Geeking out on local subcultures

St. Boniface

St. Vital

Wolseley

Quinn Greene doesn’t just embrace his inner geek, he celebrates it as a thing of beauty.

With longtime collaborator Jeff Newman, the founder and president of St. Boniface-based Nüman Films, Greene is the director and executive producer of Geekopolis, a new original series “that celebrates and explores the outright obsessive and wonderfully weird things Manitobans geek out about,” according to a press release.

Greene’s passion for exploring subterranean subcultures and devoted fandoms is the platform for the project he calls his baby, which he also wrote and hosted. In the six-part series — which is available now On Demand on Bell Fibe TV1 — Greene’s adventures include immersing himself with a live action role-playing group, meeting up with the Manitoba Lego Users Group, and showing some skin as he joins burlesque troupe Prairie Diva.

“I’ve been a geek, quote unquote, all my life, and I’ve loved anything to do with things like Lego, Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons,” said Greene, who lives in Wolseley and was raised in Moosehorn, Man.

For the series, Greene’s interest in what he calls “nerd culture” dovetails with his professional life working in the creative arts, and his exposure to the entertainment industry started at a young age.

“My dad is an Elvis tribute artist … and growing up I’ve seen groups of Elvis tribute artists arguing backstage about who’s going to sing what. It makes you realize how fascinating niche cultures can be,” Greene said.

“It becomes your own community. When you’re younger, being called a nerd or a geek can be a put-down, but not now. Now, it’s about owning it. There are some amazing things happening here in Manitoba, and you can find your people… it’s about finding a sense of community wherever you are and doing whatever you love.”

Newman said the project has extra meaning because of his working relationship and friendship with Greene.

“This is a great opportunity to collaborate with Quinn,” Newman said.

“This is really his world, where he gets a chance to get into costume and dive in. Quinn is creative force, and I get to guide him,” Newman added. “He’s a great character, and a fun-loving, creative guy who cares deeply about people and has an infectious way of presenting. He’s all in. We did an episode on burlesque, for example, and if he’s going to do something, he does it 110 per cent,” he added.

Newman said as well as showcasing some of the things people are up to on the province, the series is also about revealing why they do what they do, and maybe even motivate the viewers to try something new themselves.

“Everything in the series is really fun and unique, and we feature people who are uniquely good at what they do. Maybe you’re really good at something? It’s cool to be a geek, and when people find something that resonates with them, and they spend lots of time and effort being cool at it,” he said.

Newman and Greene previously worked together on Being Greene, a documentary that premiered on CBC in 2016 and focuses on Greene’s immediate family members and their respective battles with mental illness.

As well as Greene, the documentary features his father, Dave, his late mother, Roxie, who was a writer, and his brother, Kane, who is a beatboxer.

There’s a tribute to Roxie in Geekopolis, and both Dave and Kane appear briefly on camera. Kane was also a production assistant on the crew.

Go online at numanfilms.com for more information or visit Greene on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thequinnnstagram