Marfa Film Festival 2018 / LA Shorts Fest / HollyShorts - Forget Me Not
Set in the 1970's, the film centers on two little girls who struggle with their mother’s bipolar disease that constantly disrupts their lives and burdens them to grow up early.
Interview with Writers/Directors Florine & Kim Nüesch
Watch Forget Me Not here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
The film is very personal to us, as it is semi-autobiographical. Growing up with a bipolar mother had a lot of challenges, but it was important to us to make a film that more completely portrays a person with a mental illness. Mental illnesses are often stigmatized, which leads to the isolation of the people that suffer from them, as well as the people close to them. We wanted to shed a light on a moment in the lives of children who grow up in such an environment and show their struggles, but also the love these experiences.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
That’s always a difficult question, because everybody experiences a film in a different way, and may or may not connect with it. For us, our love for film has always been about diving into another world and living another person’s life for an instant. We hope our film gives the audience an impression into the childhood of the girls and an unprejudiced understanding for the mother’s struggles.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Our film focuses on the universal themes of love and family. There’s a thematic question about when a person isn’t fit to be a parent. Should children with a mentally-ill parent be protected from them? Is it okay that children in such circumstances sometimes become the caretakers of their parent, who's supposed to care for them? In our case, the love of our mother was worth so much more than the pain she sometimes caused us, but as filmmakers we have to let the audience decide for themselves how they want to answer the posed questions.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The first draft of the film was very different from the final version in the film. A large part of the changes was due to the aspect that we didn’t have a single mother. The decision to cut our father’s character from the script had multiple reasons. Firstly, after many discussions, we realized that all the most difficult moments with our mother were the ones when we were alone with her. Secondly, the short film format is rather limiting and less characters allowed us to really focus on only the relationships between the daughters and the mother.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We received a lot of positive feedback overall. Many people told us they love the subtlety of our film. At the same time, the subtlety seems to sometimes cause confusion. We never actually mention the mental illness in the film, which leads to some people not really understanding what exactly is wrong with the mother.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
We were aware that for people who don’t know anyone with such an illness, it might be unclear which mental illness the mother suffers from. In previous drafts we had scenes in which medications and the illness itself were discussed. We later decided that our film isn’t an educational film about bipolar disease, but more about capturing the children’s experience with a parent suffering from a mental illness.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We’re humbled by the opportunity to talk about our work and to have a platform, where our audience can get a deeper understanding of our film. We also hope to interest people into attending any of the upcoming screenings.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
The film has only just begun to screen at festivals, with the Marfa Film Festival being the world premiere. We hope to get the attention of film festival directors, journalists and distributors.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We hope the film will open up the discussions about mental health issues and lead people to want to learn more about them. So many people have relatives and friends who suffer from such illnesses but are unaware or ignore the problem. We believe that once people will understand the causes and symptoms of those illness, acceptance will follow, and the isolation of the people suffering from those illnesses can be another hardship removed from their struggles.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Is a person with a mental illness fit to be a parent? Why do we feel different about mental illness than any other kind of illness?
Would you like to add anything else?
The project is so personal and lives so close to our hearts, which made it sometimes hard to work on. Now that it’s finished we are, more so than with any other project, honored to share it.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Currently, we are writing on a feature film script. We love the period piece format, as you can see in Forget Me Not. With our first feature film, we have decided to go into the other direction and will take the audience about a hundred years into the future. We’re still in the early stages of development, but are very excited about the project.
Interview: July 2018
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, 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
Forget Me Not
Set in the 1970's, the film centers on two little girls who struggle with their mother’s bipolar disease that constantly disrupts their lives and burdens them to grow up early.
Length: 15 minutes
Director: Florine & Kim Nüesch
Producer: Malcolm Duncan
Writer: Florine & Kim Nüesch
About the writer, director and producer:
FLORINE AND KIM NÜESCH are an award-winning directing duo from Switzerland based in Los Angeles. They began to make films at a very young age and later on moved to Los Angeles to study directing and writing at Art Center College of Design. Their passion for detailed art direction and wardrobe is present in all their films as well as their interest in human connection or the absence of it.
MALCOLM DUNCAN found his passion for producing whilst attending the prestigious Idyllwild Arts Academy. He began his professional career upon graduating from Art Center College of Design. In 2014 Malcolm founded his LA-based creative production company, Virgin Soil Pictures.
Key cast: Emily Swallow, Brooke Fontana, Ashley Silverman
Looking for: Distributors, Film Festival Directors, Journalists.
Facebook: @nueschsisters, @forgetmenottheshort
Instagram: @nueschsisters, @forgetmenottheshort
Funders: Kanton St.Gallen Kulturförderung (Swiss Funding), Panavision
Made in association with: Nüesch Sisters Productions & Virgin Soil Pictures
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? The film is screening next at the LA Shorts Fest on July 27th and then at the Holly Shorts Film Festival between August 9th-18th.