Paul Haggis on his Haiti fundraiser and why ‘Third Person’ was his ‘best film’

TORONTO – Paul Haggis is known for his films about the intersection of different lives — “Crash,” “Third Person” — but about seven years ago he found his own life unexpectedly intertwined with a man named Father Rick Frechette.

The Canadian filmmaker first heard of Frechette from a journalist who had recently visited Haiti. She told him the priest and doctor was working tirelessly to provide free education, food and medical care to the poorest people in Haiti’s slums.

“I frankly just didn’t believe it,” Haggis said in an interview. “I went to find him. I did so and stayed with him for a week as he worked in the slums. I was just overwhelmed by what he was doing and realized he needed some help.”

When Haggis returned, he formed Artists for Peace and Justice, an organization that provides education and medical care to communities in Haiti. His fifth annual fundraising Festival Gala at Casa Loma on Sunday will be attended by a cavalcade of stars in town for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Hosts include director Jason Reitman, actress Madeleine Stowe and newly-minted “Hockey Night in Canada” anchor George Stroumboulopoulos. But Haggis is most eager for guests to hear from Frechette, who is the keynote speaker.

“You can’t be around him without being inspired and falling in love with him. He’s an amazing man,” said Haggis. “He does everything — everything from deliver all the water to the slums, to bury all the dead in the city, to build this beautiful orphanage and this fabulous children’s hospital and educate the kids of the slums who have got no education.”

Artists for Peace and Justice has built Haiti’s first free high school, attended by 2,700 youth, and a post-secondary facility where students can train to earn a living as filmmakers or audio engineers. Haggis returns to Haiti often and is stunned by what he sees.

“These kids are so hungry to learn. There is no electricity in the slums, so you’ll see the kids doing their homework at night on the curbs at shopping malls or gas stations, or wherever there is a generator,” he said.

“And then the power will go out at that gas station and they’ll walk down the street to the next spot where there’s light and they’ll crouch and finish their homework there. It’s kind of remarkable.”

Tickets to Sunday’s gala start at $1,500 and are already sold out, but Haggis said the organization welcomes donations of any size at www.apjnow.org.

“Haiti’s had too many short-term fixes. People come in and promise them things and then a couple years later they’re gone. We decided early on that’s not what we were up to. If we go there we’re going to make sure something stays there, so that’s what we’re doing now,” he said.

Haggis was born in London, Ont., and is best known for writing and directing 2005’s “Crash,” which unleashed one of the biggest backlashes in Oscar history when it won best picture over “Brokeback Mountain.”

The filmmaker describes his films as intended to provoke and ask tough questions. While “Crash” raised the uncomfortable spectre of racial issues and social injustice in America, his most recent film “Third Person” questioned whether romantic love is worth fighting for.

For that reason, Haggis says he wasn’t surprised when “Third Person” — a highly personal tale starring Liam Neeson as a struggling author — premiered to mostly stinging reviews at the Toronto festival last year.

“The San Francisco Chronicle called it genius, a masterpiece, and the New Yorker said it was brilliant. That was like 10 per cent of the reviews. Then 90 per cent said this is the worst piece of (garbage) of all time,” he said.

“I sort of expected it. I knew I was making a film that asked too many questions. For American audiences, we’re not used to that anymore.”

Although “Third Person,” a star-studded affair that also featured Kim Basinger, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis and James Franco, was supposed to open in Canada on July 11, those plans were dashed at the last minute. The film never had a theatrical run in the director’s homeland, despite screening in the U.S. and a handful of other countries.

Haggis said he doesn’t fully know what thwarted the Canadian opening, calling it a “shame” and chalking it up to a “dispute between our Belgian financiers and the Canadians.”

He added that he grew up watching the films of European directors like Luis Bunuel and Pier Paolo Pasolini, who he says told stories differently than filmmakers do today. Their brand of storytelling helped inspire “Third Person,” he said.

“I don’t make films so that people jump up and down and say, ‘It’s great.’ I make films because I have to and I was very proud of (‘Third Person’). I think it’s my best film.”

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