Pier-Philippe Chevigny Discusses “Mercenaire” and Becoming an Academy Award Qualifier [Interview]

Mercenaire follows an ex-convict who has gotten a job at a slaughterhouse. The short film dives into how difficult it is for this man to actually kill the pigs. It showcases the fact that violence isn’t part of his core DNA, even though he has previously been convicted of murder.

For Pier-Philippe Chevigny, it was important to share a story that proves that even though someone has been convicted, they aren’t essentially evil. By remaining ambiguous about what truly happened in this man’s past, the film allows the viewer to get to know him through his current actions.

We spoke to Chevigny about the story behind the film and the challenges he faced while filming.

Eulalie Magazine: What do you believe was important about this story to make it into a short film and put it out there for people to watch?

Pier-Philippe Chevigny: The original idea for the film was by Marc-André Grondin, who’s the lead actor in the film. He had shot scenes for another film that took place in a slaughterhouse, and he realized that all of the employees working there were actually ex-convicts, which, as it turns out, is quite common in Quebec. And when he told me about that, I asked him if it would be okay if I stole that idea. I’d been meaning to make a film about ex-convicts for a long time, because childhood friends of mine have had problems with the justice system, crime, and eventually prison. I never quite got around to finding the right angle. Learning about slaughterhouse hiring ex-convicts was really eye-opening. I started researching the slaughterhouse industry, and there’s plenty I realized I didn’t know. I thought it would be relevant for a short film.

Eulalie Magazine: As you mentioned, it’s something that you wanted to do for a while. Do you think there’s more to this story, or even to other stories with ex-convicts or slaughterhouses that you think you would like to explore further to turn into a feature film at some point?

Chevigny: Not really. I think the story was self-contained. I have a feature film project that might serve as a non-official prequel to this story, because the film doesn’t say exactly what happened. We don’t know. We know the guy killed someone, but we don’t know the context. Within the film, it didn’t feel relevant to let the audience know exactly what happened, because you can tell from the reaction that this guy does not revel in violence. He’s uncomfortable in that situation. And I’m a bit sensitive to overexposition, especially in short films. I like to tell you the least you need to know. In this case, you can deduce that this guy is not fundamentally violent, which was kind of the idea. Not because you committed a crime in the past, you are fundamentally evil. That’s kind of the idea behind the film. And so I think this is self-contained, but I do have a project that, especially thinking about my childhood friends, would go deeper into the origin story in a way, but it wouldn’t be the same characters.

Eulalie Magazine: You said you wanted to show that because a person committed a crime, it doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily evil. Do you think that’s the message you want people to take away from the short film?

Chevigny: That was definitely the starting point. The film has layers. It also has a layer about the meat industry. I think about my childhood friends. One of them committed murder and served 13 years in prison for that. When we were kids there, he was the sweetest kid. People are not fundamentally evil. The reason he got involved in crime in the first place was more about economic reasons. Whatever he did is unfortunate, but it does not define who he is fundamentally. And so that was really the key idea for me in this film. David, the lead character, is not defined by violence. He’s trying everything he can to escape violence, but if you come from violence, it’s very hard to escape.

Eulalie Magazine: Do you think that by leaving that ambiguity, for people to imagine it or think about, you’re transmitting this message even further, and it makes people connect with the character beyond what he did?

Chevigny: I’m not sure. Saying too much oftentimes can get very melodramatic. Having this flashback scene of seeing him commit a crime, it just didn’t feel relevant. From watching the film, you can tell that this guy does not belong in that environment. So it just felt that we didn’t need to see to say more than that. Obviously, he committed murder, that’s the worst thing you can commit. It would have felt like bothersome to say too much.

Eulalie Magazine: Were there any challenges that you faced filming this short film?

Chevigny: Well, there are two things I can think about. We were shooting with live animals. Obviously, no animals were harmed. This is the magic of movie-making, but it’s always very, very difficult when you work with animals. They don’t necessarily behave the way you want them to. But we had two pigs that were trained for the film. One was trained for the opening shot, which we wanted him to fight off and struggle. By the way, these pigs, they’re not actual slaughterhouse pigs. They’re domesticated pigs, which is not super realistic. They’re not the kind of breed that you would see in a slaughterhouse. But we didn’t want to have animals that would go through the trauma of actually being slaughtered. So not realistic, but in some way, ethically, it felt better. The first one was trained to struggle and fight off, and he would get a reward whenever he acted right. But after two or three takes, he would go straight inside the slaughterhouse, because he was expecting his treat. Eventually, we used the second or third shot. The other pig was trained to remain completely still for the shot at the end, because we wanted it to be like the pig is accepting his fate, in a way, and that’s what triggers David to change his mind, basically. Those shots were hard, especially because they’re both inside a very long take. And shooting in an actual slaughterhouse. We shot in a slaughterhouse that was not in operation, had been decommissioned for six years. So we were very lucky that we had a natural slaughterhouse.

Eulalie Magazine: I wanted to ask more about film festivals. Now the film has qualified for an Academy Award category. What does that mean to you after putting a project out there like this? How does it feel to know that it was a qualifier?

Chevigny: I mean, it’s very cool. It’s funny because I did a feature before this, so I was not in the mindset of this short film being a calling card or a proof of concept. It’s just something I did that was supposed to be standalone, and I had very little expectation. I didn’t need it to succeed to fund my next project or anything. I did it because I wanted to make a short film. So, compared to the short films I did before my first feature, where every time you feel like this needs to be the next big thing, or my career is never going anywhere, I had no expectations. Everything that came as a result was just a welcome surprise. I was not expecting it to do as well. For festivals, for sure, both in terms of quantity and quality, we got very high-quality selections, lots of awards. So everything that comes is welcome. We were certainly not expecting it, and that’s definitely not the reason I did it, either. So it’s cool, but we’ll see what happens.

Eulalie Magazine: How do you prepare yourself to submit your project for film festivals, and what comes with being accepted into film festivals? How do you approach that?

Chevigny: I know in the States, it’s not exactly like that, but here in Quebec, we do have a lot of distributors for short films. People who will come up with a full festival plan and submit to all the festivals. I worked with the same distributor for all of my short films before, and they know exactly what they’re doing. They have direct contacts with film programmers, and you submit to the festivals, and you hope for the best, and whatever happens, happens. I’ve been to the Toronto International Film Festival with my other projects. I reached out to them just to let them know I had a new project coming. But other than that, we submit to festivals and hope for the best.

Eulalie Magazine: What other projects do you have in the pipeline? What’s coming on your end?

Chevigny: Next year I’m shooting my second feature. Actually, this one was greenlit. We have the funding to make it. It’s going to be about police brutality, so another social issue. I’m writing scripts for two more films, including the one that I mentioned. I think I’m about halfway through writing at this point. But really, right now, I’m focused on my second feature because this one is ready to go, we’ve started casting, and we’re going to be shooting next Summer.

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