Sarah Goodman: filmmaker and writer



For several years this was the website of Sarah Goodman, filmmaker and writer.
When the site's domain registration expired the site disappeared from the web. The new owners of the domain who are fans, have chosen to keep the integrity of the site by posting pertinent information from various sources.

FYI: To read the most up-to-date information about what Sarah Goodman is doing, go to her Linkedin page.

 

WELCOME

I’m a filmmaker based in Toronto, working in documentary and drama. I’d like to come up with a better term than hybrid for the place where both drama and doc overlap, because it’s often the in-between places that inspire. Film luminary Peter Wintonick described my films as “pop verité” and I loved that. Thanks for stopping by.

WRITER/DIRECTOR – BIO

Sarah Goodman has directed two award-winning feature documentaries, a short drama, and is directing two feature dramas in 2013. ARMY OF ONE (Hot Docs Best Canadian Documentary Award 2004, Gemini Nomination for Best Director 2005) and WHEN WE WERE BOYS (Donald Brittain Gemini Nomination for Best Social Political Documentary 2011, Indiewire Top 10 Documentaries of 2009) launched Goodman’s career. Both films screened around the world in theatrical release, festival runs, and TV broadcast. Goodman’s first dramatic short HIDDEN DRIVEWAY premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Goodman’s directed her first feature PORCH STORIES in June 2013. Now in post-production, it will be released in 2014, starring Laura Barrett and José Miguel Contreras. Goodman has another feature drama entitled BRIDGING, which is currently in development. Goodman has been honoured to have her work featured at such a-list festivals as Toronto (TIFF), Berlin, Amsterdam (IDFA), Hotdocs, True/False, Hamptons, Krakow and many others, as well as being invited to Talent Labs or as a jury member at many of the same festivals.

Goodman also writes and directs non-fiction episodic television for History Television, Discovery, BBC, Global, W Network, among others. Shows include: INTERVENTION CANADA, MIGHTY SHIPS, ANCESTORS IN THE ATTIC, THE NATIONAL PARKS PROJECT and GLOBAL’S upcoming CLOSE-UP series, as well as corporate videos for clients such as SAMSUNG, CONCORD, and RANDOM HOUSE.

photo credit Brian Liu

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Sarah Goodman

Filmmaker and Writer

Sarah Goodman was born in Toronto and has lived in New York, where she began making films. She is currently writing on a new TV crime drama for CTV, which will premiere in 2018.

She is a recent alumna of the Canadian Film Centre's Prime Time TV Writing Program and has written and directed both narrative and documentary film. Her feature documentary Army of One, 2004 Hot Docs Best Canadian Feature Documentary; 2005 Gemini Nomination for Best Director, and When We Were Boys, Donald Brittain Gemini Nomination for Best Documentary; Indiewire Top 10 Documentaries 2009, led to her short drama Hidden Driveway (TIFF 2011) and her award winning, critically acclaimed first feature drama Porch Stories.

Her films have played at festivals such as TIFF, IDFA, Hot Docs and True/False, as well as broadcasting worldwide. Goodman has also written and directed documentary programs for television, such as the award winning National Parks Project, for networks such as BBC, Discovery, CBC, and History. She is an alumna of the TIFF Talent Lab, the Berlinale Talent Campus, and a member of the Film Fatales. Her next feature Lake 239 is in development with producer Karen Harnisch (Sleeping Giant.)

Update: Goodman has also written and directed non-fiction television for History Television, Discovery, BBC, CBC, Global and W Network, among others. She has taught film at Humber College and was the Director-in-Residence at Royal St. Georges College and the Toronto Public Library.

 



 

PROJECTS



Singer/songwriter Laura Barrett mulls over some big -decisions in Porch Stories.

Porch Stories

Sarah ­Goodman's stories

Writer/director, Porch Stories

BY NORMAN WILNER JUNE 17, 2015 | https://nowtoronto.com/

After making two documentaries, Army Of One and When We Were Boys, Toronto writer/director Sarah Goodman shifts to drama. Porch Stories, set on Argyle Street in the West Queen West neighbourhood, is a small picture centred on a young woman (singer/songwriter Laura Barrett) mulling some big decisions.

But the story expands to include a number of other characters on the street, and the rhythms of the neighbourhood become part of the narrative. Goodman sat down to discuss her film’s mood and structure in advance of its run at TIFF Bell Lightbox – where I’ll host a Q&A following the 6:45 pm show on Sunday (June 21).

Porch Stories has a very comfortable, lived-in vibe. How did you create that?

