Once in a while I call my ex-landlord and friend John to see what's up. I will try to recap my phone call with him when the incident that we are covering today happened.
vachemorte: "Hey John how are you?"
John: "Big PANIC AROUND HERE" The judge finally charged the squatter that was living in my house without a lease and without paying the rent for nearly 4 years. He was so pissed that he stabbed Maurice (John's legal consultant) in the eye with a pen! Then he hit Robin (his brother) so hard that he is in the hospital with a tube connected to is brain to drain the fluid. He attacked them IN COURT!!!! Can you believe it?"
I went to visit Robin in the hospital at the time of the incident and unfortunately John was not exaggerating for once. He was in good spirits but he did have a tube connected to his head to drain the extra fluid... He is talking about it in this news report that I saved when it first aired.
NEWS COVERAGE ATTACK IN COURT
This story made a big splash in the printed media in Montréal and I saved a few (the only time I bought newspapers the last ten years)...
But this is not the beginning of the story. Here's how it goes:
MACHINECO part 1
First there's John.
We rented a loft from him for several years and thus had ample time to study his way of life. Every time he visited the building it was like witnessing a hurricane passing through and he often left us flustered, angry or laughing.
As time went on we learned more and more about him; he owns a company called MACHINECO that sells and rents various industrial machines to customers all over the world. He is also the owner of many buildings in Montreal which he both rents and sells. In addition, he is suing and being sued by numerous people and represents himself in court. He now has extensive legal knowledge, and wins more often than he loses.
Then there's Robin.
John shares this chaotic lifestyle with his brother Robin Doak. We frequently encountered them frazzled, covered head to toe in dirt, running on no sleep, and announcing catastrophe. Be it a burst pipe, flooding, fires, theft, tenants not paying rent, lost machine shipments, problems with Revenu Quebec, or more then ten court cases in process, we never ceased to be fascinated with their stories.
From our perspective, the interaction occurring between them while working together is extremely interesting. Visually they look alike, and watching them argue is highly entertaining. Despite that, they appear to intuitively understand each other and have continued working together with an almost mysterious harmony for more than 25 years.
MACHINECO part 2
A few words from our subject:
Sometimes our office is a control tower for crashing opportunities, in effect planes trying to all land at once, flying low, in a fog, to a mountain landing strip, but the radar and ground approach is down.
Worse, we’re taking sporadic enemy fire. Most outsiders, seeing typical messy desks and some old computer screens, would never guess what goes on! What you see is an all—too—accurate reflection of daily life. All shooting was live, with no plot, no script whatsoever and no rehearsals.
Five years ago, after trooping over here religiously on the 1st of the month, (as tenant), @vachemorte often encountered the unusual high-stress “office action” and he asked “can this madness [and intensity] be real?”.
@vachemorte and @juliakponsford seem to have reversed the corollary rendering a sow’s ear into a silk purse demonstrating amazing production values, considering the budget; but of course that is up to the eye of the beholder. I congratulate producer/director @vachemorte and @juliakponsford, on their video series. (especially considering the subject. :-)
Best regards,
John Doak
MACHINECO part 3
Hanging around with John and Robin, while we were filming, was not an easy task but through this experience we have gotten to know John on a more profound level and we discovered that he has a flair for drama and could just as easily be an actor as a machine salesman. There is a reason why we decided to film them and do a documentary. We became fascinated by their life style, their adventures and incredible stories. We are not alone, everybody we meet that knows them personally agrees and always has an amazing story to tell. They are some kind of legend in Montreal and I'm not even kidding....
MACHINECO part 4
John and Robin Doak have a very unique lifestyle, working in both the industrial machine and real estate industries. We used to be amazed by their stories so we decided to follow them around!
In this episode we find out about deals on eggrolls, the devious scrappers who steal from John and Graffiti (it really rots his socks).
MACHINECO part 5
If you don't know yet, being around my previous landlords is a bit intense. They run on a high level of stress facing many crises a day and it never seems to slow down, to the contrary. John is suing and being sued by numerous people and represents himself in court. He now has extensive legal knowledge, and wins more often than he loses. In this episode we offer a behind the scenes look into the legal processes they deal with daily. We also have a rotten fridge on our hands, so let's see if John can keep his cool for 5 minutes....
MACHINECO part 6
Our ex-landlord John had many crises striking him at once. First John recaps the story of the egg explosion that happened to his brother Robin. Then we got too much snow in the junkyard so let's see how John deals with the situation.
MACHINECO part 7
This week our ex-landlord John has to go to the bank to deposit a check and it's an EMERGENCY. Why? We don't know... It's pretty simple to go to the bank and deposit a check right? Well if you've been around you already know that even a simple easy task might turn into a crisis when John is involved...
This documentary series was made to share the madness of the lifestyle of John and his brother Robin but it's also a way to showcase my music and sound design concepts. We're happy to share this project with you for one last time.
@vachemorte and @juliakponsford