Q&A with "The Chiefs" Producer David Bajurny

[Ace22]

Most of us who are LNAH fans have seen the documentary, "The Chiefs". I interviewed producer David Bajurny about his experience making the film.


In the fall of 2002, Toronto actor and filmmaker David Bajurny received a message from his brother Mike in Laval, Quebec. Mike Bajurny was a journeyman minor league enforcer who had landed a job with the Laval Chiefs of the Quebec Semi-Professional Hockey League (now the LNAH). Mike assured David that this brand of hockey was like “nothing you’ve ever seen” and he should attend a game. With a busy work schedule David was reluctant, but knowing his brother was nearing the end of his career, he decided to travel to watch him play. By the time the game ended he knew there was a story that had to be told. That story is “The Chiefs”, a documentary that follows Mike and fellow tough guys Mike Henderson, Cory Holland, Brady Austin, and Tim Levesque through a brawling season with the Laval Chiefs, the toughest hockey team in toughest hockey league in the world.

Q: What do remember about that first game?

D.B.: It was unbelievable. I saw a game in Verdun when the Verdun and Laval rivalry was at it's peak. We drove up to the rink and there are a couple paddy wagons, a fire truck and mobs of security. It was packed so we sat in this very small Laval section. Right off the opening face off Cory Holland fights a guy. As soon as the ref drops the puck they step back, drop their sticks, gloves and take their helmets off. The guy Holland fought was much larger but Cory ended up knocking him out. I don’t know if it was a punch or if he hit his head on the ice but they had to carry him off. That was three seconds into my first game. I’m not sure if somebody fought right after that but I do remember at one point, five times in a row they would drop the puck and a fight would start. My brother fought (Joel) Theriault through two songs, “Eye of the Tiger” and “Thunderstruck”. They went across the whole ice towards the other team’s net and back again. Anyway, it was spectacular and I thought somebody has to make a film about this because this is a piece of the world that I’ve never seen before. When I got back to Toronto I told the story to the director and my business partner Jason Gileno.

Q: What was the original concept behind the film?

D.B.: The idea was to follow the goons, the tough guys, not the goal scorers. Their fights were great and they had this minor celebrity status and it became very interesting to us to have these guys tell their stories. These were guys who had this dream of making it to the NHL, some were close and some of them were there and we wanted to hear what their life was like now and what they wanted to do afterwards.

Q: Were you happy with the final product?

D.B.: There’s things we would have liked to have done better. I wish we could have seen a bit more hockey because that’s one thing that impressed us, you paid ten bucks and it was great hockey to watch. The problem was we could only afford to use one camera for most of the games and we were too far back to get a lot of great hockey footage.
We missed some crazy stuff like when Bob Berger (Chiefs’ owner) goes down to the referee’s room during the playoffs. A fight erupted and they had to post a $10,000 bond before they could play again. There was another time when a brawl on the ice spilled out to the parking lot. So there were guys fighting and sparks were flying off their skates and stuff like that.

Q: There was criticism that the film focused too much on the negative, sad and depressing aspects of the player’s lives.

D.B.: Yeah, I have heard that criticism. I think there could’ve been some more opportunities for lighter things in the film for sure. But for a lot of them, they spent their downtime asking these big life questions so they really weren’t happy people. We didn’t see them at their best. When the Chiefs won the cup most of our guys weren’t dressed, only Henderson was playing. There’s this argument of everyone having a role but in the end the team didn’t have the confidence that the tough guys could do anything else. We wanted to put that out there. If we didn’t add that bitterness it would just be a highlight reel.

Q: How did you do financially?

D.B.: In terms of sales we did quite well but it’s still been an enormous money losing proposition. I wish it could have gotten a theatrical release or a spot in the Toronto Film Festival or the Hot Docs Festival. We couldn’t get any support from the Canadian establishment because we were more or less unknown filmmakers at the time and also because it was about hockey and fighting. The kind of people who make the selections at those festivals probably aren’t hockey fighting fans or feel that there’s been hockey fight films before and want to see something that’s not. But it was an important story to tell, especially in the hockey landscape and it helps us for other projects because now we’ve done something that people know about.

