Director's Cheer: 20 FAQs # 2

From the Director's Cheer:

FAQ #2: What was the most inspiring moment during filming?

A: I know it sounds cliché, but the whole experience was so inspiring and instructive in many, many ways. The moments that awaken real heartfelt memories for me are the ones of Alyssa Highly, who plays Sally, sidling up to me and revealing her inner experience of the work.

I remember the day we set up the rain rig for the scene when Sally goes out of Granny's hut to play in the rain. Alyssa came to me later and said quietly, You know, Sally is changing me, and  for the better I think. 

She described that Sally, the character, not just the work of acting, was chaging her life.  Hearing her speak fondly of the character was inspiring. I realised how much she was internalising  the work of building character. She was gainfully employed in the  craft of acting - how inspiring!

Alyssa explained that Sally was helping her to remember a time when she was more fun, and had more fun. When she played outside and was more energetic. "Mostly, I only play indoors on my iPad games, but Sally and I do  have one thing in common, we both love to read!"

On set, Alyssa had this way that voracious readers and diligent, talented writers/ artists/ actors have. She spent time observing everyone and detecting something essential within each member of the cast and crew. She assigned nick names and offered nuggets of poetic wisdom well beyond her years. "Aunty Jo, I see you as "Nature". I see you love everything so natural." 

I think we were all inspired by her effort and presence, and as a director I would say her work ethic was inspiring. Remember, she was 11 at the time of filming and turned 12 just as we wrapped principal photography. She came to set in northwest Trinidad every day from far out in the east, past Arima. A trip that took close to 2 hours daily. (Thank you to Leslie Caton and others who helped facilitate her travel!) And since she was in almost every scene, I have to say it was remarkable that she showed up so fully and willingly day after day, with no complaint. It's the kind of devoted work ethic that most grown ups struggle to manifest.

And I am inspired too by Alyssa's family who supported her, and us.  In fact all our children's families - Granny's, aunty's, siblings, Mom's and Dad's - their support was always ready and evident. They never groused about academics, or other extra curricular, yet Sally and many of our other child actors successfully completed their SEA exams just prior to principal photography. 

This is crucial in a country without any realistic arts focus, either in schools or in employment opportunities. For film makers of children's content, it is encouraging to know that some parents and teachers are finally understanding that it is not an 'either / or' scenario. When we work together, kids can follow and fulfil their dreams in a stable and wholesome way. And that's inspiring!

All in all, it must be said  that finding and working with Alyssa and all our child actors, Alliana, Sarah, Dyani, Angel, Sydney, Abiel, the Mahadeo sisters - they all made this film project possible.

JJ

The First in a Series of 20 Frequently Asked Questions, with the Director

"A SUBLIME GROPING IN THE DARK" 

Q 1: Sally’s Way represents your directorial debut.  Children's/ family film is also a previously unexplored genre in Trinidad and Tobago's very young film making industry.  (TTFILM Festival will celebrate it's 10th anniversary in 2015). To what do you think you owe your success?

A1 : Well it’s regenerative to have a debut at this age and stage of life. Lucky me! I am 52. But when does a born educator and mother stop caring about children, hers or anyone else's? I have directed children’s and teen theatre productions and been tacitly immersed from time to time in all forms of content creation and production over the years: from live television, to series and documentaries. 

The confidence to debut in anything must come from somewhere I think, be rooted in previous experience even if it is not seen by others, the work may not always be directly related to the field of the new start, but it (the work) is there, as a foundation. So it’s not just "a good idea". Everyone has good ideas. It’s getting started and staying the course. I always think about Spielberg as a kid with his super 8 or whatever, then later as a father and legendary film maker humbly going to university for the first time to set an example for his own kids. And guess what was on the syllabus at film school? Yes, he studied his own films!  

We can complain about The  Great Nothingness here,  or think like adventurers. I like to say, " I am cutting bush to clear a path at night". No one except a few of our heroic elders have hastened before us and the bush done grow back by the next generation. (Yes, I am becoming an elder, but always give thanks to my elders!)  How exciting to begin again and again. In Walcott's words, and I quote him loosely," If there [is] nothing, there [is] everything to be made. With this prodigious ambition let us begin."

I love innovating and risk taking and pioneering. So I tend to ask "Why not?!"  and then "OK, How?!"

Had I not found equally adventurous and talented partners I may have worked instead to have someone else produce and direct the script for SALLY'S WAY. Having Louris Martin Lee Sing (Brown Cotton Outreach NGO), and Tracy Farrag  ( freelance writer-producer) coming on board to co-Executive Produce and agreeing to support me as a first time director was a moment I count as a success. 

So I think 'success' needs to be understood personally as well:

Having local DOP Sean Edghill agree to support my directorial debut  I count as a success, when to my mind he must surely be an international, award-winning cinematographer in the making. When the multi-talented actor, singer, writer, director, producer Patti-Anne Ali mid-scene, holding script in hand turns to me and says, "It's so well written," I felt successful.  When I thanked the Oscar-waiting-to-happen, Conrad Parris for taking a small role in my children's film he said, "It's a good story. I am happy to play a part in it." The child actress, Alyssa Highly, Trinidad's first-ever child star in this context, swings by me on set and says quietly, "Aunty Joanne, you look like you are doing what you are meant to be doing."  And the list of supportive cast and crew, sponsors and investors making it possible - All of this taking place in the context of talented people I love, respect and admire. How could I 'debut' without it, without them all?

Having such confidence and support - who knows how to get there? Except to say, "Thank you."

And really, personal  truths are only sustained when we recognise the broad contexts in which they unfold.

If the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company, and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival hadn’t been championing the industry needs and causes over these years, there would have been no fertile environment in which to have these successes - for any of us.

