Free Range Film Festival - Lingua Absentia
Lingua Absentia is a cut-paper animation, about a mother and her schizophrenic daughter, Abby. Guided by the mother’s voice-over narration, the film takes the viewer through Abby’s severe cancer treatment as Abby’s mental illness overwhelms her ability to comprehend what’s happening to her.
Interview with Director/Producer Kate Raney
Watch Lingua Absentia here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
This is something that actually happened to my sister. The person being interviewed in the movie is my mom. When Abby started going through the process of cancer treatment, I noticed a lot of people didn’t understand why we couldn’t just explain things to her in a rational manner. They would ask, “can’t you just tell her that smoking is giving her cancer?” We would explain things to her plainly, but it didn’t necessarily stick. Sometimes she would understand it, but her delusions would replace that understanding with a new, distorted version of events. I wanted to make something that helped give people insight into Abby’s experience and my mom’s experience as her primary caregiver.
This was also the first project my husband, Jeremy & I made together. Previously all of our work was done separately. We have complementary artistic skill sets we brought together. I think this would have been a hard project to make myself because of the closeness I have to it. I needed a layer of distance from the reality and gravity of the stories.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
If you’re squeamish you may not want to. A lot of people find the medical collages to be really unnerving to watch, especially the part with the teeth. We wanted to put the audience into a kind of body-horror stupor so they would feel what it may be like to live with Abby’s illness.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Well, this is my family, so personal themes were pretty much integral to it. I think this is mostly a personal story, but can hopefully give people insight into another point of view.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I started taking notes during Abby’s treatment of all the stories my mom would tell as they were experiencing the events. I shared the stories with Jeremy and those discussions laid the groundwork for the project. We also decided that it would be a great way for us to work together on a single project. Previously all of our work was done separately. We have complementary artistic skill sets we brought together. There was a lot of back and forth between the two of us as we developed the structure for the film.
We interviewed my mom after the main cancer treatments were over. Abby had just gotten the first negative scan back from the hospital. We had a lot of audio to sort through and there was a lot of decision making about what was most relevant for a short film. The idea to go back and forth between the abstracted interior experiences and the more straight forward shared experiences was there from the start.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We’ve received a lot of positive feedback. As previously mentioned many people are uncomfortable during the medical parts, which is what we intended… so that’s great!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
A few people have thought that Abby was still a teen when she got cancer and she’s not. She was in her teens when diagnosed with schizophrenia, but many years have passed since then. I have been surprised by the number of people I’ve encountered with schizophrenic family members. They’ve had very positive comments on how it seems to capture the experience.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We just appreciate having the potential to connect with more people.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We’re mostly just doing the festival run for now and focusing on that.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
For me it’s really about giving people a window into another person’s perspective and being moved by that.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Did you know you can have your tongue replaced with tissue from your arm?
Would you like to add anything else?
Since people often ask about the animation, here’s some info on that. We were working primarily in cut-paper animation. Jeremy drew all the characters on a heavy cream paper with a Palomino Black Wing pencil. For the internalized collage sequences, we made the characters and medical objects mostly on black paper with white graphite. The characters had small joints where we wanted them to rotate and we had multiple objects for replacement animation such as the characters’ mouths.
We shot on a custom-made multiplane table with layers of glass. I shot liquid effects on glass and in a fish tank for the weird backgrounds. We used stop-motion software to control a camera and photograph the movements frame by frame.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I have another short I started before this that I’m trying to finish up. Then Jeremy and I are trying to find the right next project to work on together.
Interview: July 2017
_______________________________________________________________________________
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
_______________________________________________________________________________
Lingua Absentia
Lingua Absentia is a cut-paper animation, about a mother and her schizophrenic daughter, Abby. Guided by the mother’s voice-over narration, the film takes the viewer through Abby’s severe cancer treatment as Abby’s mental illness overwhelms her ability to comprehend what’s happening to her.
Length: 10:00 minutes
Director: Kate Raney & Jeremy Bessoff
Producer: Kate Raney & Jeremy Bessoff
About the director and producer:
Kate Raney and Jeremy Bessoff live, work, and make art in Athens, Ohio. Kate received her MFA in Film from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Jeremy received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They have recently combined their creative interests to work collaboratively.
Funders: Ohio Arts Council
Where can I see it in the next month? In August various festivals including Middle Coast Film Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, Defy Film Festival in Nashville, Midwest Independent Film Festival Female Filmmaker Night in Chicago