Richard Duckett <\/b>Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n
\u201cSalud!\u201d \u201cSaute!\u201d \u201cSliante!\u201d \u201cGan bae!\u201d \u201cNa zdrowie!\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got a drink in your hand, you don\u2019t need a translation. Just say \u201cCheers!\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Ford, an actor, stuntman, filmmaker, producer and author who grew up in West Boylston, has so far collected videos from 90 people in 70 countries across six continents all giving an authentic \u201cCheers!\u201d in their native tongue and with a local drink in hand.<\/p>\n
Ford is putting together a short documentary titled \u201cCheers Around the World\u201d that will have its first screening Sept. 14 at the Silicon Beach Film Festival, held in the famous TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The version being screened is what you could call a first draft (or draught), so to speak, since Ford is still working on the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to 20 different countries. I\u2019m not a huge drinker, but whatever the local drink is, I\u2019ll always try it,\u201d Ford said of how he got the idea for the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what I found more entertaining is what they say, how locals would say \u2018Cheers\u2019 when raising a glass or drink. A lot of Spanish-speaking countries say \u2018Salud\u2019 or \u2018Saute.\u2019 In Ireland they say \u2018Slainte\u2019, and parts of Asia will say \u2018Ganbae!\u2019 In Poland it\u2019s \u2018Na zdrowie.\u2019 There are a bunch of really exotic ones in the film too that are hard to say. I thought it would be interesting to see how every country said it, and learn a little about their customs,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
Ford, who recently moved to North Carolina, has made several short feature films, including \u201cSmall World,\u201d which is also making the film festival rounds.<\/p>\n
However, \u201cCheers\u201d is Ford\u2019s \u201cfirst foray into a documentary style.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford decided that the people saying \u201ccheers\u201d in the film have to be in their native country and drinking a local beverage. Also, \u201cI tried to get as many people as I could not to be in their apartment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have people toasting in marinas, beaches, on cliffs and golf courses. I have made some unique friends and learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides the videos that participants shot of themselves raising a glass, the documentary includes narrative voiceovers, animations and illustrations.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cheersing in Latin\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Among the video salutations Ford has collected are two men from Morocco in the Sahara Desert toasting next to a camel, a Frenchman by the Eiffel Tower, a safari guide in Botswana and a local villager in the jungles of Sri Lanka. A man in the Philippines said \u201cCheers!\u201d from a golf course and sent Ford 30 takes. \u201cHe must have sent from every hole,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a man in Vatican City (the smallest country in the world) cheersing in Latin.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the United States, Fords puts himself and a friend in the picture, overlooking the Manhattan skyline from New Jersey, drinks in hand.<\/p>\n
Ford also has videos from people in countries where drinking alcohol is banned. A goat farmer in Bangladesh says, \u201cHello, alcohol is forbidden in my country, so please look at my goats.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted this video to be real and unique,\u201d Ford said. \u201cThere are some compilations online, but they are kind of generic. It\u2019s either a guy saying all of them himself or it\u2019s filmed in a New York studio, and although the people are originally from different countries, they are all living in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also, \u201cmost of the videos don\u2019t include a drink. They are just air toasting or holding a glass of water. Here, people all have a local drink,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
It took a while to get people into the flow of participating in \u201cCheers Around the World.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first had the idea, I sent out some emails and calls to family and friends. Everyone thought it was a great premise and said they knew people in other countries they could ask,\u201d Ford said. \u201cBut the videos just weren\u2019t coming in. I sent out mass emails and bugged work friends and co-workers. I even posted ads online, and after months and months of searching, I had only five videos.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Ford had a word with the bartender. Or rather, \u201cI thought maybe I should offer to buy the drink. Then, magically, the videos came in quick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
People took him up on his offer, as Ford would float someone $10 here, $30 there, via his PayPal account.<\/p>\n
The two men from Morocco in the desert said they needed $30 to get into town to buy their beers.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a website where people around the world will wish you a \u201cHappy Birthday!\u201d for $10, and Ford contacted some of them and arranged for \u201cCheers!\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took over four years to get the videos I have right now,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
