Award-winning filmmaker Mark Ratzlaff has been best known for his short, light-hearted comedic movies. He's been lauded for such shorts as Leo award-winner The Porcelain Man (2008), and the Narrator, which won Best Director and Best Short Film at Seattle's Children's Festival in 2009.
This year, the Richmond born and raised director/ producer/playwright, and now cinematographer, has stretched his artistic wings.
He tackled a black dramatic short film, Beauty Mark, and an emotional documentary, Blood Relative.
"Beauty Mark is the darkest I've ever done," said the 27-year-old Ratzlaff. "It's about an eight-year-old beauty pageant contestant who wants to get out of that world. I took flawed characters in real situations and made them real . it was a real change for me."
But it was Blood Relative that really took him out of his comfort zone.
The full-length documentary deals with the inspiring story of an Indian activist fighting to save two people dying of a rare blood disorder called Thalassemia.
(The disease severely stunts growth and requires patients to go for weekly blood transfusions.)
The documentary chronicles Vinay Shetty's battle to get 14-year-old Divya and Imran, 24, free medical treatment.
"It follows Vinay's frustrating attempt at accessing India's broken healthcare system," said Ratzlaff. "With Divya, we also deal with a very intimate portrait of poor family who believes spiritual healing will heal her because they can't afford the medicine she needs."
Another layer to Divya's story, said Ratzlaff, is that although she's very bright, her education keeps being put on hold because her parents have given up on it.
"We thought we'd have a happy ending to our film, but we don't . however, despite sadness in the film, there's lots of courage and hope," added Ratzlaff.
Ratzlaff had never been to India, never mind known about the disease, but filming took him to Mumbai, India four times.
The UBC film production graduate of 2006 was drawn into the film by fellow university grad, Gemini-nominated director Nimisha Mukerji.
"Nimisha and I came out of film school together and we were good friends for a long time," said Ratzlaff, adding Mukerji and he are now a couple. "This idea for this movie came from another friend of ours who had travelled to India to stay with Nimisha's relatives."
While there, their mutual friend met Mukerji's activist uncle Shetty.
"Nimisha and I decided there might be a story here about Vinay," he added.
In December 2009, the couple journeyed to Mumbai to meet up with Shetty and hear the plight of children suffering from Thalassemia.
They spent a month filming. "Through Vinay, we met these two cool kids. When we came back to B.C., what we filmed we used to pitch for grants," said the Steveston-London graduate.
"We put together a demo and the Knowledge Network came on board to fund us."
Last year, they took a film crew to India for three more visits "to capture the seasons and to touch base with our characters."
Altogether, Ratzlaff filmed more than 120 hours of footage for a 75-minute documentary. Cinematography was yet another challenge for Ratzlaff. "I hadn't pick up a camera since university so it was a little daunting at first," he said.
Ratzlaff is excited about this weekend's debut of Blood Relative.
"We felt this was a story worth telling, about a disease few people in North America know anything about," said Ratzlaff. "It's also about Vinay, a 50-something activist who still lives at home so that he can dedicate himself to helping these children and young adults suffering from Thalassemia."
As he said goodbye, Ratzlaff said, "We are actually leaving in an hour to pick up Vinay, who's flying in from India to be at the film opening."
What's next for this rising young artist? He's now working on a script for a full-length feature movie.
"It's still in the early stages so I don't really want to give much more than that for now," he added. "I'll just say that it will be a comedy/ drama."
Blood Relative makes its world premiere this Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Vancouver International Film Festival at 6: 45 p.m. at the Granville 7 Cinemas.
It has also been selected for the South Asian Film Festival taking place next month in Surrey, Abbotsford, and Vancouver.
For more information about Blood Relative and screening times, visit www. bloodrelative.net.
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