WOW FILM FESTIVAL FOCUS - Moving On
Logline: As Nicola is slowly gathering the strength to begin again, she finds she must first confront the ghosts of her past.
Current Status: Completed
Length: 07:48
Writer: Nicola Bartlett
Director: David Tran
Producer: Bill Scheggia
Where can I watch it @WOW? WOWFF Shorts - ‘Belonging’. Friday 29th April 11:45am-1:45pm @ Cinema PARIS
Interview with Nicola Bartlett - Writer
Why did I decide to make this documentary?
I was staying at my parents, sleeping on the bed of my youth (literally) waiting to move into my new place. I was exhausted, my head barely above water and had just begun my masters at the WA Screen Academy, ECU. When it came time to pitch a documentary there was nothing else in my head. It was such a raw, unchartered time. I knew I was asking even more of my family by making the documentary and I tried to keep their involvement to a minimum. But this is something that all parents must negotiate with their children and loved ones. My story is a negotiation between three generations of women.
Why is this film called Moving On?
Because that’s literally and metaphorically what it’s about. The emphasis and energy of the piece is a forward momentum from a house, a role and identity, a way of living life.
How did you find the main character?
I’m going to slightly change this question and make it: How did I feel about being the main character? And the answer to that question is - initially like I’d opened my big mouth and dropped myself and my tender family right in the soup. On the other hand it made me commit to and carry out a process of recording my thoughts and feelings at such a crucial time when I might have otherwise just hid my head under a doona. I watched the documentary again while thinking about the answers to these questions. Watching it reminded me of how far I have moved on from that space and made my heart ache a little.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
So far it’s mostly been from fellow students and they are a decade or two younger than me. It’s been a mixed bag, it touches people, makes them think, makes some uncomfortable. As if I’ve wandering the streets in my underwear and yes, I suppose that’s true. In honesty I think I am an older woman and a mother speaking candidly about moving on with her life alone and this is supposed to be done in silence.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I’m not sure what there would be much to challenge. Maybe I could accused of being indulgent and selfish, or not being a good mother, or of making a fuss. But then look, I thought up that criticism and is being selfish always such a bad thing? I had an older friend who called it enlightened self interest. Does not being a good mother mean I am a bad one? I just touched on something that is one of those unsaid things about women in society. As I get older, there is less and less said.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on this platform?
To engage with an audience. To remove it from the personal and place it where I can see if it resonates with others and raises other experiences, stories or insights. It is far enough away now that I can look at it as a piece of work in its own right. I no longer feel raw when I watch it.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify the message of this film?
All of the above. Anyone who wants to exchange ideas and wrestle concepts while keeping it real. Yes, I just typed that.
What type of impact would you like this film to have?
In the best of all possible worlds I would like to hear more discussion about the evolution rather than the calcification of our relationship with ourselves and those around us as we go through our lives. We all are challenged to leave home and move on repeatedly throughout our lives, in our relationships and our practice; in how we know ourselves. Life demands that we ‘turn and face the strain’. I think the longer you live the more emotional muscle and resilience is required as life strips you down to your more essential self.
What’s a key question that will help spark a discussion about this film?
Have you seen it yet?
What other projects are you currently developing or directing?
A curious variety of things. I’m event producing a mass choir concert with an array of choirs from those with Parkinson’s to people in community shelters, people in recovery, LGBT. I’m increasingly of the opinion that singing is the human form of purring. I’ve been art department coordinator on a couple of projects. I’m researching a project and wrestling with the writing of another. Later in the year I’ll be collaborating as an actor on couple of theatre projects.
Interview With David Tran - Director
Congratulations! Why did you decide to make this film?
When I heard Nicola speak about the prospect of making this film, I thought... wow she's speaking from a place that's so present that it seemed like so many of the emotions she was trying to emote hadn't been worked out. How do you explain living with your parents when you're past 40? How do you explain what it's like to be an empty nester? How do you explain what it means to not have a home?
Her story I thought was about working out a whole bunch of things in her life and trying to reflect that feeling of being displaced. And I know what that's like -- I'm an asian filmmaker who was supposed to be an engineer, or doctor.
I saw the similarities in our lives -- that feeling of not knowing where I was or where I was going next. And I saw the challenge of relating to a woman with generations more experience, and different culture than what I had and relating.
Isn't that the essence of what story is about?
Why is this film called Moving On?
It's really a study of three generations of a family and a time in their lives where everyone is moving on. Nicola is moving house, her kids have flown the coop, and Nicola's parents have to deal with their child leaving home again.
But more than that is the subject of the film which is about "moving on" and that specific melancholy of having a future, but losing something at the same time. The essence of the phrase "moving on" seems to capture that hurt, confusion and longing combined with a hope of something still to come.
How did you find the main character?
I sat in a room while she pitched the idea to a group. Nicola's character was clear. Her energetic, cerebral, complex and wise being trying to reach the minds she was speaking to.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
One young producer said that Moving On was the sort of film he'd go to a festival to watch. One fellow director wrote an essay on Nicola after watching the film. It inspired him to approach her has a role-model in the film industry and learn from the many wisdoms she spoke.
My own mother thinks the film is slow, and she dislikes Nicola's portrayal intensely. She says... why does she need to watch a film about something everyone goes through in their lives. I guess that's a compliment on the film's realism.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I listen to something like This American Life and I get great pleasure understanding other people's perspectives and finding common ground. I feel that I even perhaps have a sense of belonging in a person, despite that person being vastly different to myself. I mean I think laughter is about showing that you feel a belonging with a person. I think that's the intention of all stories that I tell. To get that reaction.
But making a film feels very different to enjoying another person's work. Moving on feels like a slimy insect that I've peeled out of myself that was attached to a significant part of my soul. Moving on feels like memories of a time I wanted Nicola to forget, and my own for the empathy I felt working with her and editing her work. It feels like being stretched way too far and then trying to explain that experience in a short concise manner.
So the negative comments of harshly showing reality represent something that I feel intensely and would only share if prodded like in a questionnaire like this or in an interrogation. Yeah -- I suffer just thinking about this documentary, not just watching it.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on this platform?
I think there aren't that many stories that explore this sort of emotion. I think it's a unique story because most people don't really tell these sorts of stories. It's like marriage -- people don't make films about what marriage is really like. Who wants to glamourise marriage? Well who wants to glamourise growing older and having your heart ripped out and moving on?
I don't want to glamourise that because that's not the purpose of this film. I do though want to share the feelings that Nicola portrays. I think if people can relate to that -- that's an amazing feat in itself.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify the message of this film?
Film Festival DIrectors, and Journalists, producers, and distributors. Just tell more stories that reach out to more complicated and less tapped into emotions and drama. There's so much to learn to from a mature person. So much more than Twitter and Facebook...
What type of impact would you like this film to have?
I just want people to watch it and emote with it. My inclination is to say that I want people to talk about the film, but really I just want people to feel it.
What other projects are you currently developing or directing?
I'm writing a script about refugee women in detention centres. I'm shooting a series about everyday people developing their first 5 minutes of standup comedy.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
If you got here -- thanks for reading!