Our July issue contained the official announcement of the upcoming Voivod documentary, We Are Connected. Today, filmmaker Felipe Belalcazar is announcing the next step in the progress of the film: a Kickstarter campaign containing some perks that Voivod fans are going to want to know about, including anaglyph prints of Voivod album covers and the movie poster, live footage of the band performing at 2018’s 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise, and more.
Belalcazar—who you know as the man behind Death doc Death by Metal—says that people should care about this doc because there are “many, many layers to the story of Voivod.”
“Most people are aware of the top layers… the aesthetic, the lyrical themes, and so on,” he says. “There have been, of course, high and lows throughout their 40-year career, from major-label support and Billboard recognition to seismic line-up changes and, of course, Piggy’s unfortunate passing—an event many critics claimed to be the end of Voivod. This isn’t just a story of perseverance. Voivod’s story is one of staying true to oneself through highs and lows, and success against all odds.”
Check out the Kickstarter here, and read on to see more of our chat with Belalcazar, then feast your eyes on some other goodies we’ve got for you today: an exclusive video from Belalcazar and crew about drummer Michel “Away” Langevin’s Worlds Away exhibit from Roadburn 2012 and a performance of “Killing Technology” from the 70,000 Tons of Metal footage that will be available as part of the Kickstarter campaign. (The Worlds Away video is not part of We Are Connected but was made by Belalcazar while going through the Voivod archives.)
Why should people give to the Kickstarter?
Filipe Belalcazar: Voivod are so damn cool—I mean how many other bands out there have multi-album epic concepts and include an iconic visual artist/illustrator in their line-up? Crowdfunding has greatly democratized the means of media production. Ideas that in the past would’ve been vetoed by gatekeepers can now find alternate ways of seeing completion. I am very appreciative of the incredible support from metalheads worldwide because crowdfunding has allowed projects to be made that would otherwise not have been. The Death doc was made possible through the support of fans worldwide who believed in the importance of ensuring the band’s legacy for posterity, and I am looking to do the same for Voivod. Besides, a good portion of ’80’s Voivod’s fans now have kids of their own, probably also into metal. We’re here to bend the minds of both—and unleash Voivod’s sci-fi thrash-metal-psychedelia!
Tell us a bit about the perks you’re offering.
Belalcazar: Away and I worked closely to develop really cool stuff that we hope Voivod collector-fans will dig. The band is well aware of the extensive collections from fans around the world, so we developed the film poster concept in 3D with this in mind. Away and I picked our favourite album art to re-visit in anaglyph, and we are also offering a limited-run art print from Away, made especially for the campaign. Obviously, this is going to take a while in the mail so everyone gets a video download of their full set at 70,000 Tons of Metal to tide them over until mail-call. Funny thing about that set and the Worlds Away short is that I found the camera files trawling through the VodVault looking for something else! I couldn’t resist putting it together…
You say the anaglyph aspect is key, so, please tell us more about that. (I literally had to look up what that word meant so I think you’d be better at describing this than me.)
Belalcazar: Anaglyph is a process for making a picture look 3D using layers of red and blue (think of the old-school 3D glasses). Growing up in the ’90s, there seemed to be a lot of anaglyph print media everywhere for a long time—the red/blue glasses as freebies, almost a fixture of magazine stands—only to seemingly disappear by the time we were freaking out about Y2K. I think most Voivod fans know about the original Outer Limits packaging (and how it was in 3D)… This to me was and still is mind-bending; anaglyph is almost tailor-made for Away’s art. I just love it. I gotta hand it to Federico Rossi, our team’s illustrator, for realizing our pipe dream!
You want people to know this isn’t crowdfunding to start a project, rather, it’s to continue something already going. Why is that important for people to know?
Belalcazar: The band and I have been working on this project for some time now, and the production has been completely self-financed. Nearly a quarter of the planned interviews have already been filmed, and a rough cut is underway. This means We Are Connected is a venture on its second round of funding following a successful initial production run. In fact, production will be happening during the campaign time as we have some interview dates already booked. It’s not a matter of whether or not the movie will be made. It’s a matter of how soon. How soon can we have a band screening to sign off on the final edit? There are a few film festivals who have been keeping tabs on the film, and we can’t wait to meet everyone at screenings and events.
Watch Decibel‘s exclusive preview clip of Worlds Away:
