DANIEL IRON

INTERVIEW BY JEREMY POWER REGIMBAL

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE LEWIS
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Although Daniel Iron is a Toronto-born and raised film producer, you definitely can’t classify him as just another Canadian filmmaker. His films are on another level among the all too often flat, movie of the week, Canadian content films that generally are released in Canada. It’s not just me saying this either: he was just awarded Best Canadian Feature Film at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival for his film, Cairo Time, which was only the second film from his company, Foundry Films. Their first film, Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley was nominated for two Oscars and won a staggering thirty-nine awards. With a track record and talent like his, it’s not surprising that he attracts award-winning actors like Julie Christie, Ryan Philippe and Patricia Clarkson. An interesting thing about Daniel, is that unlike a lot of filmmakers, he skipped the stage of making low budget commercials, music videos and short films. I got to sit down and talk about the challenges of shooting in Africa for his most recent film The Bang Bang Club and take in some great advice from an innovator in today’s film industry. If you haven’t yet seen his films and you appreciate beautiful European-style cinematography with quality stories you need to check him out.

JEREMY—Hey, Daniel, how are you today?

DANIEL—Good, how are you?

JPR—I’m great. So, first off thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. We appreciate it. How’s Toronto these days?

D—It’s freezing… but we’ve had no snowstorms. Maybe like an inch.

JPR—Did you grow up in Toronto? And have you always worked out of Toronto?

D—I’m one of the few people in the film industry in Toronto who actually grew up in Toronto and I’ve always worked out of here, too.

JPR—Did you grow up in a film family?  How did you first get involved in the film industry?

D—Well… all my friends from high school ended up in the film industry. So I was always interested in film, but I ended up going to law school.

JPR—Oh, really? Is that how you got into film, through the law side of things?  Or were you interested in directing or the creative side when you first started?

D—No, I was never interested in directing.  I always watched films; went to all the European films and films at repertory cinemas that used to play in Toronto, much more than they do now. I basically grew up loving movies… but it was hard to imagine what I would do in film. There wasn’t really a film industry back then.

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