The First Meeting

Father Charles Brandt is ninety three years old and lives in a hermitage that is a quarter mile from the road in a dense woods about a stones throw from the Oyster River.  We became interested in doing a documentary on Father Charles when a friend of ours, Anne Davies told us about his unique existence in the woods of Vancouver Island. We were interested in exploring why someone would choose this solitary life and how his commitment to meditation, contemplation, and achieving a certain stillness in his life could help us cope with the incessant chatter of technology.

Father Charles Brandt Hermitage

During our first meeting with Father Charles we decided that the initial interviews would cover the biographical details of his life and then as we grew more comfortable we could begin to ask the important "why?" questions.

Interviewing Father Charles

We used a technique where by a half silvered mirror was placed in front of the camera lens at a forty-five degree angle.  Anita Clearfield, who is interviewing Father Charles is reflected in the mirror allowing Father Charles to look directly in the lens while still maintaining eye contact with Anita. The benefit to this is to have Charles look directly at the viewer rather than the viewer being a third party who is eavesdropping on a conversation.  

We interviewed Father Charles for about forty minutes the first day, taking us through his early years and into college.