Writer/Director Jon Bell and Actress Shari Sebbens talk to Fest Track about concept, approach and creating a space for certain characterizations in regards to in regards to their film: “The Moogai” playing the Midnight section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 <music>
00:26 This is Tim Waspert from Fast Track on Cirque TV. I'm here in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival.
00:31 It's a very specific story, obviously, about, you know, the area, but also about family and trauma and all these different kinds of things.
00:40 John, could you sort of talk about sort of the concept of it from your point of view and your approach?
00:48 And then I'll get in with Sherry about Sarah and sort of envisioning her getting into her psyche and sort of playing you as you did.
00:57 Yeah, I mean, it is, it's for me, the whole thing kind of came from two places.
01:04 One, it was kind of a love letter to the women, the Aboriginal women in my family and in many families who sort of kept the family unit together in the face of sort of, you know, the government or the colonial powers trying to destroy the Aboriginal man.
01:29 The Aboriginal woman has kept the family together.
01:32 So it's kind of a love letter to that, to those women who've done that.
01:37 And it's also, I can't think of exactly how to say it, but it's like a big hug to the Stolen Generations to say, no matter what happens or what anybody tells you, you will always have belonging with us.
01:56 You will always belong with us and you will always have your place and no power on earth will separate that no matter how it feels.
02:09 So, you know, those were the things that I was driving at. Also, it just came from a love of sort of like, I guess, 80s horror and sci-fi.
02:26 I was always sort of, you know, Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers, unstoppable kind of forces that just keep coming, keep coming and you can't even find refuge in your dreams or in your safe places.
02:43 And so even in the sense that the climax kind of takes place in a sacred space, there's colonial powers often try to destroy the culture they're trying to replace.
03:01 They try to destroy the sacred spaces, try to not just smash culture, smash language, smash knowledge and all that, but the place itself.
03:12 So that's, they're sort of probably the three main things that I was kind of driving at.
03:17 (breathing)
03:32 (knocking)
03:34 (gasp)
03:36 (wind)
03:48 Hello?
03:51 Little cow, are you lost?
03:57 Sure, I'll go over to you real quick. Thank you very much, John. Because John was talking about, you know, the aspect of belonging, but also there's a claustrophobia to her identity in certain ways.
04:10 Could you sort of talk about finding her, you know, because we see her at one point in the beginning and then she starts to transform and you do it physically, you do it emotionally.
04:20 And she's a very intellectual woman. She's thinking all these things through, very much so. Could you talk about approaching her in this multifaceted way, both taking into that fact what John is talking about and how it was sort of conceived, but also finding your own center within her?
04:39 Yeah, it was an exercise in letting go whilst kind of being, you know, Sarah is restrained and constrained. And like you say, she intellectualizes everything. And it's incredibly hard for that character to lose control in any way, or admit that she needs help even, or admit, you know, so it's, that was quite a, you know,
05:07 it was like pushing and pulling two things at the same time. Yeah, I think we had, it's also a huge responsibility, you know, when you feel like you are representing many, many women in from your community, from your mob.
05:26 And so you want to, you want to sort of honor that as much as you can. And yeah, I think it was, it was, there were nights where it was like, just the hardest thing. And in that, but also the most frightening thing in a way.
05:45 It felt like we were really, you know, we had Aboriginal women on set in different departments. And there was this moment where John gathered us all together in the bush one night, and when we were filming the scene, and it's like, you're taking strength from the reality of this story.
06:03 But also, you know, trying to really craft a character that is complex whilst being so solid in her ways.
06:14 Are you hurt?
06:16 Sweetie?
06:20 Do you want me to take you home?
06:25 He's coming.
06:29 What did you say?
06:32 I'm sorry.
06:34 I'm sorry.
06:46 Ultimately, it's about family. It's about that sort of protection, family protecting family, obviously, with your with your birth mother in here. Can you sort of, actually, John, I'll have you talk about it. Those different relationships and the way they interact is key.
07:02 The way Fergus operates, the way the birth mother operates, you know, obviously, Sarah, but finding those moments of sort of truth between them, even when they're disconnected.
07:14 Could you sort of talk about those sort of moments and finding those moments as you were shooting, you know, because it all has to build up to that final scene, which I don't want to give too much away. I want people to discover that. But can you talk a little bit about that?
07:29 Yeah, well, in my head, you know, Sarah kind of operated over here and Ruth kind of operated on almost the opposite end of the spectrum. And Fergus kind of had a foot in both worlds.
07:45 So he was kind of the conduit, but also completely out of it. What is, you know, he's got two kids, but he's never given birth. You know, there's certain things that he just can't relate to.
07:59 So he's kind of all lost at sea, as much as he still understands, even, you know, when Sarah's sort of reaction is like, I completely reject whatever Ruth is saying. And Ruth can't find a way in to sort of connect with Sarah.
08:21 Fergus's reaction to the same information is like, I don't know what Ruth knows, but I know that she knows something. And he lets that live in a space. Sarah's sort of shutting everything down and falling back into, not falling back into, but getting into her safe space, which in the Western world is more about, you know, logic.
08:50 And these sorts of more mathematical or straightforward concepts and moving away from the spiritual and what's inside. And so there was a lot of back and forth about, you know, where everybody sat within a particular scene.
09:12 And not necessarily that we were specifically talking about it, but just trying to get each character into their space. And also, you know, for Sarah towards the end to finally understand, look, if I just let go of this sort of Western, you know, logic-centered ego,
09:41 then I'll find something. And Shari and I have known each other for a while now. And so there was a lot of honesty. And there was a lot of, we talked about sort of, you know, sacred space versus profane space and sort of liminal versus liminoid.
10:10 And some of that sort of stuff. So there was a lot of intellectualizing it, but, you know, she had to take it from the intellectual to the emotional and put that emotion out there. And there was a few times, a few scenes where, you know, everybody was like, oh man, you know, it was almost too much to take, like the emotions and the truth of the stuff behind it.
10:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]