Director of Seth’s Dominion and local artist discuss documentary and art
For the Guelph Film Festival, I spoke over the phone with Guelph-based cartoonist Seth, known for his comic series Palookaville, and graphic novels such as Wimbledon Green and George Sprott, as well as Montreal-based director Luc Chamberland, whose documentary Seth’s Dominion closed the Guelph Film Festival.
Luc Chamberland: I would say a large portion of the work I do is commercial – lots of explosions and stuff. So, I wanted to do something that was the complete opposite of commercial. I am a big fan of comic books – I grew up reading the French/Belgian comic book Spirou, and it’s very European. When I was in London I couldn’t find European comics, there were only American or British comics, and I stumbled upon a guy named Seth, and I was absolutely amazed. It was, graphically, very appealing to me, with a very European sensibility, and then I realized “He’s not British, he’s not American, he’s Canadian!” I was so surprised. So when I came back to Montreal about eight years ago, I went to a conference Seth did, and during the conference he was talking about other comic artists and illustrators […] Harvey Kutzmann, Wallace Ward, all these great, great artists. He talked about their lives, and how much they give themselves to the art of comic books. He was very tender about their lives and their commitment and so on, and while he was talking, I thought “My God, if he was talking about himself that would be interesting.” This is how I got the idea, and I approached him after the conference and I told him I wanted to do a film with him. We had a conversation that went on for about six months – email, phone calls – we finally did a meeting and he agreed to do a film with me. I think it’s because I was proposing to mix live action and animation. […] I think by the end, we’re not talking only about Seth, we’re talking about everybody’s memory. It’s a film about memory. […] I think the film is about, well, what I was trying to do, is [the idea that] this memory could serve us to live a better present. To be a little more aware of our present in a more fulfilling and satisfying way, thanks to all of that memory of the past that we collect in our lives. I think it speaks for everybody; not just about Seth, but for everybody who takes the time to look at the film.
Seth: Most of my work is built around memory. I’m a person who is constantly dwelling in the past at some level or another – either my own past or the cultural past. I guess I’m probably more interested in memory than I am in day-to-day life on some strange level. It might have something to do with the fact that, as a cartoonist, you spend a tremendous amount of your time alone. A lot of that time spent sitting at the drawing board, your mind is kind of wandering, and of course most of what you’re dwelling on a lot of the time is your own life. But I think that, for myself, I’m particularly fascinated by how we construct a life for ourselves – a narrative of out of events that occur and how we change them in our memory. Like, what little we actually retain and how we build that into a bigger narrative, even though when you look at the details of your memory it’s actually pretty skimpy. It’s a big topic. But the film does a good job, I think, of capturing that sensibility. When I saw the film, what I was happiest about it was that it wasn’t so much a documentary about my life, but more of an attempt to get the feeling of what my work is about, and the sort of inner life that is transmitted through the film.
Read more about Seth’s Dominion in this week’s centre coverage of the Guelph Film Festival.