Portraits of a Director: In Conversation with Gregory Thomas David
The writer/director aims to subvert normalcies surrounding representation in his first full length feature film
There’s something beautiful to be said about timing. About certain events lining themselves up to create the perfect set of circumstances. About a multitude of different influences appearing before an artists eyes as they embark on their creative journey. Destiny is poetic by nature.
That chance encounter with destiny hasn’t been lost on writer/director Gregory Thomas David. David, 30, typed in the final words of a script for his first full-length feature film Portraits of a Family back in January. A pandemic forced him to stay home, moving to a new city forced self-reflection, and having a child changed his view of the world. So many events can enter one’s life and drastically change things. And though some might consider these to be obstacles, for David, they became the perfect storm for his creative workflow to take over.
I was lucky enough to have had the chance to speak with the first time writer/director and pick his brain on his upcoming film Portraits of Family.
You can find more info about the film, as well as the crowdfunding campaign at the link below:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/portraits-of-a-family-feature-film#/
And can follow along with Gregory’s progress on the SundayBreakfastStudios instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/sundaybreakfaststudio/
Can you just give me a description of what Portraits of a Family is about?
So it’s kind of an ambitious project. But essentially, its following a Filipino-Canadian family of four, through two decades of their life together and apart. It shows how they deal with issues such as divorce and drug addiction, and how they navigate this as a family. How they turn their pain and trauma into art and into love at the end of it.
Is there a specific reason as to why it’s called Portraits of a Family, plural?
So without giving away too much of the film, the project started as me wanting to take a series of photos to help me wrap my head around past traumatic events that happened with my family. I was trying to pinpoint all of the moments in my life where I felt that familial pain, and turn those into photos. I came up with maybe four to six concepts that I really, really loved.
I’ve been working on this since since I was like 25, so five years ago. It was originally just a photo series, and I wanted to turn it into maybe a book or gallery installation, I just kept it in the back of my mind and didn’t even work on it actively for five years. But something was just telling me that I needed to turn this into a film instead. That that would be a more true representation of what I went through and what my family went through together.
What made you take the first steps towards towards creating this, the biggest forces pushing you forward?
Well, in the summer of 2019, I made the decision with my partner to quit my job. It was a pretty well paying job, but it was making me super unhappy. I had no creative energy, no time for what I really wanted to dedicate myself to. By then I already knew I wanted to make films, like, hands down this was all I wanted to do in my life, but I dedicated everything to this company. It just felt like I was selling my soul. So I made a decision in August of 2019 to just quit. And I’m lucky to have a partner that allowed me to do so. From then on, I started dedicating my time to creative endeavours. And although I didn’t work on the film right away, this was the first step, this is the thing that pushed everything forward.
Whenever I think of influences for artists, they tend to come from three sources — other pieces of art, personal experiences, and societal contexts. Can you point to some of your influences?
So in the medium of film, the ones that I always gravitated towards had been stuff like Boyhood, the Squid and the Whale, Moonlight. There’s a movie by this Japanese director named Hirokazu Koreeda called After the Storm.This one was really influential from the way they tackled divorce and heavy family themes, but also through the way that its shot. It has a very slow pace and very deliberate framing with static shots, making sure the composition looks almost painted. That’s something that I want to use in this film as well, especially since we’re calling it Portraits of a Family. I want everything to kind of feel like little silhouettes.
Has anything that’s going on in the world today, be it politically or socially, influenced your work?
When it comes to what’s going on in the world? With all the recent anti-asian racism going on, and everything coming to light I personally have going been going through a big, big transformation myself and really trying to accept and love the Filipino aspect of myself. And like, let me show you. The book that’s on my desk is this one right now. *holds up History of the Philippines by Luis Francia*
I haven’t been taught this stuff. Living in Canada and being born here, I’ve felt separate from the Philippines my whole life. The past two, three years, I’ve been digging deep into the history of the Philippines — Filipino cinema, art and tattoo rituals, all this type of stuff. I’ve been feeling more powerful, because I’ve been connected more to my culture. And it’s not something that’s separate from me. And bridging that gap by telling a Filipino Canadian story makes me feel kind of powerful as an artist and really connected to myself and my culture. I think that’s important in these times, for Asian artists to be doing more of, because I think we have a lot of self hatred in our community. I think our power lies in loving ourselves, and projecting that outwards and showing other people how to do so.
How are you implementing what you’ve learned about Filipino culture into your movie?
So the way that I used to be able to connect with my culture was through food. This is the the main thing that I would love about my culture so that was a good starting point. The breakfast they’re eating is Filipino. It’s champorado, it’s topsilog. And the dinners that they prepare should be chicken adobo and sinigang, these types of things. And I want to show them explicitly being made, and even artistically being shown on camera. Growing up, I’ve seen that Filipino food isn’t so revered around the world, in comparison to other Asian food. A part of it, I feel is that the presentation has not been the most beautiful compared to other cultures. I want to show that it can be and do it as much as I can in a cinematic way.
How important is it to represent Asian, and in this case Filipino actors in this day and age?
For me, I’m a film buff a cinema nerd. So I think film and cinema transcend language and cultures. With that being said, growing up Filipino Canadian, I’ve never seen myself on screen. Any glimpse I got of someone Filipino, I was clinging to it, like Rufio!
I’ve never felt that the stories people like Noah Baumbach could deliver, the type of stories that I gravitated towards, like family dramas, they never centered on the Filipino family. And I don’t care about being the first, I just want to be able to do it. So more people know, and feel like it’s a possibility.
What do you want the audience to get out of watching your film?
As soon as you make a piece of art and put it out in the world, it’s no longer yours. People bring their own experiences to what they watch and I don’t want to tell people what to feel. But I do want people to reflect on their own families, their own lives… I think there’s something about the specificity of someone’s life that becomes universal. I’m putting myself and my family so much into this film, so many specifics, that maybe it could feel like it’s not relatable. But my hope is that it transcends the specifics and becomes something that can be felt from any age and any person.
Anything else you wanted to shoutout?
The crowdfunding campaign is going on at the moment and it’s a very ambitious ask, especially for a first time film director and production company. But if anyone out there is interested in the story and resonates with it, then check out the campaign and support in any way you can.
You can find more info about the film, as well as the crowdfunding campaign at the link below:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/portraits-of-a-family-feature-film#/
And can follow along with Gregory’s progress on the SundayBreakfastStudios instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/sundaybreakfaststudio/
