Putting Together the Oakalla Prison story

I note that the Burnaby Now has also web published the story of our Oakalla documentary film project on their website. I guess it's fair to post a hot link , for the benefit of those who live outside of the newspaper's distribution area. (Aug 29 story) I've scraped my photo from Jennifer Moreau's story. She called it "Putting together the prison puzzle".

Ron Jack displays a couple of aerial photos of the Oakalla Prison complex in Burnaby, B.C. They were among the archival images and artifacts used in his recent ten minute documentary film - OAKALLA. (News photo by Larry Wright, BURNABY NOW)

Oakalla - some helpful media coverage

Filmmaking is labour intensive but a joyful creative process. This week I began delivering courtesy copies of OAKALLA to all those who sat to interview or who provided visuals in the form of archival images and artifacts. Some of my week was devoted to research for the longer feature THE GHOSTS OF OAKALLA which I hope to film during the rainy winter months, while every other camera is pointing at the 2010 Olympics.

The masthead on today's edition of the BURNABY NOW points readers to the story of the filming of the documentary short - OAKALLA.

On August 17 I was interviewed by reporter Jennifer Moreau of the BURNABY NOW, who expressed interested in the project. I told her of my need to reach men and women who were once inmates or correctional staff at the cluster of prisons which once occupied the Oakalla site. We spoke a few more times as she developed the story. It was published today on page 11 & 12, and in about a week's time I may reproduce it here in the project Blog. NOW photographer Larry Wright took me to the Oakalla site for a few shots, but there really isn't much there to see beyond the obvious beauty of Deer Lake Park. As I suspected they might, the newspaper settled for shots taken in my office with the film paused on a monitor. I'm grateful for the story and I think Ms. Morreau did a great job. She actually quoted from the interviews in the Doc and gave her readers the URL for this Blog. What more could a filmmaker ask!?

Yesterday I went out to Maple Ridge to meet with Don Waite, an accomplished photographer and researcher who has several books to his credit. Don is a retired RCMP officer, once posted to Burnaby Detachment, who had Oakalla stories to tell. He once did prisoner escort duty which nearly got him knifed, or worse. Two inmates charged with attempted murder of an Oakalla guard managed to grind and conceal steel shanks to affect an escape on the way to court. "Cop instinct" and training, saved his ass.

I am working to locate some of the oldest surviving inmates of Oakalla Prison, with the goal of doing some focused interviews. Yesterday I spoke with one of three B.C. born brothers, all of whom did time at Oakalla in the late 1950s and the 60s. He is well spoken and in retirement enjoys family genealogy and writing his memoirs. The brothers shared the experience of an unhappy childhood in foster care and poverty (he 42 placements) and a life on the street. My goal is to bring the bothers together for a joint interview on their Oakalla experiences. The difficulty is that two live in the interior of our province. Just one of many hurdles lined up in front of this project.