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Est. Reading Time: 5 Minutes

MARK (M) Tell us a little about yourself - when did you become interested in film and filmmaking?

HELEN (H) I decided that I want to be a theatre director after seeing a play when I was six years old. Fortunately life went another way and I found film instead. And I love the medium so much as you have more freedom and visual control. From an emotional standpoint, I believe in stories. Stories saved my life and for me film is my favourite medium to tell stories.

M And what do you love most about making films?

H I like that it is a collaborative process. I love working with a team, seeing the team breathe together, like a well-oiled machine. I love the way each person brings something new to the table, their own expertise and life experience and how all of that comes together to create something. And most of all I love the adrenaline rush I get by being on a set.

On Her Personal Connection

M Your film places mental health in a seemingly everyday moment and situation which I think is really important - can you talk to us about making the choice to show the onset of depression in that way?    

H The hardest thing to do is talking about depression with the people closest to you. It is complicated to explain how it feels and it is hard to understand if you have not been through it, most people have felt the sensation of drowning though. Metaphors work best in this instance.

It is weird how most of the time people are able to hold themselves together (stay composed) until they close a door between themselves and the world. The moment of closing the door became the inciting incident.

We wanted the actress to play this situation in a completely realistic way, ignoring the water. This allowed us to be honest about the situation of the panic attack. I think that was a key thing as we wanted the people who have been through it to be able to recognize themselves in the character while making the feeling understandable to those who have not.

M I’ve gone back and forth about whether I should ask this question to filmmakers but I bring this up because I think sometimes the films we end up creating can reveal more or say something that we didn’t fully know or realise at the time of making them. I know the film is quite personal so I don’t ask this lightly, could you share how the film makes you feel when you sit back and watch it? And how has it been to hear people open up about their connection to the film?

H The film makes me feel sad and happy at the same time. Happy because of the people I made it with and because of all the fun we had making it, and sad because it is a very personal story in a way. It reminds me of the inspiration for this story. I have had countless moments when you close a door and finally allow yourself to break down, panic attacks that set in for no good reason and phone calls to say that I am not coming to a party or gathering. But something that I did realize because of this film is that a lot of people around me can say the same. Both friends and strangers wrote to me and spoke to me about their experience which I think was eye-opening. Knowing that I am not alone in feeling this way. Knowing that it is okay to say it out loud and it is not a shameful secret anymore.

‘From an emotional standpoint, I believe in stories. Stories saved my life and for me film is my favourite medium to tell stories’

— Helen Takkin

On Inspiration

M What are some of the films and who are some of the filmmakers that inspire you, and why?

H The filmmakers that inspire me the most are my friends. The people that surround me and with whom I have studied and grown to be the person and director I am today. The ones that support me, give feedback and help me to come up with ideas, many of them were on the team in this film.

H As for famous influences it is hard to say, I like to watch everything that I can get my hands on and a lot of it is very inspiring. A couple of directors who come to mind are Joe Wright, Paolo Sorrentino and Pedro Almodóvar. What I admire about their work is the ability to make something so emotional and visually interesting. All of them use stylized images in a different way to make you feel, but they do it with some sort of raw honesty that moves you and stays with you long after the film has finished.

On The Future

M What are you planning to make next?

H I would really like to make a few more short films that mix an emotional story with a visual metaphor. I am currently developing a feature film that talks about emotional manipulation in a family relationship that will hopefully get made someday. And I will continue my career as a commercial director.

Mark’s Final Thoughts

• Seeing Helen talk about using the closing of a car door as an inciting incident says so much about her deep understanding of film, and more importantly life. For me, choices and ideas like that are the ones I love most within cinema, so I can’t wait to see more of her films in the future.

• And I love the fact that she mentioned her friends as inspirations - again, showing her maturity and sensibility.

  Tags Drama Experimental Live-action Mental Health

The founder of Hommage, Mark Shaba published this interview on 07.09.2021. Mark is a filmmaker from Victoria, Australia. He respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners of the land on which he creates, promotes and screens art, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the custodians.