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​THE DIRECTOR'S PHILOSOPHY ON 'DELROY KINCAID'



'What's Out There?"

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Wow. Thanks for dropping in and Thank you for your interest in our work.

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 ‘Delroy Kincaid’ is loosely based on my family and I immigrating to Canada, and by all accounts, worldwide, it is the most widely seen African-Canadian short film in history.

Our film ‘Delroy Kincaid’ or the humorously subtitled ‘Where Do White People Go When The Long Weekend Comes? The Wondrous Journey of Delroy Kincaid.’

 

One of the key themes in Delroy Kincaid is it is possible to maintain a strong family unit, love the home you left and embrace, explore and respect and make the new home you've immigrated to yours. Not sticking with only what you know, but opening yourself to loving something new, something different. It's not the home you left, but you can make it your own and be invested in it.

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It is a bittersweet, gentle, but hopeful diverse North American film and a celebration of cultural difference. On the surface the film seems simple, making younger ones reach out to the colourful simple animations, but the film leaves it up to the viewer to see deeper issues organically. 

With no dialogue, it is accessible to everyone regardless of language.

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This film has been celebrated at film festivals worldwide and was chosen to screen across the world in some cases winning awards- Texas, England, Amsterdam, Canada, Barbados, Boston, Kenya and Durban, South Africa winning an award at the prestigious Canadian Film Centre worldwide short film festival.

With various film festivals it has screened at Ryerson University, University of Toronto, AGO Art Galley of Ontario, TIFF Bell Lightbox where the director was interviewed with 9 other filmmakers by the Toronto International Film Festival co-director Cameron Bailey.  

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DK premiered in Chicago at the prestigious Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, which at the time was the only Academy Award- qualifying children’s film festival in the world.

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The director was invited on CBC metro morning with host Andy Barrie to talk about the film and the ideas behind it. This film was invited to screen and talk at Ski Hill Blues, an organization created by retired Canadian Police Officers for new immigrants teaching them the joys of Canadian snow sports.

This film was chosen by the Canadian Government, Canadian Heritage and Cirque Du Soleil to represent Canada to millions of people internationally. In 2010 Canadian Heritage announced those chosen to represent Canada. It was funded by Canadian government agencies and the NFB and distributed to schools and libraries across North America. It’s been broadcast on Bravo television in Quebec and all over Canada, it’s been invited, screened and at schools, library systems, community centres.



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SYNOPSIS OF DELROY KINCAID

A newly arrived artistic immigrant child and his best friend his grandmother, immigrate to Canada to live with the boy’s parents. After the death of his grandmother, a lonely and confused Delroy, wonders if the mass holiday migration of his white Canadian friends are going away to some faraway place where his grandmother went.  Delroy Kincaid must journey to understand his love of Canada his new home, while holding on to where he has come from.

With talent from both French and English speaking Canada, using simple animation, illustration, projection, and live action- ‘old school’ in-camera techniques and modern technique.



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THE PHILOSOPHY OF ‘DELROY KINCAID’



 

The Canadian outdoors is largely embraced by white Canadians, while the rest of us generally tend to stick to what we know: the city, our family, our neighbourhood or the homes we left. We generally never venture out into Canada. This film is never about blame, but an examination and celebration of immigration and cultural difference. It is important to hold on to where you come from, and also be open to the new ideas and experiences and customs of Canada. It is possible to do both.



In Delroy's case the culture shock and displacement in a new world is one thing, but he wants to see what's out there, past the apartment buildings he lives in. The death of his grandmother is his link to the vibrance of the Caribbean seaside village he left and being dropped into a cold world he doesn't quite understand.  In his young greiving child mind he hopes that his grandmother is at this mysterious place all his white friends are going to, but deep inside he knows that she is not.  His grandmother's death is a catlyst for exploration and discovery. She once taught him art and joie de vivre, now this is his journey solo. 



Discovery and exploration is generally not a usual experience that new immigrants have. There are issues around that not even we know. 



Without quite understanding it as a teenager when I moved to wonderful Canada from the Caribbean, there was something unspoken about ownership. I've always been facinated by white Canadians and Native Canadians connection to the land and the outdoors. I would go out on a limb and say the rest of us immigrants either don't see the need to go canoing in Algonquin National Park or hiking the Rocky mountains or maybe we don't have the access to it on maybe subconcious level we don't feel it's for us. In the film the young boy Delroy Kincaid doesn't want to fit into a box of stereotypes, and while he loves his white freinds, he doesn't want to be white. He's comfortable in who he is and where he comes from. He just wants to explore and see what is out there. Beyond what is expected of him.

