An inspring career rewarded

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Category: Arts

Created on Friday, 30 September 2011 10:26

Robin Schlaht at work in his home office. Photo by Sean Trembath.

by Sean Trembath

The University of Regina’s Media Production & Studies department honoured one of their most successful alumni Thursday evening with an award ceremony and film screening at the Regina Public Library.

Robin Schlaht, a Regina based documentarian, was presented with the department’s inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award. In almost 20 years as a filmmaker, Schlaht has received multiple awards and has had his work screened around the world.

Schlaht enrolled in the U of R after six years working as a photographer for a daily newspaper in his hometown of Medicine Hat. He immediately recognized the potential to apply his experience with a camera to the world of moving images.

“I brought photographic theory to the documentary style of filmmaking,” said Schlaht. His talent did not go unnoticed by the faculty of the time.

“It was clear at the time that Robin was going to go far as a filmmaker,” said Sheila Petty, dean of fine arts, who taught Schlaht film studies during his time at the school in the early 90’s.

“He excelled at photography and critical thinking. He was the type of student everyone wants to have,” she said.

Schlaht started gaining recognition as a filmmaker even before he finished the program. In 1992, while still in school, he made a 10-minute lyrical documentary about Saskatchewan’s Hutterite population called The People in Black. The piece was named Best Experimental Film at the 1992 Saskatchewan Film and Video Showcase, and went on to screen in many places including Germany, Australia, and Cannes, France.

Since then Schlaht has gone on to produce and direct numerous documentaries of both short and feature length, many of which have received similar acclaim. Although he has traveled the world for his work - shooting in locations such as India, England, Chile and Russia - Regina remains his base of operations.

“I really feel connected to Regina and to the U of R. It’s a good program, and it’s got a bit of an underdog feel, sort of like the city,” he said. Schlaht remains involved in the faculty, lecturing several times a year to various film students on topics such as researching a documentary and starting a career as a filmmaker.

“He has been an inspiration for the faculty and our students. He is a role model,” said Petty.      

According to Mark Wihak, department head of media production & studies at the U of R, Schlaht was a natural choice to be the first recipient of the bi-annual alumni award.

“Robin has developed a personal body of work using Regina as a base. His films have screened across Canada and the world,” said Wihak.

Thursday’s awards ceremony was accompanied by a screening of Solitude, Schlaht’s only narrative feature to date, as well as a Q & A with the filmmaker. Current students were encouraged to attend as a way of seeing what can be done after graduating from the program.

Schlaht’s advice to the next generation of filmmakers is to make sure their work has a clear focus. He pointed to three criteria he looks at before starting every project.

“Explore a theory, expose an injustice, or express an idea. Ideally, do all three,” he said.