That’s my porch. I don’t live there any more, but I lived there at the time I was filming. I work from home, and I often want to get out of my house and be part of the world, but at the same time I still need to focus on my work. So the porch was perfect for me. I started observing, just hearing the little snippets of conversations going by.

That sense of an entire community existing around your characters makes the film feel much larger and at the same time more intimate somehow.

That’s really the impetus of the film – the idea of those interstitials, little moments of lives you don’t know, and you’ll never find out what happens to them. But somehow everything does seem a bit interconnected in the atmosphere of this neighbourhood. Maybe that’s the documentary part of me; I just wanted to be able to capture what actually exists there, because also it’s changing. It’s even changed from when we shot that film.

How so?

A month after I wrapped, my landlords decided to sell the house, [and] it’s not like they would have waited for us to finish shooting [laughs].

The leads are Laura Barrett and José Miguel Contreras, two musicians who’d never acted before. What led you to cast them?

I’ve always been around a lot of musicians, and they tend to have a natural stage presence – it’s a kind of acting, to be a musician onstage. It’s a persona, a kind of presentation of themselves. And I knew Laura a little bit and thought she was super-cool and had a great look, and the character didn’t seem that much different. It wouldn’t be a huge stretch for someone who hadn’t acted before. With José, I didn’t actually know him, but I knew people who knew him. He was suggested to me, and I did a little bit of research. It was very unconventional casting: I was just sort of sourcing out my friendship networks and who the musicians were out there.  



PORCH STORIES, a film by Sarah Goodman, is about love, indecision, and life on porches. The stellar cast is made of a talented motley crew of Toronto's best musicians and other unexpected stars.

REVIEW

Shot a few blocks north of the Drake, Sarah Goodman’s Porch Stories is a delicate study of lives bouncing off one another on the side streets of downtown Toronto.

As Emma (Laura Barrett) and her fiancé, Stefan (Alex Tindal), get ready to move house, she unexpectedly reconnects with Gabriel (José Miguel Contreras), an ex just back in town. Next door, neighbour Brianna (Hallie Switzer) wrestles with a crush on a family friend, while down the street an older couple (Uerania Silveira, Sergio Sarmento) comment on all the activity.

Shooting in black-and-white widescreen, writer/director Goodman – best known for the documentaries Army Of One and When We Were Boys – invests the goings-on with a playful, sly energy, eavesdropping on passersby (including local author Shawn Micallef) to give us a sense of the larger city bustling around her characters.

An odd, sweet little social study that captures some really nice moments. 

 

When We Were Boys

REVIEWS

When We Were Boys
LIAM LACEY | www.theglobeandmail.com/
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 5, 2009
UPDATED MAY 8, 2018

Directed by Sarah Goodman
Classification: 14A
Sarah Goodman's very good cinéma vérité documentary When We Were Boys takes us inside the rituals of male adolescence at Royal St. George's, an elite Toronto boys school.

If not revelatory, the film is consistently engrossing, a smartly edited sequence of scenes over the course of a couple of years that reveal the pangs of adolescence in the context of social privilege.

The film uses no voice-over, minimal explanatory text (sometimes it's hard to keep the uniformed boys straight) and apparently a lot of access, to assemblies, detention rooms, choir practice and hallway goofing.

There's a central story that focuses on the relationship between two boys - Noah, who everyone seems to know is the son of a MasterCard executive, and Colin - who have been best friends since grade school.

Noah is sweet and well-behaved and a good singer; Colin is more of a cut-up and troublemaker. Over the course of the film, Noah becomes more isolated from Colin's group, and ends up eating lunch at a separate table and walking home alone.

Despite the school's credo, "Manners Maketh Men", boys will be jerks. There are homophobic comments, matter-of-fact face-slapping, and mean teasing. In class, they study Lord of the Flies, with its obviously resonant themes of pecking orders and social control. How much dramatic sculpting is involved isn't clear.

There's a soundtrack by Juno-winning songwriter Jim Guthrie to punch home the emotional moments. The final scene, which brings the boys together a year after the rest of the film, feels somewhat staged. Otherwise, the film flows naturally from the classroom to households throughout the school year.

Wealth, of course, is what makes these kids untypical. These 14-year-olds argue not just about music and sports, but about which are the best airlines to fly. They also show a certain naïveté (a scene in which Noah gets a haircut) about social disparities.

