Jackie Torrens
Writer, Actor, Documentarian and Film Director
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Jackie Torrens is an award-winning writer, actor, documentarian and film director known for her strong visual style, empathetic portrayal of her subjects, and a keen appreciation for the offbeat. Torrens has done films for CBC, the Documentary Channel & Bravofactual and include Edge of East, My Week on Welfare, Free Reins, Small Town Show Biz, Radical Age and Bernie Langille Wants To Know Who Killed Bernie Langille. Her work has been recognized in the Nova Scotia Legislature for its contribution to the cultural life of the province. Along with producer Jessica Brown, Torrens is co-owner of Peep Media, a Halifax-based production company. As an actor, she received a Best Actress Canadian Screen Award nomination for her work as Drucie McKay in the OUTtv mini series Sex and Violence. Recently, she portrayed Hamlet in Below the Salt's production at Neptune Theatre.
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What are you most proud of professionally? And who or why?
I'm most proud of being able to be a storyteller, whether that's as an actor or a writer or a director - and to tell both fiction and non-fiction stories. In terms of my documentary work, I am incredibly grateful for the people who have become my documentary participants. To get to know them and have their trust is an immense privilege. And to have the stories I tell be of value to others is an incredible thing because it gives my life purpose. Story is meaning. Story is magic. Long live Story.
What’s your vision for Atlantic Canada in 10 years? What’s our biggest opportunity now?
Numbers from Statistics Canada revealed that the economic impact of cultural industries in 2017 was approximately $59 billion. It's time for Atlantic Canada - everywhere, really - to recognize the importance of arts workers and re-invest in the arts so we can keep talented people working here. Our collective cultural contribution is immense and undeniable, but we are also an economic force that deserves respect, recognition and support.
What was your greatest stage of growth? What made it a shift for you?
I've had many stages of growth - I hope to have many more to come. I think it's best to be a student all your life. A big breakthrough for me came when I discarded the angst/doubt/anxiety of my 20's, in favor of just putting my head down and doing everything I could to learn my craft. You're born with the talent you're born with - the rest is up to learning, working hard, risking failing and being open to the experience of living.
What’s your favourite or most read book or podcast? Now or at each of your greatest stages of growth?
“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
What’s your deepest learning from this past year? How did/will you apply it?
My biggest lesson in the last year was the realization that, in order to maintain optimum creativity, you have to always have a balance of work and play. This came after an extended period of work, where I had no time off to restore and I burnt myself out. I think a lot about the three field rotation system developed in the Middle Ages - and how a fruitful harvest depends on a field to plant in spring, a field to plant in fall and a field that's left to fallow. Fallow time is important because only then can the weeds and wildflowers come and the brain can start to play and stumble into discoveries. That's how things regenerate. That's how growth continues.
Who’s inspired you, directly or indirectly? How have they inspired you?
My female work colleagues inspire me. We work twice as hard as our male colleagues - and we do it with less mentorship and less development and less opportunities and less pay. Women who take leadership positions in their communities and challenge the status quo are my heroes.
What would you have done differently?
When I was just starting out I sometimes took opportunities for granted, as if they came my way because they were due to me - a really arrogant way of thinking that I’ll put down to being in my pretentious 20’s. Now I greet any opportunity that comes my way with gratitude - and that appreciation of an opportunity helps inform the quality of my work.
What were your priorities and how did they help you overcome some of the struggles you’ve faced?
Since I was a kid, my priority has always been to tell stories. Stories are the way out of darkness, of trauma, of ignorance, of isolation. My priority has always been to transform what is ugly, difficult, confusing into something useful for living through story. Story is the north star I follow and it’s never let me down.
How have you recovered from fractured professional relationships? What uncomfortable truths have you learned about yourself in those experiences?
I think I used to not consider how important the vibe is to a work environment - and how negativity and toxicity are contagious and really shut down the best work, the best workers and the best ideas. Creativity is a risk - and it takes being vulnerable to explore it - therefore it needs a safe environment in which to express it. Now, and for some time, the alchemy of a team is something I place a lot of importance on - and by alchemy I mean the talent of a team but also the temperament of a team. To me, the temperament of someone is equally important to their talent because the work is hard enough, I don’t want to waste a minute or an ounce of energy on roadblockers, I want it all going to the project.
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Actor, Writer, Documentarian, Film Director, Host, Sacred Cow Kicker