Clapboard Jungle (2020)

(On Cable TV, June 2020) Life is tough for filmmakers below the Hollywood celebrity line, and Canadian documentary Clapboard Jungle takes us into the frustrating multi-year journey of trying to get a film made for fickle audiences under the plethora of financing models available now that the traditional theatrical model is broken, along with cinema’s dwindling place as prestige entertainment. Writer director Justin McConnell makes for an eventually sympathetic figure as he tries to figure out why some filmmakers succeed and some don’t. Interviews with other filmmakers (Guillermo Del Toro, Uwe Boll, George Romero, Paul Schrader and many others) add quite a bit of interest to the proceedings. It works both as inspiration and as a reality check for anyone thinking they can just take an iPhone and make their own movie. Clapboard Jungle eventually touches upon the hard truth that many feel drawn to the prestige of film, but underestimate just how few places are available at the end. As a blend of feature-film footage and grainy digital diaries, this documentary acts more as a diary with clipped quotes than a cohesive document. But it’s still interesting and revelatory about the difficulties of (specifically Canadian) low-budget filmmaking.