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By Howard Ho

Daily Bruin Contributor

Jeremy Podeswa is not a writer. In fact, he finds writing difficult. His medium is visual storytelling, swiveling the camera, playing with light and space, propelling the viewer into revelation.

“I always came into filmmaking as a director, not a writer,” said Podeswa in a phone interview. “I became a writer by default, because no one gave me anything I wanted to direct.”

“The Five Senses” is Podeswa’s latest effort both as a writer and director. Playing in select theaters throughout Los Angeles, it is about five people looking for sensual meaning in their lives.

Though writing may be difficult for the Canadian, it is certainly not due to a lack of ideas. There is the house cleaner (Daniel MacIvor) who believes he can smell love, the baker (Mary-Louise Parker) whose cakes look better than they taste, and the lonely eye doctor (Philippe Volter) who is slowly becoming deaf. There is the masseuse (Gabrielle Rose) who is out of touch with her daughter, and the daughter (Naadia Litz) who enjoys voyeurism. These five characters are tied together by a missing young girl and the resulting media frenzy.

“This film is about the universality of experience, which you only get out of all the characters together,” Podeswa said.

“It is so varied tonally that there are many entry points. Everyone would have their own character to respond to.”

Podeswa, indeed, has been getting responses to the film, which has made its way from the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival to the Toronto Film Festival, where it won Best Picture. It was then acquired by Fine Line Features.

Not bad for his second full-length film (his first was 1994’s “Eclipse”). While not having the weight of a summer blockbuster, “The Five Senses” is making respectable business in international arthouses, opening to over 20 countries.

“There is not enough (patronage) in the U.S. to support arthouse films,” said Podeswa.

Though he studied here at the American Film Institute, Podeswa has tried to keep his Canadian roots. In fact, “The Five Senses” takes place in his native Toronto.

“In America, filmmaking is an industry. People could be making cars but they’re making movies,” said Podeswa, referring to how Hollywood blockbusters are designed to appeal to the masses instead of to an artistic standard or goal.

“In Canada, people make films like writers write novels and poets write poems.”

Though he was influenced by Americans such as Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, he leans toward the influences of Europeans, such as Federico Fellini, who are less interested in the bottom line than they are with creating masterpieces. Podeswa avoids the mainstream in search of a more personal, intimate sphere.

“I wouldn’t want to work with the cinematographer from ‘The Patriot.’ Even though I’m sure he’s a good cinematographer, he won’t be interested in the same things I am necessarily,” Podeswa said.

Podeswa looks at his films as a canvas of sorts. This should not be surprising since his father and grandfather were painters.

“There is a whole other world (in film) where you can make a body of works that express who you are,” Podeswa said.

“The Five Senses” is Podeswa’s personal dialogue on the senses. After reading Diane Ackerman’s “The Natural History of the Senses,” Podeswa started his screenplay about how the senses connect us to the world and to others.

“There’s too many people around us all the time, but there are only a few real friendships,” Podeswa said.

Despite his aversion toward writing, Podeswa is currently adapting a novel to the screen as well as directing a Canadian TV movie called “Wild Geese.”

He still emanates a boyish love of great directors, and one can see the twinkle in his eye, behind his oval glasses, when he speaks of Scorsese’s directorial flair.

“His use of off-screen space is very evocative,” Podeswa said. “It’s as if there’s a whole world beyond the screen.”

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