Five Ring Circus

The perpetual teenager in me usually responds well to your standard activist documentary but the journalist in me balks at how glaringly one-sided protest films tend to be. I recognize the desire to tell a story that doesn't often get exposure in mainstream media, but rarely is an issue so simplistic as to warrant only one side of a story being told.

I give credit to Conrad Schmidt, first-time filmmaker and producer of The Five Ring Circus: The Untold Story of the Vancouver Olympic Games. Schmidt and his girlfriend/editor Chantal Morin have spent two years chronicling the Olympic Bid Book promises broken by City Council and VANOC while following the growing discontent of local housing advocates and activists, environmentalists and academics.

Maybe I'm being unfair in my critique of the film as being overly one-sided. In an interview with The Tyee, Schmidt says he had a hard time getting the pro-Olympic perspective, especially from those in power. VANOC apparently refused to meet with the filmmaker.

Says Schmidt, "The big struggle in making this documentary was getting the "yes" side, the pro-Olympic side, to talk on camera. The Olympic committee will not do interviews with any unauthorized documentary --not just me, but respectable independent documentary filmmakers don't get interviews either.”

Well, maybe it's for the best that VANOC and city council members only appeared in press conference footage. Had Sam Sullivan been interviewed for the film, the man seated next to me might have exploded. Each time Sullivan's face appeared on the screen, my seatmate shouted variations on "spineless prick" in near tourettic fashion.

Schmidt does do a good job teasing some controversial statements out of the mouth of Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan. Corrigan is one of the most outspoken 'critics' (NB: Corrigan is in favour of the Olympics but has concerns about the current approach the city is taking.)

Corrigan criticizes what he calls the "strict framework of corporatization" under which the Games operates. His most compelling statement in the film comes when he talks about the issue of sustainability. "It's so laughable as to be offensive, " he says, as an image of tonnes of concrete is seen being poured for the foundation of the Olympic ice-skating venue, incidentally to be built on swamplands in Richmond.

Another issue I have with Five Ring Circus is just how embedded the filmmakers are in the events they're filming, again, a hallmark of activist films. The filmmakers are clearly a part of the communities they're covering and as such, have a kind of access to these communities that makes the film even less 'objective.'

There's something very scripted about a few key scenes in the film. After the Eagle Ridge Bluffs have been cleared of protesters, a lone protester is filmed running along the bluffs and into the middle of a construction scene, crawling on top of a bulldozer in an attempt to temporarily halt the highway construction.

The fact that the camera just happened to be there for this act of civil disobedience makes the film feel scripted. When 78-year-old environmental activist Betty Krawczyk returns to the bluffs to create a one-woman blockade, again, there's that forced sense of serendipity with the camera catching the 'spontaneous' action (incidentally, this scene is one of the high points of emotional resonance in the film as Krawczyk stands tall against the police and developers, shouting "this is a blockade" before being carted off by the police for protecting the land that she loves).

Another heavy-hitting scene is one in which anti-poverty committee activists barricade themselves in an empty apartment complex on Cambie, a building the protesters want to see turned into housing for at-risk women. A bus load of riot cops (no joke, they scramble out of a city bus like clowns packed into a Volkswagon) encircle the building, preventing the relay of food and water to those inside. Yet, amazingly, a camera person seems to be moving gracefully between the barricaded building and the protesters inside. I'm guessing two cameras may have been used to film this scene. Otherwise, I find it hard to suspend my disbelief this far.

My last caveat with the film is that, again, like so many activist film, it's preaching to the converted. Schmidt has said he wants to "wake up" people as to what's going on, yet the inherent insiderness of the film leads me to believe it will have limited appeal for those who don't count themselves in the 'discontented with the 2010 Olympics hullabaloo' camp. The film will be screening until March 8th at the Rio Theatre.

The Georgia Straight and the Republic of East Vancouver have both reviewed the film. Only Magazine has an interview with Schmidt here.

Betty Krawczyk will be sentenced on Monday for her involvement in the Eagle Ridge Bluffs protests. Apparently, the Crown is arguing for 9-15 months in prison! The sentencing is open to the public and will take place at 9am Monday, March 5th at the BC Supreme Court, 800 Smithe Street.