The Cast
Edgar (Neville) Chichester
Edgar is Simonee's absentee father, who
abandoned her at age 6. He's a 53-year-old homeless, alcoholic living on
the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Edgar's first on screen appearance
occurs about halfway through the film, but his character is present and
developed throughout. The first half of the film follows Simonee's quest
for knowledge about her father. In Guyana, his birthplace, she discovers
Edgar is a man who struggles with identity. As a bastard child, he grew
up surrounded by sexual and emotional abuse, a debilitating environment
that explains Edgar's need for approval, and his inability to accept
love. Edgar's character is further developed by Simonee's examination of
her father's desire to be a photographer, her own childhood memories and
those of her mother and extended family. Her discoveries about Edgar
uncover a well-liked, charismatic, talented man. His charming ways are
often the subject of conversation, but always accompanied by frustration
over Edgar's shortcomings-drink, philandering, financial
irresponsibility, and his unwillingness to change. When Simonee finally
meets Edgar, he is a shadow of his fabled self. In his previous life he
was a stylish, handsome man; now he is undeniably homeless and grasps
onto Simonee as proof of what he once was, and could have been. As
Simonee spends time with Edgar, he remains unable to accept
responsibility for his life and his choices. When pressured for answers
Edgar plays the victim. He diverts serious questions by becoming a
charismatic storyteller, the entertainer. Simonee's hope that Edgar
might change his life forces him to reveal his true colours. Edgar's
story is that of an abused child, spirited artist, and homeless drunk.
It is in Simonee's changing view of him, as she comes to better
understand his life, that his character arc is revealed.
Simonee Chichester
Simonee was abandoned by her alcoholic
father at age 6. An only child, she was raised by her immigrant mother
in Toronto. For 23 years it has been the two of them against the world -
with her mother's family in Brazil, and her father's in Guyana. The
absence of her father has left Simonee angry and unsure of what she
might become. She knows a part of her is missing, but she doesn't know
which part. Drawn to the arts from an early age, she is opinionated,
strong willed, and independent. These combined attributes set her on a
journey to find her father. Simonee is looking for Edgar to find
answers, an explanation for why he left. She feels the pain of an
abandoned child, the hurt of being unloved. It explains her moments of
insecurity, indecision, and also her determination. She is a survivor.
When she learns from her uncles in Guyana that her father told them he
sexually assaulted her, she is devastated but not defeated. Her courage
comes from her need to know the truth, why Edgar chose the streets over
her. Simonee's journey is a journey of self-discovery more than anything
else. Her close but difficult relationship with her mother, Neusa, is
tested; when she confronts her about stories that Edgar tried to rape
her. Their relationship is strengthened as the two join forces to help
Edgar get off the streets, but their efforts are in vain-something Neusa
knows from experience to expect. With the help of her mother, Simonee
learns to accept her father for who he is, and to accept his choices.
She finally realizes his lifestyle is a conscious decision. He has
chosen to be a victim of his past, his colour, and his struggles. What
Simonee learns about herself is that she will not allow herself to be a
victim. She is of her father, but she is not him. She also understands
for the first time what her mother has gone through having been Edgar's
wife. This deeper understanding fortifies their relationship, allowing
both women greater independence and security in their love for one
another. After Edgar's death, Neusa moved back to Sao Paulo. Despite the
distance now between them, the mother-daughter bond is stronger than
ever. Simonee plans to visit Neusa in Sao Paulo this Christmas.
Neusa Chichester
Neusa is Simonee's mother. She is a
youthful, 51-year-old; who raised her only daughter alone. Typical of
most mothers, she is overbearing, protective, and loving. She is
Simonee's rock throughout her journey, although her daughter begrudges
her presence almost every step of the way. Being the parent who stayed,
Neusa is taken for granted and underappreciated by Simonee. Neusa bears
her soul in the film by sharing humiliating stories of Edgar's cheating,
lying, and irresponsibility. She does it because she loves her daughter,
and wants to help her overcome the pain of abandonment-a feeling Neusa
is well acquainted with having been abandoned by the same man. Neusa was
insistent that she accompany Simonee to Brazil, fearful that her father
might disappoint her once again. In Sao Paulo, Neusa acts as Simonee's
translator, and connection to her extended family-the people who will
tell Simonee about Edgar's life on the streets. Initially Neusa did not
want to see Edgar, but curiosity and the protective instinct of a mother
drew her in. Neusa's meeting with Edgar is a moment infused with a
torrent of mixed emotions-anger, resentment, and love. Since Edgar left
the family, Neusa and Simonee have had a co-dependent relationship. A
good survival tool in the past, it causes conflict when Simonee tries to
break free from Neusa to be with her father. Neusa is often left behind
finding little space for her role as the protective, life saving mother.