At the same time, their social position is not their achievement, or fault, and you feel for these kids during the moments when adults keep telling them how privileged they are.
The strength of Goodman's documentary is that she uses her camera to build empathy, not pass judgment: Surely it's a hard-enough job being 14 without also being told you're being groomed to save the world.

When We Were Boys runs at the Royal Cinema (608 College St.) Friday and Saturday and from Nov. 9 to 11.

 

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Life in the time of Covid
That sounds like it could be a cinéma vérité documentary. Maybe Sarah will be inspired by the events of the past two years and no end in site to the Covid pandemic. Every day when you look at the news from around the world regarding the pandemic it is a cinéma vérité documentary. With the newest upsurge of the covid variant omicron, I decided to distract myself and take the advice of a friend and consider playing some slots online at one of the many online casinos that are flourishing. I decided to look up the Miami Club review for an online casino that I had heard about. Since I live in Florida I thought the name was a good choice and perhaps bring me some luck. Apparently Miami Club Casino uses Wager Gaming Software (WGS) software as its foundation. I am not familiar with the software that creates various casino games, but the review says WGS offers equally impressive graphics, audio and game play response time and the quality of gaming in the Wager Gaming Technology Flash version (Instant) for MAC users is as good as in the download casino client version. I decided to take the reviews advice and start with the Demo Now button to try out some slots. I was able to start with $3,000 demo play money. Apparently your account will be automatically replenished with another $3,000, if you run out. Pretty cool. I was able to bet like crazy winning and losing. Of course you can't keep any winning playing the demo games, but that's all right. Miami Club Casino slot games are packed with interactive bonus round games, free spins and multipliers which really makes these games irresistible. So, before long I was playing real money slots. Have to admit it did take my mind of the pandemic for awhile.

Another night my brother came over and interrupted my search for rimless glasses (which makes viewing the computer a whole lot easier when playing slots and working. He wanted to know if I had ever heard of the documentary When We Were Boys? I was only half listening since I was entering my prescription information and the “PD” Pupillary Distance measurement. The site I had found. Eyeglasses.com, had such a large selection of rimless glasses frames I had had a hard time deciding, but once I had made the choice I really just wanted to get the order placed. Once completed I turned to my brother who was impatiently leaning over my shoulder and said "Wasn't that was the winner of Best Documentary at the 2016 Hip Hop Film Festival, in New York awhile back? It's about 5 former breakdancers who reflect on their youthful rites of passage through the vibrant UK Hip Hop scene of the early 1980s. When the wild energy of the scene burned out their adolescent dreams they had to meet the realities of adulthood. Then a tragic event gives them an unexpected chance to recapture the past. You can see it, I think, on Amazon Prime." My brother looked at me incredulously. "That documentary was called When We Were B Boys, NOT When We Were Boys." My brother is quite the film buff. Oops! I did a search for When We Were Boys and turns out I had seen that documentary, but it was more than a decade ago when I was in high school. No wonder I didn't remember it. However, we were able to stream it on YouTube. All I can say is I'm glad I didn't go to a private all boys school and I am not in middle school. Those are tough years!

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When We Were Boys: A peek inside Royal St. Georges
By Jason Anderson Special to the Star
Fri., Nov. 6, 2009

Directed by Sarah Goodman. 81 minutes. At the Royal Cinema.

Speaking to a room full of students at a tony Toronto private school in a scene in Sarah Goodman's absorbing new documentary, city councillor Adam Vaughan articulates one of the film's key themes.

"You're among the most privileged people in the world, not just in this city," he says to the boys at Royal St. Georges College. "What you do with that privilege will define you as a person."

While documentary filmmakers have often looked into the lives of the less fortunate, portraits of people on the opposite end of the economic spectrum have been much rarer.

Ferried to school in Mercedes-Benz sedans and luxury SUVs, the young subjects in When We Were Boys certainly fit in the latter category. While we see them argue over all the usual stuff that boys argue about, they also tackle such rarefied topics as which airline is the best. (According to one kid in the know, "British Airways are the sickest!")

But judging by what happens here, the benefits of wealth and privilege do not protect these lads once they enter the shark tank of adolescence. Nor does an elite, high-priced education at a single-sex school – the ideal for so many parents nowadays – do much to curtail some boys' capacity for cruelty. Many scenes in Goodman's film suggest what Lord of the Flies might have been like if Piggy were addicted to Guitar Hero.

Goodman and her small crew spent several months over 2007 and 2008 shooting inside the classrooms and hallways of Royal St. Georges College, an Anglican choir school in the Annex. The result is an unusually intimate view of Grade 8 existence.

