Justin Morrice, left, and Ethan Eng made Therapy Dogs while still in high school, under the pretense of filming a yearbook video.shy kids
A Canadian high school student has made a movie that will have its world premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, an international showcase for raw and innovative filmmaking – a more indie-focused alternative to Sundance, both of which operate out of Park City, Utah. Therapy Dogs is one of just 10 films in the Narrative Features category, chosen from 1,124 international submissions, at Slamdance, which runs in a virtual format this year from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6.
How did that happen? The first-time director did his homework – let that be a lesson to you kids.
The do-it-yourself coming-of-age story was filmed under false pretenses at Cawthra Park Secondary School in Mississauga. Director Ethan Eng, then 17 years old, told school officials he would be shooting a yearbook video, not an edgy film about suburban youth, angst and confusion, with music by the band Teenage Suicide.
“The whole act of making this movie was something born out of rebellion,” says Eng, who made Therapy Dogs with his friend and collaborator Justin Morrice, who stars in and co-wrote the film. “We were excited to try everything and see what would stick.”
Somewhere in the process Eng just happened to bump into director Matt Johnson at Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto. Eng and Morrice were huge fans of Johnson, whose dark comedy The Dirties won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative at Slamdance in 2013. The Dirties, which was also largely set in a high school, was an inspiration for Therapy Dogs. Johnson told Eng that the office for Zapruder Films, his production company with business partner Matthew Miller, was right around the corner from Trinity Bellwoods. In short order, Eng and Morrice landed co-op placements with Zapruder.
“We were encouraging of what Ethan was doing,” Miller says, “because that’s exactly what we did at the same age.”
It all seemed so onboard – a video yearbook for the Class of 2019 and a school-sanctioned co-op semester. But making the film on the sly wasn’t just guerrilla tactics and rebellion for rebellion’s sake. The process, according to the director, preserved the honesty of the film.
“It’s what the story needed,” says Eng, now 20. “When you’re making a movie and you announce it, it brings a grandiosity to things. But there’s a certain loneliness in high school, and we wanted to preserve that. We wanted to remember high school how it really was.”
Director Ethan Eng said that 'The whole act of making this movie was something born out of rebellion. We were excited to try everything and see what would stick.'Therapy Dogs
A spokesman for the local school board confirmed the covert nature of the project in a statement to The Globe and Mail: “This independent film was created by former Cawthra Park Secondary School students and made without the co-operation of Cawthra Park Secondary School or the Peel District School Board.”
The film’s first scene has Morrice jumping out of a car driven by his mother. Miller suggested to Eng that he shouldn’t use that scene, because everyone would recognize it from the 2017 film Ladybird, another coming-of-age drama set in high school. But the shot ended up making the final edit.
“Sometimes Ethan listened to our advice, sometimes he didn’t,” says Miller, the film’s executive producer with Johnson.
In the film, Eng presents a sort of manifesto: “We’re going to rip off the flesh of this school and see what really makes it tick.” School board officials needn’t be worried, though – Therapy Dogs is no undercover exposé or high school confidential, even if it started out that way. The end product is more personal and sombre.
“While Justin and I were making the film, it really started to become more about us and our experiences,” says Eng. “It was something that took us both off guard.”
At the Zapruder offices, Eng was introduced to Walter Woodman, a filmmaker-musician who is part of the Toronto indie-pop band and filmmaking collective Shy Kids.
“When I met Ethan, he was done with the film,” Woodman says. “He was working off busted old computers and he literally couldn’t stand to look at it anymore. Our goal was to help him realize how close he was to something brilliant.”
Eng said that in the process of making Therapy Dogs with Morrice, 'it really started to become more about us and our experiences.'Therapy Dogs
Eng was able to use the Shy Kids offices and their animation computers off-hours to complete Therapy Dogs. Woodman and Shy Kids became the film’s producer and worked with Eng to get it into festivals. “The film felt so fresh and so clever,” Woodman says. “It’s something I wish I had done when I was that young.”
When Miller received a cut of the film last year, he didn’t watch it right away. “I thought it wouldn’t be that good,” he admits. At Woodman’s urging, he looked at it. His verdict?
“I was floored at the voice and the thought and the care that Ethan put into it,” Miller says.
The film will get noticed at Slamdance. What it will mean to Eng’s fledgling career is unknowable at this point. Eng spent $14,000 on equipment to make Therapy Dogs, blowing his college fund. “I put everything into this film,” he says.
Eng recently took a job at Toronto General Hospital as a COVID-19 screener. He lives in his parents’ basement and is at work on his next movie, A New Age, about being in your 20s in the 2020s. Instead of saving money for tuition, he’s buying new camera lights. That should be no surprise. Says Miller, “He’s a filmmaker.”
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Brad Wheeler