Actually, there are about 190 countries in the world, and Ford has videos from 90 of them, so now he could say \u201cI\u2019ve bought half the world a drink,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Many did not need the inducement. \u201cSome of them worked me a little, but, for the most part, it was very pleasant. A lot of people said \u2018I\u2019d love to be a part of this. You\u2019re bringing the world together.\u2019 \u201c Ford estimated that the project so far has cost him just under $2,000 to buy drinks. There\u2019s also the cost of editing. The videos that people have sent via their cellphones have to be converted to film for the documentary.<\/p>\n
The documentary is interlaced with some interesting fun facts about saying \u201cCheers!\u201d<\/p>\n
For example, the tradition of touching or clinking glasses before drinking comes from the Vikings. \u201cIn the Middle Ages, Norsemen would poison the enemies\u2019 drinks after battle. So later on, if they had a drink with friends, they would clink the glasses hard enough, to spill some liquid into each others\u2019 glass. This was to prove there was no poison in the drink.<\/p>\n
That is also why a lot of \u2018Cheers\u2019 in other countries will translate to \u2018Your health.\u2019 It can also mean \u2018There\u2019s no poison in your glass,\u2019 \u201c Ford said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, making a \u201ctoast\u201d comes from \u201cback in the day (when) the wine didn\u2019t taste that good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was discovered that putting burnt bread in the wine removed the acidity and enhanced the wine\u2019s flavor, Ford said. The bread didn\u2019t taste so bad, either.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of famous toasts. Ford offered some, including, \u201c\u2018It doesn\u2019t matter if the glass is half empty or half full, there\u2019s always room for more.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Recognized for work in \u2018The Irishman\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Ford has been a stuntman and actor in a number of films. In 2020, he and his fellow cast members received a Screen Actors Guild Nomination for Outstanding Action performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture for their work on Martin Scorcese\u2019s film \u201cThe Irishman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford is a 2000 graduate of St. John\u2019s High School in Shrewsbury, and earned a BFA in acting in the prestigious drama program of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. One of his teachers there, a \u201cfight master\u201d trained in the art of staging fights and stunts, recognized Ford\u2019s dexterity and potential stunt ability and recommended him to the summer program of the International Stunt School in Seattle. In 2006, he was hired as a stunt\/body double for Edward Norton in the crime thriller \u201cPride and Glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford and his wife and children recently bought a house in North Carolina, but he retains ties to New York and family and friends in the West Boylston\/ Worcester area.<\/p>\n
Among the short films he has made, \u201cWe Have Your Wife\u201d has been bought and distributed by Amazon Prime. It is available online to rent and buy as part of a compilation.<\/p>\n
The film, shot in West Boylston and Worcester, is a comedy about a man\u2019s wife (played by Laura Markis) who is kidnapped and locked in a basement. When the kidnappers call the husband with their ransom demands, they are surprised by his response.<\/p>\n
In \u201cSmall World\u201d two American tourists (played by Ford and Hannah Sloat) in a faraway foreign land realize they are not just both from New England, but Central Massachusetts, near Worcester. Shrewsbury, to be precise, and even from the same street in Shrewsbury. Alas, the conversation doesn\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n
Appeared in \u2018Wu Tang: An American Saga\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Ford\u2019s work has kept him on the move so much that he has visited every state of the United States. He has written a book, \u201cMy Take On All Fifty States: An Unexpected Quest to See \u2018Em All,\u201dwhich was published in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really did well. A lot of people were loving it,\u201d Ford said. \u201cSales were great. It\u2019s still going. I did some interviews for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an actor, Ford was recently seen, appropriately enough, as a bartender in the Hulu series \u201cWu Tang: An American Saga.\u201d The version of \u201cCheers Around the World\u201d that will be screened at the Silicon Beach Film Festival is about 10 minutes in length.<\/p>\n
Given the work that\u2019s gone into it, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of time for 10 minutes, but it\u2019s a jam-packed 10 minutes,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
In its final form, he expects \u201cCheers Around the World\u201dto be15 to18 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to have a version finished, but I am going to keep going. I have been talking to some scientists in Antarctica, and if I can get them to make a toast on the ice I would have all seven continents, which would definitely be a first,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
He would like \u201cCheers Around the World\u201d to have \u201ca big festival run \u2026 more countries, more traveling to places I\u2019d love to see (maybe more drinks). But there is a chance of selling it at some point, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSalud!\u201d \u201cSaute!\u201d \u201cSliante!\u201d \u201cGan bae!\u201d \u201cNa zdrowie!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}