Documentaries offer multi-layered experience Photo submitted WHEN CBC Toronto was searching for a host for its new hailf- - hour redio travel series, Departures, it didn't have to look far. No * Lone had travelted as far as, or understood the craft of documen- ' tary-making better than Don Mowatt. : Don Mowatt - In his own words Of all the arts, what is your true love? ‘‘I would have to’say, music and ‘theatre. My father played the piano and my wife Janet is a pro- fessional’ musician. Both my parents were amateur actors. My ‘|. father directed stage plays. 1 got -- involved’ in theatre when I was very young and my wife and I ‘perform a lot of Scandinavian folk music. I feel very at home . with that.’” What was one of your more - memorable trips? ‘‘] went back to Russia about four years ago to do a documentary series on Tolstoy. I went to his home. The kinds of experiences you have when you go _ to Russia are not to be duplicated we anywhere.”* : What kind of effect did European radio have on your career? “I'd say the European connection to’ “-my job has been the most rewar- ding. We tend, on the West Coast, to be isolated from things. © But in my line of work, which has a UNIQUE FEATURES: its model in stations like the BBC, it’s really terrific to see how they (Europeans) do things. In documentary-making, Europe was leading the field.” How have the cuts changed CBC Radio? ‘‘After the first cuts it became somewhat dominated by current affairs. It also became a lighter classical music station, with more rock and roll and comedy.” What is your favorite kind of programming? ‘‘Literary biographies. I've done Ray Brad- bury, Kurt Vonnegut, Victo, Hugo. T.S. Eliot, and most recently John Irving.” Was it difficult moving from pro- ducer to hast. for Departures? “‘No, because in private fife | doa lot of lecturing on Scandinavian history, music and theatre, and | do narrate my own shows on Ideas from time to time. The dif- ficulty came in developing a per- sona, because | wanted to give the series a signature.”’ International Academy © of British Columbia * SMALL CLASSES * GRADES 6.12 # * INDIVIDUALIZED PROGRAMS m Traditional approach, well-balanced curriculum and extensive recreations! programme. Small class sizes & individual attention & foster achievement, build self-confidence. Language programme n- ES B cludes Freach Immersion for Grades 6 to 9. Cooperative program- & mes with Goh Ballet and Moody Muste help promote Performing Arts fi students. . GEYZROUS SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE For furtaer information sse our recent fizar, or contact the Registrar at: Woburn International Academy of B.C. ; 342 Water Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6 1B6 Tel. (604} 683-3563 Fax (608) 683-3586 DON MOWATT had come too far to return empty- handed. By Evelyn Jacob News Reporter tt was 1970 and he had flown all the way to Montreaux. Switzerland, to interview novelist Vladimir Nabokov for a radio in- terview. only to have Nabokov tefuse to be taped. “‘We'd heard he iiked eccentric questions so we prepared all kinds of interesting questions relating to his books and career,"’ remembers Mowatt, whe is perched on a sofa in his North Vancouver home sur- rounded by a large piano, hun- dreds of books and paintings. “We tried to coax him to put the microphone on, but he didn’t want to. So we did a bad thing — we left it on.’ Not every interview, however, called for such desperate measures. For The Last Run of the Orient Express, a radio documentary covering the final 2,200 km ride from Paris to Istanbul, Mowatt easily secured interviews with col- orful characters along the way, capturing the images, sounds and atmosphere of the elegant locomotive. “The train had deteriorated a great deal since the days of Agatha Christie. Still, it had an aura about it. Our train had an interesting trio of ladies from Bolder, Colorado — all of them were retired school teachers who dressed up as Agatha Christie characters. It was the wildest thing — they were chasing young men. We did finally interview them and it was hilarious.”” That program was to mark a turning point in Mowatt’s career. Up until then, he had worked in the one-dimensional world of traditional radio, which involved a straight recital of information. In Europe, he discovered a new school of documentary-making, which offered listeners a multi- layered experience instead. “Et became a composer. a play- wright, a conductor. It gave you an exhilarating feeling about life and the way you were interpreting life on tape,’’ he says of his early experiences in Berlin. Mowatt has brought that rich European style to hundreds of radio plays, dozens of documen- taries, musical concerts, features, and Ideas programs since coming on board the CBC at the age of 21. By combining narration with in- terview, carefully selected music and sound effects, he creates full-bodied characters and con- veys a vivid sense of place. His programs place the listener in the middle of the subject’s environ- ment as if they were right there, soaking up the sounds and colors. “Sound is very important. Not all of the emphasis is placed on the spoken word,’’ he explains. “‘Hearing people speak in dif- ferent languages, for example, gives a particular flavor. You Teact to it emotionally rather than intellectually.” Born in Montreal, Mowatt was a gifted child who excelled at school. At age nine he received the J.P. Crerar Scholarship to study for eight years in Edinburgh and Oxford. . He returned to Canada after only 3%, skipped three grades and entered the University of: Victoria at age 14. in 1964 he became the CBC’s arts producer, and from there the awards followed. In 1982 he won the George F. Peabody Award for Carl Sand- burg at Connemara, which dramatized the final days and death of the American poet at his home in Flat Rock, North Carolina. : The Assassination of Christopher Mariowe, a two-hour play directed by Mowatt, who also composed the musical score, won the ACTRA national award for Best Canadian Radio Program of - the Year. From 1977 to 1990 he received NAME: Don Mowatt BORN: Montreal RESIDENCE: North Vancouver EDUCATION: Post Graduate work at UBC; studies in law and American literature OCCUPATION: Psoducer, CBC Radio FAMILY: Married to Sanet; two children HOBBIES: “They are all tied up in my work.” something about hardship tests your imagination. “Ive had to change a lot of what } did. | was thrown in with a news reporter and we did a pro- gram on native land claims. (Struggle For an Empty Land). — Our interviewing styles were com- pletely different — I wasn’t look- ing for the neat little quote like she was. It was a marvellous ex- perience. I loved working with the kind of discipline she brought.’ When the head of CBC’s cur- rent affairs in Toronto,. Hal Wake, was searching for someone to host a new half-hour weekly travel series called Departures, he didn’t have to look far. The series, which airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. until Sept.6, takes listeners on unique journeys. ~ “We didn’t want. it to.be a Frommers Guide to ... but'a Pro- - gram in which. one could experi- . ence life through the eyes of peo-. ple who have a special relationship” with that part of the world,’’- he said. 13 B.C. ACTRA Awards,. 4- culminating in a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Study of Cana- dian Radio and Television in Since the mid-1980s when cut- backs virtually decimated CBC radio’s Mowatt has been what he calls ‘‘a captain without a -ship.’’ As a producer, he has had to do more. | with less. “It’s been tough with the recent cuts — you see a lot of goad peo- ple go. But in'a way, the beit- tightening has had many positive effects. People in the creative arts don’t have a very easy job, but | MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY - DINEIN ONLY DINNER FOR ONE Sees Chicken Chow Mein S&S Boneless Pork Breaded Almond Chicken Chicken Fried Rice S&S Boneless Pork Spring Rol! 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