Simonee often dismisses her and Neusa is forced to become more
intrusive, if she is to be recognized at all. Neusa's anger toward Edgar
surfaces in off-handed remarks like, "Aren't you happy to see your
daughter, she's a woman now." When Edgar disappoints his daughter
by missing appointments, drinking again and disappearing; it is Neusa
who must explain to Simonee why Edgar is the way he is.
Guyana and Edgar's Family
A tropical paradise on its
surface, Guyana is a poverty stricken country-the poorest in the Western
hemisphere after Haiti. The littered streets, dilapidated houses, and
neglected towns are a metaphor for what has happened to Guyana's people.
It is here, that Simonee sees why drug addiction, alcoholism and suicide
have afflicted Edgar's six half-siblings. The ones remaining in Guyana
form a dysfunctional family, each of them scarred by abuse often
accepted in this culture. Their dead father, also a drinker, sexually
abused his daughters and deprived all of his children. He used money to
lord power over them. Each of Edgar's siblings has dealt with their hurt
in different ways. Ricky is an alcoholic, living in a shack along the
coast. Kim is a 3-time divorcee, unable to trust men. Andre, the most
functional, is married with three children, but operates with a skewed
moral compass. About his father's rape of his sisters Andre says,
"He was a nice guy, but a dirty old man." Simonee visits his
three half-siblings and learns about his childhood. How he acted out
movies for money, and loved to entertain. They have different levels of
sympathy for Edgar. Kim's attitude is if she survived sexual abuse, then
there's no reason for him to be on the streets. She tells Simonee he was
bothered by his race and never liked himself. Andre is more forgiving.
He excuses Edgar's failure, saying he just wasn't strong enough. Andre
is Simonee's guide in Guyana. He takes her to Edgar's old school and to
places where they used to hang out. He brings her to meet Ricky, who
immediately asks for money. Then Ricky tells Simonee something that
shakes her foundation-Simonee's father left Canada, because Neusa caught
him trying to rape her. It's a shocking revelation that almost throws
Simonee off her quest to find her father.
Sao Paulo, Old Friends and Neusa's Family
Sao Paulo is South America's largest
city, 20 million people. It's where Edgar met Neusa, before moving to
Toronto where Simonee was born. For the past 23 years Edgar has survived
in these streets, often relying on the support of old friends and a
scant social system. With the help of her cousin, Marcos, Simonee
navigates through Sao Paulo to find her dad and the details about the
later half of Edgar's life. Marcos is especially invested in Simonee's
journey as he too was abandoned by his alcoholic father. With the help
of her cousin, Marcos, Simonee navigates through Sao Paulo to find her
dad and the details about the later half of Edgar's homeless life.
Marcos is especially invested in Simonee's journey; his alcoholic father
also abandoned him. Simonee tries to understand her father's life by
talking to friends and family including Edgar's best friend since age
six, Ben, lives in Sao Paulo. They came to Brazil together from Guyana
and Ben feels indebted to him. Over the years Ben has taken Edgar into
his home, fed and bathed him. Through Ben many years ago Simonee and her
mother learnt of her father's homelessness. She is amazed by Ben's sense
of loyalty to her father. Ben is worried Edgar will soon die if he
continues to live on the streets. He hopes that seeing Simonee will give
Edgar a reason to change and his optimism fuels Simonee's own hopes.
Simonee visits with more of Edgar's old friends, from when he and Neusa
were living in Brazil. They produce stories of the fun-loving, charming
Edgar and Simonee has to press them for information about the homeless
Edgar. Eventually they tell her of his inability to keep a job, or stay
sober. Neusa's sister and husband tell Simonee how Edgar came to stay
with them, until he eventually wore out his welcome. Simonee visits
shelters to see for herself where Edgar went when friends and family
lost patience. Social workers who know her father help Simonee to
understand how life is on the streets of Sao Paulo. Learning about how
her father is forced to survive, invokes empathy in Simonee. It
increases her desire to help him, but she is weary having spoken to so
many people who have already tried and were left disappointed.
