Happiness is Cassie De Colling with a Camera
You know when you meet someone so unapologetically passionate about what they do, you can’t help but become instantly inspired? The sheer joyfulness of their craftsmanship is infectious, forcing a smile to spread across your face. That’s exactly what happens when I meet Cassie De Colling for the first time in a Commercial Drive coffee shop in East Vancouver.
Originally from Melbourne, Cassie has lived here since 2018, after being convinced to visit by a friend who was working as a set deck in Vancouver’s bustling film industry. The night she landed at YVR, she was immediately whisked away to a party, where she would meet her now partner. Together ever since, the two of them have spent the last six years integrating into the creative community of East Van.
On this particular Friday morning the weather mirrors Cassie’s sunny disposition. Buoyant with excitement, she asks what I thought of the previous night’s event: the debut screening of her Telus Original documentary feature, Shut Out.
I tell her the truth - I had greatly enjoyed it. A compelling look at the ground-breaking accomplishments of Olympic gold medallist goalkeeper, Stephanie Labbé, the film sensitively explores the challenges facing Canadian women’s soccer. Held at the VIFF Centre, the sold out showing had been packed to the rafters with supporters, sponsors, and a host of aspiring young soccer players.
Being entrusted with the stories of inspirational women has become Cassie’s modus operandi – and she occupies the space with great pride. Starting her journey as a director in Melbourne, Australia, her long-standing passion for crafting meaningful narratives and raising awareness of significant people, places and perspectives has been spurred on by her natural inclination to connect with the subject matter.
According to Cassie, building relationships is the most important aspect of her process which she feels she has "a special superpower for.” Taking great care to adopt new outlooks that go beyond the day-to-day silo of her own life, she does everything she can to facilitate the most authentic on-screen experience. “I like to establish a lot of trust, building close ties with the subject, whoever or whatever it is, because in my mind, threading that needle translates into authentic storytelling, that’s the biggest achievement.”
For this reason, the research and development stage plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of her storytelling capabilities. “Let’s say I’m making a film about you,” she says, instinctively activating creative mode, “It might sound a little kooky but I might suggest we jump in the ocean or something. I’d explain how we’re gonna get some crazy underwater shots to emulate how you like to get completely out of your head, then we're gonna blast really loud music over the top. And, because we’d established a level of trust and understanding of one another by that point, I’d hope you’d go – yeah, that's fucking dope, let’s do it.”
Driven to tell stories that mean something, the director places special emphasis on empowering her subjects. Relishing every opportunity to shoot from the heart, Cassie has delivered universally resonant stories for both the commercial and entertainment world.
Whether it’s skating, soccer, or snowboarding, Cassie is keen to create films about all manner of sporting achievements. But I’m curious - where does this desire to cover female narratives come from? “There were very few stories of strong admirable women when I was growing up,” she explains. “It was hard to find role models in sport to look up to because their stories weren’t being told - it was something I felt was missing from my childhood.”
“Even recently, when I was doing research in preparation for Shut Out, I looked at Netflix’s sports category to see how many female biopics there were, and for every 10 films, maybe only one had a woman on the poster.”
Precious Leader Woman, her film about Olympic snowboarder and British Columbia native, Spencer O’Brien, is the project that Cassie tells me demonstrates what she does best. “She was willing to embrace my ideas and, at times, even elevate them. We got on really well – we’ve kept in touch!” This connection between director and subject clearly was a benefit to the work, with the film winning multiple accolades such as the 2021 Banff Mountain Film Festival, No Man's Land Film Festival and Eastern Sierra Film Festivals People’s Choice Award and Best Direction at the Canadian Leo Awards, Best B.C Director at Whistler Film Festival.
Biographical projects like Precious Leader Woman and Shut Out are not the only method of documentary filmmaking Cassie’s storytelling capabilities are put to. That same part of her personality driven to fly the flag for female voices wants to advocate for climate change, freedom of the press and equal opportunities for all. She has delivered numerous social impact films for the likes of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, International Women’s Day, and the University of Melbourne’s Degrees of Impact initiative.
The latter work saw Cassie travel to Afghanistan to capture the reality for members of the international press in a crisis situation. “I’m very proud of the beautifully observed documentary style we employed,” she says, reflecting on the award-winning film. “I crafted hand drawn storyboards and Jake Simkin - our talent - led the way, setting up filming deals and finding crew to help us.”
“Using his personally shot media from conflict zones in the Middle East and Horn of Africa is what really made this piece impactful. The experience paired well with my previous work as a travel videographer and helped me understand there's a big difference to going to a place and extracting a story and going home again - almost treating people as a commodity for the privilege of your goals. I operate in totally the opposite way: I want to really get to know someone, to get a sense of what their world is like, and what parts of their world they want to share with you.”
“It was a similar experience with Precious Leader Woman: Spencer came from a native-run island in BC, which has an impoverished and working class / affluent divide. Initially, I wanted to film on the impoverished side, as I wanted to push the rags to riches story. But when we talked about this, it became very clear that this wasn’t her personal lived experience so it would be dishonest to portray her to have come from that part of town - adding stereotyping to an untrue narrative.”
Clearly there are no limits to who or what Cassie can connect with. Rather than create stories, she prefers to work with the real world stories we all offer organically.
It’s this unwavering commitment to documenting underrepresented narratives that spoke to woman-owned Canadian production company, FRANK Content. After striking up an organic relationship with CEO Danielle Kappy, Cassie decided to sign on as a commercial director in 2023. Impressed by their refreshingly engaged and hands on approach, the long-term freelance filmmaker instantly felt she was in safe hands. Through this partnership, she hopes to expand on her commercial work, by applying a similar filmmaking approach with brands that are prepared to “take risks and get loose.” She tells me she’d love to shoot for brands like Nike, Alo, Arcteryx - high-end, outdoorsy companies that imbue values of sustainability and social justice, and would benefit from her ability to elevate authenticity into a real life but beautiful observed scope.
She becomes animated talking about this. “Regardless of the brief, I love the collaboration of it all. Doing test shoots and sharing storyboards, getting feedback and bouncing ideas around — it’s all about exchanging energy and getting creative.”
Before we part ways I want to know what’s next on Cassie’s docket. She’s signed up for an eight week yoga instructing course. This feels fitting, given her die-hard dedication to connecting the dots within herself and, in turn, with the world that surrounds her. As we go our separate ways, I realise I am already looking forward to hearing about the next fascinating subject she stumbles across on her adventures.
