By Melissa Mancini
Will Inrig is finding out the hardest part about making a documentary is not the hours of filming, interviewing and editing, but finding a place to show it.
The idea for Inrig’s full-length documentary film on his long-time neighbours, the Valettas, started as a joke.
Inrig, 16, is a film student at Canterbury high school, but he made the documentary as a personal project, not for school credit.
Inrig was working on another movie and had cast his younger neighbour, Constantine Valetta as an actor, because they needed someone around the age of 12. When Constantine couldn’t be in the movie, due to long hours of shooting in a remote location, his father George Valetta remarked that Inrig should make a movie about Constatine’s dream of becoming a professional soccer player.
After shooting the other movie, he started working on the documentary about the Valettas.
“I wasn’t supposed to take his suggestion seriously, but I did,” says Inrig.
The documentary quickly turned into a story about the whole family. Valetta owns an opera company. His wife Gila is an interpreter and photographer. Their daughter Laura, 7, dreams of being a ballerina.
Inrig says the task of finding a place for the documentary’s opening night has been “arduous.” He says they are looking for a venue that holds about 300 people.
Larger theatres like the Mayfair Theatre and the ByTowne Cinema that Inrig has contacted want more money than he is able to pay.
“I’m surprised with theatre owners that they don’t seem to care,” he says of his financial situation.
Inrig and Mitchell remain hopeful that they will find a proper venue.
“The community is really supportive of the arts, but we have been trying to pursue all avenues and we still haven’t found a place,” says Matt Mitchell, the director of photography for the film.
Inrig says he wants to find a bigger theatre to show the documentary because he thinks he will be able to get a lot of people out to see his documentary about an Ottawa family.
As one of the alternatives, Inrig is also looking into using a smaller theatre venue and having two shows.
The Exceptional Jivatma Valettas is what Inrig called the finished documentary.
It is about the Valetta’s outlook on life, which Inrig says is amazing.
The word Jivmata is Sanskrit and means the soul or essence of something.
Inrig says the Valettas have an exceptional soul because of their wonderful outlook on life. He says they are the happiest people he knows.
“They have a great vivacity and love life,” says Inrig.
Valetta says he tries to teach his children lessons so they are careful to enjoy life.
“The one thing I try to keep in mind is that life is temporary and I try to convey this to my children, without panicking them about death or anything like that,” says George Valetta.
“I try to tell them to get the most out of everything even if you don’t like it because life is all about experiences.”
Mitchell, who filmed with Inrig, says the family’s great attitude towards life was something that really stood out during long hours of filming.
“The family is really great and interesting,” says Mitchell.
“They have a good chemistry and it’s obvious that they really want to make the best out of their lives.”
Despite the family’s positive attitudes, Valetta says it was disconcerting to have the camera around all the time.
“It’s like being an exhibitionist without being one,” he says.
Despite all the problems he has encountered while searching for a venue, Inrig says he would undertake the whole process again in a heartbeat.
“It’s a neat medium and I’d like to think that Jivatma has come out very well,” says Inrig.
“I’m really proud of it, so I know that documentaries really come together. I think I would love to do another documentary.”