Noisemakers 2000: D.O.She

>> Cinematographer Sarah Mishara is happy hanging with the boys

by MIREILLE SILCOTT

Cinematographers in Canada: male, often Hungarian. Of a certain age. Frequently the wearers of tapered black jeans and beards.

Sarah Mishara, Montreal cinematographer: female, not Hungarian. Just turned 23. Frequently the wearer of decolletes and over-the-knee socks.

"Being a female cinematographer just seems to be a big statement, no matter what," says Mishara. "But it's worked to my advantage. I think people like having less testosterone on set."

Since graduating from Concordia's film school in 1998, Mishara has been in the juice. Having worked as director of photography (D.O.P.) on dozens of films and music videos, her most recent lensing can be found on Frustrated Films' upcoming festival-circuit shoo-in, the feature Sweethearts of the World.

In the summer of '99, Mishara premiered her own (she shot, produced and directed it) phenomenally accomplished, exquisite short film, More Far Still, featuring lots of hyper-realistic desert landscape, and only two characters (a surreal French Canadian cowboy and a sad 'n' horny waitress waiting to be Calgon-take-me-away'd), with Michel Carrier and Martha Wainright playing the roles.

"We flew the two actors out on airplanes and then me and the five other crew members rented a van and drove," says Mishara, who shot most of More Far Still in a town called Truth or Consequences, in southern New Mexico. "My crew was entirely made up of young French Canadian boys who had never left home. I cooked every meal and did everyone's laundry for two weeks."

Fun. The rented van also broke down on Christmas Eve. And the south of New Mexico was graced with a freak snowstorm for the entirety of the shoot. And all anybody brought were shorts and T-shirts. "We all got sick," says Mishara. "But it was worth it. I've gotten loads of work from people who have seen the film."

More directing?

"No, I'm one of the few in film who doesn't really want to direct," she says. "Right now, I'm satisfied being the girl at the film party standing in the corner with the bearded guys talking about digital cameras and film stock." l