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Waterman’s Ballad to be featured at Dufferin Film Festival

August 1, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“We did a film called The Pines Still Whisper, a beautiful piece about a post apocalyptic time, a really beautiful telling about the loss of family, loss of parents – how every time there’s moments when we want to connect with somebody and we can’t; there’s some restriction there. It’s about what family is.”

This description came from Al Braatz, who plays the lead in Waterman’s Ballad coming to the Dufferin Film Festival next weekend, Aug. 9 to 11. Here in Orangeville, we have recently seen Mr. Braatz playing in Leisa Way’s Wayward Wind Band for her Opry Gold concert at the Opera House.

Jamie Knox is the director of Waterman’s Ballad with Nakita Brusnitsyn as Director of Photography, about whom Mr. Braatz said, “He’s just got such an incredible eye. The shadows he created – he was painting with light.”

Invited in as a collaborator, he noted the film they conceptualized, Waterman’s Ballad, is focused on men’s mental health. It is a horror story but in a different way and for it, they found a location they thought would be really beautiful.

He calls it a wonderful horror story, keeping you on edge but you learn something. Not so much the wrenches typical of horror but just keeping you uneasy. Then it becomes this telling of how a man puts down his grief to find a place, perhaps in the realm of a seance. It seems he doesn’t do it right until suddenly the candles light up.

The film talks about the connection with people, and how do we change the grief to show it is good for men to grieve.

Al Braatz said, “It’s a really beautiful piece and I feel lucky to have been a part of it.”

He plays the lead character of Ivan with Chase Jeffels as the deceased Max. 

Waterman’s Ballad is about the shadow self too, trying to move beyond it. He finds it an interesting thing to talk about the moment of death when much is left unsaid.

Mr. Braatz was with one of his grandfathers when he died.

“That’s where understanding came into play when I was researching the role. He was an incredible man. In all this pressure to achieve, when we find ourselves, we become legendary.

“I want to keep living in the spirit of love,” said Mr. Braatz.

As a young man, his ambition is “to change in the world through the storytelling that I’m privileged to create.”

“To tell these stories that have to be heard, it’s important to include what hurts us,” he added.

Waterman’s Ballad is on at the Dufferin Film Festival on Aug. 10. For tickets, go to www.dufferinfilmfest.com


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