By Quinn Allen-Wardell
The Greasy Pole walks synonymous with the sporting side of Gloucester's annual St. Peter's Fiesta is about to be showcased on the international stage — at least on film.
Four Cape Ann residents are on their way this weekend to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, where they will present a film they made on the annual Greasy Pole event.
Along with 11 other teams, the Gloucester-based filmmaking group of Michael Pallazola, Emile Doucette, Tom Papows and Brian Wright was named a finalist in the International Documentary Challenge, a timed filmmaking competition in which teams have five days to make a documentary that runs between 4 and 7 minutes in length. The dozen finalists were picked from 142 competitors based in 16 countries.
"The competition's motto speaks for itself: 'Real life filmed real fast.'" Pallazola said. "It's intense, fast-paced and stressful — but I've never done anything as exciting."
On March 5, the 142 registered participants were each assigned a genre — chosen completely at random — and a central theme on which to base their project. This year's festival theme "Hope and/or Fear," also dictated what topic they were to focus on, and how to take on the assignment.
"We were given 'Sports,'" Pallazola recalled. "At first, we were worried about our genre, and having to connect it to the theme. So we began brainstorming topics that we thought would really intrigue their judges and the audience.
"It became clear that we had to do our piece on the greasy pole," he said. "It's just about as Gloucester as it gets."
From that point on, it was a race to the finish. With less than a week to make a documentary, contestants rushed to interview, shoot and edit their films. Team member Brian Wright sought to take the piece to the next level by composing music for the film.
"A competition like this is the ultimate test, Pallazola said. It challenges you on every level."
Now, their film will be premiered at one of the most prestigious documentary film festivals in the world, and whether they win or not, they (along with their movie) could be thrown into the limelight. Past International Documentary Challenge finalists have also had their movies shown in theaters around the globe, at other prestigious film festivals, and have even made it onto prime-time television.
"This certainly isn't the end of the road," said Pallazola. "We love making movies, it's what we do.
"If we can enter a competition with 150 other entries and be named finalists," he added, "we know we're onto something."
