In a theatre on the other side of the world, Robert Lepage showed me what's so special about Canada

Cutaways is a personal essay series where Canadian filmmakers tell the story of how their film was made. This TIFF 2024 edition by director Johnny Ma focuses on his film The Mother and the Bear, and is written in the form of an open letter to Robert LePage.

Dear Mr. Lepage,

From what I can gather by way of good old Google, we share very little in common. You, our country's greatest multi-faceted artist, were born in the late '50s in Quebec City. I cannot even imagine what that might've been like, mostly because I was born a generation later, in the early '80s, in Shanghai and immigrated to Canada in 1992 at the age of 10. I won't go into what kind of weird childhood that was except to say if there is anything multi-faceted about my life, it is perhaps my unique journey of cultures.

OK, but at least we are both Canadians and we are artists. At least we have that in common. 

Earlier this year, we shared something else: we both found ourselves working in Santiago, Chile. And I should explain to anyone not familiar with that concept. Two Canadian artists working in Chile at the same time is like two circus performers from the same town — one an acrobat and the other a burlesque dancer — meeting while touring in a small kingdom on the other side of the world. It's just crazy.

We never did get to meet in Santiago. I reached out after attending the final night of your reprisal of The Seven Streams of the River Ōta, a seven-hour masterwork, at the city's annual theatre festival. The organizers told me you had left the following morning. 

At the time, I was finishing up post-production on my third feature film, The Mother and the Bear. It's a Korean story co-produced by a Canadian and a Chilean company. In other words, the film is a Korean story set in Winnipeg, post-produced with Chileans, and directed by me, a Chinese Canadian. So yeah, I think you get it. It's a little weird. It almost doesn't make sense.

I am now days away from the world premiere of the film at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Sharing a movie with the public for the first time and experiencing the reactions, questions and discussions that follow is always the beginning of a new journey for me, to finally understand what exactly I have made.

"Who are you, and why did you make the thing you made in the way you chose to make it? And why you?" I can imagine you getting similar questions about Seven Streams when it first premiered. 

After seeing your play in Chile, I realized the answers to those questions are actually quite simple. This is just us Canadians telling our Canadian stories. Multiculturalism is just one of those things we know very well. It's deep in our roots, and it's who we are.

This realization has been crucial to my growth as an artist. Even though The Mother and the Bear is my third feature film, it is actually my first movie shot in Canada, a place I left nearly two decades ago. So I am beginning a new phase of artistic exploration of this other facet of my identity. And it was by going to the end of the world and watching another Canadian artist's work that I understood what is unique about my own Canadian voice. 

I remember the night I experienced your epic tale — which spans many different continents, eras and cultures — in a Chilean theatre. And with that Chilean audience, who have been dealing with the challenges of a rapid increase in immigration in recent years, I witnessed the power of empathy in its highest form. For all of us there that night, it was an experience of collective healing that could only come from a great piece of art and storytelling. 

So I chose to write this open letter to you, Mr. Lepage, because I want to share my revelation with my fellow Canadian artists. In this world fractured by our differences — different flags, different skin colours and different belief systems — Canadian artists have something valuable to offer the rest of the world, that is, our stories of multiculturalism, which speak to the similarities among human beings regardless of our differences. I believe it is our duty to tell those stories. 

Well, Monsieur Lepage, that's it. Wish me luck with my premiere, and I hope one day I will have the privilege and honour to shake your hand and show my respect in person. 
Yours truly,

Johnny Nan Ma

The Mother and the Bear screens at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which runs September 5-15.