Who made Cyberman?

PETER LYNCH: Director of "Cyberman"

Peter Lynch, a native Torontonian, grew up on the edge of the Don Valley in East York where he spent a great deal of time fishing, playing hockey and singing in a choir. At one point, he performed on stage with the Vienna Choir Boys. Lynch was turned on to filmmaking by an uncle who obsessively filmed everything, but it wasn't until his father took him to see John Ford's "Stagecoach" that he knew he wanted to make films. When he was eleven he saw Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and re-confirmed his desire to become a filmmaker. Lynch was also inspired by his grandmother, who performed Vaudeville with Charlie Chaplin, and a great uncle who was an art director for Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell.

Lynch was raised on as much pop culture as he was high art: from Beatles to Bach, from Picasso to Superman comics. The Don Valley (which was to be later depicted in Lynch's film "Arrowhead") is where Lynch, as a boy, acted out fantasies of Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels and King Arthur. It is a place that continues to be a source of his inspiration.

After high school, Lynch spent two years as a ski bum in the Laurentians and then spent the next few years as a truck driver and on assembly lines. He then went to study Fine Arts at York University and found that he was more interested in anthropology than in most film courses. At York he discovered the 'video revolution.' Lynch headed off to New York City to become a V.J. at various nightclubs, including "The Mudd Club" and "Danceteria." There he combined images and music together and was amongst the first to show video art in a club environment. From there, Lynch moved into staging larger multi-media events. These events would combine music, video, performance art and fashion. One of the most memorable was "Kitchen Sync" (1982), a landmark cultural event in Toronto, which featured performance art by Eric Bogosian, showcased Fab Five Freddy and the Rocksteady Crew and contemporary dance by Trisha Brown.

Between 1983 -1987 Lynch co-founded, co-produced and co-directed Video Culture International, an international festival which showcased the latest in video and new media expression from around the world. This event included a competition, conferences, exhibitions, symposiums, installations and multi-media performance events. During this period he came into contact and worked with many of the most influential video artists in the world. This put Video Culture at the forefront of artistic and technological advancements.

Not only was he the central architect of the programs and a major force in the marketing, promotion and staging of this event, he was also responsible for raising millions of dollars from both government and the private sector in cash and equipment. During this time Lynch was also a consultant at Sony International and connected them with the latest movements in art, science, architecture and design, and helped to position them within new markets. Together they experimented with high definition television, computer graphics, digital video effects, frame-store TV, direct broadcast systems and teletext systems that were precursors to the Internet.

Video Culture was the leading video/new media festival in the world and helped create international profiles for artists such as Bill Viola and Nam June Paik.

After his work with Video Culture and Sony, Lynch started to work with Jasmac International, focusing on developing new media buildings in Japan and North America. During this period, he worked on designing programs for buildings with architects such as Toronto's Bruce Kuwabara.

In the early 90s, Lynch produced and directed a number of music videos which aired on Much Music and MTV. He then started to work on short films, notably his first dramatic short "Arrowhead," for which he received a Genie Award in 1994. Lynch then went on to direct several successful commercials for Carling and Molson Beer. In 1996 Lynch made the wildly successful "Project Grizzly," one of the most acclaimed Canadian documentaries of all time. He then co-wrote and directed "The Herd," a historical drama that was filmed in the Arctic. Lynch recently completed "Cyberman," which played to critical acclaim at both Buenos Aires and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. All of Lynch's films have been broadcast and shown in festivals and theatres around the world.

What separates Peter Lynch's films from most Canadian films is that they are both popular and critical successes. Audiences internationally respond to his stories, which strike a chord with the dreams, desires and hearts of our culture. They pose a significant cultural view of Canada and have already become cult classics.

Peter Lynch currently lives and works in Toronto. He is an avid collector of contemporary art, a soccer fanatic and an extensive traveller.

 

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PETER LYNCH:
Selected Filmography

All of Lynch's films have played at festivals around the world and have been broadcast internationally.

"The Herd," 1998. 100 min., non-fiction feature, 35mm. 3000 reindeer, 1500 miles, 6 years. Set in the early 1930s, this film tells a little-known Canadian story that unfolded across the Arctic involving three countries and one very determined man. With Colm Feore, Graham Greene, David Hemblen, Mark McKinney, Don Mckellar. Producer: Peter Starr (National Film Board). Theatrically released by Red Sky Entertainment; Rotterdam Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and others.

