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 Having directed Queer As Folk and The L Word, Jeremy Podeswa’s latest project tackles a new subject that’s just as close to his heart, writes Adam Bub.
You may not have heard his name before, but chances are you love Jeremy Podeswa’s work. His CV reads like a catalogue of the most groundbreaking television in recent years, including Commander in Chief, Dexter, Nip/Tuck, Queer as Folk, Rome, Six Feet Under, The L Word and The Tudors. But Jeremy Podeswa is much more than a part-time television director – he has also won international acclaim for three feature films: Eclipse, The Five Senses, and now, Fugitive Pieces, which makes its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival.
Adapted from Anne Michael’s bestselling novel, Fugitive Pieces follows a Jewish Canadian man, Jacob (Stephen Dillane), on his journey to reconcile the trauma of his childhood when he was orphaned in Poland during the Second World War. Jacob is saved by an archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia), who hides and raises him in Greece.
Podeswa’s personal connection shows in his sensitive treatment of the material. His own father was a Holocaust survivor who fled Poland and married Podeswa’s mother, an English woman, in Toronto. “A lot of war happens off-screen, and it’s really about the after-effects of the war experience on people who go through it, and the people that come after them,” Podeswa tells SX. “I’d never thought I’d make a film on that subject because it seemed so daunting. But when I read this book, it felt like something that hadn’t really been said before.
“The movie demonstrates that terrible things ripple through time, but also great things ripple through time. People loving each other is, in many ways, the thing that heals people who experience adversity.”
The fact that Jews and homosexuals shared the common experience of Nazi persecution illustrates Podeswa’s point. “There is empathy, I’d like to believe, that all persecuted peoples feel toward each other,” he says. “For me to make a film that makes a progressive statement about sexuality, or a compassionate statement about religious persecution – they’re of one piece.”
One of a growing number of openly-gay directors, Podeswa asserts that he hasn’t felt much prejudice in the industry. “I still feel that women have a much harder time than gay men, because gay men have a certain amount of male privilege in the culture.”
After studying film in Canada and Los Angeles, Podeswa began his career with the intention of directing independent film. “I didn’t think that I was going to direct television at all. After my second film, The Five Senses, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, a lot of opportunities opened up,” he says. “My first job then was directing Queer as Folk, because I was shooting in Toronto and they were actively looking for Canadian directors to direct episodes, which was unusual for an American show. Things snowballed from there.”
Podeswa credits Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk and The L Word for breaking new ground in the representations of gay and lesbian people’s lives. “It’s important for me to be involved in films and television shows that add to that pop-cultural conversation, as long as they’re artistically interesting,” he says. “I think Six Feet Under was the best television series ever made. It was profound, funny and very progressive with its internal politics.” Podeswa adds that Australian actress Rachel Griffiths is a “genius”.
Still, independent films are Podeswa’s first love. “I love seeing a wide range of films – but I’m not interested in blockbusters! Though the X Men films are pretty good.”
If he was offered X Men 4, would he direct it? “I don’t think so! But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to do something studio-based and lavish,” he quips.
And that’s certainly on the cards for Podeswa, who will return to LA to edit the HBO mini-series The Pacific, produced by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, which he has been working on in Melbourne for the past seven months. After that, Podeswa will direct more episodes of The Tudors in Dublin.
But at the end of the day, Podeswa is most proud of his films. “I wrote and directed them, and spent a lot of time nurturing them and getting them financed. It’s been a rich and satisfying experience.”
Fugitive Pieces, part of the Sydney Film Festival, will screen on Sunday, June 8, 12.45pm, at the State Theatre, 49 Market Street, Sydney.
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