Jim Allodi turns out to be tall, dark and -- due to an excellent nose and a noble brow -- handsomer than most.

The handsome thing is handy for his work as an actor. And his height is useful, no doubt, if he needs to be intimidating in his other job: Director Allodi is the filmmaker who wrote and directed The Uncles, an engaging feature about a man who feels responsible for his brother and sister while he struggles with his own path in life. The movie is playing at the Cumberland.

The Uncles is a story steeped in family love; as life imitates art, the thirtysomething Allodi hurries into a hotel coffee shop for this interview and, looking surprised and delighted, spots a cousin at a nearby table and gives her a big hug.

Modest (and funny), Allodi is happy to praise the actors in The Uncles, talk about executive producer Dezso Magyar as a mentor, quote Norman Jewison, do a killer imitation of Dustin Hoffman in Rainman and generally not talk about himself.

On directing The Uncles, he says, "If you cast something right, you don't have to say that much."

Over breakfast, he says his big hope for the film is that the cast is honoured for their work. "That some of the actors get nominated for some kind of, you know, golden lump of, um, toast award or something."

Allodi grew up in Toronto, attended Jarvis Collegiate and then went off to NYU to study film. That, he says, was a bit of a disappointment.

"In film, all you can teach is structure. You can't teach sensibility. It was such a mainstream place. I was shocked. A lot of the students had grown up on TV, you know, watching Spielberg's Amazing Stories, which is fine, but I felt like a freak."

Allodi graduated and started writing and directing short films. He worked as a film editor and as a cinematographer. As an actor, Allodi has appeared in some 20 film and TV productions.

So which side of the camera will he stay on? Acting, explains Allodi, began as a means to an end. "I was working as an assistant editor, as a grip, an electrician -- I figured as an actor I could work less and write more," he says.

But now the acting is going well, he adds. "Turns out when it really goes well, acting is like writing or painting or anything else -- when it's going well you feel alive and validated. So there's no point in giving it up now," he says.

Writing, acting, filming

"I'm not great, but I can do it," the filmmaker continues. "That said, what's really fulfilling is something where I get to keep working with actors, with writing and filming."

Allodi will do just that with a current project called Ditch, which he describes as a 'kaleidoscopic' narrative wherein regular folk and grifters cross into each other's lives.

He's also going to direct a couple of things for other writers. "That's much less lonely," he notes, adding, "I've just always wanted to make films." (Review of: The Uncles).


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