And if all the other local documentarians, film makers, writers and producers like Christopher Laird, Tony Hall, Frances Anne Solomon, Christopher Guinness, Mariel Brown, Lisa Wickam, Dion Boucaud, Francesca Hawkins, Elspeth Duncan,  and so many, many others hadn’t been carrying their own brave torches I am not sure I would have been encouraged to come out from behind my lap top as a children's story writer and dive back into the world of production, far less film production. 

The creative industries have looked really bleak and dark here in T&T for a long, long, long and it is not superfluous to add another two, long, long  time. The Rennaissance wave is still building, and the best part is not what the government and corporate sponsors are contributing. The best part is what will make our work sustainable:  audiences are finally voicing their interest as consumers, and voting for local film content with their dollars. They are showing up and growing the industry for us. 

I guess if Derek Chin’s Movie Towne hadn’t been conceived, believed and built, we may still be in the Dark Ages and that was a change I resisted as a consumer. 

So moving through resistance and surviving failure is part of this territory. The most exciting of all my life's work is the one that is least recognised, and much maligned because the You Tube standard of Everyman is a producer did not then exist, but technology has caught us up to the experimental and avant grade community cable television project SUN TV. We were handheld 'reality' styled before cell phones and an entire television industry spawned "Reality Television". I did it then for the same reason international producers do it now  - because I see it is the way to produce volumes of content at low cost. This was a kind of living thesis with which I  had hoped  to serve as a kind of local Research and Development prospect; to show the local television industry that it is in the context of this high volume that we will have enough fertile creative ground to grow more refined and specialised productions. 

The Film community is figuring that out for us I think, while the TV guys are still employing air time as they would rent 'land' so to speak. But local film is changing that and it's only a matter of time before consumer  demand may precede any legislation to regulate 50% local content.

It's all inevitable, these changes and I am so grateful that I am not sitting on the sidelines of life wishing and wanting and waiting for something good to happen. Having been a published children’s book author since 1998 and a series editor of 6 teen novellas between 2006 and 2009   ( all with Macmillan, UK), I’ve learned a kind of creative process that is deeply patient, passionate and committed.  Some times the work we do is in and of itself . Sometimes we don't see until hind sight - but simultaneously, the  muscles we strengthen now are  enabling our next step. Realising this, we work with deeper integrity with each opportunity that comes our way.

My creative process is more and more guided as I grow. I felt guided to pursue this path and there are specific circumstances, a story behind the stories of it all (that I won't go into here),  that gave me the confidence to move in this direction.

Intuition is impossible to formulate and difficult to convey because it is so intimately personal. My expression of the creative process is clothed with spiritual words, meanings and feelings that not everyone may share or relate to. It is as though I have always known I am meant to be creating content for Caribbean children and yet so arduous the effort of going uphill all the time, it surprises me again and again that I am still at it. 

I guess perseverance pays off at some time in some ways. 

But we must not mistake the glamour that surrounds the industries we work in for the work at hand. So 'success' - well, we must caution ourselves in believing and buying into it, not just about ourselves but others 'Away' as well.

To be specific and practical I would say I came to SALLY'S WAY film project through a series of nudges and  with a keen  awareness that the work of Writing is key. Not merely crafting words you understand, but clothing a potent intention that is first intuited within the authority ( see the root of that word is ‘author’). This feeling of creative authority can be a brutal nag. It is a voice that won’t be denied when it has something to say. Even if the work is a simple story for young audiences that may be of no great merit in literary circles, it just doesn’t let your soul rest until you are fully immersed in fulfilling the duty of expressing it. 

As a writer, I see everything in the created world as beginning with the word.  The 'word' meaning a universal energetic impulse that I can detected and feel fully before it emerges to be clothed in a specific style or formatting of  language.

So, if I had to point to one thing for me it would be 'writing', in the sense that within myself I feel clearly that I am doing what I meant to be doing and at the right time and in the right place. Writing, as a matter of conceptualising, visualising, choosing, editing, deciding and all that for communicating with a clearly identified audience. 

Someone on this kind of creative path may know more of what I mean when I say it is really  about clarifying intention more than selecting words. Perhaps some will feel this  is  'more' true  when we are considering the great West Indian novel, or an epic feature film but it is certainly true for me with what ever I create: my children's books and now this film, SALLY'S WAY. I felt that clear impulse to create in this direction and the caring about fulfilling it is all-consuming some days and nights.

I would add that attention must be paid to writing  both in crafting the script/ manuscript  and in researching and compiling a thorough proposal with an understanding of the industry in which you are submitting. I did my best with both, when I applied for T&T Film Co's scriptwriting grant in 2011 and then the production assistance grant in 2013. 

So yes, I am just happy and relieved that what has been offered is well received. That's pay day there already.

Listen.

 Anything that can be counted as “success” is evolutionary and symbiotically personal and communal. 

In so far as Directing goes, who else is there now but we ourselves? We’re the ones to write and tell, direct and produce our own dreams, visions and  stories - with as much help from our  friends, family, fans and well wishers as we can get - whether they are local or international. 

For me, I want to be brave and sure - going up the steps one-by-one, and earning my place alongside my peers, as we grow in stature to share our collective place on the world stage. My confidence to debut in film as a director came from all of this, and my confidence as a writer who knows this specific audience best, Caribbean children. 

I decided to identify my strength, passion and  growing expertise,  occupy a space that no one else had already filled in my shape and in my way. Then I focussed on a simple story well told for an audience I have had the privilege of creating content for over a decade. However, none of this was so calculated as these statements sound. 

It has been and continues to be  a sublime groping in the dark.

JJ