Filmmaker explores her dad’s May December relationship
Posted May 10, 2013 2:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – “I think everybody has daddy issues,” jokes April Butler.
The Victoria filmmaker is the director of “Father Figures” which premieres Saturday night as part of the “DOXA Documentary Film Festival” in Downtown Vancouver
Butler got a chance to work out some of those issues in the piece that explores her 73-year-old father’s relationship with a 23-year-old Filipino woman he met in a chat room.
“Anytime I’d say, ‘Hey, my dad’s dating someone who’s 50 years younger,’ most women would go ‘Eww!’ and a good portion of men would go ‘Good for him’ and it just made me go, ‘Ah!'”
But all is not as it seems, and Butler’s bond with her father is put to the ultimate test.
“Through this documentary I discovered who my father is, and it’s not somebody who I want to know anymore,” she admits.
“I asked my dad about getting girlie pregnant, about safe sex, money, everything, because I have [that] permission as a filmmaker,” she explains.
But the more she asked, the more uncomfortable the story became, until a shocking discovery reveals the kind of man her father really is.
“When you sort of confront your father and ask him to make choices and basically pick you and the right choice and he looks at you and says no and you realize he has nothing for you then it’s hard,” Butler describes. “He wanted us to showcase him as this great man and he’s not that.”
“Father Figures” premieres tomorrow night at the VanCity Theatre.
