ECCW Wrestling documentary by Stephen Gillis will air on SuperChannel

Cape Breton Post
By Ken Chisholm

Stephen Gillis’s interest in wrestling began in a backyard in his hometown of Glace Bay. With his friends — brothers Keith and Ian Morrison — he would perform the flips and takedowns and headlocks to become “Garage Champ” of Glace Bay.

At the same time Gillis became involved in the local theatre scene and eventually worked on some Cape Breton film sets as an assistant director on the Allan Moyle film New Waterford Girl and as an actor on the CBC series, Pit Pony.

“I recently got my 10-year royalty cheque for Pit Pony,” Gillis says, with a chuckle. “It was for 14 cents.”

After moving to Vancouver, Gillis continued to try to find work as both an actor and a filmmaker.

He was a member of the Vancouver Theatre Sports League. He also found work as a projectionist at the Fifth Avenue Cinema that screened arthouse and international films.

“That was my film school,” Gillis says. “I saw three films a day.”

He made his own short films like True Sight which is about a young man “during the worst day in his life who is visited by an angel representing death.”

“It’s sort of preachy,” Gillis admits.

He had an inspiration to combine his two loves, filmmaking and wrestling, into one project.

He pitched his idea at the Vancouver International Film Festival to several producers and Lynn Booth, a producer for Make Believe Media, liked it enough to finance the film.

Gillis’s documentary This Wrestling Life follows a group of wrestlers and referees on the independent wrestling circuit in Western Canada.

Gillis had no sooner begun following his subjects from training in the gym to performing in front of the fans when he was stricken by bout of Crohn’s disease, a painful and debilitating inflammatory bowel disease.

Treatment for his condition required long hospital stays and abdominal surgeries. Gillis, unable to eat, lost over 60 pounds.

But Gillis’s commitment to his film did not falter. He shot for 72 days over four months and edited 220 hours of footage down to 82 minutes of completed film.

Cape Bretoners receiving SuperChannel cable service can see This Wrestling Life beginning Tuesday and playing at varying times through the rest of the month.

Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the film itself and Gillis’s perspective on his subjects.

Before then, anyone interested can visit www.superchannel.ca/movies/view/15425244/This-Wrestling-Life/.