Jazz Virk's Dark & Vicious Film Making
Director's Profile

by Preeti Thandi

He is a big fan of action fantasy blockbuster films. He prefers darker shades to narrate a story immersed in controversy and hard hitting violence. Broken, an eleven minute short film heralds Jazz Virk's style. He aspires to bring a different side of South Asian cinema to the forefront which is at the same instance vicious, dark and violent. "Violence is all around us," says Jazz whose debut short world premieres at the ReelWorld Film Festival 2004 in Toronto on April 4 at 12:30 pm. Broken expresses the director's views with no glorification despite the stark consequences.

"The film portrays violence on a physical, emotional, spiritual and mental level," reveals Jazz. "Violence does dwell in our community. I wanted to depict what violence does to our people. The characters in the film are 'broken' at different levels. It is a concentrated story which is visceral, fast paced and an adrenalin rush piece of work. Test screenings of the film impact the audience."

Even though his short took eight years in the making and a whopping $150,000 Jazz is very happy about investing his blood and sweat into the project. Broken focuses on two men from seemingly different worlds yet their paths collide and conflict. Danesh is a well established dentist and a happily married man. The murder of his elder brother and the obsession to solve the mystery leads him to the underworld. Mac on the other hand is an auto mechanic during the day and a hired muscle man for organized crime at night. The story pieces together murder, revenge and redemption.

According to Jazz the depiction of violence provides education and insight into the community. "It is not violence for the sake of violence," he says. "It is the vein of real drama without the gloss." The cast includes Rajeev Sharma, Swarit Jajal, Subeena Youll, Shailay D, Mia Virk, Sandy Bawa, Suny Virk, Jazz Virk and Kesh Sharma.

Jazz's hard core action film is a precursor to a trilogy of three features - Broken, Status and No Rest (which is a working title). The films are scripted in a way that events from one lead to the other.

Jazz was introduced to the world of film by his father. He always found the audience perspective the most fascinating. When he was in grade 7 Jazz had already made up his mind to join the world of cinema in some capacity. He studied Arts, History and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto and later joined Sheridan College to learn the nuances of Photography and Graphic Art. Jazz invested the money in buying equipment, camera and an editing system and taught himself the art of direction and production.

"Tony Singh gave me my first break for a music video. He's the lead singer for the Punjabi band PNB (Punjabi by Nature). It was a performance video shot on Super 8 mm." His second music video was for a Mandarin album. He went to China and shot the video with recruits from the Sheridan College. After doing a few more videos Jazz set up his own production company and got into making commercial and corporate videos.

He was working on Atul Sohla's short film when he was introduced to Much Music and started making music videos that aired on Much Music and MTV. Some noteworthy videos he edited include, Choclair, Ghetto Concept, Carlos Morgan, Redlife, Plains of Facination, Julie Black, ST8 of mind and Nelly Furtado.

Jazz has also directed over 30 Indian music videos from Bombay, India and the UK, in Toronto. He has worked with the likes of Sonu Nigam, Dj Sunshine, Jolly Bawa, DJ Jitten and Big Suga Kane.

Two of his recently directed videos were banned and not aired in Canada by South Asian broadcasters but they did well in UK and India. "The artist, Big Suga Kane and his too sexy for TV videos will never see the light of being aired on television unless toned down and re-cut," he says.

Jazz first conceived Broken in 1996. He wanted to make a hard core action packed South Asian film and did his research on the underworld scene. He invested in his craft trying new technologies and equipment. "I had access to all the toys which made it easier to pick a crew and shoot." Even though Jazz has produced and edited other films for festivals, his own short took eight years. "I am responsible for the creative output. I feel very excited about being at ReelWorld because it has brought me into a new world. I have taken my time to do it my way," he says (withstanding any controversies!)

website: www.virkfilms.com