While Hubert Davis celebrates the world premiere of his narrative feature debut the eco-thriller “The Well” on July 21 at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, he is already deep into the post soundmix of his second feature, a theatrical adaptation of the 1986 sports drama “Youngblood.”
Both narrative projects draw on his experience in documentary filmmaking and reorient genre conventions, Davis told Variety ahead of the world premiere of “The Well,” which is programmed in Cheval Noir, Fantasia’s main feature competition.
“The Well” is set in a near-future time of environmental collapse, when resources are scarce, diseases are rampant and isolation is the norm. A family’s safety and loyalties are tested after a wounded man arrives on their doorstep and discovers their hidden source of clean water.
“Several years ago, we were living in a remote place north of Toronto and the idea for ‘The Well’ emerged from the feeling of being isolated with family and imagining what that would mean in a dystopian near-future,” said Davis, whose 2005 short documentary “Hardwood” – which explores his relationship with his father, a former pro basketball-player – was nominated for an Academy Award, making him the first Black Canadian to receive an Oscar nomination.
“When you’re raising your kids, who do you trust besides yourself? You need other people in order to survive. For your kids to grow, they have to get out in the world, but there is danger in that; in other words, it came from my own anxiety.”
As ideas for “The Well” evolved, Davis worked on other projects, notably his acclaimed documentary feature “Black Ice,” which traces Black history through that of hockey while exploring institutional racism in the sport. It won the People’s Choice Award for documentary at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Davis worked with actor-screenwriter Michael Capellupo and, later, filmmaker Kathleen Hepburn (“Never Steady, Never Still”) on the “Well’s” script. Once producer Coral Aiken (Aiken Heart Productions) and executive producers Damon D’Oliveira and Clement Virgo (“Brother”) of Conquering Lion came on board, funding and partners began locking in.
XYZ Films got involved with “The Well” at the script stage, and formally announced it had acquired global distribution rights (excluding Canada) in late 2023. Vortex Media has Canadian rights.
“It’s a super smart, well crafted film and Fantasia is an excellent premiere for it,” XYZ’s Todd Brown recently told Variety. “Fantasia is giving Sheila McCarthy, one of the key actors, a Canadian Trailblazer Award, and the film has already been widely noticed by the industry, including major studios wanting to see it. Fantasia gives it instant credibility.”
Filmed in 2023 in and around Hamilton, Ontario (outside SAG jurisdiction), “The Well” attracted A-list Canadian screen talent. “Working with Conquering Lion and shooting, as it turned out, during the writers’ strike meant we were able to tap into an amazing talent base of actors who would normally be working on big Netflix shows and the like,” Davis says.
Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (“Book of Negros”) plays a young woman who leaves her family’s secluded home to help restore the water supply of another community, which is run like a cult by a charismatic martriarch played by McCarthy (“Women Talking”). The cast also includes Arnold Pinnock (“The Porter”), Idrissa Sanogo (“Robin Hood”), and Joanne Boland (“Handmaid’s Tale”).
“I wanted to combine the aesthetics of what I’ve learned in the commercial space, where you have more resources to build things and art-direct, with the documentary sensibility, which is about establishing a scenario where people feel comfortable and can be themselves and express themselves,” said Davis. “One my favorite aspects of documentary is connecting with other people and hearing their stories; in this narrative process, I was listening to actors to get their take on their characters.”
Davis’ second narrative feature, “Youngblood,” is an adaptation of the 1986 hockey drama that re-centres the narrative around an African American prodigy. It was originally announced in 2022 with Canadian writer-director Charles Officer (“Akilla’s Escape,” “The Porter”), a former a professional hockey player, set to helm in 2023.
After Officer’s death in December 2023, following a lengthy illness, the production paused. Davis, a friend of Officer’s, was approached to step in to direct. The film, which stars Ashton James as Dean Youngblood, was shot in Ontario earlier this year. In a statement earlier this year, Davis said the film is “not an homage to the movies of the ’80s but a re-orienting of these films and ideas, especially those about masculinity, which my generation grew up on.”
The Fantasia Film Festival runs to Aug. 3 in Montreal.
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