Emily Kai Bock: The Kollektivnye Interview

It was a couple of weeks ago that we first caught a glimpse of Claire Boucher a.k.a. Grimes’ new video Oblivion and well, we were pretty damn blown away by it, so much so that we set out to get a hold of it’s director so we could find out some more on the matter for you. Enter Emily Kai Bock, the Montreal based film maker who, we discovered, has more than one brilliantly crafted work in her back catalogue. We managed to grab a few minutes with the young director amidst her busy schedule which, has understandably become somewhat berserk in the wake of Oblivion‘s release to talk a little about her inspirations, creative process and upcoming projects.

Kollektivnye: So Emily, you have burst onto the scene in recent weeks and as yet you remain a somewhat mysterious figure. What can you tell us about your background? Where did your interest in photography and film-making start?

Emily Kai Bock: I did a fine arts degree at an art university in Vancouver, where I focused mostly on installation and sculpture that led me to performance work, which led me to work with musicians. I think music videos and film pieces blossomed out of using cameras to document those pieces and seeing the potential of editing and cinematography.

K: Was it the case that you got into photography first and that acted almost as a gateway to starting to make your own films?

EKB: Photography has always been a part of my life; my sister gave me her old 35mm SLR camera when I was 16. I guess fine art took precedence until I became more intrigued by the documentation of my artwork then the artwork itself. The creative tools one uses has a lot to do with access to equipment – motion picture cameras were introduced late to me, but I’m glad for it as my fine art background now really informs my films.

K: Starting with your 2009 short documentary on Kyle Bennett and his Flow Child solo project, has it been the case that Montreal’s current pool of exciting new musicians has influenced your movement towards making music videos?

EKB: Most of my friends are musicians; so most of our collaborations together were in the form of album jackets, show posters, and music videos.

K: How did you meet Kyle and what made you decide to try and explore his motivations through a documentary?

EKB: After graduating art school I co-curated an alternative music venue/gallery in Montreal where I was exposed to some really amazing talented people, Kyle was one of them. I was inspired by his dedication to his music, the sacrifice involved in it, compromising a higher quality of life for the pursuit of creating something of quality. The cost of living in Montreal is very low, so its possible
to be a full time artist and still survive somehow.

K: What sort of time did you spend with him and was it difficult cutting down what you had into the ten minutes that make the final piece?

EKB: I spent a couple days with Kyle in his space. I cut down around 120 minutes of footage into ten minutes. It wasn’t a huge deal actually. He talked a lot so my main concern was just choosing the sound bites that suited him most. I think his ranting made his character really enduring though. We came to be good friends through hanging out and shooting together.

K: It seemed like at the time he was so engulfed in the desire to create a perfect and beautiful sound that it would perhaps be challenging to retain his attention long enough for him to really divulge his thoughts and feelings, was it a challenge getting him to open up?

EKB: Beforehand, Kyle had spent a few days alone in his studio working as he often did – I think he hadn’t had a real conversation with another person in a couple of days so giving him a chance to talk and have perspective on what he was doing through an interview was interesting for him. He sort of lit up in front of the camera; talking to me acted as some form of release, he’s also extremely friendly and very laid back, which helped. I think picking the right character for a project is key to creating an interesting documentary.

K: The remainder of your videos were uploaded to Vimeo over the course of a few days, have these projects been in production back to back, all at once or have you been stockpiling them?

EKB: The music videos I shot back to back this fall and edited over the winter, the documentaries have been more tests in narrative and learning experiences; things I tacked on from earlier years.

K: With regard to your creative process when making a music video, do you concoct a story around the song? Do different artists have different requests or have you been left to your own devices thus far?

EKB: I pitched all three music videos to my musician friends while hanging out last summer. We bounced ideas around off the original concept and were able to find something we all agreed upon.

K: What inspired the character in the Kool Music 5 video?

EKB: It came from the idea of an alienated frontiersman, the sense of revisiting America through a lost icon.  One day, Evan (Prosofsky

K: For me, that video, stylistically exists somewhere in between the Jim Jarmusch and Wes Anderson schools of thought, have either of those directors influenced you at all?

EKB: Jim Jarmusch is one of my favourite directors. Wes Anderson’s art direction is amazing, his compositions are really well thought out and at times look like paintings, but I don’t really connect with him on a thematic level or see how they come into my work. Jarmusch is really good at keeping shots interesting despite his use of long takes. The way he explores feelings of alienation and Americana is extremely interesting and inspiring to me. Broken Flowers was definitely an inspiration and reference point during the making of Kool Music video.

K: In both the Kool Music 5 and the Miracle Fortress video the key protagonists seem somewhat detached from the rest of society, is this at all influenced by a sense of escapism that you feel when listening to the music in question?

EKB: Yeah you’re right they are kind of loner types, even Kyle is on the outside in his doc and Claire (Grimes) herself is even alienated in the stadium. I guess I like the feeling of being an outsider in
society because often a lot of people feel that, or at least I do. It’s an interesting tension, clashing environment with character. As for inspiration, I guess it boils down to the fact that all of the
songs send me an emotional tone, and then I try to match the tone with images, the way songs influence me shape the ideas and the video.

K: What can you tell us about the Grimes video? Having been to a Football game, I can’t imagine that shooting amidst a fervent crowd was not without its challenges…Were the stadia scenes filmed at Montreal’s ‘Big O’ Olympic stadium planned in the hope of capturing people dancing/goofing in the background?

EKB: We went in to these spaces in blind faith that we were capture something good, I hadn’t been to these locations previously and couldn’t develop a specific shot list, but the energy and the environment greatly influenced the way we shot – everyone seemed in a good mood because these places inspire a lot of positivity, with music going on etc, so people are already dancing and are very charged up. Just by looking around I could easily see what stood out then and engaged what would work for the video.

K: So your next project is the Tonstartssbandht documentary, what can you tell us about that?

EKB: Andy and Eddy played at my loft space quite frequently – they were these interesting characters from Florida whose music was incredible and had this transcendent quality, the fact that they were brothers and had grown up making music together and discovering things together was a really beautiful story, when I found out that their dad was a musician also it just made sense to document the relationship and sacrifices that happen within artist families. I have been following them for almost four years and now I am just shaping together a narrative out of the footage, it should be released in the fall.

K: Have you got anything else in the pipeline or are you going to catch a breath for a while?

EKB: Since Oblivion’s launch I’ve been contacted by several bands who are commissioning music videos. Working with musicians who I’m not friends with, let alone never met before is a new thing for me. But it’s interesting to see how these connections grow out of discovering work you respect, where you are drawn to each other. From what started as collaborating with an immediate neighbourhood community has grown an Internet community on an international scene. I’ve also been talking with Claire about working with her again on a new video, shooting hopefully this summer with Evan, I just spoke with her last night, the idea I have for it is way crazier, so we’ll see how it all pans out.

For more from Emily Kai Bock, check her site out here