Independent angel

Ben Patrick Paquette launches his third feature

by MATTHEW HAYS

Ben Patrick Paquette is not your typical up-and-coming filmmaker. Unlike most film students his age, the 23-year-old has just wrapped up his third feature. "The Concordia film program has a time limit on the films you make," explains Paquette, saying he felt constrained by the 10-minute length his class projects were allotted. The Sudbury-born filmmaker, who's been making videos and films since he was in grade six, says he decided to create something larger in the form of a feature film. Thus the last three years have been building up to showtime for Raining Angels, which Paquette describes as "a finely tuned morality tale masquerading as a thriller."

While much of the camera work is admirable and most of the shots are extremely well composed, Paquette is willing to admit that the film has problems. What do you want for under $12,000? The multiple plots, which are all musings on the nature and effects of fascism, become quite convoluted as the film moves on. "I don't expect people to say 'Ah ha, I've got it,' the first time around," insists Paquette. "If you can pick up on everything in the first screening then I don't think it's very interesting. I prefer films that are more complex."

"I call this film my official debut. The previous two films I did on video, so I'm not sure they count." But as rough as they may have been, Paquette's previous two features won him praise in his native Sudbury. His first feature, Maxwell's Silver Hammer (made when he was 18), was called one of the best films ever made in Northern Ontario by the Sudbury Film Society. His second film, A Descent Into Darkness, dealt with the tricky topic of a high school teacher who begins an affair with one of his students.

Paquette says he has always had a passion for film and shoots for the stars. Last year, when Gregory Peck had a speaking engagement at Place des Arts, Paquette had the guts to approach the microphone during the question-and-answer session and ask Peck to be in his next movie. The young director was blown away when Peck agreed to read the script, asking to meet with him backstage after the show. "He was so friendly, I was quite amazed," recalls Paquette. "He took my script and wrote to me, saying he couldn't do this one but would I send him a copy of the completed film and my next script."

Paquette is hoping Gregory Peck will get top billing in his next movie, the psycho-horror Twilight.

Raining Angels plays this Thursday, May 29 at 7pm & 9pm at the Conservatoire, 1400 de Maisonneuve W. $4