TIFF 2013: 12 Years a Slave Press Conference Recap

September 11, 2013 Film Festival, Special Edition, TIFF 2013 1 Comments

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Editor’s Notes: The following article is part of our coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.

Beginning the 12 Years a Slave (2013) press conference, director Steve McQueen stated that “it is a film about how to survive that situation (slavery).” Creating a story of a foreign circumstance with humanist universal extensions, McQueen used subjectivity to narrate the story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Using the film to exercise how film may elicit the vicarious activity of the viewer, one feels while watching the film that one is a victim of slavery. This is due in part by Chiwotel’s performance and in part by McQueen’s honest and frank depiction. In this depiction, the need to survive, and Northup’s desire to not merely survive but “to live,” illustrates a history dear to Steve McQueen.

In this depiction, the need to survive, and Northup’s desire to not merely survive but “to live,” illustrates a history dear to Steve McQueen.

Always wanting to make a film about slavery, his wife brought the book of the real Chiwetel Ejiofor. These memoirs brought a tear to his eye, and he knew that the story needed to be told, that it needed to reach a farther audience that those merely interested in personal artifacts of the 1800s. At the time, he was in Amsterdam and compared the memoirs with the history of Anne Frank. That said, McQueen made sure to explain that he never meant to make the film only about slaveship, but indeed for the situation to go beyond race and beyond slavery, and deal with real human emotions.

12-Years-A-Salve

Stating that “you are only as good as the person in front of you,” Fassbender critically acclaimed both McQueen and Ejiofor at the press conference. He continued by stating that “you go to the limit than go beyond it and that takes a lot of focus and commitment.” It is because of McQueen’s dedication that Fassbender felt confident enough to give his part the energy and promise that it deserved. This confidence allowed him to act believably while committing certain actions which would surely be beyond his personal manners. Though not at the press screening, Paul Dano should also be commended for his commitment to the character and trust in McQueen’s direction.

When asked by the moderator, Johanna Scheck, about the acts of torture, Ejiofor responded that it is not a discussion about race but of human dignity. Scheck claimed that it is necessary to show torture, so it is a tricky juxtaposition of showing and teaching. The film’s genuine depiction—at least to the extent of the filmmakers’ knowledge and research—is truly a document that teaches. While it doesn’t hold all the information of this circumstance, the film teaches about dignity and survival and humanity. In it’s compassionate tone and obviously serious filming, McQueen does not compromise his delivery by adjusting the truth for entertainment. This is clearly not important to him. He wanted to make a film about slavery. He had known of slavery through ideas, and wanted to know of slavery—to experience it—through images. Because of him and his creative actions to produce the film, each viewer is at once able to experience slavery as well. It is a highly vicarious and participatory film that compels the viewer to become involved in the storytelling.

Whether it be due to slavery or something else, such as trauma or disease, the fight to retain one’s dignity and survive the tribulations one might face in life is quite universal.

As a final exposition of the Press Conference, I’d like to point out the most inspiring and thoughtful statement, one which might help one understand the film. When the moderator asked about how hope moves in and out of the story, Ejiofor, the slave in question, responded that “it’s a fight for his soul. To abandon hope is to lose his mind.” Such an idea is quite uncanny. While none of you reading this has experienced slavery—I hope and assume—this notion of hope and abandonment, and the struggle to keep one’s soul or one’s dignity is something that any human may face in their lifetime. Whether it be due to slavery or something else, such as trauma or disease, the fight to retain one’s dignity and survive the tribulations one might face in life is quite universal. Consequently, the film is of a human integrity, and despite it’s generic specification, it is truly beyond merely what it represents. It is a film for all peoples.

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Kamran Ahmed

Staff Film Critic. Visit my personal blog at Aesthetics of The Mind
Kamran's areas of interest include formalism, realism & reality, affect, and notions of the aesthetic. With experiences as a TA, an event panelist, a presenter at conferences from UofT to Harvard, and a writer of a self-authored film blog, Kamran would like to share with others his profound interest in the profilmic in the hopes of inspiring, in them, a similar love for film.
  • Bryan Murray

    A Must see