Whales
Two sisters reunite in their deceased father’s house on an idyllic Italian island, only to discover a painful family secret.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Nora Jaenicke
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made this film because it’s based on a feature script that I am hoping to turn into a film next Spring in Italy, on the same Island where we filmed the short at.
It’s an idea that I had a long time ago, and that I kept in my story folder on my desktop for a long time, before reaching for it again, determined to develop it.
The success of my last film gave me the courage to finally tackle this ambitious project of mine, which has been a dream of mine for years.
I wrote a first draft of it way back when I was 21, and the script went through hundreds of drafts until I wrote the last version. In order to raise awareness about the story I wanted to tell, I thought that it would be a smart strategy to make a short version first.
To have more than just the script to convince producers to come on board and find financing. Now I am hoping to send Whales, the short, to festivals all over the world and raise the funds to make it. I was lucky with the short, because the reason I was able to make it was thanks to a very generous woman Susanne Harford who let us all stay at her house on the Island free of charge, while we worked on making our film. Without her, and all the generous people that supported us as well as the appeal of the location, I wouldn’t have had the funds to lure a whole crew to take a two week break from their lives and come make the film.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Because it allows us to empathise. I see films as a medium that connects us to one another. The film Whales deals with the consequences that events from our childhood can have onto our present and future life. I find the development of the relationship between the two sisters, Margot and Louise particularly interesting. Not only for me, as the story teller, but also for the audience, interested in the reconstruction of a family history. The themes that this one in particular deals with are universal, I believe.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Whales has a mostly female cast. The character description and relationship development of these women separated by the passing of time and different upbringings is especially interesting for a female audience, I believe, even though the themes of forgiveness and belonging within the complexity of family dynamics can be considered universal.
What makes the story so interesting, is the slow discovery of the painful family secret, and the search for someone to "blame".
As soon as one secret is revealed, it soon turns out to be a lie, and a new question is raised, within what turns out to be a complex mosaic of lights and shadows, which continues to confuse the audience until the very end.
Although there is never any visible sex or violence, the feature version should feel extreme in the way that productions of Ibsen can feel extreme, as well dressed, well behaved people try to colonize one another with a tenacity that borders on the savage. The atmosphere that we want to create is very unique and tense, as the film deals with a secret that is slowly coming to the surface, we want to embed the tone in mystery and suspense. I think the short version does a good job at conveying this. In the feature I am hoping to bring this tension to an extreme. At some point one might even feel that there is a quiet air of death in the house. A sense that love, at its fiercest, can be both protective and toxic.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
As mentioned earlier, the film went through many drafts. I wrote a short film version of it way back when I was 21. I didn’t get funding for it, so I kept it in my writing folder. I then turned it into a feature script in 2007 and I have been working on it since. I now have a final version of the feature version and this short. So I think our pitch package is a lot stronger, now that we have a strong visual piece to present along with a cast and crew list as well as the finished screenplay. Fingers crossed that it will all work out for us, and we can go make this film on the gorgeous Italian island we shot the short at.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We are just starting to send it out to festival. But today I got an email that we are nominated as Best Short and Best Drama at the Los Angeles Film Awards. And this is the first festival getting back to us. So we are off to a good start, I’d say…
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It’s always surprising. I am never sure, when I present something that feels so “intimate” as my own creations to the public. But that’s the process every artist has to go through. Wanting to be seen while also wanting to hide. I am very familiar with that feeling.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I want to make the feature version of this! So I am hoping to raise awareness of the feature with the short film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We need distributors, journalists, buyers, investors. Whatever helps! So far I have 2 awesome producers on board, but we are looking for someone who can help with funding. So private investors are always welcome to contact me, should they find this story interesting.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would love for it to get into lots of festivals all over the world, and allow me to meet other creators and tell this moving story: A homage to sisterhood and the impact that secrets can have on our lives.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I want to tell a story that is both painful and yet, strangely beautiful and touching in its resolve, as it leaves us with Margot and Louise confronting the truth, after years of living a lie. The story is about an attempt to reconnect. Family members confronting their biggest fears, by trying to communicate clumsily, and perhaps for the first time. Getting together in the house that saw them united in the first place. How do we forgive and forget, are the main themes that the audience is left with at the end. Is it actually possible to forgive?
Would you like to add anything else?
I would like to thank you for this interview!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Joyce, also a short version of a feature that I am hoping to make next year. Joyce is a story about an immigrant Filipino nanny, working for a wealthy Manhattan family. What drove me to write this story and choose Joyce as my protagonist was a very powerful article in the New Yorker about Filipino nannies who come to the US to take care of children, whose mothers are too busy working, while leaving their own children back home and sometimes spending years apart from them, just to ensure for them to go to a good school. It moved me to tears, and I wanted to give these women a voice. Their story is important. It needs to be told. It’s so telling of the fall out of Capitalism and global inequality.
Interview: March 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. 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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Whales
Two sisters reunite in their deceased father’s house on an idyllic Italian island, only to discover a painful family secret.
Length: 29 minutes
Director: Nora Jaenicke
Producer: Nora Jaenicke, Darren Cole, Danielle Campbell
Writer: Nora Jaenicke
About the writer, director and producer:
Nora Jaenicke is an award winning film maker who grew up in Italy with German parents. She studied film at the European Institute of Design and Screenwriting at Vancouver Film School. Later on she worked in Set Design, before moving to New York, where she started to write and direct her own films.
She is an avid traveller continuing to explore the world and telling stories about it, whenever she gets a chance.
Key cast:
Cristina Toccafondi
Beniamino Brogi
Andrea Rosaker
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): All of the above…
Social media handles:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whalesthemovie/