Chicago Feminist Film Festival / Ann Arbor Film Festival 2019 – We Were Hardly More Than Children
"We Were Hardly More Than Children" tells an epic tale of a botched abortion as lived by two women on a perilous journey through a world that has little concern for their survival.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Cecelia Condit
Watch We Were Hardly More Than Children here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
It seems in this political climate, it was important to tell this story about the perils women faced when abortions were illegal. It happened in Philadelphia 1969 at a time when women were so often silenced and treated as less than equal to the concerns of men.
It was also personally important for me to make this video, as I have been profoundly affected by what happened that night. I have placed paintings by my friend Diane Messinger throughout the piece. While I remember everything about that night, Diane remembers almost nothing. It seems her paintings express the anger she doesn't feel and the cruelty she doesn't remember.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
There is so much about women's history that over time has been covered in shame and forgetting. Because abortions were against the law, women/girls did not talk about them openly. They/We found ourselves caught in an unfair trap upheld by the US government. And like so many potentially dangerous experiences, things are fine until they are not.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I find I work on a personal level, not always though the story line, but in the universal, emotional tone that the pieces take on. However recently, I have come to realize how different my videos are from my life. In my videos, I am angry and can more easily explore feral emotions. For example, I realize that in my work, I don't like men. I portray them as murderers or vacant, off screen characters or cruel side-liners. Certainly in my life this has often not been the case! However, both spheres are very real and universal to me and I respect each.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I knew the story I wanted to tell, but it was so brutal. The task was to choose what and how much to edit out. Also Diane Messinger, the painter, originally would not allow me to use her name or identify it as her story. That presented a serious problem for me to structurally work around.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The Chicago Feminist Film Festival is the World Premiere of "We Were Hardly More Than Children". I have not formally screened this piece to an audience. It was very difficult to make, and I have not been able to let it go. Perhaps, any feedback I will get from the screening will point me forward.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Feedback is important to me. I show work to friends during most aspects of the film making process. Some filmmakers can work in isolation. That is not me, especially nearing the end, overwhelmed with the finality of my decisions.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
The more people seeing a film is always important. I feel this piece is timely. I made it partially with this in mind.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I would hope film festival directors and writers would get to see "We Were Hardly More Than Children". It is not a gallery piece, so I hope festivals might be a place where it can find a home.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would like people to understand a small glimpse of the past as I saw it. Also, even though there are things that happen that one can't fully recover from, it does not mean that time works against one.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
There is so much intensity in the world right now. Can you talk about the paintings in the piece?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am working on a short, non-narrative video involving four species and three landscapes. My son, Lloyd Vogel, filmed in the Brooks Mountain Range in Alaska during a six-week backpacking expedition several years ago. The footage he took is of a terrain both eerie and barren. I hope to juxtapose it with a stark Mexican desert and a virgin forest in Wisconsin. I will preform throughout, sorting through photographs of each space and occasionally appearing in the landscapes themselves.
Interview: February 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
We Were Hardly More Than Children
"We Were Hardly More Than Children" tells an epic tale of a botched abortion as lived by two women on a perilous journey through a world that has little concern for their survival.
Length: 9:15
Director: Cecelia Condit
Producer: Cecelia Condit
Writer: Cecelia Condit
About the writer, director and producer:
CECELIA CONDIT is an American artist whose videos put a subversive spin on the traditional mythology of women in film and the psychology of sexuality and violence. Exploring the dark side of female subjectivity, her “feminist fairy tales” focus on friendships, age, and most recently the natural world. Her work has shown internationally in festivals, museums, and alternative spaces and is represented in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and the Centre Georges Pompidou Musee National d' Art Moderne, Paris, France.
Key cast: Diane Messinger (paintings), Flora Coker (Lena), Cecelia Condit (Lena's friend)
Looking for: film festival directors
Website: www.ceceliacondit.com/
Funders: Self-funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Ann Arbor Film Festival/Ann Arbor, Michigan, Friday, March 29th., Atlanta Film Festival/Atlanta, Georgia - the weekend of April 5th.