It’s my pleasure to finally share a project I’ve been working on for over a year: Cantus Firmus: The Music of Mark Emerson Donnelly.
Cantus Firmus is a short documentary (13 min) about Vancouver composer and musician Mark Emerson Donnelly. Set against the backdrop of an album recording in early 2020, it’s a glimpse into Mark’s lifelong journey as a musician, choir director, and composer of sacred music.
Over the last few of years, I’ve found myself falling into projects that bring me into contact with Catholic artists making sacred art, especially painting and music. I’ve never been especially interested in documentary filmmaking in my own practice - narrative cinema is where my heart is - but my background as a filmmaker for distance education programs has afforded me opportunities to grow those documentarian muscles, as well as cultivate my natural curiosity. From this basis I’ve come to develop a real fascination with artists and their processes. My desire in films like this is to give equal voice to the artistic work itself (in this case, polyphonic music) and the artist’s interpretation of their journey.
Even though we share the same faith community (and I’d been hearing his music for years in the context of the Mass), I didn’t really know Mark until he approached me in December 2019 to collaborate on a series of music videos with his choral ensemble, Offertorium. It’s been a true joy to get to know him and his family over the last year.
We shot all of the material in early February 2020, a few weeks before the pandemic and its effects arrived in British Columbia. Needless to say, it’s been a surreal experience to return to this footage over and over during the last nine months - an empty church was such a novelty on February 1! At the same time, both this project and Mark’s music have been a consolation to me during these long months of uncertainty and disruption.
I hope you enjoy the film. If its musical excerpts whet your appetite, be sure to check out the full music videos we released last year. Finally, a big thanks to all those who made this project possible - we couldn’t have done it without you.
Watch Cantus Firmus below or on YouTube.