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The Canadian minimum wage slave workplace comedy Servitude is part of the Grand River Film Festival in Waterloo, screening at the Princess Cinema on October 21st at 9pm. It’s about servers at a restaurant who plan a revolution on their last night on the job. Writer–producer Michael Sparaga says the script began to in 1999 when he was “slinging steaks” at The Keg. “The lead character was not so loosely based on me and the other servers were either based on or amalgamations of other people I was working with at the time,” Michael explains. “The waiter rebellion aspect of the script wasn’t based on a real event, though. I never instigated my fellow servers to take over the restaurant, although I wanted to many a nights. That part of the screenplay was just cathartic to write.”
About a decade later the script for Servitude found new life with the federal film funding agency Telefilm Canada establishing The Comedy Lab, a branch focusing on creating comedies like Meatballs and Porkys. With help from filmmakers Ivan Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters, Etan Cohen, one of the writers of Tropic Thunder, and Donald Petrie, Director of Grumpy Old Men and Miss Congeniality, Servitude began to take shape, after a rewrite to update it. “It still had the characters using pagers and pay phones!” Michael admits.
Eventually, Michael had a sit–down with Reitman. “I told him about the time I wrote my LSATs because I didn’t think I was going to make it in the film biz,” Michael recalls. “But when the envelope with my scores arrived, I decided I wasn’t done pursuing my dream quite yet and chose not to open the envelope. Ivan said I had to put that in there. So really Ivan helped make the film even more semi–autobiographical than it was.”
With a revamped script production began. “My director, Warren Sonoda, and producing partner, Sean Buckley, had just made a comedy together called Cooper’s Camera that played the Toronto International Film Festival to sold–out crowds so they knew how to bring the funny. They both also worked in the service industry themselves so they understood the material. We shot for 15 days, most of it at the main restaurant location in Brampton, Ontario. It was long days but they didn’t feel long. Shooting comedy is just so much fun. It’s 12 hours of laughing. You literally can’t wait to get to set the next day.”
Michael says he is a fan of the workplace comedy drama, “I love workplace comedies like Office Space and Clerks because they show there’s drama and comedy in even the most mundane of situations. The guests that the servers take their frustrations out on all deserve it for their obnoxious behaviour and that’s something everybody can relate to.” When asked if he was concerned when the server comedy Waiting came out years after writing the script for Servitude, Michael says it didn’t bother him. “In truth, the only thing I was really worried about in regards to Waiting was that it would be a total flop and people would think that films about waiters just don’t work. Ends up Waiting was a huge hit, especially on video, so it actually made it easier to pitch a film about waiters.”
Having shown Servitude at various festivals, Michael is looking forward to the Grand River Film Festival. “I like to be there for every screening because it’s just so much fun to watch with an audience. When those big laugh–out–loud and gross–out moments hit, the theatre is literally rocking. The Q&As afterward are also a blast.”
The screening on the 21st will include a Q&A with himself, Director Warren Sonoda and “perhaps even an actor or two.”
Featuring well–known Canadian actors like Margot Kidder from Superman and Dave Foley from “Kids In the Hall” (who delivers an awesomely inappropriate Kurt Cobain joke) Servitude looks like a fun experience. “The thing I keep hearing from the crowd is that the film doesn’t feel Canadian,” Michael says. “It’s just funny, like a normal film. I’m not sure how to take that but it sounds good! “
For more information about search for “Servitude trailer” on YouTube and to find out more about the Grand River Film Festival point your web browers to www.grff.ca V
GRAND RIVER FILM
FESTIVAL
October 19 – 23.
Various Venues within Waterloo.,
grff.ca
servitudemovie.com
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