Chicago Feminist Film Festival - Gardening at Night
The period between knowing death is near and death’s arrival forms an unbearable state of regret, sadness and anticipation for Samantha.
Interview with Writer/Director Shayna Connelly
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thanks! My work explores different ways in which we are haunted. A few years ago I lost two close friends and as a result my films became more autobiographical. This film is based on the time leading up to my friend Anne’s death from leukemia. Being forced to wait for something you do not want to happen is an unbearable state to be in over an extended period. Making the film helped me deal with the complicated feelings long-term grief brings up, but the film also celebrates the impact her friendship had on me.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
It’s important to be able to think and talk about death. It’s is a natural part of life and far less terrifying when talked about openly and often. Grief is exacerbated when it’s stigmatized. Allowing a person to grieve openly is essential for her ability to move through it. Having to deny your feelings re-traumatizes a grieving person again and again. There’s no need for that.
Coming to terms with the process of dying is worse to me than coping with the finality of death. The mixture of grief, anticipation and hope that we can still change the outcome is overwhelming. In that state the dying person is present and absent at the same time. Come to think of it, the grieving person is present and absent simultaneously as well.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I’m interested in hauntings and ghost stories, which are about mystery, allure and dread. These feelings can be positive as well as negative. Dealing with death is a universal, but so is connecting with living things as a way of reaffirming our own existence. Gardening is a way of exerting control over nature. In the film it is the character’s way of re-establishing her agency in a situation she is powerless to change. This impulse to assert oneself in small ways when the big picture is dire is common to all of us. Gardening creates beauty out of chaos, which is the same impulse to make art out of the mess of being human.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?
The visual design for the film evolved organically over a long pre-production process and we adhered very closely to the script in the shot selection. We shot everything as planned and in post my editor initially cut everything to the boards/script, but that worked against the film in some respects. We integrated cutaways in a way that interrupted the chronology of the film and completely reworked how remembered dialogue was used. My favorite change was getting rid of the final line in the film. The main character is asked a question and we removed the answer, substituting the coo of a mourning dove instead. That’s always been an uncanny sound to me.
Another change from the initial plan was that I had the rights to the REM song Gardening at Night for the credits, but the pace of the music conflicted with the film and was too jarring. I transcribed a recording of my friend Anne in the hospital listing what she was grateful for and the actress who played Anne, Suzanne Culp, performed it. That dialogue over the credits is one of my favorite parts of the film.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film has gotten a lot of festival play and has been very well received by audiences. My favorite comment came after the screening at the Chicago Feminist Film Festival, which was, “Shayna, good job making me cry you jerk.” Sadness and humor should coexist the way they do in this comment. I’ve made a lot of fantastic people cry and I’m not sorry because it’s a huge compliment.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
There are three scenes in the film where this ‘grieving limbo’ makes time bendy and weird. To an audience these scenes read like memory or dream, but to me they are about time being wrenched out of joint, which is what a haunting is. It’s natural to reject onscreen coexistence between the living and dead as something in the mind, but cinema functions under different rules than life. Onscreen they are present in the same moment. It’s a unique challenge to get an audience to accept the ambiguity and impossibility of time bendiness caused by heightened emotion. I’m still working on ways to communicate it so the audience understands there can be something real that is neither dream, memory nor actuality.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
My dream is to screen the series of films Gardening at Night belongs to in a single event and maybe there’s someone out there who does that kind of programming. Five of the six shorts are finished and ready to screen. The sixth will be done in the summer. They’ve played at radically different sets of festivals, which means the audiences are very different for each and I’m curious to know how an audience would react to the context of them together.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Journalists, distributors, someone who does film programming at a gallery or other alternative screening venue.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
One-on-one feedback and the personal connections people share are the most meaningful. It’s an amazing honor when someone opens up to you as a result of seeing your film. This is one of the ways in which cinema unites people.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Are ghosts real? Are hauntings real? Are they the same thing? Why are we so weird about death? ...I can never ask just one question.
Would you like to add anything else?
Despite the serious subject matter of this film, the making of it was full of laughter and goofiness. Making films is difficult and it’s essential to the process to keep a sense of humor about you at all times.
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Shayna Connelly just finished two short documentaries related to haunting and is in post-production on another ghost narrative, Quiver, which will be completed in the summer of 2017.
Wendy Roderweiss is in post-production on a short comedy called Stage Four, which stars Janelle Snow from Gardening at Night and David Pasquesi from Veep.
Interview: March 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Gardening at Night
The period between knowing death is near and death’s arrival forms an unbearable state of regret, sadness and anticipation for Samantha.
Length: 12:21
Director: Shayna Connelly
Producer: Wendy Roderweiss
Writer: Shayna Connelly
About the writer, director and producer:
Shayna Connelly’s films explore hauntings and the boundaries between documentary, experimental and fiction. Newcity Magazine named her as one of Chicago's 50 Screen Gems of 2016.
Wendy Roderweiss is a director and producer of fiction and documentary films. She is co-host and co-creator of the podcast SHABAM!, available on itunes.
Key cast: Janelle Snow, Suzanne Culp
Social media handles:
Twitter: @shaynaconnelly
Other: shaynaconnelly.com
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Journalists
Distributors
Curators at alternative screening spaces.
Funders:
Made in association with: Faculty development grants from DePaul University, where Shayna and Wendy teach Cinema Production.
Where can I see it in the next month?
Ann Arbor Film Festival
The Mespies
Nevada Women’s Film Festival
Trenton Film Festival
Crossroads Film Festival
Eve Film Festival
Women and Minorities in Media Festival