Homegrown filmmaker, Michael Del Monte won $50,000 and the Rogers Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto recently.
While Del Monte’s films have taken him around the world, he still has roots in Guelph.
Del Monte’s award-winning film, Transformer, tells the story of world class power lifter, Janae Kroczaleski, who was assigned male at birth, and her transition to the woman she is today.
“I was trying to create a film that could ultimately reach everyone,” said Del Monte. “A lot of my childhood roots, my friends, my family, are all still [in Guelph]. I was always very aware that for a lot of them a character like (Janae Kroczaleski) and a world like this will be very new to a lot of them and had them in mind while making it.
Del Monte says he tries to start to with a character and build a relationship to see "if we’re on the same page."
"She was on board for being open and honest, so I promised I’d do my best to tell her story in a way that would reach many people not just the LGBTQ community, not just a hyper-conservative community, but in a way that would bring everyone together.”
Del Monte has described Kroczaleski’s journey as struggle followed by more struggle, and he was there to witness and capture these moments on film.
“Making documentaries can really change the film maker,” said Del Monte. “You’re submitting yourself to their world and you’re submitting yourself to a process where you’re an observer in their world, and despite how difficult or inspiring their life might be, you have to share in that.”
“A large part of the film was her fighting this conflict internally and trying to figure out who she was and to come to peace with that. That’s a difficult thing for almost two years to just sit, and watch, and experience constantly.”
Originally, Del Monte was interested in making a film that explored the idea that even the strongest men have a plethora of insecurities bubbling under the surface. While filming different weightlifters, a colleague reached out and told him the story Kroczaleski, and how she was recently, and rudely, outed as a transgender person.
“For me it’s about staying focused on the person,” said Del Monte. “It’s very easy to let the public or people you’re talking to start to put thoughts in your head about what angle you should take – ‘are you going to be looking at her sexuality, are you going to be going down this road,’ and for me it’s really important to have a relationship with the character and to identify within that relationship a couple of strong ideas that I can build a film off of.”
The next project Del Monte will be working on is a documentary that uses the Bruce MacArthur serial murder case to study South Asian and Middle Eastern rights for gay men and women. The final film will be a commissioned one-hour spot for the CBC.
Wherever Michael Del Monte’s next project takes him, his thoughts about home haven’t changed.
“I didn’t know at the time I’d be a film maker, but I grew up in the southwest end by the YMCA, and back then it was all forest. It was a good place for a young person to be creative, and explore, and to have adventure. I’m proud of my roots, and I’ll always call Guelph home.”
