Island filmmaker films ode to family, memory and the distance in between

Growing up in Victoria, Morgan Tams knew little of his father, other than his name and the fact that he lived in Prince Edward Island.

Tams was raised by a single mother who died in 2003. About a decade later, Tams, who now lives on Cortes Island, sent a letter across the country to the man he suspected was his dad.

“I had no expectations for him to get back to me. And it was his prerogative, if he wanted to or not,” Tams said. “Cause really, there was nothing to be lost, on my end … but so much to gain.”

Two months later, mail arrived from the island on the other side of the country.

Tams had found his father, and the two began conversing through letters, reflecting on their history, their new relationship and the distance between them.

They met a handful of times before 2018, when Tams and his girlfriend set out in a converted 1990 Dodge van for a cross-country trip to P.E.I. to see his dad, and to film an unconventional documentary about the new, cross-country relationship he had forged with his father.

As he made his way east, Tams recorded footage of mist-shrouded lakes, seagull-covered coastlines, dancing wheat fields, two-lane highways and desolate buildings.

“I’ve always been interested in these sort of forgotten, out-of-the-way places. So I actively sought them out on the trip,” he said, adding that the grainy footage, sometimes marked with light leaks and scratches, is a nod to the slow, imperfect nature of writing, sending and receiving letters.

“A lot of the film is about time and, taking time,” he said. “I felt like the only way to really tell the story was in an older format.”

The resulting film — Dear Mr. Dudley — made with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the B.C. Arts Council and created using a Nizo Super 8 camera, screens Friday as part of the Antimatter Media Art Festival.

The nearly 13-minute long production is a living photo album of grainy, pastoral and hauntingly beautiful imagery, rolling scenery and poignant stills, as Tams and his father read their early correspondence.

“I’m leaning really heavily on these metaphors of distance, of memory, of dreams,” Tams said. “I wanted the look to feel like snapshots in a family photo album. And of course I never had those memories of youth with my dad, so that was something I wanted to play with.”

Only a handful of shots include human figures — Tams and his father. He said that was intentional — a way to create a sense of universality.

“Everybody’s got family spread out across the country that maybe we don’t talk to as much as we should,” he said. “Maybe we communicate superficially, but we don’t take the time to sit down and ask those hard questions or resolve some of those challenging points that everybody has in their relationships.

“I wanted to say, ‘Hey, this is my story, but I think, also, this is everybody’s story.’ ”

Dear Mr. Dudley screens at 8 p.m. Friday at the Deluge Contemporary Art gallery, located at 636 Yates St.

For more information, visit morgantams.com.

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