Portrait of Nettie Wild,

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Nettie Wild is a 2023 winner of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Video directed by Hân Phạm and Dave Rodden-Shortt.

A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.

The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm's-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) "to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."

For more information, visit: https://en.ggarts.ca

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Transcript:

I wish somebody had told me early on how important not knowing was. It’s so scary in all aspects of life and art included that you take that leap into the unknown. I love chasing light. That’s what I do: I chase light.

My family has had a huge influence on my work. My father was a foreign correspondent. We had this amazing relationship, and he infused in me a huge curiosity in the world. I think it was in the middle of the production of A Rustling of Leaves. I got pulled into a story I was in no way prepared for. I came from the Martini belt of West Vancouver, and I ended up in the mountains with barefoot gun-toting guerrilla communist soldiers. It wasn’t like I had some kind of a crazy yearning to get shot at.

Maybe it was opening night when I realized we had captured a moment in time that was unique. And I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m a filmmaker.’

For me, filmmaking is the art of collaborating. Right from the very beginning, myself and my fabulous crews, were really trying to push the envelope of cinematic language.

Whether you’re dealing with a village in the Philippines, or in Chiapas, Mexico, or in northern Canada, or in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, it’s not about trying to land in the middle of the conflict. That’s not what it’s about. It’s following that complex story, embracing those contradictions. And guess what? I’ve been doing that since the very first film.

People are surprised at the evolution that I have gone through moving to art installations. That word, ‘evolution,’ is key. It’s about that whole thing of taking risks and surprising yourself. And if you can surprise yourselves by framing the familiar in an unfamiliar way, you stand half a chance of surprising your audience. In that ‘Holy!’ In that moment when people say ‘I’ve never seen something framed that way before,’ you’ve got them.

We’re using art to pull people into that conversation. And that’s gold.

There’s a wonderful old saying: “In life—and, I would argue, in art—you have to repeatedly take risks by leaping off into the unknown. On your way down, you build your wings.