film, Doll Parts, which is equal parts creepy, beautiful and devastating. It covers more emotional terrain in 10 minutes than most of the genres feature-length flicks. And its subject matter a dangerous man preys on a vulnerable hitchhiking woman, only to have the tables turned proves particularly gripping in the wake of the living nightmare serial killer Robert Pickton created for vulnerable women in the Downtown Eastside.
The missing women and the Pickton trial have led to my stories, Lam says. Women, and currently young men, can just go missing in droves. It makes you feel very, very peculiar. We have skyrocketing real estate prices and then this population that falls between the cracks. Thats what inspired me to do Doll Parts: anger. Ive also been following the Highway of Tears [case]. How many women have gone missing, but No, theres no serial killer. Theres nothing out there. How many women have to go missing before something gets done?
Doll Parts screens Mar. 9 as part of the Embracing the Darkness program. The 7th annual Vancouver Women In Film Festival (screenings, panel discussions) runs Mar. 8-11. Full schedule, information and tickets: WomenInFilm.ca.
VWIFF HIGHLIGHTS
Some of our favourite local women are among those whose work will be showcased at the VWIFF this weekend.
Desiree Lim is a writer/director with a background in journalism who divides her time between Japan and Vancouver. Shes also queer, Malaysian, and fluent in five languages. Her films (including Floored By Love, Sugar Sweet) tell unique stories that are almost entirely ignored by mainstream and indie media.
Mina Shum made a splash with her critically acclaimed debut feature Double Happiness in 1994, and shes still making great movies about untold stories, such as her funny, locally shot short, Hip Hop Mom.
Mette Bachs background in creative non-fiction has helped inform her transition to screenwriting, offering up scripts with keenly observed details about humanity, in all its ridiculous and heart-warming glory, as evidenced by her award-winning screenwriting debut, Ms. Thing (pictured).
Select 2012 Spotlight Award Winners at the 7th annual Women in Film Festival
WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD: Carol Whiteman (Co-creator of Women in the Directors Chair program)
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT: Penelope Buitenhuis (Filmmaker)
ARTISTIC INNOVATION: Jill Sharpe (Director)
ARTISTIC INNOVATION: Dana Claxton (Film, video, photography,performance art)
LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION: Doreen Manuel (Filmmaker/educator)
