Original-Cin Q&A: Humane Director Caitlin on Not Being Just Another Cronenberg
By Karen Gordon
Hey moviegoers, there is a new Cronenberg behind the camera.
Caitlin Cronenberg’s directorial debut hits theaters this week. Given her surname — her father, David, is the godfather of body horror, and her brother Brandon has already established himself as an accomplished director in the same genre — you’d be forgiven for assuming she would go into the family business of science fiction, dark, some would say weird plots, and, of course, disturbing, cover-your-eyes visuals.
But you’d be wrong — mostly.
Humane: A family more dysfunctional than the apocalyptic climate
Humane, written by Michael Sparaga, is a dark comedy/satire, thriller. Set in the near future, when climate change is no longer subject to debate, but a deadly serious problem, the government has set a target of decreasing the population by 20 per cent. It’s a volunteer program. People are being asked to enlist, to sacrifice themselves for the good of society.
That is the environment against which family patriarch Charles York (Peter Gallagher) and his partner Dawn Kim (Uni Park) have gathered together the adult children for a fabulous family meal. The adult children are played by Jay Baruchel (Blackberry), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Sebastian Chacon (Daisy Jones & The Six) and Alanna Bale (Little Bird), all of them digging into characters who, in the face of an unexpected challenge, behave unexpectedly.
Humane is more who-will-do-it, than whodunnit. Sibling rivalry gets pushed to 11. No one is going to go gentle into that good night.
It's both funny and, well, let's say it could make you grateful that, at your next family gathering, the knives are for the food.
Is the film a commentary on human behaviour? A message film about climate change? Or just fun?
Caitlin Cronenberg comes to directing with an already successful career. She's an internationally successful commercial and art photographer who has directed videos and commercials. In 2021, she co-directed a very short film with her father called The Death of David Cronenberg, which, while just a minute long, is haunting.
But given all of this, was it always inevitable that she’d end up directing a feature film?
Original-Cin sat down with Caitlin Cronenberg in advance of the film’s release.
O-C: You’re well established as a successful photographer. But given your family, was it inevitable that you were going to make a movie?
Director Caitlin Cronenberg
CAITLIN CRONENBERG: It was not something I’d ever thought about or planned. The focus had always been on the photography. But as I started directing shorter format things, I had a realization that it felt very natural to me. And it did feel like a natural next step.
I think it was entering that realm without the pressure of deciding that, “Okay, I’m a director now.”
Telling everyone I’m a director and being a director, meant I got to spend the time reading scripts, finding the correct project for me. And I didn’t have to feel that pressure because I had a career as well. I was still working and raising my kids. But I was also reading, and thinking and it gave me the space to come to it naturally.
O-C: The script is by Michael Sparaga. What was it about it that made you say, “This is the one.”
CRONENBERG: It ticked all the boxes for me. It’s a unique concept its not based on anything but the ideas in his head. It’s funny. It’s dark. It’s violent. It's got humour and humanity. It’s got everything I was looking for. I didn’t even necessarily know that it was what I was looking for until I read it. And I realized ok! I can get into this. I can go deep on it and spend the next five years of my life thinking about this.
O-C: There’s a lot going on in Humane. It’s a satire, a thriller. It’s family drama. It’s disturbing, funny. It’s set in a near future where the ecological disaster is a reality, and the population is being asked to step up and make the ultimate sacrifice. There’s a lot going on. So, is there a message here? Or is it more about human nature?
CRONENBERG: The focus is the family. It’s really a family drama at its core and that was the part of the piece that interested me the most. I felt that the characters were really, really layered and really interesting in their humanity, and lack of humanity. I thought their ethical values were very interesting, and the way they played off each other. And that made it exciting for me.
It is satirical. It’s over-the-top. The characters are funny. But the fact that you now set that into a post-environmental collapse setting—you don't really see it, that much. You just understand that that’s what’s happening in the world around this pocket where this family is having this drama.
So, is it a climate change movie? Absolutely not. It’s really just an exploration of what people do when they’re in an extraordinary situation.
But it’s never been a film meant to deliver a message or take itself too seriously. It’s always meant to be entertaining, and I hope, thought provoking.
O-C: It’s sometimes funny, and sometimes it’s horrifying in terms of their behaviour. As a director, how do you balance those two things?
CRONENBERG: I think if you’re lucky enough to start with real source material and you bring on actors who have the dynamic range that our actors do, then you have choice. The actors really sparked to the script. They liked their characters, and wanted to explore them in a deeper way.
And then within each character, they gave me a range of what a human reaction would be. Sometimes a person would be very funny in the face of this kind of fear, and sometimes they would turn inward.
And you know, Jay is known for being a comedic actor but he’s an incredible serious actor and everything in between.
This could have been cut together with all of Jay’s funniest takes and would have felt like a completely different movie.
So, I think I had every option for every single opportunity to create the film in post, just because of how the actors sparked off each other.
O-C: Your dad is David Cronenberg. Your brother Brendan. You have these two incredibly powerful filmmakers in the family. So, did that add pressure? Or did it make the experience more fun?
CRONENBERG: Neither. I don’t feel pressure from them. I think their fans, the fans of the Cronenberg family, will have certain expectations of what I will produce.
I don’t know that Humane is what they would have expected of me. But at the same time. I’m my own artist. And I’ve been doing my own thing for long enough, so that I never set out to try and make a film that I thought would fit in with the family film library.
It’s fun for me to think I’m making a different movie than other of them have made or would make.
There is pressure because there is expectation. Anytime anyone is expecting something specific from you, when you put art into the world, you do feel pressure.
At the same time as an artist you go forth, feel confident with what you’re producing and hope that people will respond to it.
O-C: There is a lot of impetus in the industry right now to give more women the chance to direct. Do you feel that it’s more of a level playing field now?
CRONENBERG: It’s double edged. It is encouraging how many women are directing films right now. But there’s still this “You are a female filmmaker” statement that is being made as opposed to, “You are a filmmaker.” And I don’t know when that will completely shift to be a genderless title of just filmmaker.
But you know, I hope, and I felt this way as a photographer too, that when I get a job it’s because of who I am and my talent and my ability, being the right person for that job.
I think the Greta Gerwig/Barbie experience has really opened up a conversation about women in this industry, and I hope that continues. And I know more women who are getting into the industry on the directing side of things, and that’s exciting too.
It’s an exciting shift. But at the same time, it won’t feel complete until we don’t have to specify that a filmmaker is a female filmmaker.
Humane. Directed by Caitlin Cronenberg, written by Michael Sparaga. Starring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, and Peter Gallagher. In theatres and on demand April 26.