At the centre of this teeming cauldron of fresh testosterone are Colin and Noah, friends who fare very differently when their social pecking order is rearranged. The more sensitive of the two, Noah is less equipped to handle the cutthroat ways of more aggressive peers and we see him become gradually more isolated.

Echoes of William Golding's classic tale of boyhood warfare would be obvious even if the book weren't being studied in one of their classes. (Noah is understandably upset when a fellow student argues that Jack's theft of Piggy's glasses is proof of "good leadership.")

Presenting the events in the fly-on-wall, direct-cinema style of doc forebears like Frederick Wiseman and the late Allan King, Goodman succeeds at capturing the bustle and bravado in her young subjects' daily lives as well as the unguarded moments that reveal the hurts they strive to keep hidden.

They may have plenty of money for junk food and videogames but their wealth does not spare them from the trials that will ultimately determine what kind of men these boys will become.

 

 

Army of One

Jan 27, 2005 | Dana Stevens | New York Times
Sarah Goodman's first feature-length documentary, Army of One, puts a bitterly ironic spin on the Army's best-known recruiting slogan, 'Be all that you can be.'

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Jan 27, 2005 | Rating: 3/4 | V.A. Musetto | New York Post
Anyone thinking of enlisting in the Army might want to take a look at Army of One, a compelling documentary by Canadian Sarah Goodman.

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There's no lie like it

Jul 28, 2004 | Rating: 5/5 | S. James Wegg |http://www.jamesweggreview.org/

“The idea of war can be glorious, but war isn't.”
—Nelson Reyes, November 2001 following the beginning of the U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan.

“It would be cool to get a combat badge.”
—Sara Miller, January 2003 waiting at Fort Bragg for deployment orders to Iraq.

“The best Christmas present I ever had was getting out of the [U.S.] Infantry on December 23.”
—Thaddeus Ressler, June 19, 2004.

  

Army of One should become required viewing for all troubled youth, their uncertain parents, the military establishment and their detractors or supporters.

Made on a shoestring budget, Sarah Goodman's film follows three idealistic young Americans from their decision to enlist in the army through the struggle to survive boot camp—all in hopes of discovering themselves. They abandon the relative safety of their families for a much larger one that extols “one set of values,” the mantra “we are beasts,” and relentlessly drills in such useful facts as the best way of garrotting a fellow human being is to “jab between the second and third rib.”

Goodman's approach is to stand back and let the recruits tell their own stories. What could have turned out to be a propaganda piece (either adulating the military or slamming it) soon places the army into the background and brings the evil twins of slick marketing and rudderless youth under the microscope.

Reyes joins the “world's biggest gang”—not just to get out of the [NYC] neighbourhood,” but to gain the respect and admiration of his parents and peers. When he returns in uniform that has been pressed, polished and puffed-up he hopes that its sameness at the do-as-you're-told barracks will make him stand out in his private world. Initially, all is beautiful. Then his hidden-away personal demons send him AWOL—into an unstoppable downward spiral that has yet to touch down.

Miller, supported by her constant-companion Phuong, has trouble keeping up with the guys, but perseveres and is voted squad leader (“I'm not a born leader,” she remarks). Having survived the ravages of her father's seven-page caustic letter, she seems to find comfort in the military and waxes philosophical (with a cup or two of rationalization) about her chances if shipped out to battle: “If you're not meant to die today, you won't.”

At this moment, and many others, the superb work from music and sound supervisor Daniel Pellerin, along with composers Mark Stewart and Paul Watson underscore the unfolding human psychology with a score—particularly the tribal drums—that reflects the angst and dilemmas facing the rookies.

Thaddeus grips our attention every time he's on the screen. At first, he's in heaven, chanting with glee—eager to put his budding rifle skills at the service of his country. Later, when his efforts are rewarded with a truck-driving assignment and latrine-cleaning duty, he finds solace in alcohol and—in a scene that won't fade away anytime soon—exchanging and savouring a severe whipping with his buddy who wants to “refresh” his fading welts from a previous beating (cross-reference below). Escaping tedium through pain demonstrates the level of desperation in a way that resonates when any act of torture is reported.

Andy Bowley's and Alexandra Martinez Kondracke's mix of film and video camera craft is wonderfully “close” to their subjects; unforgettable is the night-manoeuvre scene where the light's reflection through the eyes of the commanders creates an image of vampires in battle gear preparing to pounce on their prey.

Throughout it all, there are voice-overs from the likes of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or nameless lackeys whose job it is to sell the military's actions and—simultaneously—lure America's children into its deadly ranks.

