Looking at the frame through his friend's video
camera, Jerry Ciccoritti had an epiphany. The 13-year-old, who
loved narrating stories and harboured ambitions of becoming a
painter, decided he was going to be a filmmaker. He enrolled for a
four-year course in filmmaking but stepped out a year later,
grudgingly agreeing with his professor that he already knew what
they were teaching him. Stepping into the real reel world, he
carved a niche for himself in the parallel worlds of television
and feature films.
Having won an astounding eight Gemini awards
(highest awards in Canadian television) for best direction in
television out of ten nominations, Ciccoritti's feature films have
also won acclaim. Some of the hit television serials on his resume
include The Hitchhiker, Top Cops, Catwalk, Forever Knight, E.N.G.,
Due South, Made in Canada, La Femme Nikita and the highly
acclaimed mini-series Trudeau. He debuted on the big screen with
Psycho Girls in 1985, followed it up the next year with Graveyard
Shift . And when he is not directing, he writes and produces
films, some of which include A Whisper to a Scream, Skull-Night of
Terror and Hurt Penguins, a romantic comedy. Ciccoritti was
recently honoured at the Toronto Italian film
festival.
How do you straddle the different worlds
of television and feature films?
I actually just treat them the same way.
Television has certain practical rules which have to do with time.
There is a limit to how long we can be on TV and every seven or
eight minutes there has to be a break for commercials. Over that I
just treat them the same. So whenever I do one of my features or
if I am hired by someone else to do a TV movie, I will reinvent a
TV movie as though it was a feature film that I was doing.
Producers understand now that when they ask me to do one of their
movies, they are going to sort of turn over to me because they
have faith in me. I will just take it over and do it as though I
was doing a feature.
What kind of importance do you assign to
each of these mediums?
Importance. That is an interesting word. Cinema
is important to me because I grew up loving cinema. When I was a
young boy I saw all the old classic Hollywood movies, classic
European art films of 60s and 70s and I also grew up watching
Satyajit Ray movies too when I was very young. At a personal level
my heart is more with cinema however in terms of which medium is
more alive, television is more alive today. More people watch
television today than go to the movies, more people watch their
movies on the DVDs at home for the first time than go to the
movies. So last couple of years I have been changing my thinking
to develop more projects for television. I am not one of those
directors who look down on television and think that it is a minor
or a lesser medium. It is just different but since I also grew up
watching television, it would be hypocritical of me to think that
it is lesser.
What really got you interested in
films?
When I was very young, my first desire was to be
a painter or an artist so I was always interesting in telling a
narrative story in a visual manner. When I was 13 years old a
friend of mine who was doing a home movie asked me to help him
out. So he asked me to do a shot for him and he gave me the
camera. As soon as I looked through the lens, I realised that it
was a painting that moved. At that moment, all the hair on the
back of my neck went up. I realised then that this is what I
wanted to do.
Just like
that?
Yes, just that. I deliberately made myself too
ignorant to do anything else in life. Except do
movies.
You enrolled at York Yniversity for a
filmmaking course?
Yes I was there for one year.
What made you leave after a
year?
It is a weird story to tell because it is a
little self-aggrandising. In those days after high school you had
an interview at the university that accepted you. Before you went
to the interview, you had to submit a package. In the package you
had to show the films you have made, write an essay on a movie,
write a bibliography of every book and magazine that you ever
read. So I submitted that and a month later, I went for my
interview and the professor there said "I went through your
package, you have already done our four year course." There is no
reason for you to come here. I decided he was being very
flattering so I went. In about six months, I realised he was right
so I started working on my own.
What kind of
work?
I did not do my first feature until I was 27. So
there were a few years before I got it. I kept writing. I took a
job with a small company in Toronto that made TV commercials so
that I could work with the camera. I also started a theatre
company so that I could learn to work with actors and break down
scripts.
What was the experience of making your
first film?
It was an evil trap. It was very deceptive
because we made a movie, wrote it over a weekend, and shot in
seven days. About a month into editing when I was still cutting
the picture, there was a company back in the 80s in Los Angeles
called Canon films and they bought the movie. They saw a little
videotape of my edit which was very rough with very bad sound. And
they bought it and gave us a cheque and we made a little profit.
During that time, I got the idea to sell the movie. About four
months went by . I then turned to my business partners and
thought, "Wow, this movie business is really easy!" but it was
never like that again. So my first experience was a bit of a
trap.
But you got
hooked?
Got hooked forever.
When did you start making television
serials?
I have actually done three features of my own. I
have written and produced two features for others. Around 1990-91,
I realised that a Canadian filmmaker could make five movies and
still be dead broke. I realised I better make some money and
started working in the television medium.
How do you like the role of a
writer-producer?
Oh, I love that. I love doing that because then
I get to be the perfect producer. I am very nurturing and
supportive. I create a very safe environment for everyone to make
their art. It is so much fun that I feel like I am raising a baby.
As a director you have the responsibility and the worry but as a
producer you have that removed, you just want the plant to grow
nicely.
You did a film Lives with Saints
with Sophia Loren last year. How was the
experience?
Amazing. She is so sweet and friendly and such a
hard worker. We became good friends on the movie set. She was
wonderful to work with. On a personal note I realised that after
her I can work with anybody. No matter which young actress tries
to give me a hard time and show off as a big shot, I can always
say, "hey I worked with Sophia Loren and she was nice to work
with. So do your job."
What is your current
project?
At the moment, I am editing a feature that I
shot in March. It is called Blood. Later this year, I am doing
another TV movie which is a biography on Shania Twain. Next year,
I will be shooting another feature in
Italy.
What is you dream
project?
My dream project is to do a big expensive
biography of Lorenzo di Medici so that I get to recreate
renaissance.
Awards are not new to you, how is this
one different?
This is very special because I am speaking as an
Italian. In Canada, you have a very particular relationship to all
our immigrant cultures no matter where we are from. Unlike
America, our cultures are not necessarily embraced, we are
welcomed there, allowed to stay there, nobody bothers us and we
are never made to feel part of some overall culture. So, one never
really gets over feeling that one is an immigrant from some place
else so growing up, you have strong ties to wherever your parents
come from. So, to be honoured by that community actually means a
lot to me.
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