Leif Bristow | Crafting Stories that Resonate - Mick Unplugged [EP 13]

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Mick Unplugged, where we dive deep into the stories behind the stories, going deeper into our because, challenging our why. And today, we're exploring the journey of a visionary who shaped the landscape of film and television, creating narratives that touch our hearts across the globe. A master storyteller whose work with Hallmark.

Has captured our imagination and whose dedication.

To cinematic excellence has garnered international acclaim. Stay tuned as we unveil the life, the creativity, and the unparalleled dedication of the incredible Leif Bistro. Leif, welcome to Mick Unplugged.

Sir.

Oh, thank you, Nick. I mean, that's a pretty tough opening.

To live up to, but only you can do that.

Only you can do that. We can all try and we can all strive to achieve excellence every chance we get.

So absolutely, absolutely so, Leif, your career spans over 50 movies and television series with significant achievements along the way. What ignited your passion for filmmaking?

I started as a child performer. I was a singer, and I had the good opportunity to perform a lot. And then I went to university in opera, then had a chance to sing throughout Europe with Up With People and get to know a lot of people and meet people from so many incredible backgrounds. And then because I traveled a lot growing up as well, we. I was born in Toronto, but by the time I was three, we moved to Alaska, then we moved to Denver, then we moved to Dallas, then we moved back, then we moved to Chicago, then we moved back to Denver. I went to Europe and sang and then went to Pasadena, lived for six years and got my degree in theater. And I think, you know, the combination of all of that. While in the beginning, when I was at university, I thought maybe I'd be an adolescent child psychiatrist. Somewhere along the way, I realized that if you could tell stories and whether it's in the theater, live theater, or in the movie theater, and bring a level of catharsis and life journey and touch people at their core and uplift them, especially with aspirational stories, then it might be providing a far greater service than counseling. After theater school, I came back to Canada and I worked for a number of years as a performer, did a lot of musical theater, a lot of comedy, which I loved. But then youngest daughter was born in particular. I didn't want my family to be stage widows. You know, at a certain point in. And I think every actor has to find that for themselves. You have to determine is, is my life about me and everybody should cater to what I need or is my life about other people and how do I make sure that they're part of my life? So I knew that the latter was the more important for me. So I. I moved over in about 1993 three to exclusively directing and producing. Every once in a while, I'll perform, but very seldom anymore. I don't have the driver. Well, it's not the drive. I don't have the need, let's put it that way. I don't have to be in front of the camera. So the joy for me is when I'm directing, executive producing, and really trying to bring, just wherever possible, positive joy to an audience.

I love it. And speaking of that, you've been instrumental in creating some of Hallmark's most popular and instrumental films, right? Love on Safari, one of my favorites. And I know I don't look like a Hallmark person, but Every time I go visit my mom, it's only on the Hallmark Channel, and that's all I can watch. So one of my favorites, Love, Romance.

And Chocolate, which I thought was gonna.

Be about me, when I saw it.

I was like, love, romance, chocolate.

That's me.

But when I watched it, it wasn't me.

I'm not upset, but, you know, we'll talk about that later.

Okay.

Can you give some insights into your.

Creative process, like what goes into making that? Right, because you see something on paper, and then you have to make it something that people are going to enjoy visually. What's your creative process?

I think for most of the films that my wife and I produce, because Aggie and I produce together, we're certainly probably one of only a small handful of very blessed filmmakers that we produce everything together. We have for quite a number of years now. So when. When we go on, on location, we're able to spend time together and. And do it together. And because we see things from kind of a singular vision, doesn't matter which one of us you talk to on set, you're going to get the same basic response. Or sometimes it'll be, go ask Leaf, or it'll be, go ask Aggie. My process, first of all, you know, it's about understanding who your target audience is and your market. And then what I always try to do is I try to find elements of truth in the creation of each concept. Because I would say probably 95% of all the movies we've made, we were the ones that originated the concept. And I look to things that have inspired me in life and most often look to the truth. Because almost anything you want to research or anything you can think of in today's world, you can research that subject and find some element of truth in society. One movie I still want to make that I'm kind of working on is about a blind ballerina. Well, one of the greatest ballerinas in history, turns out happens. Happens to have been blind. Her name was Alicia.

