Contract Killers
21/04/08 23:48 Filed in: Movies
Gerard goes bad to get
good
Michael Walker, Tricia Lee Kelshall, Gerard Joseph and Cauri Jaye in a promotional photo for Men of Gray - Flight of the Ibis. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
As I walked down the reddish carpet to the reception at the Trinidad and Tobago premiere of Contract Killers, I had an idle thought, the realisation that I was there not because I was a valued member of the media, a local film buff or even because I'd been in a Gerard Joseph film once in the past. I was there because Gerard is a fiercely loyal friend, the kind of guy who won't give up on a pardner until he's been beaten bloody and taken limping from the scene.
Ria, the woman who often reaches in to pull Gerard from his most humanitarian impulses was there too, a tall, rangy presence, as always right next to her husband, shaking hands, smiling and supporting Gerard, just like I remembered her the first time we met almost two decades ago.
Gerard Joseph was back in Trinidad after making his school film, Men of Gray, to produce its sequel, Men of Gray II - Flight of the Ibis. He remembered me from a story I had commissioned for the Guardian's Sunday Magazine, SG, and more specifically from the photos I had done of him with his co-star, Charles Applewhaite for the story.
Gerard insisted, in that way that he
does, that I had to do the photos for the film. So I tagged along
on some of the shoots, learning once and for all the glamour of
film making is on the screen. Shooting stills for a movie is dull,
the kind of thing that makes you long for the excitement of
watching paint dry. Then you get a narrow window to shoot in before
the crew shoves you out of the way to get their work done.
Gerard did his own learning on that shoot, discovering just how hard it is to move production wheels for moviemaking in Trinidad and Tobago. He went back to the US for a good long while after that, returning to film local scenes for Backlash, an action film that used Carnival as a backdrop.
Give the boy that. He's been more determined to use Trinidad and Tobago in his movies than anybody who talks about doing it officially.
What Gerard Joseph has been missing all this time, despite his indefatigable enthusiasm for the movie business, his bull-headed loyalty to his friends and the country of his birth, is a vehicle that puts his hard work up on the screen for the world to see.
There's no delicate way to put this, but most of Gerard's films haven't been great. They have been enthusiastic and passionate, they have featured his love and skills in the martial arts, but the unsung hero of Contract Killers, easily the best film he has produced that I've seen, is Justin Rhodes, a 28 year old Texan who polished the screenplay, directed and edited a slick action film that's heavily influenced by the style of the Bourne trilogy.
In Contract Killers, there are no good guys, just varying shades of bad, and for an adamantly nice fellow like Gerard, it marks a moment of maturity, I think, a realisation that the world is mostly shades of gray, many of them unpleasant, not the starkly black and white hatted protagonists of his earlier efforts.
In the film, Gerard takes a low profile role as Monoven, a terse, efficient killer and allows his three stars, Frida Farrell, Christian Willis and Rhett Giles to carry the film from Florida to Port of Spain to a miscellany of scenic sites around Trinidad and Tobago, including the "Chaguaramas Jungle," which earned the film a laugh.
It was great to see Gerard score with a slick, well put together film that rewarded his hard work over the years.
It's going to be interesting to see whether the Film Company, the location promotion arm of the local tourism agency, learns from his experience; the lesson that success with a film comes after two years of shooting and production and twenty-five years of being disappointed, picking yourself up and refusing to give up.
Michael Walker, Tricia Lee Kelshall, Gerard Joseph and Cauri Jaye in a promotional photo for Men of Gray - Flight of the Ibis. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
As I walked down the reddish carpet to the reception at the Trinidad and Tobago premiere of Contract Killers, I had an idle thought, the realisation that I was there not because I was a valued member of the media, a local film buff or even because I'd been in a Gerard Joseph film once in the past. I was there because Gerard is a fiercely loyal friend, the kind of guy who won't give up on a pardner until he's been beaten bloody and taken limping from the scene.
Ria, the woman who often reaches in to pull Gerard from his most humanitarian impulses was there too, a tall, rangy presence, as always right next to her husband, shaking hands, smiling and supporting Gerard, just like I remembered her the first time we met almost two decades ago.
Gerard Joseph was back in Trinidad after making his school film, Men of Gray, to produce its sequel, Men of Gray II - Flight of the Ibis. He remembered me from a story I had commissioned for the Guardian's Sunday Magazine, SG, and more specifically from the photos I had done of him with his co-star, Charles Applewhaite for the story.
Gerard did his own learning on that shoot, discovering just how hard it is to move production wheels for moviemaking in Trinidad and Tobago. He went back to the US for a good long while after that, returning to film local scenes for Backlash, an action film that used Carnival as a backdrop.
Give the boy that. He's been more determined to use Trinidad and Tobago in his movies than anybody who talks about doing it officially.
What Gerard Joseph has been missing all this time, despite his indefatigable enthusiasm for the movie business, his bull-headed loyalty to his friends and the country of his birth, is a vehicle that puts his hard work up on the screen for the world to see.
There's no delicate way to put this, but most of Gerard's films haven't been great. They have been enthusiastic and passionate, they have featured his love and skills in the martial arts, but the unsung hero of Contract Killers, easily the best film he has produced that I've seen, is Justin Rhodes, a 28 year old Texan who polished the screenplay, directed and edited a slick action film that's heavily influenced by the style of the Bourne trilogy.
In Contract Killers, there are no good guys, just varying shades of bad, and for an adamantly nice fellow like Gerard, it marks a moment of maturity, I think, a realisation that the world is mostly shades of gray, many of them unpleasant, not the starkly black and white hatted protagonists of his earlier efforts.
In the film, Gerard takes a low profile role as Monoven, a terse, efficient killer and allows his three stars, Frida Farrell, Christian Willis and Rhett Giles to carry the film from Florida to Port of Spain to a miscellany of scenic sites around Trinidad and Tobago, including the "Chaguaramas Jungle," which earned the film a laugh.
It was great to see Gerard score with a slick, well put together film that rewarded his hard work over the years.
It's going to be interesting to see whether the Film Company, the location promotion arm of the local tourism agency, learns from his experience; the lesson that success with a film comes after two years of shooting and production and twenty-five years of being disappointed, picking yourself up and refusing to give up.
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