"Project Grizzly," 1996. 72 min., non-fiction feature, 35mm. Troy Hurtubise, a self-proclaimed close-quarter bear researcher who's obsessed with going face-to-face with a deadly grizzly bear. This film explores the territory between documentary and drama. Producer: Michael Allder ( National Film Board). Theatrically released in Canada by the National Film Board; in the U.S. by First Run Features. One of the top ten Canadian theatrical releases in 1997.

"The Artist and the Collector," 1994. 27 min., documentary, video. A story of obsession. Producers: Carol Moore-Ede, Sunday Arts Entertainment (CBC).

"Arrowhead," 1993. 30 min., drama, 16mm. A story of creative delinquency in high-rise culture. Starring: Don Mckellar. Producers: Peter Lynch, Emmet Sheil. Theatrically released by Memory Pictures; Genie for best short Drama; Gerald Peary (Film Comment & Programmer Harvard Cinema) lists "Arrowhead" in his top ten most important shorts of all time.

"St. Bruno, My Eyes as a Stranger," 1993. 23 min., documentary, video. The almost disappeared world of Toronto's Little Italy, seen through the eyes of a photographer who grew up there. Producers: Peter Lynch and Caroline Christie.

 

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Michael Allder has had extensive experience as a producer, director and executive producer of both television and cinematic productions in both the public and private sector.

"Cyberman" will be producer Michael Allder's fourth film to have been selected for screening at the Toronto Film Festival. The first, "Project Grizzly", which was directed to much acclaim by Peter Lynch, went on to play at festivals and cinemas in a wide range of countries across the world. The following year, 1998, saw the debut of another critically lauded feature documentary that he also initiated whilst working as a resident producer at the Toronto office of the National Film Board. Entitled "Drowning in Dreams" and directed with considerable panache by Tim Southam, the film also travelled widely at home in Canada and abroad. At that time, he also co-produced with Greg Klmkiw the experimental feature drama "City of Dark," which was directed by Bruno Pacheco and went on to win the "most innovative film language award" later that year in Portugal.

On leaving the National Film Board in 1998, Allder moved to the CBC to become executive producer of the CBC flagship documentary series 'The Nature of Things.' Since that time he has executive produced such titles as: 'Up Close and Personal: The Ecology of David Suzuki,' an intimate meeting with the microbial life that lives in, on and around us; 'Reefer Madness II,' an inquiry into the contradictions and ironies regarding official attitudes to the legalisation of marijuana as a treatment for extreme pain; 'Phallacies,' an off-beat study of male sexuality; 'Out of the Shadows,' a study of revolutionary advances in cranial surgery for children; 'The Friendly Atom,' a highly stylised investigative history of nuclear power; 'The Hidden Killer: Portrait of an Epidemic,' a documentary reconstructing a health emergency in Arizona; "Toxic Legacies," a study of the effect of pesticides on the health of children in Mexico; 'The Hospital at the End of the Earth,' the epic and disturbing story of what happened to the Aral Sea during the aftermath of a Stalinist era agricultural re-engineering program, and 'Race for the Future,' a two-part series that chronicles the past and present of scientific endeavour and, rashly perhaps, steps into the future!

Many of these and other T.N.O.T. titles have garnered numerous awards in national and international competitions, as has the series itself, which was voted best Canadian documentary series in 1999 and (jointly with a BBC production) best educational series in the world.

While at the NFB, Allder also initiated the anthology 'Secret History' strand, which commissioned previously untold stories such as 'The Un-Canadians,' the history of Canada's McCarthy era, and 'Mission North West Passage,' a dash for sovereignty in the Arctic, and 'Strike', an insider's account of the Hamilton steel strike.

Allder continues to work on occasion as a director and a producer. Directing credits include 'The Lucky Ones,' a feature-length documentary on the experiences of a group of Allied airmen imprisoned in Buchenwald which played at various festivals and other venues across North America and beyond, and 'Dead Heat,' the extraordinary story of the battle between two groups of scientists to find a cure for the strain of flu which wiped out millions in 1918, which was the winner of the 1999 Science in Society long-form television award. As a producer, his most recent project is 'Cyberman,' a feature-length documentary exploring the life of a cyborg.

