'Rebelle' director Kim Nguyen on how he approached telling the emotional story of child soldiers
'Let the logic of your world and of your story take over'
This weekend, Kim Nguyen's Oscar-nominated Rebelle (War Witch) continues our summer Saturday of classic Canadian on the CBC. But before the big show, Nguyen himself will sit down for an interview on the latest episode of The Filmmakers, CBC Arts' film talk show. And in the above video, we're offering up a preview where the director discusses how he approached writing a film about child soldiers in Africa.
"I did go to Burundi and met ex-child soldiers," he says. "That was quite an adventure. But at a certain point, once you have these basic elements, you just gotta let the logic of your world and of your story take over. I think that when things are going well in the storytelling process, there's something weird that happens where you get connected to your characters. You can do the research and find out that your intuitions are very similar to the research."
And as it turns out, Nguyen's intuitions ultimately helped him make a film that would win 10 trophies at the very first Canadian Screen Awards, including the award for best film.
Watch The Filmmakers on Saturday nights at 8:30pm (9pm NT) on CBC Television or stream it online at cbc.ca/watch, with a classic Canadian film following at 9pm (9:30pm NT).