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Chime checking account required and she was the prima ballerina in Cuba and at 85 she I believe at 85 she was still the choreographer of the Cuban National Ballet and she lost, principally lost most of her eyesight when she was 12 years old. She suffered from retinitis at a time when there was no eye surgery that they could do and she was in Cuba. So she laid on her back for a year and by the time she finished she could see halo light or dark around the periphery but couldn't see anything through the center. And she learned Swan Lake by Braille when she was laying in hospital. And she was the first non Russian I believe to Dance with the Bolshoi Ballet. I mean, what an incredible life. So if I do a modern story about a blind ballerina for Hallmark or for Amazon or for mgm, well, I can draw on reality. And I think when you can draw on truth to infuse these stories, even like a love romance in Chocolate, when you do that, it elevates the experience and then it gives your writers that much more to lean into as they begin to write the characters. Like in Love, Romance and Chocolate, which again, yeah, I mean, it's one of my favorite movies that we've done in the Hallmark world. And. Yes. And Love, Romance and Chocolate Love on Safari are two of the most ever watched Hallmark movies. And they just play, you know, I mean, they play literally all of the time in that one because of a lot of work I. And singing that I had done in Belgium years before. There were people that I knew. And by the way, funny note about that is it was the first ever English language romance movie about the chocolate industry. Because you can't say Chocolat was a romance movie, but, you know, that was a movie. It's not a Hallmark movie in that regard. So there had never been one done. So, you know, after I did Love Blossoms the year before, which was about the perfume industry. So then when I went to Hallmark and I said, look, nobody's ever made a movie about the chocolate industry. What if I go make it in Bruges, where the greatest chocolates in the world come from? Let's go there. And I also happen to know the palace chocolatier, so I can have use of all of his chocolates and his chocolate factory because he delivers every day to the palace. And you can do that? Yep. So that's what we used, which, you know, it made it really joyful. And the same thing like when we did Love, you know, Love on Safari, pretty much every character in Love on Safari was based on somebody that we knew in real life, in our in. Because we also do a nature series in search of where we go in search of baby animals that Brittany's the host of and all. So all of the characters that we put into Love on Safari were people that we had met in our journeys. Doing nature. A nature series.

That's awesome. So did I just hear when Love, Romance and Chocolate two come out, I've got a role.

Absolutely. Now I've still got to convince somebody that we're doing Love, Romance and Chocolate too. I am getting ready to do another movie that does have chocolate inspiration, but I need to make sure that it's like completely the opposite to love, romance.

And chocolate, but there we go.

We're looking at doing a Christmas movie about the chocolate with the chocolate industry this year and that'll be based in Vienna.

Very nice. So, Leif, let's go deep. Dancing through the Shadow. I'm ready for this one.

