Play
2014 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Hubert Davis
Genres: biography, documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative, theatrical
Actor and Soulpepper Theatre leader Albert Schultz joins colleagues to reflect on collaboration, creative freedom and why playfulness matters in making theatre, in a tribute linked to the 2014 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A five-minute tribute to a theatre legend that plays it completely straight—no irony, no subversion, just reverent talking heads genuflecting at the altar of institutional playmaking. It's exactly the kind of consensus-building ceremonial film that makes me want to find the scrappy short someone made to argue against it.
Davis understands the form here with real sophistication: the essay-film-as-tribute, where reflection on collaboration and creative freedom isn't just stated but modeled through the very structure of multiple voices in dialogue, anchored by Schultz as a figure of considered artistic leadership. It's a film aware of its own lineage—part NFB essay tradition, part Governor General's gravitas—and it wears that heritage unselfconsciously.
The decision to frame this as genuine ensemble reflection rather than hagiography is what saves it; there's a specificity in how Davis lets the collaborative philosophy breathe through the performers themselves, trusting that watching artists actually *talk* about playfulness will feel more authentic than any narrative wrapper could.