Santa Fe Independent Film Festival 2019 – Opia
Opia is a surreal exploration of the internal landscapes causing suicide clusters on college campuses-- executed in memoriam by a crew of young artists who have each lost loved ones themselves.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Siena Sofia Bergt
Watch Opia on Tubi and Prime Video
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I started developing the screenplay from a series of abstract nightmares I had after my best friend’s suicide in our freshman year at Columbia, about the horror of watching formulaic school announcements reporting more and more student deaths after his suicide got publicized in the New York media. I was terrified by the way suicide was spreading from student to student in our community--and then when I first contacted the lead actress about working on a project about suicide waves, I found out that she had just lost a friend as well. In fact, the whole cast and crew ended up having lost friends to suicide before (and during) shooting, and we started sharing those stories as we worked. The project really became an exercise in communal healing for us, as well as a way to utilize film to address the questions we'd each faced in the aftermath of our friends' deaths: why are so many young people choosing to die, and how do we deal with the absences they leave behind?
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The world we're living in is so culturally saturated in suicide that it's hard to read the newspaper or turn on the TV without encountering a statistic or story about its potential causes, its commonest victims, or the latest celebrity lost. What so often gets left out of the picture is the visceral experience that accompanies mourning these kinds of death: the tangible dangers and intangible sensations that appear in suicide's wake. Opia is meant to make those experiences more emotionally accessible for people who haven’t gone through such losses themselves, in order to bridge the gap between mourners and their friends and family.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Whether or not you’ve personally considered suicide, we each make the decision to stay alive over again, every day. Encountering the mental states of people who are struggling with that decision is necessary not just for the sake of understanding how to help them, but for the ways it makes us confront our own relationships to mortality--and to our searches for a sense of meaning.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Even though the entire film is (theoretically) scripted, the final version is incredibly different from what was on the page! I told the actors to treat the lines as a guide rather than to memorize them word-for-word, and because the two leads and I first met each at theater classes when we were each only 8 years old, we had a really strong working connection to draw on for improvisation. Many of my favorite sequences were entirely improvised, and we often kept the cameras rolling before and after each take--some shots of the actors’ character preparation made it into a couple of scenes as well.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The most rewarding feedback we’ve gotten has come from other people who’ve lost friends to suicide or considered/attempted suicide themselves. We’ve had some really incredible interactions--especially during the Q&A at the premiere screening--with people who've told us they found pieces of themselves in the main characters that they don’t otherwise get to see represented onscreen. Many audience members find it hard to watch, but given the subject matter, I’d be more worried if it felt comfortable!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The most surprising feedback we’ve gotten has been about the character of “Moonface”, a kind of author-insert figure who pops up in several different scenes at key moments. Many people didn’t realize it was the same actor across each scene until the credits--it’s funny how much context can change perception!
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I’m honored to have a chance to make more connections with people in the industry who are particularly interested in supporting female-led projects! My ultimate goal for the film was to bring more awareness to the emotional side of the issue it addresses, and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to do that here.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We’ve received a couple of distribution offers already, but we’re still looking to find the right distributor to bring the film to where it needs to be! We’d also be excited to show at further festivals and/or talk to journalists about the project.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want to give people who have experienced suicidality (or losses to suicide) a chance to feel less alone in the messy, dark and confusing aspects of their experience--and to help those who haven’t been through those places themselves feel less in-the-dark about what they look like.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Is either character the victim of the other’s encouragement?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I’m working on my next feature screenplay right now, and the composer--and several of the actors from Opia--are signed on for the next one as well! This upcoming project is a Western/Psychedelic Horror dealing with New Mexico’s role in the nuclear industry.
Interview: December 2019
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
Opia
Opia is a surreal exploration of the internal landscapes causing suicide clusters on college campuses-- executed in memoriam by a crew of young artists who have each lost loved ones themselves.
Length: 1:12:05
Director: Siena Sofia Bergt
Producer: Siena Sofia Bergt
Writer: Siena Sofia Bergt
About the writer, director and producer:
SIENA SOFIA BERGT is a filmmaker, writer, and native of Agua Fria, New Mexico. She made Opia while attending Columbia University, becoming the first student in the school’s history to complete a feature as an undergraduate. Her explorations into marginal, rural, and Uncanny storytelling modes have drawn stylistic comparisons ranging from Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo to Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor. Having begun her career as a theater director and trained under late cult filmmaker Ted Flicker, she views films as a means of producing direct confrontation between characters, artists, and audience.
Key cast: Helana Gabriella (Celia), Chance Willey (J), Kiko Sanchez (Griego), Natalie Mayhon (Destiny), Antonio Cisneros (Milos), Erik Fuentes (Moonface)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, film festival directors, buyers
Facebook: Blue Prose Productions
Instagram: @blue_prose
Hashtags used: #OPIA, #opia, #opiafilm
Website: www.blueprose.com
Other: IMDb
Funders: Kickstarter