Q: What was the most gratifying reaction to the film?

D.B.: Probably my brother’s. He watched it and I was really nervous about it. It was the first cut, it ends on a somber note and I didn’t know how he’d feel seeing himself in that light. When it ended he just said, “Yup, that’s exactly what it’s like”. That was really nice to hear because he was the guy that we made a documentary on and it was a big part of his life.
The Calgary Film Festival was nice enough to fly us out there. A lot of the Flames players and front office came to see it in the theatre. At the Newport Beach Film Festival, some guys from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks were there. They groaned a bit when they found out (ex-teammate) Bobby Dollas played defense for the Chiefs but they just loved it. They knew half the guys and they were talking out loud and laughing saying stuff like, “Oh my God, did you see that slash?”

Q: You did a lot of filming at the apartment at the Laval Arena where the players lived. Did you ever stay there yourself?

D.B.: There were times when we’d stay the weekend and we’d sleep at the rink. They had these two large couches that we’d sleep on and at one point Jason spent a week up there in the rink and followed people around. Other times we’d drive to Montreal Sunday morning at 6am, see the game, have a beer or two and drive to Toronto right after.
There was only one can and if you’re on the wrong side you had to walk the width of the arena to get there. My Dad was staying there and had to make the walk because he’s not going to pee off the balcony like the other guys would. There are no doors so when you walk by you see everything and I guess each room was like one of the seven deadly sins. He saw one guy with his girlfriend and the next guy is rolling a joint and the next guy…who knows what he was doing….anyway, to an older, married guy it was kind of surreal.
I brought a girl to a game once and I tried to explain the whole apartment at the rink thing to her. We went back after the game for a beer and I was thinking the apartment was looking rather clean, in good shape. She said “It’s worse than I thought”. She wouldn’t touch anything or even sit down. And then we left, she didn’t want to stay any longer.

Q: What was it like hanging out with those guys?

D.B.: Well for one thing, when you go to the clubs in Laval you have the best bodyguards in the world. They have celebrity status so they do what they want and have a lot of fun. On a personal level, I’ve found the toughest guys generally are the nicest guys. What I really admire is if they think something they say it, it may not be politically correct but if they feel a certain way they tell you. You don’t get that in a lot of people, especially in Toronto.
Eventually all the goons get traded so they all know each other. My brother told me one time around 10 to 15 of the Quebec league tough guys went to this bar in Montreal. It took about an hour for the bouncers to get up the courage to finally say , “Do you guys mind not hanging out here ?” They were afraid if things got out of hand there was nothing they could do about it.

Q: What was it like for you when Mike,Cory and Brady didn’t play during the playoffs ?

D.B.: It was very frustrating because you see these guys make big sacrifices and you know they’d been promised to play. It happened to me when I played university basketball. I know I wasn’t the best player out there but there’s this thing that happens when the coach has his favourites or who he thinks is capable. He goes with those players and they may or may not be delivering. If you haven’t been playing in games inevitably your confidence goes down. Then he throws you into a game and all you’ve been doing is practicing and when you get your shot you blow it because you’re not ready.
Mike would say this for sure, the coaches in that league aren’t good. They don’t have good people skills and they’re not into developing players. I know you don’t want to put a lot of investment in somebody when they could get traded but if you don’t want to develop your hockey players it doesn’t say a lot about the kind of coach or person you are. That was the most frustrating thing for me because those guys were out there doing what they did for the team and the coach didn’t give a sh*t.

Q: How were the fighters viewed by the skill players ?

D.B.: We interviewed some of their skill players like (Michel) Mongeau, (Denis) Chalifoux and (Dominic) Perna and they said they loved it. Those guys could do anything they wanted. If they wanted to stick a guy in the balls and play dirty they could because if a guy retaliates they always had two guys who could walk right in and make sure they weren’t getting roughed up. A few times with all the mayhem, you could see it in their faces, it was like,”…c’mon let’s just play hockey for awhile”. But in general it was like having your big brother on the playground all the time.

