a parent's worst nightmare
Texas filmmaker Ya'Ke Smith premieres the disturbing but brilliant WOLF at SXSW
Mar 13, 2012 | 5:07 pm
Ya'Ke Smith
Production stills from WOLF
Production stills from WOLF
WOLF, the first full-length feature film from Texas filmmaker Ya'Ke Smith, is a heavy movie. It chronicles one of a parent's worst nightmares — the molestation of a child — and in a situation straight out of recent headlines, with the abuse perpetrated by a priest. The storyline goes right along with Ya'Ke's veracious style of storytelling, which takes an unflinching look at serious issues facing society today.
WOLF had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on March 11, and will play again Friday, March 16, at Stateside Theatre at 4:30 p.m. Director Ya'Ke is from San Antonio, where the movie was filmed last summer; he received his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin's film program, and is currently a professor at UT Arlington.
Ya'Ke is no stranger to big-time festivals; his short films Katrina's Son (2010) and Hope's War (2005) were both screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Yet while he is widely regarded as one of the upcoming film directors to watch, Ya'Ke is pure in his intentions and motives for filmmaking. "If I never make millions of dollars, never win an Oscar, never am considered one of the best, I just want to touch people's hearts," he says. "Film is ministry for me."
I asked Ya'Ke a few questions about WOLF, SXSW and his career.
Where did the inspiration for WOLF first come from?
The seeds for this film have lived inside of me for a while. I can remember being a young guy and some of my friends coming to me and telling me about being sexually abused...confiding in me because they didn't know how to handle what had happened to them. I remember their confusion, and hurt. I buried their stories deep inside of me, telling no one, myself guilty of being silent. A few years ago I caught the documentary Deliver us from Evil on TV and just remember being glued there as the victims and clergyman who abused them told their stories. You saw not only the effect the abuse had on them, but also their families. How this betrayal really ate at them; how it caused some of them to turn their backs to God.
But more importantly, you got a sense that the priest who abused them was a very conflicted man. A victim of sexual abuse himself, he was on one hand just as confused and hurt as the children he had abused. He was remorseless, yet full of remorse. You got a sense that the silence of his abuse had created a man with two personalities: one was a child predator, one a gentle, loving man of God. I wanted to understand him, his victims and the people who had continued to sweep this under the rug, in turn allowing the cycle of abuse to continue. Out of this the idea for WOLF was born.
Several of your films have a recurring theme of estrangement between parents and children. What draws you to this theme, or makes you want to explore it through filmmaking?
I grew up with a single mother, and so not having a father around left a bit of a void. Although i knew my father and even lived with him at one point, there was still that rift between us, a rift that quite honestly is still not fully mended. Like so many of my peers, I found myself searching for a father figure in all the wrong places, which got me into some trouble at times. I always tell my students to write what they know, and I know and understand strained familial relationships, so I keep subconsciously coming back to them.
What has the SXSW experience been like for you?
SXSW has been excellent. The audience really dug the film—we got a standing ovation. Our screening was filled to capacity and we even had to turn people away. People walked up to me after the screening and thanked me for telling their story. That in itself makes it all worth it, because I make film to touch people and to hopefully speak to them on an emotionally spiritual level. The team and I are really excited to have been invited to screen here, because SXSW has become the festival to premiere at. They provide you with enthusiastic audiences and a chance to showcase your work in front of some of the biggest film distribution companies in the world. And even beyond that, just being accepted into a festival of this caliber, lets us know that our hard work wasn't in vain.
When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
Boyz N The Hood made me want to be a filmmaker. The humanity that John Singleton gave to characters that Hollywood, up to that point, had only shown as caricatures was powerful to me. I grew up in neighborhoods infested with drugs and gangs and I knew those people...lived with those people. I knew they weren't all bad, but we're flawed human beings acting out on what they had been exposed to. He not only showed the world who these people were, but he placed up a mirror and made some of the people who were in those circumstances reevaluate themselves. He changed us with that film. I want to do that.
What has been one of the most rewarding or memorable moments in your filmmaking career?
Having a man walk up to me after a screening of The Second Coming and tell me that the film made him want to be a better father. Having a woman walk up to me and one of the actors after WOLF's premiere and tell me that she learned how to be a better mother. That's the biggest reward for me.
