Paul Almond: talks about his marriage to Genevieve Bujold, the creation of telefilm Canada and the beginnings of feature filmmaking in Canada

TAKE ONE, Sept-Dec, 2003 by Wyndham Wise

Which lab did you use for post-production on Isabel and Act of the Heart?

We were the first 35 mm film to go through Harold Greenberg's labs in Montreal. That was the start of his career in Canadian film. He had opened a lab, which was an extension of his photo-processing business. Isabel was his first feature film and Peter Carter was merciless. He would phone dear Harold in the middle of the night to make sure the rushes had arrived. He wouldn't let Harold get away with anything, and Harold was sweating blood. Act of the Heart was done in Toronto, at Film I louse. They were very keen to have us because at that time all the film shot in Toronto had to be shipped to Montreal to be processed and Film House was trying to reverse the process. I really can't remember, but I think it was one of the first films it had done, if not the first.

By now I had completed two pictures and Denis Heroux had made Valerie, which was huge at the box office in Quebec, so things were starting to happen and the CFDC was instrumental in kick-starting this whole new wave of new Canadian films. The next important thing to happen was the tax relief implemented by the federal government, which was thought up by Donald Johnston. He was an important Montreal lawyer who was also a friend of Pierre Trudeau's and later he became a member of Trudeau's cabinet. I had gone to school with Timothy Porteous, who later became clerk of the Privy Council. I phoned Timothy and asked him if he knew a good lawyer. He recommend Johnston, but said he [Johnston] didn't know anything about film. I met Donald and he ended up becoming a great friend. Later, when Genevieve left me, she took our son and went to stay with Donald until she could set herself up.

Donald's law firm had been buying jet planes and leasing them back to Air Canada. In those days, if you bought an airplane you got a 100 per cent tax write-off. Donald thought the same principle could be applied to Canadian films. So he implemented the tax-shelter financing for feature films when he was in the Trudeau cabinet. Of course, this arrangement was responsible for some of the worst films ever made in the history of Canadian cinema. A lot of bad films were made but a lot of people got involved in the business. It was Donald who was responsible and he got his feet wet negotiating the deal for Act of the Heart before he became a politician.

You made a third and final film with Genevieve, Journey, which completes the trilogy. Did you see tire three films as being connected at the time?

By the time I made Journey I did, in the sense I wanted to do another film with Genevieve. After she dies at the end of Act of the Heart, I wanted a girl out of time coming out of a severe trauma and being brought back to life. She is found floating down a river. It's purely symbolic. She's found floating on a log and is rescued by a group of 12 people. Their leader was played by John Vernon. I would have liked Donald Sutherland again, but that was not possible. We shot the film on the Saguenay River in a remote location.