Alcona resident and acclaimed art director Richard Racicot has been nominated for a coveted Canadian Screen Award for his work on the film, Brother.
Widely considered to be the most prestigious awards in Canadian television and cinema, and often referred to as the ‘Canadian Oscars’ by industry professionals, the creative efforts of the finest in Canadian television and film will be honoured this weekend at the 11th annual Canadian Screen Awards produced by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Racicot is nominated with his colleagues, Jason Clarke and John Kim, for achievement in art direction/production design for their work on Clement Virgo’s film, Brother, which leads the charge in film with 14 Canadian Screen Award nominations, including best motion picture and achievement in direction at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. The winners will be announced on Sunday, April 16, at 8 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.
"When I received word of the nomination, I was elated, to say the least," said Racicot.
"I haven't always been good at celebrating my accomplishments, but this one honestly felt different as I knew I had put in the work to get to this point. That being said, it definitely takes a village, and my team was an integral part of my journey to the nomination," he said.
Adapted from David Chariandy’s award-winning novel of the same name, Brother was written, produced and directed by Virgo, who is one of Canada’s foremost directors and a force in the television and film industry. Virgo has previously worked on HBO’s The Wire, OWN’s Greenleaf, Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and CBC’s The Book of Negroes (miniseries).
In a coming-of-age story of two brothers in Scarborough in the 1990s that has been lauded as a “sorrowful but ultimately healing work,” it’s no wonder that as the end credits rolled, the audience rose from their seats in a thunderous 10-minute standing ovation when it debuted.
It was the first of many accolades that Brother received as an official selection at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Brother is available in a limited run of theatres at present, but Racicot has no doubt the movie will be widely available in time.
Best known for his work on Brother, Endlings, Odd Squad: Mobile Unit, and Mayday, Racicot told InnisfilToday that the creation of the barbershop that was transformed from an abandoned warehouse in Etobicoke was among his favourite scenes to design in Brother.
As his specialty is period pieces, it may come as a surprise that Racicot didn’t dream of this life when he was a high school student at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Barrie; to say that Racicot is pleased with the acceleration of his career over the past 18 months is an understatement.
With multiple projects on the go, including work on Vice Studio’s docuseries, Dark Side of the Ring and Dark Side of Comedy, Racicot told InnisfilToday there’s a reason why they call Toronto “Hollywood North” as the Canadian film industry in Toronto is booming.
He explained that success in his profession relies on collaboration, creative thinking, problem-solving, and long hours.
With a history in sci-fi and special effects, Racicot is familiar with the use of green screens and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) which is commonplace, but some directors choose to shoot scenes that require Racicot and his team to think outside the box.
Always up for a challenge, Racicot and his team once constructed a build of a McDonald’s drive-thru onset that the audience would never know was fabricated and had to create the illusion of a “crash” of a 1986 Porsche.
Car enthusiasts can breathe easy — Racicot and his team created a series of scenes that included in-car driving sequences and a smashed window, spliced with scenes of crashing a miniature model car, complete with cotton baton clouds. Car parts painted red were sourced from a scrapyard in order to capture the destruction in the aftermath, which resulted in a scene that had audiences on the edge of their seats.
Dedicated to his craft and eager to lend his talents to tell the stories that matter to him, Racicot said the peaceful surroundings provided by residing in Innisfil help him decompress between projects and provide the perfect backdrop to foster his creativity when he is designing the look book for a project (a process that can take about six weeks).
When the lights dim at the Meridian Hall in downtown Toronto, residents of Innisfil will join Racicot’s family, friends, and esteemed colleagues on Brother, with bated breath when it is announced who the Canadian Screen Award goes to.
Readers can tune in to the star-studded broadcast special of the Canadian Screen Awards with Samantha Bee on CBC and CBC Gem at 8 pm on Sunday, April 16, 2023.
