Labour/Leisure

Few filmmakers offer windows into the world like Ryan Ermacora and Jessica Johnston. The BC filmmakers have established themselves among the most exciting emerging voices in the Canadian film scene with an oeuvre of picturesque landscape films. Their films favour observational portraits that capture fields, forests, rocky terrains, and workplaces in pensive long takes coupled with immersive soundscapes. They afford audiences a sense of being in the presence of the land and its inhabitants. As one gazes upon the image, the film frame serves as a room with a view. They invite audiences to consider the land, its use, and our relationship to it.

Their 2019 short doc Labour/Leisure anticipates the themes and aesthetics that mark their excellent 2022 feature debut Anyox. This short bridges two of the most tangible thematic through lines in their oeuvre, which are, well, labour and leisure. Their signature long takes offer snapshots of BC’s Okanagan Valley as residents enjoy beautiful rolling golf course in the heart of wine country. Ermacora and Johnson contrast these sites of play with glimpses of the manual labour hidden from the postcard perfect views. The film observes the wave of Latin American migrants who arrive and fulfill the jobs that everyday Canadians simply won’t do, like harvesting grapes, processing cherries, and packing boxes of goodies for rich people to enjoy by the pool, all the while barely making enough to enjoy leisure time themselves.

Labour/Leisure, like the duo’s other works, uses these long and thoughtful shots to encourage cinephiles to consider the lands before them. For audiences sitting at home, watching these films in the dark, docs like Labour/Leisure invite viewers to look at the world with fresh eyes.

Pat Mullen
Publisher, POV Magazine

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