Hollyshorts 2019 – Sweet Heart
Isabel lives with an older lover and his eight-year-old daughter Lola, to whom she is closer in age and possibly more attached. Amidst an impending breakup, Isabel is grappling with the responsibility of explaining how love ends.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Madeline Mack
Watch Sweet Heart here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I wrote Sweet Heart in the heartache of an abrupt and stormy breakup. It started out as a letter to the daughter of the man that had left me. I had been living with the two of them and I was closer in age to his eight-year-old daughter than to him. Despite my own youth, I was trusted, perhaps expected, to take a maternal role in her life. I found myself a surrogate mother to my best friend. I was never given an opportunity to say goodbye to her and my heart was broken twice over, the loss of her possibly as punishing than the loss of the romantic relationship.
I wrote the scene for myself as a little exercise in closure and in talking with other women discovered that it was a common experience missing from the screen. The content we consume become guidelines for the road bumps to expect in life. I wasn't prepared to love and lose a child. I remember thinking, why did no one warn me?
We need more female representation. I know that pop culture is blowing up with female stories right now, I'm constantly told by festivals that they are "just over-saturated with women's stories", but we have decades and decades to make up for. I'm a woman that dates older men and because of the media, I am told that I am troubled -- that I have unresolved daddy issues and that I value money over love. I'm also conditioned with the idea that I have to be able to do it all, and that being a good mother, a good lover and homemaker should all come naturally to me. I wanted to f*** those ideas right off, and look at one of the unique complicated deeply connected relationships that women have with each other.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Watch it for the delicious experience of seeing something new on-screen. Sweet Heart explores a relationship dynamic that I certainly hadn't seen before. If you are bored of singular character objectives, Sweet Heart carries a complicated perspective. And more specifically, watch it if you've become attached to someone else children. Another particularly exciting aspect of Sweet Heart is that the story takes place in one room. We are very proud of how we managed to keep it alive and flowing. 16mm definitely helped.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
It's essentially a breakup film. It's just that the primary emotional ties are between a woman and child rather than the romantic relationship. We have all experienced love and loss. Anyone that has experienced pain can't help but live in a state of present nostalgia. It's personal because it’s based on my experiences and driven by my desire to connect with other women that have experienced the same.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
For me, every film develops its own voice and tells me the story it wants to. Sweet Heart is such a slice of life piece that I had to base it on the cast and their real-life relationship. When you work with children, you have to work with who they are. My cast where amazing I had them spend some solid time together so that I could speak to their connection. After improvisation games with the two of them at a sleepover, I wrote an entirely new scene the night before shooting. Thank goodness Mimi Marsland Teare is a genius and managed to memorize all her new lines. The additional scene totally changed the tone and its my favorite part of the movie.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
For all three of my films, I've noticed that my stories either deeply get you or they pass you by. It's been an odd mix of "Oh, that was sweet" and people coming to me in tears because it struck a deep note. I have been told by several people that they are still thinking about it six months later. One time I had a drink with one particularly teary fan; we were able to share our life experiences and connect over something we had previously felt alone in. I stopped trying to make films that other people will like a long time ago, now I make things that are meaningful to me and they tend to deeply affect a small audience.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I can't remember who said this, but "a film festival is where you watch the best thing you could make two years ago". I'm no longer the person that made Sweet Heart, and have let go of expectations or tightly held ideas about it. I'm proud of this film, and any strong reception is a good one whether it's positive, negative, validating or surprising. Its only had a single screening as of now and the feedback was positive, I can't wait for more and I'll be grateful for all of it.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I am interested in connecting with the world and finding my audience.
My two other films, Six Pack and Hot Water will be online by the time this interview is featured! Film Shortage has picked them up as a Daily Picks.
Six Pack is an absurd comedy about a man who loves beer a bit too much and Hot Water is about a woman that is freshly divorced and new to the US, navigating the world of housemates for the very first time. I hope those films find their audience and when I am ready to release Sweet Heart online, I hope they will love it too. There will be more to come by the end of the year, we are in post-production for Sunny, Pomona and we shoot our fifth film Baby Elephant next week! check out madelinemack.com for more info.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Sweet Heart has only just entered the festival circuit, so we'd love to get it in the hands of festival directors. We plan to put it online by the end of the year and are looking for some juicy, non-exclusive, online distribution.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want women to feel a satisfying sense of recognition and to deepen the perspective of others. I want audiences to embrace the vulnerability of adults and recognize that we are all just kids. More than anything, I aspire to make the audience feel connected and give them permission to love even more in the face of inevitable loss.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I wish I could give you one. Should you parent someone else child? How do you explain hard things to children, and should you? In single-parent homes, how do we model romantic love? Is it okay to infer child nudity on screen?
Would you like to add anything else?
I'm excited to announce that I've been accepted into Ryan Murphy's Half directors shadowing program. Murphy is developing so many awesome shows with Netflix and I can't find out what they place me on.
After Deadwood's fabulous reception and Emmy nomination, I am excited to follow Dan Minahan on his next two shows. I don't know that I'm allowed to announce the titles yet, but Dan couldn't be a better mentor and I am very grateful.
I'd also like to shout out to The Future Of Film is Female for supporting Sweet Heart and so many other amazing filmmakers out there.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Michael Lincoln and I just wrapped up our fourth short Sunny, Pomona. It was a super fun film that explores another highly specific and deeply complicated but familiar relationship dilemma. Next week we shoot Baby Elephant about co-dependence, enabling and addiction.
Our composer Merryn Jeann is living the Parisian life, she released her debut self titled album 'Merryn Jeann' accompanied by her first experimental film and she is currently working on the second album!
Our favorite editor Ariel Shaw had a feature, A Family, premiere in MIFF as part of the premiere funded films and she is currently working on a pilot called Dinner.
Interview: August 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
Sweet Heart
Isabel lives with an older lover and his eight-year-old daughter Lola, to whom she is closer in age and possibly more attached. Amidst an impending breakup, Isabel is grappling with the responsibility of explaining how love ends.
Length: 10:17
Director: Madeline Mack
Producer: Madeline Mack
Writer: Madeline Mack
About the writer, director and producer:
MADELINE MACK is a writer/director known for Hot Water (2018) and Six Pack (2018). She is an assistant to veteran TV director Dan Minahan
Key cast: Ivy D'Orsogna (Isabel), Mimi Marsland Teare (Lola), Christopher Amitrano (Dad)
Looking for: distributors, film festival directors, journalists, sales agents, buyers
Instagram: @madelinemack_
Hashtags used: #SweetHeart #16mm #MadelineMack #BammPictures #TheFutureOfFilmIsFemale #FemaleFilmmaker #Kodak
Website: madelinemack.com
Made in association with: Bamm! Pictures, The Future Of Film is Female
Funders: The Future Of Film Is Female, Australian Cultural Fund, Doug Guntun at the Garden Compound
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Just played at Hollyshorts, further dates TBD.