The Crew
Simonee Chichester - Producer, Writer, Director
When Simonee discovered her dad may be
dying, she knew she had to see him before he was gone forever. It had
been 23 years since she had seen her father, Edgar Chichester. In all
that time, she never understood what led him to a life of homelessness
on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Simonee had been involved in the arts for ten years as mostly an actor who dabbled with dramatic writing with the hopes of eventually making her own film but never anticipated that she would make a documentary, much less, one on her own life and journey to reunite with her father. Once she accepted what a remarkable story it could be and what a beautiful honest journey it would make for others to watch, she felt compelled to share it because it would make a moving film.
She started to work on the treatment and investigate her father's life in 2002, immediately after she got the news of his illness. Simonee began to realize how easily people would relate to her story. In many ways she was like many Canadian people today: A child of immigrant parents whose dreams had ended in divorce and a sense of failure. She was raised by a single mother, with little resources and struggled to define herself without having a father around. Simonee wanted this film to be more than a reunion chronicle; she wanted to explore and mirror others people search for identity; as she believes we are all on a life long journey of figuring out who we are. Simonee has been working on Chichester's Choice for almost 4 years. In that time the film has seen the high's and low's of independent filmmaking. As a first-time filmmaker, Simonee's journey in bringing this story to screen has been extremely challenging but seems to be well on its way into people hearts and minds. Currently in the final stages of post, Simonee is working with a talented team of filmmaker's including the NFB and Chichester's Choice aims to be completed in late 2006.
Kristina McLaughlin - Associate Producer
As a producer and partner in Primitive Entertainment, Kristina has worked on some of the most critically ac-claimed Canadian documentaries of the last decade. Her most recent producing credits include the feature documen-taries The Face of Victory and Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii, 2005 Gemini Winner for Best History Documentary, for His-tory Television, I, Curmudgeon for TVOntario and The Inde-pendent Film Channel and A Perfect Fake for The Documentary Channel and CBC News-world.
She is currently producing the second season of Things That Move, a twenty part series for History Television, Ancestors In The Attic, a thirteen part series also for History Televi-sion, and the feature film Four Wings and A Prayer, an international co-production with the National Film Board of Canada and Films A Trois for The Documentary Channel and France 2.
Kristina sits on the National executive and the Toronto board of the Documentary Organization of Canada, the Ontario Media Development Corporation's Film and Television Advisory Board and Loyalist College's Television Advisory Board.
Ricardo Acosta - Editor
Ricardo Acosta immigrated to Canada from
his native Cuba in 1993. Before coming to Toronto, he studied and worked
with the world renowned Cuban Film Institute in Havana. For the past ten
years Ricardo has edited both documentary and dramatic films, which have
been shown around the world. His outstanding work has contributed to the
making of several award-winning films including: Shooting Indians, A
Journey With Jeffrey Thomas directed by Ali Kazimi, (Genie Award
Nomination for Best Short Documentary 1997); Unbound directed by Claudia
Morgado (Winner of The Berlin Film Festival Award for Best Short Film
1996); Spirits of Havana produced by the NFB (Genie Award Nomination for
Best Documentary 2001); and most recently, The Take directed by Naomi
Klein and Avi Lewis - Official selection Venice Film Festival, 2004,
*nomination for The Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political
Documentary Prog, 2005 & nomination for Best Picture Editing in a
Documentary Program or Series, 2005.
Nadine Pequenza - Story Editor
Nadine Pequeneza is an award-winning writer, director and producer who over the past nine years has made more than 20 hours of documentary programming. Her work has appeared on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, History Television, TVO, CBC, TLC and ABC.
For the past eight years she has contributed to the award-winning series, Turning Points of History, on History Television. Her program on The King's Cross Disaster opened Discovery's first season of the popular engineering series, Blueprint for Disaster. On the Life Network her feature length documentary, Raising Cassidy, the story of a drug addict's struggle to keep her daughter out of foster homes, continues to reach wide audiences here in Canada and at festivals abroad.
As a director Nadine utilizes a variety of cinematographic styles ranging from véerité to dramatic recreation to special effects. She has worked with several formats including; HD, Digital and SP Beta, DV Cam, Super 8 and 16mm film.
