HEATHER HAYNES
The Common Thread
The Project
Heather Haynes is a Kingston painter whose work changed for good after a chance meeting in Rwanda. It led her to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the children of Goma, and to a decade of work she has been trying to bring to the rest of the world ever since.
It’s a heavy story to carry. Each time she told it in a gallery, or to donors and collectors, she was the one carrying it. She came to us because the story needed somewhere to live outside of her: a film that could be felt in a room without her having to stand in it and explain herself again.
We built the film around a blank 18-foot canvas. During our research, Heather kept coming back to the women she met at the Tchukudu Kids home in Goma. That connection, along with one photograph, became the painting.
Over six weeks, we spent eight days in the studio with her. We tracked down footage from the DRC and images she hadn’t seen since the trip, and filmed her as she saw them again. The film stays with what remembering does to her.
Since then, Heather has hosted dozens of screenings and exhibited in galleries across Ontario and North America. The film travels with the work and carries the story into every room for her.
Recognition
Awards
Non-Broadcast: Short Form Documentary
Craft: Cinematography
Festival Selections
Behind the Story
This interview took four hours. But the setup took seven days.
Before asking Heather a single question on camera, we spent seven days, six to ten-hour days, eating lunch together, working in silence when she needed silence. We wanted to know the story before we filmed the story.
When the interview came, Taylor was running projections in real time, cueing footage on the walls around her based on where the conversation was going. Heather hadn't seen any of it in years, and didn’t know what we’d show her.
When the images appeared around her, she was genuinely taken back to those moments. That's what you feel watching her. It's not performance. She's actually there.
The instinct behind it is simple: the best interviews don't happen in front of a camera. They happen when you spend the time to build genuine trust. We just figured out a way to build that trust before we ever pressed record which gave the space for Heather to open up in ways she hadn't before.
Support the Work
Heather's encounter with Kizungu Hubert and the women and children of Goma didn't end with the film. It became the foundation for Wall of Courage — an 80-panel touring installation, 40 feet wide by 12 feet high, that has raised funds for education and healthcare in communities around Goma. In 2018, Heather formalized the work by founding The Art of Courage, a Canadian registered non-profit.
The current goal is to build three additional classrooms at The Jonathan Holiday School in Goma.
If the film moves you, the work continues.
Featuring:
Heather Haynes
Director/Producer:
Braden Dragomir
Assistant Director:
Mickayla Pyke
Cinematography:
Brody McMaster & Braden Dragomir
Location Audio:
Jonas Bonnetta
Editor, Projectionist, & Sound Design:
Taylor Leeder
Sound Mix and Master:
Jonas Bonetta/Port William Sound
Story Consultant:
Msenwa Oliver Mweneake
Carpentry/Art Hanging:
Jeff Montgomery
Music Supervision:
Marmoset
Project Manager:
Laura Hardin
Music Supervisor:
Jamie McMullen
Creative Coordinator:
Clancy Magnuson
Colour:
theVanity
Colourist:
Brock Cruess
Executive Producer:
Stephanie Pennington
Junior Producer:
Nicole Labbe
Additional Footage:
Mark Punga (Congo + Archival Wall of Courage)
