Is this the first time this team has worked together or have you produced projects together in the past?
Alison: I worked with Sue Brooks on a number of projects – including High Heels, An Ordinary Woman, Land of the Long Weekend, Road to Nhill and Japanese Story. Together with Lizzette Atkins we took Looking for Grace (and two more projects) to Cannes Film Festival to seek partners and finance.
Looking for Grace quickly attracted a Sales Agent (Fortissimo) and an Australian distributor (Palace Films). Looking for Grace became our focus but took another four years to fully finance. Sue Brooks grew up in the wheat belt of Victoria, in which the film was originally set, and Lizzette Atkins grew up in the wheat belt of WA. Japanese Story was filmed in WA and Lizzette was very familiar with and loves the WA wheat belt, so we approached Sue Taylor to come on board and relocated the story to WA. It was a hard decision, particularly for Sue Brooks as she was leaving behind the images of the country she grew up in. As script writer, she was also the one who had to adjust the script.
Sue Taylor sent a photo of Lake Grace in WA and suddenly we could feel the film. It’s a moment that happens with films, and it’s hard to describe. It’s almost as though the film pre-exists and, one day, you get a glimpse of the film in finished form and know it is waiting for you to get it made. Mike Montague kept sending location photos that kept making it feel real. Sue Brooks describes standing on a granite outcrop while she was filming in the wheat belt in WA one day and feeling as though the same granite rock belt ran under her feet across the entire country and connected with the granite outcrops in the wheat belt in Victoria where she grew up and had originally set the film.
How did it feel when you found out the film had been selected for its world premiere at Venice Film Festival followed by selection at TIFF?
We found out very late one Saturday night. Sue Brooks took the call from Michael Werner (Fortissimo, the Sales Agent) “You are in Venice. In Competition.” She didn’t believe it.
After I heard, I lay on the couch and put a cushion over my head. Lizzette was in the country for the weekend and had to get in the car and drive somewhere she had mobile connection without it dropping out every ten seconds. It still kept dropping out but not as often. We met the next day to work out what to do. It’s a big decision to take a film to Venice In Competition. But it is an amazing opportunity for everyone who has worked on the film. You can spend a lifetime working in film and never get an invitation to Venice or Cannes In Competition. It’s not an opportunity you might get again, no matter how many films you make. When we told people, they kept saying, “That’s fantastic. I’m coming. When is it?” In the end there were 29 of us: cast, crew, friends, family and agents who all went to Venice, including Radha (Mitchell), Odessa (Young), Katie Milwright DOP, editor Peter Carrodus, composer Elizabeth Drake, and of course Sue Brooks, Lizzette Atkins, Sue Taylor and myself.
Can you tell us about working with a mainly Victorian team and mainly female crew?
Gecko Films, Unicorn Films, the writer/director, two of the three producers, the DOP, the 2nd AD, the editor, the composer, Terry Norris and Julia Blake, Soundfirm, MIFF Premier Fund and Palace Films are all Victorian based. Radha Mitchell was born in Victoria although now she is mostly LA based. The film was developed and post produced in Victoria. A large amount of Victorian creative energy has gone into this film. It has been supported from development through to release by Film Victoria.
People have commented a couple of times on the number of women in key positions. When asked in Venice Sue Brooks said “if you want the best people for the job, you’ll end up with a number of women in key positions.”
The real question about the number of women working on a film is why aren’t there more women working on every film? Why don’t people notice when there is not a single woman in any key role? And why do people notice when you have a woman director, writer, DOP, composer, continuity, two women in unit, women in wardrobe, women in hair and make up, three women producers and four out of eight main roles are women? Terry Norris, when asked what it was like working with so many women, said he hadn’t noticed but it was the most enjoyable film he had worked on.
This is very much a film set in the Australian landscape. What do you like about bringing Australian stories to life?
There is something extraordinary about being able to see an uninterrupted line of distant horizon and a huge sky. It is part of where I grew up and who I am. Landscape is part of us, we belong to where we come from, it is part of who we are. Whether it is rainforest or wheat plains or desert or sea or Sydney Harbour, or the Western suburbs or North Fitzroy, landscape is part of what shapes us and forms us. Wanting other people to see and experience what you love is part of human nature. Telling stories is part of how we make sense of our lives and how we recognise ourselves. So telling stories about people who have the voice cadences, the rhythms, the speech patterns the vocabulary peculiarities and the attitudes and experiences we recognise, seeing places we have been to or lived in, hearing sounds that are familiar like a magpie or a tram, is part of validating and understanding who we are, it is part of valuing and sharing something about what it is like to live here and now. It is rewarding to have people tell you they recognise something familiar about their own lives in a film you have made.
How did you find the support and services you received from Film Victoria?
It is hard to see how the film would have continued to be developed, financed or produced without Film Victoria support. The support has been not only financial but has included consultation, advice and ongoing conversation. Victoria has a large number of filmmakers, not only writers, directors, producers, cast and crew, but lawyers, production and post production facilities and personnel, critics, theorists, and responsive and creative bureaucrats.
What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?
Ideally we hope people will identify with the people and situations in the film. We want them to leave the film in a slightly contemplative state, thinking about their own lives and stories. We hope they will talk about the film with their friends - piece all the small moments together, discuss how it all fits and what it all means, maybe have a laugh at some moments of recognition, maybe share something of their own stories. I hope people will have a sense of acceptance of human fallibility and frailty, of how we all have our flaws and we all make mistakes, how life is a comedy and a tragedy all at once. I hope people will take away a sense of moments of grace in their own lives, in the ordinary things, in the everyday small moments of life. I hope they have a good time somewhere along the way.
Looking for Grace opened in cinemas on 26 January 2016. Watch the trailer.
Images:
Left: On location: Kate Milwright, Director of Photography (Photo Sue Brooks)
Right: Odessa Young, Radha Mitchell and Sue Brooks receive a standing ovation at Venice Film Festival 2015 screening. Photo: Anne Davies