Dancing through the Shadow is such an incredible and remarkable story and we were just so fortunate to have it premiere at Sedona this past weekend. That premiered in Bangladesh a couple weeks before that. Dancing through the Shadow is a is the true story of a woman, Tia Zheng, who came of age during the Cultural Revolution under Mao. She danced at the very first dance academy Western style ballet in Beijing. Her father was a very high official with the Kuomintang when Mao came to power and was part of the group that surrendered Beijing to Mao. Wasn't much of a surrender because they didn't have a choice. But their family tried to get out when. When all of the former Kuomintang government was given basically a day to get out of China. And so that's what became the current government of Taiwan. That's the former Kuomintang government of China. And t his family got to the ship or to where the ship was to leave from, but when they went to leave, soldiers started randomly shooting machine gun fire into the air and a bullet hit her brother's leg, her little brother. So they ran back to shore and so unfortunately, they got stranded in China and they went from a very privileged life to the same life of everybody else. And her statue is currently is still at Worker Stadium. She and her husband met. He was with the athletic team. They met and they had to pose for a statue. As for the most beautiful faces of the new China, they were told they weren't. They couldn't speak, they just had to pose. They stood next to each other for eight hours and she fell in love with him. Her mother said she couldn't marry him because he was too tall and didn't have a proper education. So that put a lot of strain on the family because there was no way Tia was gonna not continue to see him. And they went through a period where they were just at total odds. So Tia went back to the ballet school and didn't return home. And finally mother said, okay, bring Jason with you. And she said, okay, I'll accept him on the condition that he goes to university. Well, he had already enrolled at the university to take traditional Chinese medicine because he was injured. And he, while he was there, he asked a question on behalf of the soldiers he represented in his group, that was deemed inappropriate. So when he graduated, he was immediately sent to a labor camp near the Russian border that very few people ever made it back from. Because he was trained as a doctor, he got a little bit better privileges being up there, but he still worked the rock quarry like everybody else, and then attended to injuries and medical things as required. Tio was given permission to go see him. It was an 18 hour train ride. So she went there, and when she came home, she discovered she was pregnant at a time when Madame Mao, who was the head of culture, determined that she was going to shut down all the dance schools and that ballerinas, you know, because there was no dance school, well, they needed to work like everybody else. So she was to go to a labor camp. So when her son was 56 days old, she had to give him over to her mother and her nine eye, her grandmother, to take care of. And she saw him, I think, once in three years. Eventually, she defected. She was given an opportunity to go to London on a cultural exchange. When they opened travel, someone from Louise Turner from the UK set up for a cultural tour to come back to the uk. And when she got there, you know, being raised in China, she believed that. And what she was taught was that as a Chinese person, if she ever left China, she would be killed. And so she got to London and they were driving her through Chinatown and she saw women wearing beautiful dresses and walking on the street and nobody was killing anybody. And she realized that her whole life was a lie. When she got back, she convinced Jason that they should get out. And eventually they defected. They went to New York, into Houston for a brief period of time where an aunt was, and then ended up coming to Toronto. And she taught at Canada's National Ballet until her retirement. We got to know her because in her final year, she was one of our daughter's ballet instructors, because our daughter Brittany, who stars in a lot of Hallmark movies, graduated from Canada's National Ballet school. So with that, Aggie wrote the book on her life, which is on Amazon. And we're just getting ready to launch a massive book campaign for that. For 12 months. Yeah. And then Aggie wrote the screenplay, and then we filmed it through Covid. We got shut down in the middle of production and then had to resume four months later. And generally when a production shuts down, they never come back. We were fortunate we were able to get it finished. So it's a wonderful film. A lot of people that saw it in Sedona said we really need to see this and every American needs to see it because we just don't know anything about China. We learned so much just watching the movie, just in an appreciation for the culture. And you know, this is where, you know, this is part of what Aggie and I really do in our films because we really believe the only way you create acceptance. By the way, I don't like the word tolerance. I think it's a, it's a very ill advised term when you're asking people to accept each other, you tolerate somebody you didn't really want to spend time with. Acceptance is very different. If we're going to accept each other for our cultural differences, for religious differences, we have to at least attempt, where possible, to step inside and try to gain some knowledge, you know, so if all we know of Chinese culture in North America is Chinese food, sitcoms and the Comic Relief, similar, you know, not dissimilar to what so many black actors were relegated to since the beginning of cinema. Just by stepping in and getting a glimpse, it can open a dialogue. It's a reason to be able to say, to say to somebody that we know and, or a friend that's Chinese and say, wow, you know, what about this? I never knew that. I didn't understand that. I didn't know that about China. And of course to China, the Cultural Revolution didn't exist. That was a great time of enlightenment where Mao unified a nation. He also allowed 35 to 70 million people to starve to death in the western provinces in peacetime, that period in, you know, things were fine at first. And then made a deal with the Russians to supply food in exchange for him providing iron ore. So during the Great Leap Forward, every person was required. You had to sell, you had to send your wok. Any metal that you had had to go to community furnaces to be burned down to try to create iron ore. Kids would have to come to school every day with something that they found on the road or something. It was insanity. They never really produced anything. So they had nothing delivered to Russia. So Russia refused to deliver food. And then the rains came and all the farmers, all the men were in the factories. So all that was left in the western provinces after all these massive rainstorms were the elderly and children and the tractor stuck in the mud. So starvation was massive.

