Finding Farley

When filming with a 2 year old toddler it can be daunting and disruptive at times. Finding Farley is just that, instead of filming around Zev when he became unruly while filming, director Leanne Allison decided to film with Zev and include him in her film. She pitched the idea to Canada’s NFB and got the green light for Finding Farley a movie about finding author Farley Mowat and the journey taken by Leanne Allison and her family. What you get a natural video-diary of a family expedition of self discovery about yourself and others around you at the same time.

We started out that way, talking into the camera and reflecting on our journey, but before long our two-year-old son Zev saw these moments as golden opportunities to interrupt, scream, or otherwise sabotage the scene.

This was frustrating at first, but we soon realized that much of the film would have to be crafted after the fact based on an exchange of letters between my husband Karsten and Farley Mowat, as well as readings from Mowat’s books. That process reinforced for me how important it is to be able to say in one simple sentence what your story is about, because we got lost for a while.

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