Not So Different Jack Horwitz

I invited Don as a guest speaker to the first Canadian unviveristy credit course on the NFB held at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo Ontario in 1979. He was a fabulous lecturer and told stories from the front lines of production that the students literally lapped up. Especially interesting to me were those that dealt with sponsor producions, stuff that really hadn't appeared on the radar screen when studying and preparing the curriculum on the NFB. I didnt realize it at the time, but our paths were to cross and it was on this same topic.

I ended up working at the NFb some two year slater joining the NFB in Ottawa at the Sponsored Program as an Executive or as we called them a Co-Ordinating Producer for government films and videos. One of my clients was the Secreatry of State and one of the first productions I worked on was a sound slide show that dealt with multiculturalism based on a story developed by Don.

It was a simple fable still in distribition, " set in the Land of Same, where the law of the land is SAMENESS. Everyone has to behave the same, wear the same clothes, live in the same houses, drive  the same cars, eat the same food -- you name it, it's the SAME! Everything runs, smoothly (although  it's a bit dull!), until the arrival of some DIFFERENT people, causing a wave of differentness to spread across the land. So the law is changed to DIFFERENTNESS. Things aren't dull any more, but life is chaotic! Eventually a meeting is held to vote on SAME OR DIFFERENT. The outcome? Well, see for yourself -- it's not the same -- but not so different."

We had to run the storyboards by the then Director General, a woman not known for a very generous sense of humour. Don had lined up the individual boards that showed each scene and an outline of the narrative and we began to walk the DG through the story. I was at the front avidly reading each text and he was beside her, ready to answer questions. I got to to the mi-way point and began to realize that Don had inserted some extra segments, in particular when he was describing how the rule of land proscribed that each person had to be the same, the differences became apparent. For instance, peoples girth, trying to get through doors made too small, or hats made too large. He had inserted as was his want, some special scenes, such as penises that were too long, or breast that were too large.

Because I was at the front of the line and the DG was close behind I turned to her and said that she must have gotten the just of the storyline and that the rest was superfluous. But she countered and said that she was actually enjoying the experience of the artistic endeavour and wanted to complete the veiwing whereuopon she happened on the 'offending' segments.

I watched as her eyes literally popped out! A veritable moment that Don would have used in one of his works and I waited for the shoe to drop. She began to laugh heartedly whereupon Don took down the pictures and told her, " I just wanted to make sure that you had a sense of humour otherwise I would have stopped working for you!"

A truly delicious moment in the unknown annals of Arioli!