The Old Man and the Poet: ninth movie, now complete

Peter Evanchuck

Digital media allows creative filmmakers without money, but with big ideas, the chance to make important movies on the cheap. The other day I completed my ninth movie highlighting themes revealing various aspects of mental illness, The Old Man and the Poet. This is an unscripted real and raw documentary, featuring my two buddies from the old days: Augustus Larrow, a retired, Jamaican-Canadian living poor and alone, dreaming of owning a small home but in reality living in a small, unkempt subsidised bachelor apartment; and Robert Payne, a homeless street poet, living in squats or alleys. Both suffer the injustices encountered by those whose illness has dominated their daily existence. Both make strange and awkward decisions that hinder their wellness, rather than encourage it.

Digital media allows these stories to be recorded with the ease of inexpensive video. The creative filmmakers are not caught up in the “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” world of seeking investment that is an obstacle to creativity. Without digital media, these ordinary people, like thousands of others, would remain silent. Their truth locked shut forever. A part of the culture’s time and truth forgotten.

Instead, they are now living beyond their silence in the movies forever written on cyberworld’s stone tablets . . . the opening of the ninth gate of human existence.

ps Augustus Larrow died alone choking to death — Robert Payne disappeared like so many homeless.