That's crazy. Yeah, that is absolutely crazy.

So that story we've told and you know, it may not be not an easy story to get made. And even within Chinese community, like somebody will say, well, you're, you know, you're a white guy. What are you doing making a movie about Chinese. When we went to the film festival, Russell Yun, who plays the father in the movie, came and he said, you know, said, you have to understand in our culture, the. The Chinese filmmakers that would have made this movie all have family in China, and so they're afraid to make it. We were specifically asked by the Chinese community, you know, they came to me very specifically and said, would you make this movie? Because we need this story to be told. So I'm a director, you know, directing human emotion and family interaction. That's what I do. So what we did is a collaboration, is I have entire cast of some of the most phenomenal Chinese talent you could ever hope to see on a screen, you know, and they were from Norway and from England and a whole bunch of other places. What I did is I asked them to let me know what was correct when we would do a scene about a family dinner where Tia is being told by her mother that she has to end the relationship with Jason, that she will choose a man for him, and if and if she elects to choose Jason, she'll be dead to the family and no longer be your daughter. And every one of my actors in that scene, besides bawling because it was so emotional, every actor at the table said, I have sat through this exact dinner conversation in my own home. Growing up. They brought the power of their culture to the screen. I just helped them make sure the performances were honest.

That's amazing. Leif, I know you're busy, so I'm going to get you out of here with two quick questions. Challenges and triumphs. So producing critically acclaimed films, TV shows, is no small feat, right?

Yeah.

What are. What's one of the most significant challenges that you had to overcome, and how did you do that?

I specialize in family friendly content primarily. I've done a couple of suspense movies, but I mostly do a lot of, you know, with Blizzard and Virginia's run of movies, I did like that Blizzard, which was featured@the 75th Oscars, you know, and had Christopher Plummer and Whoopi Goldberg and Brenda Bleth and Kevin Pollock. My daughter was the mean kid. Part of it is when you specialize in anything in life, it takes a lot longer for the world to recognize you. It's easy to be a generalist, but I think the challenge was because I was so dedicated. I've always made it very clear to anybody that wants to work with me and in print, in articles, wherever, I do films primarily about women rising above adversity My goal is to create positive and powerful female role models for young women in film and television. Because when I watch programming on behalf with my daughters, I didn't feel they were there and they need to be honest and, and real. Not, not everybody can't look like a Barbie doll. So that's always been at the core of what we do and, and doing films that will help unite families, you know. Sure. You know, doing a movie about Tia is a true story and we have to ask tough societal questions if we're going to be honest with ourselves. And sometimes that's really important. So I would say the big challenge was, I guess in some ways being recognized as someone who knows how to repeat the process with creative integrity because we're so hands on that. Finally, then the hallmark comes to you and goes, well, how come you haven't made any movies for us? Well, you didn't ask me. They said, okay, well, would you? Well, sure, but you have to understand, you know, my goal is to make the Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigid a Sophia Loren movie for the 2024 audience. And every movie must be part, have a location that becomes a huge character and gives the audience that extra incredible joy when they watch the movie. And that's my formula. So, you know, if, if, if we're all on the same page, then yeah, I'm happy to do it. And we'd enjoy doing it. And we did the first one and ever since we've just never stopped. And you know, now we're doing a new series called Beyond Black Beauty for Amazon as well that we just delivered the whole first season. It's a completely, basically, it's a complete black family and primarily targeted to a black and Hispanic audience. And it's about the original Black Beauty. So it's very exciting. It'll be coming out on freebie in September, starts in Canada about a few weeks.

You know, I didn't get a call.

To, to be in that one either. So we have love, romance and chocolate.