"Making of Cyberman"

Producer's Notes

My relationship with director Peter Lynch began with a feature-length documentary I produced while at the National Film Board several years ago, called "Project Grizzly." I'd heard tell of Troy Hurtubise, the central character, while I was working on another shoot for the NFB in Northern Ontario. Troy had apparently built an armoured suit made of space-age metals, and to test its resilience, he had been shot at with crossbows and guns. He'd also jumped off a cliff and been pummeled by huge logs. He was an unconventional animal behaviorist who'd constructed the suit so that he could pursue his life-long fascination with grizzly bears, up close and personal. To some, this might seem like unlikely material , but when I approached Gerry Flahive, the acting Executive Producer for NFB Toronto, and told him I wanted to make a feature-length documentary about a latter-day Don Quixote, he was immediately supportive. "Who do you want to direct?" he asked. It was Peter Lynch who came to my mind. Peter had directed a Genie-winning short film called "Arrowhead," which seemed to me to have a lot of appealing qualities. It was poetic, slightly crazed, funny and philosophic, sometimes simultaneously. Shortly afterwards, I met with Peter Lynch at an Input conference in San Sebastian in Spain. Peter, it looked to me, was the perfect choice to direct "Project Grizzly."

"Project Grizzly" was shot on film over 15 days and blown up to 35mm. It played in the Toronto International Film Festival and cinemas across Canada. It became a cult hit in places like Australia, had the cover of a leading Japanese magazine and was described by Hollywood mandarin Quentin Tarantino as one of his favourite films of the year. It was a film that worked on several levels, and played with equal appeal to feminists, good ol' boys and cine-astes.

The idea for "Cyberman" came to me from writer James Heer, who has had a lengthy professional relationship with "The Nature of Things." James had been following the career of the inventor and futurist Steve Mann, and thought that Steve would be a good subject for the series. "The Nature of Things," for the information of non-Canadian readers, the highly acclaimed documentary series on science, nature and medicine, has been on the air for 41 years, and is hosted by world-renowned writer and environmentalist David Suzuki.

Feeling that Steve Mann's story could translate well to a big screen, I decided to ask Peter whether he'd be interested in directing the project. Peter was fascinated by Steve Mann's compelling mix of techno-activism, futurism, preoccupation with aesthetics, and, of course, Steve's day-to-day life. This was a man who'd lived as a cyborg for 20 years, and communicated with his wife via a wearable computer. The preliminary meeting with Steve was a shade tense, but productive. Steve provided us with numerous references to articles, papers, and comments on his work. The outline and shooting script was rapidly completed and we moved into production. Or rather, we moved into negotiations about production. Not surprisingly, given Steve's activism and awareness of the mass media, he wanted to "police," so to speak, the picture. It began in small, but disconcerting ways: A draft of the script is sent to Steve for comment, and he replies in his usual incisive way, not only to its content, but to the content of the previous draft we had not sent. Steve had hacked into our script, rigorously analysing our editorial activity as soon as we'd begun! Early on, before we have a clear sense of the sophistication of Steve's recording devices, we begin to suspect we're being covertly recorded. We're right. Those superfly shades conceal a camera...and Steve is shooting us before we have even started shooting him!

Not surprisingly, given Steve Mann's philosophical interest in media manipulation and freedom of access, he wanted his own record of events. He was also determined to be portrayed in a manner that he thought appropriate while Peter obviously wanted to be sure that the film reflected his vision. Inevitably there was a degree of conflict. Suggested scenes would be analysed for their information value, their aesthetic significance. Every scene had to be negotiated in advance. Access was a matter of constant debate. Sometimes the only solution was to suspend filming until an agreement could be reached. I found myself playing the diplomat on many occasions.

There were other difficulties. Steve loves to improvise, and is constantly re-tuning his eyetap, cameras, and wearable computers as we film. A shot that is scheduled to take an hour morphs into four. In one scene on an island in Georgian Bay, we're still patiently waiting for Steve to get his gear together at three in the morning.

Finally, filming is completed and Peter's long-time collaborator, editor Caroline Christie, goes to work. She faces a mass of material. There's Super 16 film, DV, Steve's eyetap pictures and stills. There are three versions of the film to be made, the feature-length version, an international 52-minute version, and one at 44 minutes. Caroline works her customary magic, and other long-term collaborators join the project. Ken Myhr writes the music, Daniel Pellerin does the mix, Alison Clarke looks after the sound design. To complete the 35mm version we call on Soho Digital, who painstakingly re-shoots our entire digital video master.

The whole project from conception to completion took around nine months. Did it feel that long? You'd better believe it.

Steve offers his perspective on what footage should make the final cut.