The life of groundbreaking photographer Hannah Maynard, who lived in Victoria from 1862 until her death in 1918, has been the subject of dramatic interpretation over the years, including a hit play from Victoria playwright Janet Munsil.
Maynard’s legacy and immense impact continues to fly somewhat under the radar, however, which is one of several reasons Toronto filmmaker Elizabeth Lazebnik chose to make a drama about the photographer the basis of her first-ever feature film.
Lazebnik made a short film about Maynard, The Multiple Selves of Hannah Maynard, in 2005, shortly after she graduated from university, and has been fascinated with her work ever since — especially her collages. The writer-director maintains Maynard is the world’s first surrealist photographer.
“I wanted to be sure there was some light being brought to her. One of her photographs had over 20,000 childrens’ faces on it. That’s a lot to manually copy and paste and re-photograph. I could see that there is a story there, some obsessiveness.”
It was a 1980 book by Claire Weissman Wilks, The Magic Box: The Eccentric Genius of Hannah Maynard, and 2001 play by Munsil, upon whose work Be Still is based on and named after, that eventually pushed Lazebnik to further explore the life of the photographer. After making short films for close 17 years, she chose Maynard as the subject of feature-length debut, with Piercey Dalton in the lead role.
The film will have its world premiere online (Oct. 1-11) and in select Vancouver theatres (Oct. 6 and 8) during the Vancouver International Film Festival. It isn’t a casual watch; there is a dreamlike/nightmarish tone to Be Still, with sepia-toned and back-and-white footage adding a harrowing hue to the grief-stricken narrative (Maynard’s 16-year-old daughter, Lillian, died of typhoid fever in 1883). Mental illness is explored, and much is left to the imagination.
Lazebnik’s film wasshot over 22 days in Delta, B.C., with script research provide by several trips to the B.C. Archives, where Maynard’s original wet-plate images are stored. It was a painstaking 22-day shoot: A scenic painter created backdrops reminiscent of Maynard’s studio, and the sets were adorned with photographic re-creations made to look like Maynard originals.
Much about Maynard, who is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery, did not make it to the final cut. Lazebnik hopes that Be Still will open the door to more exploration.
“One of my aims is to bring recognition to her. She was such a big part of Victoria.”
ON SCREEN
What: Be Still
Where: Vancouver Film Festival (viff.org)
When: Friday, Oct. 1. through Monday, Oct. 11
Tickets: $10
