Young filmmaker Will Inrig at the Bytowne Cinema, where he first discovered his love of film.
Will Inrig sees what other people don’t. Walking down Rideau Street pedestrians look right through those seated curb-side, but here the young filmmaker sees possibility – stories to be told. But Inrig doesn’t write these stories. He films them.
The 17-year-old graduate of Canterbury High School took home the prize for best high school animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September. His stop-motion short, The Depose of Bolskivoi Hovhannes, beat out competition from around the world.
Now Inrig has started filming a documentary on autism for the National Film Board, making him one of the youngest filmmakers in Canadian
history to have a production green-lighted by the board.
The Fantastical Ballet of the Mind and its Master focuses on what Inrig calls “autistic fantasy.”
It’s a subject close to Inrig’s heart, as his younger brother is autistic.
“I call it ‘zoning out,’ ” he said. “It’s when my brother will be engaged by some particular activity. Maybe he’s spinning toys or listening to a particular piece of music. He goes into another world; he goes into the autistic self. And this I find fascinating.”
Inrig is filming in Montreal, close to the NFB’s national office, at a long-term care centre. He is making a point of focusing exclusively on his subjects rather than interviewing their parents, doctors, teachers or care workers. For Inrig, what matters are the stories that his film subjects have to tell.
But that doesn’t mean Inrig isn’t aware of his films’ aesthetics.
Chris Robinson, director of the animation festival, was instantly struck by Depose, which tells the story of a shepherd convinced that his sheep are plotting against him.
“Visually it is quite striking,” he said. “It has a really rich, mysterious atmosphere. It has a maturity that you don’t see at that level of high school film.”
The NFB could not be reached for comment about its decision to back Inrig’s film, but to Chris Rohde, a professor of animation and experimental film at Carleton University, the reasoning for selecting Inrig is obvious.
“He seems to be coming with his own very personal sense of style,” says Rohde. “It’s very uncommon for a young filmmaker to have one so developed. I do think that a new vision is emerging from his work, much faster than it would from someone else. He has that advantage going into the film board to work.”
Robinson agrees that the board will benefit from Inrig’s work and can always use a fresh Canadian voice in the film industry.
Inrig says that the inspiration for his films usually comes from dreams and it’s “sometimes very hard to put your finger on where you get an idea,” but the inspiration for Ballet is less elusive.
While on vacation at their cottage in Sandbanks Provincial Park in Ontario, Inrig’s brother, 16, sometimes breaks away from the group and sits in the rushing waves of Lake Ontario, with only his face and shoulders visible.
“You look at his face and you realize that he’s not there,” says Inrig, voice cracking with emotion. “He’s somewhere else. But you look into his eyes and it’s just divine ecstasy. It’s extraordinary. And there’s something quite beautiful I see in that, and there’s also something quite tragic and that what’s I have to make a movie about.”
Inrig will continue filming through the fall.