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André Petrowski A Failure Turns to Gold |
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André Petrowski A Failure Turns to Gold |
by Marie-Pierre Tremblay
March 2002
"Two years after leaving the NFB," says André Petrowski, "I allowed myself to be talked into buying mining rights on several thousand hectares between Shawinigan and La Tuque - around the Matawin River. I did some test drilling in 1989-90 and found gold. Lots of gold. But not enough to justify a commercial mining operation. What to do?"
What to do indeed. If you're André Petrowski, you develop a 13-part television series called Gold. The series aired on Radio-Canada in the fall of 2001, drawing more than a million viewers per episode - the highest rating of the season for any show. CBC quickly picked it up, and dubbing for the English version is nearly completed.
But success did not come easy. Petrowski recalls how he first pitched the idea. "I went to see Rock Demers - this was in 1990 - and pitched him six episodes. He immediately said, "I want them". The following week he told me he wanted 13. He'd sold them to Radio-Canada at MIP. And then, things began to slow down. The shows finally aired last fall, and there's talk of a second cycle. We're in negotiations right now."
Gold was produced by Rock Demers and Pierre Gendron, and directed by Jean-Claude Lord. Petrowski is credited as series creator and original author, while Michelle Allen gets credit for screenplay and dialogue. "Television screenplays and dialogue are all very technical," says Petrowski. "The mechanics of writing don't interest me at all. So Michelle did all that. She changed the names, but all the elements of the story are mine." Gold stars Marina Orsini and more than a dozen other big-name actors.
This is the second time Petrowski has written a TV series. His first was Libre Échange - a 17-episode sitcom about an amiably separated couple and their kids. It aired on TQS in 1990-91.
Setbacks and Successes
"When I decided to take early retirement from the NFB, I planned to devote myself to writing. I'd always been a frustrated writer. When I joined the NFB, I wanted to make films, but life had other plans for me." Petrowski recalls.
His career as a writer and filmmaker has not been without setbacks, though. "I have about 20 projects in advanced stages of development - including action films and drama - and I've received funding for many of them," he says. But getting them made hasn't always been easy.
Petrowski got funding from SOGIC (as SODEC was then known), to develop a screenplay based on a trip to the Ukraine with his mother and brother before the end of the Communist era. The story traced his mother's first visit home in 65 years, and captured the emotions of a family reunion. Ian MacLaren showed some interest, but nothing came of the project.
Funding also came through for a project that was ahead of its time. In the early '90s, Petrowski wanted to make a film about a lesbian couple hoping to become mothers. Once again, it fell through.
But things are looking up these days. "Right now," he says, "I'm trying to sell a mini-series on outfitters. Nothing's been done on them, and they're very important in Quebec.
"The projects closest to my heart," Petrowski continues, are those dealing with youth. There's one called Ados-Action. Teens are a world apart - a world that's completely ignored. Like us old folks. I got some help from the Department of Canadian Heritage to develop one volume of the series, which deals with how young immigrants are integrated into Quebec. I especially wanted to look at francisation. I had the opportunity to emigrate from a French-speaking country, but most of today's young immigrants don't speak French - and they're a majority at many Montreal schools.
"Then there's homeless youth. Five thousand of them abandoned by their parents, without guidance. We have to look at them; it's a huge problem. I'd also like to do something on prostitutes. I have a lot of research, and l'm ready to push hard to launch this project."
No matter how many ideas you have, getting a project off the ground is not easy. There are too many creators out there for the size of the market. So games get played. Interests clash, Petrowski says, "I don't want any part of that. Petrowski doesn't belong to any clique. Petrowski is always just Petrowski."
L'Or at a Bookstore Near You
Petrowski's first novel, Gold (inspired by the TV series) hits the bookstores on May 3, 2002. The publisher says, "Gold describes a world that fascinates us because it is based on an irrational quest. A world that lusts for this precious metal and for what it can procure: luxury, power, drugs, alcohol, art, sex. André Petrowski describes a geography of gold and the illusions it fosters, from the forests of Abitibi to the mansions of the McGill ghetto; from a hotel room in Rouyn-Noranda to one in Toronto; from Montreal to Paris; and from North America to Europe."
He has not yet seen the marketing plan for the book, but he has big dreams. He hopes it will be translated into English and distributed in France. "All the elements are there to seduce the French," he says with a twinkle in his eye. And he adds, "The sequel is almost ready."
Flamboyant as ever, and solid as an oak at 73, André Petrowski expresses himself as much through gestures as words. He maintains an unshakeable faith in the future, and in his capacity to reinvent himself. "Since 1986, I've done whatever I wanted, and that's what I continue to do. It's great. In fact, I might even have a project to propose to the NFBClubONF..."
L'Or, by André Petrowski. Published by Trait d'union, as part of the collection "Les Heures volées." 320 pages. $27.95 (suggested.) Available in all fine bookstores.
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ANDRÉ PETROWSKI acted as an associate producer (for Nature's Food Chain, 1977) and helped promote NFB films for 20 years - from 1966 to 1986. He started off promoting features (up until the release of J.A. Martin, Photographer in 1977). He then moved to Distribution Services, and from there to International, where he spent seven years as representative for Latin America. In 1984 he was assigned to the Montreal office and worked tirelessly to bring NFB films into video stores and public libraries. For this, he became known around the NFB as the Father of Video.