Hey. Hey. There's going to be season two. I feel like season two.

Okay. Season two.

Season two.

I'll get a call.

I'll get a call.

All right, so last question. Leaf for aspiring filmmakers. What's two pieces of advice you'd give them today?

The greatest flaw that most filmmakers I find because I just actually did a seminar on this. I think one of the big flaws that filmmakers make is when they go to ask for money, they don't understand that the person on the other side of the table that may Want to give the money is looking for a reason to give them the money. Because a dollar bill without a purpose is just a dollar bill. It's been the same since the beginning of time. People with capital look for a reason to invest it. What you need to understand is what is it the person on the other side of the desk needs in order to give you that money? And then that way, if you can understand that and understand how to talk to someone about how to give you money, then what you're doing is you're harnessing the same creativity that you would use to make the movie to bring financing to your MO that gives you far greater creative power. Capital and finance is not always the hindrance to great creativity. Creativity will help you source the financing. That's one. The other is don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You know, we all go to the same grocery store, we go to the same coffee shop, we go to the, you know, we frequent the same neighborhood all the time. Based on where we live, where my world, you know, I would say of the 50 plus films, at least 45 of those films, I think, have all been filmed in international locations. I've done seven films in Malta, a bunch in South Africa, five in Belgium, four in Budapest. I've filmed in Ireland, Slovakia, a whole bunch of different countries. And the reason is I looked at and I went, wait a minute, how can I make what I do more universal and more exciting for the audience and think, especially in the romance world, you know, the greatest movies of all time were Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida movies. They ignited this whole industry. And they did it by making those locations unique and different. So I go, well, everybody's filming in North America, in Vancouver or Toronto or Georgia. Well, what if I go to the rest of the world and ask the rest of the world to help me? There's great filmmakers all over the world. If you're a young filmmaker and you're trying to make your million, million and a half dollar movie and the story is universal, it can be told anywhere. So adjusting your script to say, okay, well, instead of me doing this one in Seattle, I'm going to make the setting in Brittany, France, on the coast of France, with a lighthouse in the background, which is how I did Mariah's Lighthouse. That was supposed to be filmed in an island that you looked at and got. Did he film it in upstate New York? Do you film it in Michigan? Do you film it Montana? Where'd he film it? Just a bunch of trees in a lake. So I said no, let's go film it on the coast of France and then go to Rochefort, Ontario, the most beautiful village in France the Disney used to create Beauty and the Beast. So filmmakers, I would say if you want to expand your own knowledge, step out of your comfort zone. Call somebody in a foreign country and say, could you help me produce my movie? If I could figure out how to place it there, could I come to Malta and make my movie? Now you can access capital from foreign government rebates. Together with your own rebates, you can bring more resources. And guess what? Some of the greatest dops on the planet, most of them come from Eastern Europe. They don't come from North America. For them, that's the PhD in life in filmmaking. Great wardrobe people. Look, look at the films that have come out of the UK and Hungary and Czechoslovakia and all these great filmmakers. Four decades and decades. So go and be willing to open that same door. And I guess that's what travel did for me. And it's the same as when I say how do we become more accepting of each other? It's by being willing to be open enough. Challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone and go to somebody else, say can you help me? To me, that's how you'll create the greatest opportunities for yourself.

That's amazing. And Leif, what's, what's crazy about that is you. You've hit on a lot of things today. But there's two things that are really important that I also teach and coach people. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. If you're a business leader, if you're a salesperson, if you're someone looking for that next step, don't be a generalist. You're going to walk down rabbit holes. You're going to get low hanging fruit that's going to be in your way and you're never going to get to where you're going and get out of your comfort zone. Amazing things happen outside of your comfort. Comfort zone. And the last thing I'm going to be in the next movie around, chocolate. Whatever it is, it's me.

Okay?

I don't care if I have to be the gopher on set. Leaf. I'm there.

Okay?

I prom.

Okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, the great Leaf Bistro Leaf. I appreciate you for being on the call with me today and and for everyone listening, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at MC Unplug. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.