An insular and poetic journey into the psyche of a young girl, searching for the meaning of her own existence; in a reality that can only be viewed from her perspective.
An eerie silence backed by far away sirens seemingly inching closer, a soft gentle voice with a mysterious accent introduces what is to be the film’s subtle tone ahead. Poised by an incredible intimacy, the film is an insular and poetic journey into the psyche of a young girl, searching for the meaning of her own existence.
I wrote this film in the midst of a whirlwind romance. I also broke up with that girl during the making of the film, so I had this lockbox of emotions that I needed to process. It’s the old saying: ‘Life imitates art, imitates life..’, I take from what I know. A lot of her went into this film. In the end I was very grateful for the material.
The smooth camera movements gear the film’s pace, eased by the ever present slow motion shots. A brilliant overall photography work to capture the loosened mood, driven further forward by the igniting silent performance from Brinnen Thompson. All this to carry the much heavier storyline, despite light feelings.
To me, this film is ultimately about dissecting reality. Modern theories suggest that we each view the world as our own reality, uniquely our own. So how you perceive something is really only fully known by you. What caught my creative eye when writing was ‘perception’, and how one story might look from both sides of the coin. Keeping this in mind, the most important thing for me was to let the visuals tell the story, without saying too much. It’s essentially a poem. I spend half my time writing poetry and the other half writing films, so this project really allowed me to blend the two and approach this film as if it were a poem. Being a skateboarder, I’ve always wanted to use the art of skating as a medium for a narrative; but I didn’t want to make the stereotypical skate film that we always see. My plan was to merge genres and dip in and out of all the things that I’m interested in – fashion, skate and narrative; but without locking any one down fully. I also wanted to make this film challenging for myself as an artist. Art house style films generally split audiences, so I wanted to see what I could create without being too indulgent or conformed.