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LeBlanc's documentary explores Cubers' undying obession

tarsenault@herald.ca (originally published by The Chronicle Herald)
Fri. Sep 12 - 4:46 AM

Being hopelessly devoted to the Rubik's Cube may sound like fodder for a mockumentary, but it's no joke.

Richard LeBlanc, the director of the documentary Cubers, initially thought the puzzle might be ripe for spoofing. Then the pieces changed.

"Mockumentaries was a contest that was shown on CBC for a few years and I submitted a short film called Rubik's Cube," said LeBlanc during a phone interview from Toronto.

"I wasn't looking to make a documentary. I was looking to make a mockumentary."

His interest in what he had previously only regarded as a pre-teen plaything was rekindled by his sister, who reminisced about the multi-coloured mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik.

"Six years or more ago my sister and I were talking about one of her childhood memories and she was talking about this one particular day and how the Rubik's Cube had played such an important role in that particular day. I thought that was really funny," said LeBlanc.

He discovered that there was a world championship and that the Cube wasn't just a nostalgia item. It turns out that the Internet has fuelled a global community of rabid Cubers, keeping the fiendishly clever device from going the way of the Pet Rock.

The most well-known version is a three-by-three-by-three construction of movable pieces. After being scrambled, the goal is to return each nine-segment side to one colour.

Devotees commune with each other electronically and post their blistering solution times — some in less than 20 seconds — for all to see.

"Doing the Rubik's Cube really fast is a great visual, but I knew I couldn’t sustain a movie about solving it really fast. I had to tell compelling stories about people. It doesn't matter that I care about the Rubik's Cube or not. It matters that I care about that person who's obsessed with it or passionate about it," said LeBlanc, who started working on Cubers about five years ago. That's before a competitive documentary genre including compelling films like Spellbound (spelling bees) and King of Kong (old school video games) became popular.

"Spellbound only came out after I started on this. Until Spellbound, I didn't really have a template of how I was going to do this.

"I just knew that I had to get four camera people and four sound people and we were going to an event and we have no money and we're going to film this. And then we're going to make a trailer and it’s going to take two more years to sell that and get development money and three years later I'm actually going to have a budget. I didn't know that Day One," said LeBlanc.

Obviously, his perseverance has paid off. Cubers is to have its world premiere on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. at Empire Park Lane Cinemas in Halifax as part of the Atlantic Film Festival. It's produced by Walter Forsyth at Red Cube Productions in Halifax and is scheduled to air on CBC's The Lens in the fall.

There will be a free demonstration and lesson session on Saturday afternoon at Park Lane Mall on Spring Garden Road in Halifax featuring cube champions Dan Knights from the U.S. and Matt Walters from Canada. LeBlanc, a Shediac, N.B., native who maintains a regular job as a flight attendant, may be the first in line.

"I've never solved it," he admitted.

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