| Calling Rick Castiglione an "activist filmmaker" would be an understatement, but the Calgary broadcasting veteran has trouble even with that description.
"I don’t consider myself an activist," explains Castiglione, who is sitting in the office of Cielo Pictures, his production company. Behind his desk hangs a map of the world, which is covered in coloured slips of paper. There are upwards of 20 of the little papers, and each of them represents a place Castiglione has filmed. "I prefer to see myself as a global citizen that takes that responsibility seriously."
Truth be told, "fanatic" might be a more appropriate adjective to describe a man who runs film through his camera almost faster than television stations can broadcast it.
Need proof? Look at his tentative schedule for the coming summer. In the four months between the winter and fall semesters (Castiglione teaches broadcasting at Mount Royal College), he hopes to go to the Ukraine, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tibet and Yemen to work on documentaries. In the past year, he’s shot in 14 countries. (When I interviewed Castiglione, he had just returned from the Dominican Republic, where he spent reading break making a training video on how to use a water filtration system. He was back in the classroom the day after he returned.)
All of Castiglione’s films focus on people and organizations – mostly from Calgary – who bring hope to hopeless parts of the world, whether it’s through water purifying technology in Ecuador or blindness prevention programs in Rwanda.
"It’s been the greatest job in the world," he says. "I’m able to do what I love to do – I love to help people, I love to tell stories, I love to take pictures and I love to travel…. I consider myself the most blessed person in their career."
Castiglione left the broadcasting business after spending two decades in the industry as a television reporter and anchor for CFCN and Channel 7 (now CTV and Global, respectively). A lot of his work now airs on CTV.
"One day I just kind of looked at myself and said, ‘what can I do for the developing world?’" says Castiglione. "And what I could do was tell stories. That’s all I am. I’m a storyteller."
Four years after leaving the anchor chair, Castiglione doesn’t miss it – not even his salary. Things like money and fame don’t really matter to him. He has a somewhat unique source of funding – private and corporate donors – and says the grant application process is too slow for him.
"I’ve funded a number of documentaries on my Visa card," he says. "It was a story that had to be told. Usually my wife says, ‘So, how are you going to pay for this one?’ And you know what? I don’t really care. I figure at the end of the day, if I walk away and I can say I’ve helped a bunch of people or I’ve made a difference in the world, and I’m still alive and I still have food in front of me, I’m good to go."
When I ask him about burnout – wouldn’t that much work eventually kill you? – he explains that he gets energy from travelling and constantly seeing the world through the eyes of the people he’s filming. What can be discouraging, he says, is coming back to a culture where people are always looking for more.
"People say to me, ‘Oh, it must be so horrible to be in the slums of Bombay and see all that misery,’" he says. "And what I see is people creating hope, helping other people – and that’s inspiring. I come back just jazzed about the world…. Then I come back and I see people giving each other the finger in rush hour traffic and cutting each other off at the supermarket or the bank and complaining about how they need more money and they need more of this and they need a bigger TV. That’s the culture shock for me."
Speaking with Castiglione, one is struck by his deep humility. He doesn’t buy into the myth of himself or any other journalist as a celebrity. He’s just as happy making a training video on how to use a water purification system as he is making a film that thousands of people in Calgary will see.
One of his many future projects – and there are a stack of proposals for future documentaries on his desk – is a series about the lives of children in different countries. Castiglione wants to incorporate the films into school curricula in Calgary and elsewhere so Social Studies can be more than pointing out coloured splotches on maps. Another future film will look at the similarities and differences between adolescent women in Yemen and Calgary.
One thing is obvious: Castiglione wants to make a difference in this world more than he wants people to know about Rick Castiglione.
"My approach to it is that if I go and work and put together a story that I’m really passionate about, I want people to read it or see it," says Castiglione. "So for me to make an art film that sits on a shelf or just does film festivals, it’s like preaching to the converted. It really isn’t satisfying to me."
And finally, at the end of our conversation, Casiglione admits he’s an activist.
"I guess I am, because I want to move people into action," he says. "I want to tell people stories and give them information that can allow them to choose whether they want to be global citizens or not." |
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