Q: What was the best fight you saw?

D.B.: The fight itself doesn’t go the distance, but the most memorable one for me was the giant (Sorel’s Domenic Forcier) and Tim Levesque. Nobody on the Chiefs wanted to fight the guy. He skates by Mike and Mike is 6’3” and he towers over him. Tim is huge, 6’4”, 260 lbs but the giant is 6’7”, 320 lbs. Tim just got ahead of the guy and said, “We’re going to fight here and we’re going to do this”. There are not really a lot of punches thrown and Tim wrestles him to the ice. But if you see it in slow motion there’s one punch the giant throws that just grazed the top of Tim’s head. The guy is 320 lbs. and your skull has a structure that can only withstand so much. If that punch would have landed who knows?
The fight I’ve heard the most about was the one between Patrick Cote and Link Gaetz. My brother said it is the most amazing, scary, frightening and awesome fight he’s ever seen. Nobody had seen Cote knocked down with a punch. Mike said the players on the bench were completely quiet. He said they separated for a moment during the fight, looked at each other and it was like, let’s keep going because we need to resolve this. Besides that, the linesmen were too terrified to step in between them.

Q: The DVD has an instructional feature called “Fight School” where your brother and Brady Austin teach hockey fight strategy. You took part in the school. Did you consider playing in a game?

D.B.: Not a chance. I played hockey and I could score but I never had the killer attitude to be aggressive. It’s funny, I was trying to get in touch with Jamie Leinhos for an interview or a release or something. I hesitated to tell him who I was because of my brother’s reputation. I wasn’t sure how I would be received or if he would cooperate. Anyway, I told him I’m David Bajurny and he goes, “Bajurny” ? Are you related to Mike Bajurny”? When I sad yes he said, “Are you as big and tough as he is”? As a joke I told him, “He’s my little brother and I taught him everything he knows”. So he says, “Do you want to come and play for us ? I can get you in for Friday’s game”. The guy wanted to sign me to a contract over the phone without even seeing me based on my last name. I freakin’ loved that but I didn’t think I'd last the warm-up in that league. In “Fight School” it’s a scary sight when Mike decides to fight and he just looks at you and there’s nowhere to run. I’ve watched a lot of his fights but when you’re lining up with the guy it’s totally different. He comes at me and I was like, “Oh, this isn’t a good idea”. Anyway, we have our mock fight and I say, “ Yeah, I could have got a couple punches in against you” and he said, “No, that punch I threw in the beginning would’ve knocked you out”. I went back and looked at it in slow motion and what happens before we grab is he actually throws a bomb from the sky that I didn’t even see. So I would’ve been weak-kneed and he would’ve finished me off. It was embarrassing but he punches so fast. The frame rate we shot the film at was 29 frames a second. When he and Brady were messing around we timed one of Mike’s jabs and it was faster than 1/29th of a second.


Q: I’ll read a review from Exclaim magazine and I’d like your reaction.
“If you want to watch some guys on skates beat the sh*t out of each other, this is your movie. Thankfully this aspect of the documentary is secondary…the majority of the film takes its cue from docs like Project Grizzly where absurd and potentially laughable subjects are portrayed as admirable in their pursuit. The Chiefs follows a cast of minor league bottom feeders who all favour the rough stuff. The players come across essentially as guys who would do anything to pursue the dream of hockey and their girlfriends as loyal, long suffering followers. The Chiefs could just be a freak show about a league desperate to pervert a game into a blood sport in the name of profit but it manages to provide a sometimes funny, sometimes sad portrayal of the grimy small town underbelly of our national game”.

