Bob Kotyk is the co-writer of Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and won the Rogers Prize, the Bildrausch Ring of Film Art, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Canadian Screen Awards. His first film as director, Spirit Workers Union, was released in 2017 and won awards at the Canada Shorts Film Festival and the Sudbury Underground Film Festival. His film criticism has appeared in Cinema Scope. He lives in Toronto.
Director Statement
A modern-day silent film, a city symphony, and a surreal odyssey into the numbing world of work, Bob Kotyk’s I’ll BE reflects the absurdity of life as it’s lived today, with a climax that points to a future defined not by striving and separation, but by being together.
"I see this film as a dream about moving to the big city, finding it difficult, and then leaving. After I made it I realized that there is a tradition in Canadian cinema of characters departing their home province to attempt a life in Toronto. Donald Shebib's film from 1970, Goin' Down the Road, is about two men doing the same. The point of departure is Winnipeg in this film, but maybe there's a universal element to this type of journey as well. Either way, as this is also a story set in the 21st century, everyone is watching screens, a CEO launches a bottled water & media streaming service, and people are developing strange forms of solidarity. A dream of radical possibilities in challenging times."
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