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鈥淢elanie Wood. Shut up and say something.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 what most people say when they answer their phones 鈥� and, if it were coming from anyone else but director Melanie Wood, it would probably cause some serious confusion at the other end of the line. How do you stop speaking and continue speaking at the same time?听
But Wood is the director of Shut Up and Say Something, a feature-length documentary that screens this week in the highly coveted BC Spotlight Gala spot at the 2017 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival 鈥� and the contradictions of that idea of simultaneously shutting up and expressing something meaningful are at the heart of her buzz-worthy film.
Shut Up and Say Something is a deep-dive into the poetry and pain of spoken word artist Shane Koyczan. Koyczan seized the attention of the world on Feb. 12, 2010, when he delivered his rousing poem, .
Since then, the Yellowknife-born, Penticton-raised poet has drawn tens of thousands of eager fans to theatres and auditoriums across the country to hear his searing poems that give voice to the inaudible and the imperceptible: the bullied, the awkward, the visibly different (as he does in his anti-bullying poem ).
Koyczan is at once giving, vulnerable, and powerful in his poetry, and Shut Up and Say Something takes audiences beyond the words that Koyczan delivers from stages across the land, and into his private world, where we see 鈥渉ow much of an emotional toll the kind of work Shane does takes on him,鈥� says Wood, who was brought to the project by filmmaker Stuart Gillies, himself a friend of Koyczan鈥檚.
鈥淲e listen to the poetry and think, 鈥極h, wow!鈥� 鈥� but imagine speaking a poem that brings you to tears 10 nights in a row in 10 different theatres. It鈥檚 accessing that emotional depth that really amazes me, and I learned more about that kind of talent, or gift, when I was working with him.鈥�
The film (which won VIFF鈥檚 #mustseeBC competition) overflows with Koyczan鈥檚 poetry, both via footage from performances and in animated segments. It also demonstrates the ways in which his ability to evoke all manner of cathartic emotions is both a blessing and a curse. 鈥淪hane is a guy who delves into his dark moments and stays there, partly for his own creativity and partly it鈥檚 just his character,鈥� says Wood. 鈥淪ometimes he, self-admittedly, can be very difficult to work with because he spends so much emotional energy in the creative part of what he does, that he also has to spend the same amount of time recuperating from that.鈥�
There are plenty of big emotions in Shut Up and Say Something, but the film鈥檚 most gut-punching narrative arc begins with Koyczan鈥檚 desire to connect with his estranged biological father. Koyczan (who was raised by his grandmother, upon whom he dotes) had only met his father a handful of times before filming began, and Wood notes that it was challenging 鈥渢rying to navigate the very intimate relationship between a father and son where, in lots of ways, you feel like you ought not to have been there, and yet in the process I think some of those meetings between him and his dad self-admittedly wouldn鈥檛 have happened if we hadn鈥檛 have been there.鈥�
No spoilers as to how it ultimately plays out, but the final eight minutes of Shut Up and Say Something might just be the most devastating eight minutes you鈥檒l see at VIFF this year. Bring tissues.
Given how she answered the phone 鈥� and the amount of time she spent speaking with and observing Koyczan over the course of filming 鈥� what does the titular directive mean to Wood? 鈥淭he way I interpret that is, we really have to stop all the noise in our brains and reach out and connect to people who mean something to us,鈥� says Wood. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 just wait for relationships to repair, or for family to come to us. We have to take ownership and say something and make connections. And it鈥檚 important. In this world where everything is fractured, I won鈥檛 even go into the litany of bad things going on in the world, but all we have is each other.鈥�
鈥� Shut Up and Say Something听screens Oct. 4 and 8 at the 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse as part of the 2017 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival. Tickets at .