That unspoken—but felt—irony can readily be found on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Imagine the outcome if as much energy and resources were dedicated to enticing those old enough to vote into polling stations instead of theatres of war. In this national election year for both countries, cynicism—necessarily—runs deep: politicians clinging to power would rather scare impressionable young minds into fighting for the homeland, than defeating those who have ruined it. JWR

 

Hidden Driveway

2011 ‧ Drama/Short ‧ 5 mins
Hidden Driveway is a short film written by award-winning filmmaker Sarah Goodman and award-winning musician/actor/writer Brad Hart. Influenced by films like Noam Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, and work by Gus Van Sant and Richard Linklater, Hidden Driveway is about two young brothers who try to make sense of family dynamics when they feel left in the dark. Alex, 11, and Chaz, 14 are hanging out in the park when they get a call from Mom to come home for a family meeting. As they walk home, they wonder what the hell it could be about…

It’s a simply constructed, character driven, six minute short that takes place in the time it takes the brothers to get home. It’s a poignant and funny look at the culture that brothers create with each other separate from the world of adults.



Hidden Driveway...kickstarter promo for short film

 

Films

 

Days of Destruction Days of Revolt

Films

 

Film Reel

Film Reel

 

National Parks Project

/images/National-Parks-Project-Clip2.jpg

Television

 

National-Parks-Project-Clip

National Parks Project – Clip 2

Television

 

Ancestors in the Attic

Television

 

Ancestors in the Attic – Pangnirtung Episode

Television

 

Mighty Ships

Television

 

Tosca: Flexing at 49

Television

 

For the Love of Dog

Television

 

Puente de Luz Promo

Corporate

 

Samsung Corporate Video

Corporate

 

Bridging

In Development

 

Book of Judith

In Development

 

Photography

 

 



 

Press

Army of One

“Sarah Goodman’s first feature-length documentary, Army of One, puts a bitterly ironic spin on the Army’s best-known recruiting slogan, ‘Be all that you can be…’” Goodman achieves an almost shocking intimacy…”

- Dana Stevens, NEW YORK TIMES


“A riveting and timely documentary. its a testimony to this Army’s raw power that one is left wanting more”

- Ken Eisner, VARIETY


“Sarah Goodman’s excellent entry has the economy and force of good poetry and the momentum of good fiction. Goodman’s style is so deftly understated you might not hear the cry of anguish until days later, when scenes from the film are still floating around in your head.”

- Wendy Banks, NOW MAGAZINE


“Should become required viewing for all troubled youth, their uncertain parents, the military establishment and their detractors or supporters.”

- James Wegg, FILM THREAT


“Anyone thinking of enlisting in the Army might want to take a look at Army of One, a compelling documentary by Canadian Sarah Goodman.”

- V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST


“Sarah Goodman’s “Army of One” is an arresting festival entry that charts the recruitment, training and fate of three very different individuals.”

- Jan Stuart, NEWSDAY

 

When We Were Boys

“Absorbing…Goodman is able to show a strange intimacy among the boys…fascinating.”

- NOW MAGAZINE


“Affecting and impressive… fascinating, indelible characters… one of the best films screening at Hot Docs”

- INDIEWIRE


“What Lord of the Flies would have been like if the characters played Guitar Hero.”

- TORONTO STAR


“Consistently engrossing…(Goodman) uses her camera to build empathy, not pass judgement.”

- GLOBE AND MAIL


“impressively long-term verite doc about life among the young, privileged, white and male.”

- TORONTO SUN


“Her ability to intertwine the awkwardness of peer grouping and the intimacy of teenage friendship without interfering through narration, voice overs, or a back story is delightful.”

- SPACING TORONTO


“Goodman steps back to let Colin and Noah tell their own stories, at their own pace.

- NATIONAL POST


“Goodman smartly narrows her focus to the friendship between two boys: Gentle striver Noah and laconic class clown Colin.”

- METRO NEWS

 

Hidden Driveway

“Sarah Goodman’s short, Hidden Driveway, premiered at this year’s TIFF”

- TORONTO STAR


“..a wry study in sibling dynamics”

- Jason Anderson, TORONTO STAR

General

“Sarah Goodman is a self taught auteur and her career is a testament to passion and persistence.”

- Gary Rusak, blogTO


“Festival debut ‘freaks out’ up-and-coming filmmaker”

- Wendy Gillis, The Star


Filmmaker Interview Series: Sarah Goodman – Army of One

 



 


SarahGoodmanFilms.com