Her documentaries have won numerous awards, including a Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, the Gold Camera Award from the US International Film and Video Festival, the Special Jury Award from Houston WorldFest, as well as honours at festivals in New York, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Columbus and Yorkton. She is a two-time Gemini Award nominee, in both writing and directing categories.
Edgardo Moreno - Composer
Edgardo Moreno studied music at the Royal
Conservatory of Music and York University. He has traveled to Chile,
Trinidad, Puerto Rico and Venezuela to study local musical traditions.
He has worked with contemporary dance choreographers in Toronto and
abroad. He has been commissioned to compose music for contemporary dance
in Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, England and USA. He has written scores for
films Witnessed, Sarah, Zummel (nominated for best score in a short film
by Festival of Film and Technology, New York City 2003), Resistance,
1939, Old Country, Departure, Asylum of Spoons as well as documentaries
and dramas, El Contrato, Cruel Courage, Gummi, It's For You, Headhunter,
Happy Birthday, Private Space, Cut and Dry, Doctors With Borders, Beyond
Borders. He has also worked creating music for television travel show
Exploring Horizons for three seasons and Freedom Series (BRAVO TV). Has
received nomination for Louis Applebaum composer's award for emergent
film composer. He produces music, lives and plays in Toronto Canada.
Camera Crew
Christopher Behnisch - Director of Photography
Christopher
Behnisch is a Toronto filmmaker who writes, directs, shoots and acts. He
is currently writing a one-hour crime drama for CTV and just completing
directing the recreations for W Network's Crimes of Passion. As an actor
he most often plays killers and psychopaths in MOWs that you've probably
never seen. His own feature documentary, "Pochinko",
is currently in post-production and will be ready for broadcast by
2007.Monica Guddat - Director of Photography/Sound Operator
A reputable Toronto cinematographer, filmmaker and artist, Monica Guddat's vision has helped bring motion pictures to the small and big screens throughout her ten year career. Since 2001, Monica has taught film and video production at Ryerson University in the School of Image Arts. An educator and a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Concordia University, Monica has worked extensively across the country and abroad shooting documentaries, commercials, music videos, feature films, pilots and television series in both film and digital video. As a member of Crevice, an artist collective dedicated to the exploration of the moving image projection in interactive environments and space, her work has been shown in exhibitions at the San Francisco MOMA, the AGO and other public galleries. With an artistic eye and a strong background in cinematography, Monica is a dedicated and passionate professional.
Rhett Morita - Director of Photography
Rhett Morita is self-described
"Born Again film-maker". He began 'shooting' super-8
movies at about twelve years old and seemed to have a natural ability
with the camera. This talent was highlighted during his university years
and he stopped making his own films to shoot films for others in the
mid- eighties. Being a 'baby D.O.P.' his career began quickly and he was
shooting major commercial campaigns for Air Canada, Coke, Labbatt's,
McDonalds within a few years of starting. During his D.O.P. career he
has lensed over forty music videos including early videos for such bands
as Blue Rodeo, and Bryan Adams. In fact he shot early videos with Celine
Dion when she was a duet/back-up singer.
Speaking of beginnings he shot Brad Pitt's second feature ever and has worked for Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, and the producers of Chicago, and Brokeback Mountain. He has shot Gemini winning documentaries, and shot television dramas for WB, Disney, Nickelodeon, CTV, and CBS. In the mid-nineties he began to shoot television movies for Show Time, Disney, Columbia/Tristar, Lifetime and multi award winning films for Court TV.
In a break between projects in the spring of 2003 he decided to write and produce a short film. "LIFE AFTER" is his short film directorial debut, which premiered at the New York International Independent Film Festival in October and won best fantasy short. This was his first film in over twenty years!
Recently he has lensed the CTV TV movie "Doomstown" for writer/director "Sudz" Sutherland, and the indie feature "Barstool Words" for Jeff Glickman. And he has just completed the first thirteen episodes of the new lifestyle/comedy series, "Smart Woman's Guide" for the W network. He has directed two spoken word videos for Evalyn Perry, produced/directed the winning video for the 24 hour Toronto Film Challenge, called "Plastic Love" and he is currently re-writing his first feature script, "About Face".
Rhett currently resides in Toronto.