Cdn. alternative drama uses non-actors and improv to highlight homelessness
TORONTO - As many a film outtake has confirmed, even the most veteran of actors can blunder their lines, sometimes requiring multiple takes to get it right - especially when the script is improvised.
So imagine the pressure faced by Ottawa social worker Nargis (Sam Sam) Ahmed and her teen daughters, Asha and Sagal Jibril, when they stepped onto a film set for the first time, with no acting experience, to play the lead characters in the improvised drama "Family Motel," opening Friday in Toronto.
Sam Sam, as she prefers to be called, says the stress was worth it as it meant highlighting issues she faces every day on the job: homelessness, resettlement, family reunification and systemic racism, which are touched on in the film.
"I work with homeless families and I had worked in the shelter system for the city of Ottawa for many years," Sam Sam, a case co-ordinator with the city's Community and Protective Services, said in an interview.
"Part of my job was to place families in motels when shelters were full, so when the (producers) started telling me their storyline, I said, 'Oh, let me guess - the family is going to end up at the Concord Motel or Ridgemont Plaza?' Those were some of the motels in Ottawa that social services does use to place families, and the producer said, 'Oh my God, have you been reading our script?' because they had already chosen the Concord Motel to be the place where the movie would be shot."
"Family Motel" stars Sam Sam as a Somali refugee who gets evicted with her children from their Ottawa apartment and placed in a seedy motel for homeless families. Her real-life daughters also play her daughters in the film.
Billed as an alternative drama, the piece involves mostly non-professional actors, improvised scripts and community-based storylines with fictional characters.
Sam Sam and her daughters were cast after the director heard about them through the city's Somali community and a creative consultant phoned and asked them to audition.
"We're not professional actors so it was really hard," said Asha.
"But it was an experience and the reason why I came into this film was (because) this is more of a political film and it has a social issue attached to it."
The National Film Board of Canada, which co-produced the movie with Montreal's Instinct Films, says it pioneered the alternative drama genre 20 years ago and now filmmakers including Britain's Michael Winterbottom are adapting it to address social issues.
"Family Motel" director Helene Klodawsky, a longtime documentary maker based in Montreal, thought the genre would suit the piece best since finding homeless participants for docs can be tough.
Although the film centres on a Somali family, "it could be any new immigrant, it could be any Canadian," said Asha, who grew up volunteering for various social causes with her mother and sister.
Participating in the film inspired Sagal, who is entering Grade 10 in the fall, to pursue acting while Asha enters university in September to study life sciences.
Sam Sam delivers a strong performance in the film but doesn't plan to act again. She just wants to continue her social work and hopes "Family Motel" will one day serve as a teaching tool.
"There are a lot of people who don't know too many new Canadians but they have opinions about new Canadians and I wanted to take part in this movie to show people that 'It's OK, we're all the same. Here's a hard-working mom, she's struggling, she's going through many common things that we all go through,"' said Sam Sam.
"To bring that gap between the mainstream and the new Canadians also a little bit closer. I'm hoping that the movie will achieve that as well."
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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