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After one of the screenings of "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open" I had the chance to sit down with actress Violet Nelson and directors Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn and talk about their movie, which is addressing a very important topic.
fGR: How did you come up with the idea for the movie?
EMT: So the film is inspired by an experience that I had and this experience was very similar to what happened in the film. We fictionalized a lot of it in the film but the experience is very similar to what you see in the film. I mean that encounter with this young woman forever changed me and I still think about her often. So anyway, I wanted to do something with the story and decided that I wanted to turn it into a film shot in real time so the audience would just sit with these two women for that amount of time. Having done mostly documentary and a lot of narrative but wanting to turn this into a feature film, I felt that it would be necessary to collaborate with another director. Kathleen has been a friend for years and I really admire her work. I think she just has a profound respect for Indigenous people. Tyler, one of our producers, is Métis-Canadian and also Kathleen’s partner and so Kathleen has an understanding of issues effecting Indigenous people. And I enjoy co-directing and I enjoy collaborating and I feel like women can achieve great things when they work together. And so I reached out to Kathleen and Tyler and pitched the idea of doing this film together and they immediately said yes, and that was just over two years ago and here we are.
fGR: How long did it take you to really write the script and also to shoot the film?
EMT: Kathleen and I co-wrote and co-directed so it was very equal division of that labour. How long did it take us to write the script?
KH: It was very fast, I think it was probably about 9 months to get to the shooting draft I would say. And we had started applying for funding in the meantime, so it all happened very quickly. We shot last spring. We shot the film in eight days which is very fast as well. Because of the nature of the way we were filming…
fGR: So you already talked in the Q&A a bit more about how you shot the film. Could you tell me a bit more about it for the readers?
KH: Sure. So as Máijá (director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) said, we wanted to make a film in real time, which for us allowed the actors to have a more theatrical experience, a greater more in-depth process for them especially for Violet who played Rosie because it was her first acting role. So we really wanted to give her that emotional experience, so we wanted to shoot the film in one take. But because we also wanted to shoot on 16 mm that made it virtually, impossible, well not virtually literally impossible, because we only had 11 minute reels. So our cinematographer came up with this approach of real time transitioning, where we had 13 predefined stitch points so the actors could continue the performance and he would switch cameras at a specified stitch point and do a transition at that point. So it sort of continues for the actors with 13 cuts for the camera.
fGR: That is very interesting! And you said you did not do any acting before. Did you were involved in the writing process like did you develop something together after the script was done? Or was it just set? (asking actress Violet Nelson)
KH: She did!
EMT: So we rehearsed with Violet for four weeks. We had the script written and then she came in and we rehearsed for four weeks. But it was integral for us that Indigenous youth, especially young Indigenous women, especially those who’ve been through foster care were part of our creative process. So we held a workshop with young Indigenous women, who’ve been through foster care, who helped us with the script. They gave us feedback and it was a really wonderful experience to have these young women in the room. And then we also hired 11 Indigenous youth in all the key departments to work on the film in a collaborative way. So yeah, there was definitely support and influence from Indigenous youth in the process of writing and developing the story. We cast Violet in February and then went into rehearsal not long after that.
EMT: I think it’s very common, despite the story being about Indigenous women and violence against women, particular with intimate partners, is a huge issue worldwide. In our process of just learning more about the issue, Kathleen and I have very loving relationships with our partners you know we had to learn a lot about it. And something that we learned is that I guess one of the most frightening statistics is that 70% of the women who are murdered by an intimate partner are murdered after they leave. So if you think about the thought process that is going inside say Rosie’s character's head, that it’s potentially more dangerous to leave him, because she risks her life, than it is to stay and endure violence in that way.
fGR: So is there a plan to bring the movie to Canadian theatres or theatres somewhere else? Because it’s really important to show it to a bigger audience!
KH: Yeah, definitely! We’ll start with our Canadian theatrical run and most of the festivals kick off in the fall of next year so we’ll try to bring it to as many festivals as we can. And we work with the national broadcaster, CBC, so it will be eventually broadcast on their network but we do hope to have a theatrical run. And get it out to as many communities as we can and show it in institutions and wherever we can.
fGR: And is there any new project you’re already working on together or on your own?
KH: I’m just in the very early stages of writing, so I guess it’s too soon to talk about it. But Máijá has a documentary…
EMT: Kathleen is also writing a lot of scripts for different people, I don’t know how she does that. She is writing however many scripts for other people because she is a very sought-after writer, she is obviously brilliant and people should go and see her first feature. And I’m working on a feature length documentary with the National film board of Canada about addiction and the way that my community on the blood reserve in Canada is responding to the opium crisis. So it’s been almost three years and we’re aiming to be finished by fall so it’s been a long process.
fGR: And my last question would be for you (Violet Nelson)! Do you have any plans to act in the future or do you have other plans for your future? What do you want to do?
VN: Well, I do want to continue with acting. Máijá and Kathleen helped me find an agent and to get head-shots and to become a Union member and they’re just really caring, that they wanted to help me to continue with this career. But I also want to be a youth-worker, with Aboriginal youth in high-schools. And I really like working with other youth because I find that I have a connection with them and I've already had deep conversations with other youth. And I don’t try to get into those conversations I ask some simple questions like “What kind of music do you like?” and then they tell me the story behind why they like that music. And it goes into this really deep conversation that will kind of relate back to their story. And that’s why I want to be a youth-worker… I work very good with youth and children. So I want to continue acting, just so that I can show other youth that they can do whatever they feel that they need to do. As long as they put their mind to it and that nothing is impossible.
Thank you very much for the interview and I also think that you did a great job! I liked it and it felt so real! It was emotional for me, not in the way that I could really connect to the problem because I never experienced something like that, but I think it was still emotional, because you get to think more about the problem and what other women have to go through. So thank you and good luck for your plans and projects!
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