Spike Lee. Robert DeNiro. Aubrey Plaza. James Franco. My Little Pony. Seth Rogen. Dan Mangan. Morgan Spurlock. Bob Odenkirk. Mike Myers.
Those are just a few of the names award-winning Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»documentary filmmaker Brent Hodge has worked with since creating Hodgee Films six years ago. How has he done it?
“One of the things you have to know about Brent is that he has a magical power to open doors,” explains Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»singer-songwriter Dan Mangan. “His work ethic is tremendous. He is wildly audacious in the most benevolent way.”
Mangan should know. He was the subject of one of Hodge’s first films, What Happens Next? The Dan Mangan Documentary — about Mangan’s ascent to headline the Orpheum Theatre for the first time.
Hodge’s own climb into the Hollywood documentary stratosphere has been astounding to watch. Before directing and producing movies for a living, Hodge spent his formative years in Victoria, playing Junior B hockey for the Victoria Cougars. He earned himself a business degree and arrived in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»looking to break into acting and comedy.
During the day, he held down a video production job at CBC Radio 3, even though he had no prior experience in media (that’s where this scribe first met him). By night, he was doing live comedy as a member of Grimaldi’s Asylum.
“That was a Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»sketch comedy troupe that had a totally amazing cast, but we drew flies,” remembers Hodge with a chuckle. “I mean nobody came to see us, but it’s where I met a lot of the incredibly talented people I still work with today.”
At the same time, Hodge managed to fit in night school for film, and picked up shirtless bartending shifts at 1181, an infamous lounge on Davie Street.
Within a year of working at the CBC, he had convinced his boss (former CBC executive Steve Pratt) to allow him to follow Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»pop band Said The Whale to the South By Southwest music convention in Austin, Texas. Hodge filmed the whole thing. That became 2011’s Winning America, Hodge’s first full-length documentary.
What Happens Next?(2012) with Mangan followed — Hodge’s first under the banner of his own production company, Hodgee Films. When that landed on TV, everything changed for Hodge.
“When I saw that on TV it hit me — I had become a director. That’s when I realized that was exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” Hodge recalls.
What happened next was Hodge’s first big directorial break: A Brony Tale (2014), starring Ashleigh Ball of Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»band Hey Ocean! That doc focused on the fascinating world of the adult fan network for the cartoon My Little Pony, for which Ball is a voice actor. The film attracted the interest of Morgan “Super Size Me” Spurlock’s production company, which led to much wider distribution and a red carpet world premiere at DeNiro’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Next up for Hodge was the star-studded, funny and moving documentary/obituary I Am Chris Farley (2015), which saw buy-in from almost every comedian Farley ever worked with, including Adam Sandler, David Spade and more. A well-received sports doc called The Pistol Shrimps (2016) was next, about a celebrity female amateur basketball team in L.A. starring Aubrey Plaza. Several of Hodge’s films have won awards.
Hodge now spends plenty of time in New York, where he has recently worked with Spike Lee. Despite his part-time East Coast residency, Hodge maintains an almost entirely-Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»based crew and production company. He has also practically cornered the market on pop culture documentaries. “Our goal at Hodgee Films is to produce 10 docs a year,” Hodge says. “We have five in the works right now.”
Hodge makes a triumphant return to Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»this weekend for the DOXA Film Fest, for two showings of his excellent new film Freaks and Geeks: the Documentary (2018), all about the brilliant but sadly misunderstood 1999-2000 NBC TV show featuring a bunch of high school kids, set in late-1970s Michigan.
Once again, Hodge received full participation. Freaks and Geeks’ all-star cast members James Franco, Vancouver’s Seth Rogan, Jason Segel, Linda Cardellini, executive producer and director Judd Apatow and creator Paul Feig all showed up with bells on, as did the rest of the cast, crew and various NBC executive — even the one who notoriously cancelled the show after just one season. The documentary is filled with touching interviews conducted by Hodge, and never-seen-before archival footage, including Rogan’s screen test, shot in Vancouver.
Much like Hodge’s sketch comedy troupe Grimaldi’s Asylum, nobody watched the original Freaks and Geeks. However, there’s no denying the stardom and body of work amassed by Freaks and Geeks’ former cast and crew. You could argue the same thing is happening right now for Hodge.
Freaks and Geeks: the Documentaryscreens at DOXA, Friday, May 11, 8:15 p.m. at SFU-GCA, and Sunday, May 13, 8 p.m. at the Cinemateque. Both showings will be followed by a Q+A with Hodge. More details at .