The story came to me one long weekend I was stuck in traffic on the 401 with my dad. There was a mass migration of white Canadians going off with bikes, campers, trailers, boats, tents, canoes and it dawned on me that it’s not something other immigrants rarely do. It hit me that I was verbalizing one of the key reasons I felt like an outsider all my life living in Canada with my family. Not just going to cottages or camping etc. but that there was something white Canadians knew, enjoyed and embraced in Canada, that the rest of us either didn’t care to learn about or didn’t think was for us or didn’t understand. In a way I and others realized we had felt like lifelong visitors to Canada, without a deeper understanding of her. It is rarely verbalized but it’s there. In discussions with others, they felt so too. We found that others felt the exact same way.

The ‘journey’ in the film is a physical and emotional journey of a new immigrant Canadian. The black child is journeying to find out where his white friends were going on holiday in hopes of finding out where his grandmother went to after her death. It is a symbolic journey into Canada, and a willingness to open ourselves to discovering Canada both physically, mentally and emotionally. For example sadly I haven’t been to a First Nations reservation, nor the Calgary Stampede, nor the Carnaval de Québec.

We generally don’t know much about the customs and peoples of Canada.

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Many kids are getting into gangs and trouble.

I would think one of the things to remedy that it getting kids outside. distracting them, getting them invested in something bigger than pettiness and respecting themselves and their environment.

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Venturing out into the stunning majesty of nature and broadening ones horizons is bound to change the way you look at the world. In theory I believe for example if you really got to know the stunning peoples and places of a country the smallness and insignificance of a  gang would be the last place you would want to be. I think to live in a country you really should get to know and respect it. Invest in it. Discover it. Africville, First Nations, Quebec Carnaval. Anything. 

Most immigrants come here, go to school here, live here, die here, but we never truly think of ourselves as belonging, as having an co-ownership of the country we live in, outside of the communities we live in. 

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Delroy Kincaid isabout discovery and a personal journey inside and beyond oneself.

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It's questioning: "what's out there?" That phrase could mean many things. what other careers are out there there the 1 or 2 I was thinking of. realizing that nothing is off limits if you want it and work for it. the school you want, the career you want, the place you want to live or food you want to try or music you want to listen to. It's not about trying to be different. It's about not closing yourself off to discovery and alternate experiences and ideas.



I think sometimes as a black person sometimes we have warped views of what we can't do, where we can't go. Maybe that goes back a distance. In the Caribbean I remember black friends telling me swimming was something only white people did, jazz was something only white people listened to (jazz?), a marine biologist was something only white people did. There are many black kids now that don't buy into limitations self-imposed on otherwise. There are people who break through that didn't listen to can't and didn't buy into limitations.



It's about not becoming what anyone expects you to be, but what you want to be. That has always been my belief.



I've always been excited to see kids respond to the films and the questions they have. Adults usually have different deeper debates on the ideas and themes in the film  and 5 year olds? well they giggle and point at the pretty colours and fish and talk to the screen.  



One of my ideals as a filmmaker, as a person, is asking questions about the world we live in. Discovery and wonder and in keeping the world new and fresh. As filmmkaer, as a person, I believe in exploring new ideas. Sidney Poitier once told me "Always have something to say." Even before he said that, that was my motto, but it stunned me that he did.  As a kid I was that mostly normal kid in the Caribbean, but there was another part, that secretly enjoyed listening to classical music and jazz and soundtracks and music by John Barry and John Williams to the ribbing of my friends.  When I did well on a swim team or trying anything like going to the observatory next to my house in the Caribbean to look into space at midnight, it wasn't something my freinds would understand nor care about. They joked that was "something only white people did." I didn't understand it at 12 or 13, but now I get it.  I don't believe in excluding nor limiting myself away from anything supposedly reserved for anyone else. life is about wonder and discovery.

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Right or wrong, this is my philopshy.

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NOTE: I had a lot of fun making this film and as exhausting as it was, I would do it all again. We had a team that just came together and we really had fun. I know you're not supposed to but we really did. :) My loyal teamates Karen and Shaukat especially having never worked on a film before worked alongside people who had and did things they didn't know they couldn't do, because nobody told them they couldn't. I would give much more for passion, willingness to work, durability and the ability to laugh and have fun on set, than for jaded experience any day. This is for my loyal team who have always come through for me.  Thank you.