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Living the dream

He may not be a Haligonian born and bred, but filmmaker John Walker is as passionate about his Halifax home as he is about his career. His reasons for moving to Halifax were simple. “I’d fallen in love with the ocean, I’d fallen in love with a Maritimer, I’d fallen in love with the Maritime culture.”

When he’s not on location, Walker likes to stay seaside. “If I’m uptight about a project, I go down there for a long walk and that kind of resolves me. That’s the amazing thing about Halifax; you can walk down and stare at the ocean in 20 minutes.”

After 35 years of making films, he doesn’t have a lot of time to gaze at the waves. Walker has credits in more than 60 films as a producer, director and cinematographer, has enjoyed the grand acclamations of the Gemini awards, Genie Awards, an Academy Award to name a few, and has travelled to many of the world’s international film festivals.

His latest film is A Drummer’s Dream. It features 40 young students and seven of the world’s greatest drummers; Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr, Dennis Chambers, Kenwood Dennard, Horacio Hernandez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Mangini and Raul Rekow. It screens on September 17 at the Atlantic Film Festival. It was also an Audience Choice runner-up at Hot Docs in Toronto.

Alex Salter, the film’s sound design and music editor, has worked with Walker on several films. “It’s always fantastic to work with John. He’s so passionate. He has a super talent,” he says. “He’s able to communicate with his subject or the people he’s filming, in a fairly short period of time when you think about it, and they open up to him, he gets this magic on film.”

Kent Nason, the film’s cinematographer, agrees. “Working with John is a great experience,” he says. “He’s one of the world’s greatest story tellers … certainly A Drummer’s Dream was one of the best ones I’ve worked on in a long time.”

Walker also credits the Atlantic Film Festival as another reason he was drawn to Halifax. He was more than happy to talk about the festival, his love for Halifax and A Drummer’s Dream.

What does the Atlantic Film Festival mean to you?
I really love the Atlantic Film Festival. I like the size of it. For me, the smaller the film festival, the better. I just got back from Cannes Film Festival promoting A Drummer’s Dream. The big festivals lack intimacy. You’re not meeting people in the same way. It’s very business-oriented. Here, you’re making connections with people in a very relaxed atmosphere; you can make friendships, life-long friendships.

You’re originally from Montréal, what brought you to Halifax?
My wife is from New Brunswick and her mother is from Nova Scotia. We’ve been together for twenty-five years. We’d go to the Maritimes every summer to visit family and eventually we bought a place on the South Shore about 14 years ago. We were living in Toronto, and after nine years of back and forth, I realized life was too short, I was tired of Toronto. So we sold the house and made the move to Halifax.

Tell us a bit about A Drummer’s Dream.
It’s a film made with seven of the world’s greatest drummers. You experience these characters, their energy, their music, their philosophy, their life, so it’s a film that’s larger than a film about drumming.

How did you hear about the drumming camp?
My nephew actually told me about what his other uncle was up to, that’s Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr from Montréal.  He toured with the Dizzy Gillespie Band for six years. He had this dream to pull together some of the great drummers to a former YMCA camp, a 300-acre farm west of Montréal. Nasyr went backstage at the last Carlos Santana concert in Montréal and he met up with Raul Rekow, who’s been playing with Carlos for 35 years and said ‘I’m putting together this camp, are you interested?’ and Raul said ‘yes, absolutely!’ Then Dennis Chambers followed, who’s also on tour with Carlos Santana right now and then all the other drummers fell into place.

When you heard about it, were you already thinking ‘film?’
The interesting thing is I already have a background as a drummer, as a teenager. My instant reaction was ‘I have to go’ and about 10 seconds later, ‘I have to go with my film crew’ but as it turned out, all these film companies from New York and Montréal were trying to negotiate rights to film this. When I told Nasir I was interested in doing a feature documentary, he said ‘great, let’s do it.’

Let’s go back to your music background.
I started playing the drums when I was eight or nine I guess. When I was 16, our Montréal band, called Heavy, was invited by Frank Zappa to open his show in Haight Ashbury, California. I couldn’t believe it. The same week, I got offered a summer job at a film studio in Montréal. So after two, three sleepless nights, I chose the studio. I gave away my drums, never touched a pair of sticks again, until the week when I made this film.

Clearly you’ve had success in film. Any regrets?
No, no regrets. What’s interesting, my drumming as a teenager has influenced my filmmaking. Filmmaking is all about rhythm and timing and pacing. It wasn’t until I started making this film that I remembered about Frank Zappa, the choice I’d made. I didn’t tell the drummers that I was a former drummer. Towards the end of the week, this jam session, I played. It got me asking myself, ‘why did I abandon the drums?’ I realize now there could’ve been room for both. It’s just so joyful to play. I should never have abandoned them.

Did you have a favourite moment during the camp?
It would have to be the jam, when the seven musicians were together, that was an incredible highlight. These masters, they were all like kids again, it was joy. I was on a three week non-drug related high after this event. It was one of the best film-making experiences I’ve ever had.

What’s different about making a music film than other types?
Making a music film, the whole crew is much larger. The sound department is much larger, there are huge considerations. We had very specific technicians for recording drums, like miking drums became very critical, where we recorded the drums, how we recorded them and premixing all the music. All the considerations about the making of the film, the mixing of the film, are about sound.

Is there a difference between making films on the East Coast versus other parts of Canada?
The first time I did a co-production here, it was called Place of the Boss. I’d just started working with Halifax teams, sound and cinematographers. I liked working with Alex Salter, who’s a sound recordist, location recordist and he does the sound edits. That was rare, I liked that combination. I just really liked working with the Halifax crews. I found it relaxing, not as high pressure as in Toronto, I really enjoyed working here.

What are your favourite places to go in Halifax?
One of my favourite haunts is down at Schooner Books. I don’t want to play favourites, but I love Jane’s on the Common, if I’ve been flying for 20 hours, and I want to go for a nice meal, I know I’m not going to be disappointed. I really like Chives, there’s great Lebanese food here, the Company House, I like the Old Triangle. I love Bearly’s. Those are my standbys.

What is the state of filmmaking right now in Nova Scotia as you see it?
I have to thank all of the filmmakers in Halifax, who have been fighting to maintain an industry in Nova Scotia. One of the reasons I came here was because the infrastructure is here. The Canadian film industry as a whole is fragile. At any time, it can crumble. We can’t allow cracks to happen.

What are your other passions?
Sailing. That’s another reason Nova Scotia was a big attraction. I have a small 24-foot day sailor, but it’s a beautiful boat. When you’re a filmmaker, you’re working 24 hours. If you’re not thinking about a project, you’re developing a project, you’re working in all your waking hours, and sometimes at night in the middle of your sleep! When I’m sailing, all those worries and anxieties about money, and creative and the business side, it all disappears.

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