Bio
One could write a separate Bio for both Mark Hug & May Charters but this a Mark & May film after all; combined, intertwined and inescapable.
Yes, Mark was born in British Columbia and grew up on an apple orchard in the rural mountain side area of Creston, B.C. Yes, May was born in Toronto Ont. amongst the Spanakopita and Souvlaki of the Danforth Greek population. Yes, as a baby and into her childhood, May fell asleep to the click and reel of a Steinbeck editing machine that shared her room and was worked into the wee hours of the morning by her filmmaking parents (Rodney Charters, ASC, CSC, and Gillian Adamson). Yes, Mark was plucked from a Calgary bar into the high fashion world of London and New York. Yes, May attended, LAMDA, NYFA, danced in different Flamenco companies and directed several short films and a music video before ever meeting Mark. But, that's only the back story to the night Mark attended an acting class in LA.
Mark wore these thick wool striped socks. He wore them even though they were itchy and hot as hell. He wore them because he suspected that a particular, yet unknown to him girl might take notice of such socks as a sort of an openness to mating. May of course noticed them and had a fond comment towards his mating socks (it's not that she had a foot fetish but rather a belief that a man could be summed up by attention to such details).
So, it happened that May was looking for people to sit for a series of portraits, Mark volunteered. May picked him to sit first and the next Sunday May arrived with paint, easel and canvas to Mark's apartment. Mark had been dabbling in Polaroid. That afternoon was the official start of Mark & May a project that became known as Portraits and Polaroids. A project that had May paint portraits of 15 actors while Mark captured the sittings by various forms of Polaroid; actor's projections and reactions to themselves in Acrylic. They showed in the LA Gallery "Les Deux" and soon began their next project; a film.
They knew little of the story but began recruiting like-minded souls to lead a charge back to Mark's childhood apple orchard. They brought a camera to Mark's ten year high school reunion and attempted some sort of short film/documentary, which served more as an inspiration for a story and lead them to return in the summer to start filming a project that took them 5 years, 20,000 miles on the Jeep, 3 different working titles, 4 DP's, 2 sound men and a partridge in a pear tree. Actually, a Robin in an apple tree. Robin being May's younger brother, Robin Charters, technical genius and free spirit; the ribbon that helped wrap it all up.
They had lived between LA and a loft above Marks' parent's roadside fruit-stand. They scouted Abercrombie and Fitch models for friend Bruce Weber to pay for the film and life in general. Life in general being the film, they lived through it and by it. The story was an education and inspiration for their own lives. They currently are brewing new projects and reside in the land of fruit and nuts (Los Angeles), but also share time with Kootenay Lake, Port Hope and whatever friend will take them in.