D.B.: Well, I don’t like” bottom feeders” to describe these guys. They are obviously trying to dress up their review a little bit but I think they aren’t being careful with their adjectives. My brother is probably more honest and loyal than I am. I get the feeling this was written by someone who has never been on the line in a team environment or who ever had a dream and went for it. I think what’s very admirable about the film is that these guys, for the love of hockey, put up with a lot of sh*t that would make most people cave under in a weekend. Maybe it really didn’t quite work out the way they wanted it to but they’re still slugging away. I said to Mike, “Play as long as you can. Put up with it as best you can because in the end, the decision will be made for you and if they don’t want you anymore, that’s the end”.

Q: What do you miss most about the whole experience ?

D.B.: I’ll tell you what I miss. I miss going to Laval and watching hockey games. Everybody was super nice to us, French or English. I miss watching my brother play and feeling proud.

Q: Where is everybody now ?

D.B.: My brother’s a real estate agent in Ottawa, so if you live in the area and you want to buy or sell, look him up. Last I heard, Mike Henderson owns an electronics store outside Montreal and Brady Austin is a firefighter in Alberta. Cory Holland is still playing. He’s with the Amqui Aces of the Eastern Quebec Senior League. Tim Levesque? He’s too enigmatic to locate but I think he’s in Ottawa working as a personal trainer.

[Mr.CoryTrevor]

Thanks for posting this, I just watched the movie again about a week ago. It's a great film, and it's good to hear that the guys seem to be doing well.

[oldtimegoodtime]

Interesting documentary, Tim Levesque

[nasty]

http://www.semipromagazine.com/joueu...icForcier4.jpg


thanks Ace, nice read... here is a pic of big Dominic Forcier when he was with Sorel


What was the best fight you saw?

D.B.: The fight itself doesn’t go the distance, but the most memorable one for me was the giant (Sorel’s Domenic Forcier) and Tim Levesque.

[hamarr]

Tim Levesque? He’s too enigmatic to locate but I think he’s in Ottawa working as a personal trainer.

Funny thing is he is a friend of a friend of mine. He is a personal trainer and also a bouncer in Ottawa.

[Bwarren002]

This was a great film I saw it opening night in a small thearte in Hamilton while I was on a coaching weekend. It was kinda of a spur of the moment decision but I am thankful we took the time to go and watch.

Tim is definately a special kinda of man if he was willing to go with that monster... I have to say Tim brought alot of laughs to everyone in the theatre that night

[muket_ball]

I just ordered it. cant wait, ive wanted it for two years now but never ordered it for some reason.

[blades29]

A great Documentary. I knew about the Cheifs "legacy" if you will, but to see it is something else... Awesome interview. Me and the g/f are gonna watch it again tonight, so I can get riled up for my curling game

[Chiefs for Life]

Originally Posted by Bwarren002

This was a great film I saw it opening night in a small thearte in Hamilton while I was on a coaching weekend. It was kinda of a spur of the moment decision but I am thankful we took the time to go and watch.

Tim is definately a special kinda of man if he was willing to go with that monster... I have to say Tim brought alot of laughs to everyone in the theatre that night

By what I was told Tim Levesque is a Doorman/Bouncer at a bar in Ontario, an still ain't the shapest knife in the set...

[Polish Hammer]

Still waiting on that tryout with the Chicago Blackhawks or Norfolk Admirals I'm sure.

[Fotiu]

I just found this dvd on mailorder.
Is it recommendable?

[Bwarren002]

Originally Posted by Fotiu

I just found this dvd on mailorder.
Is it recommendable?

Its a good flick, I have seen it several times and its definately a good buy.

[JackalsKnuckles]

Originally Posted by Fotiu

I just found this dvd on mailorder.
Is it recommendable?

I bought it about a year ago. It is a good flick. You probably arent gonna watch it 25 times, but it is a good look at the off ice side of the LNAH.

[Shopping Carts]

Originally Posted by Fotiu

I just found this dvd on mailorder.
Is it recommendable?

If your an LNAH fan then it's a must. If you're just a hockey fights fan then it's still pretty good.