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Est. Reading Time: 3 Minutes

On Process & Discovery

MARK (M) Do you tend to begin production on your documentaries with a fairly rough idea of the beginning and/or ending, or do you let everything unfold and then craft the story and piece during post-production?

DOROTHY (D) One of the things I love about documentaries, especially when they're DIY with small budgets and not too much pressure, is that you can make it up as you go along. You can set things up, see what happens, invite different collaborators to bring forward concepts and designs, and then piece everything together on the day of the shoot. It's only then that you see what’s in front of you and start to sense what you're making, which was very much the case for Material Bodies. I really love working in an improvisatory way, but it doesn’t reassure funders.

On Set Design

M I thought the sets were very interesting so I would love to know more about how you created each look with your set designer - did you kind of tailor the sets to reflect the personalities of each participant?  

D I went to primary school with our set designer Marianne Auvinet Gould. I showed her some of the materials that Caitlin had been working with in workshops with prosthetic wearers, and I told her we were interested in textures and tactility, in the difference between bodies and materials but also in their connection. I told her that we really wanted to tell this story visually through texture and material, and then she basically took over. I really handed the designs over to her. 

It was only the day before the shoot that I saw her incredible work come together. She designed both of the backdrops and sets for the interviews and also brought a ton of materials to the studio for us to play around with. Isabelle Cook made Mickaella’s costume in response to the set design, so the colours kind of echo and reflect each other.

M It was interesting to see different types of materials like foams, cloth and cubes throughout the film. Please tell us why you chose to use and show these specific materials.  

D Some of the materials came from the workshops Caitlin was leading when she was researching people’s material preference with their prosthetic design. She carried out workshops with a researcher in the Institute of Making at UCL so they had access to a library which had a huge amount of different materials. We actually had the first screening at the library and when you go in there, you really understand how many materials exist in the world, it's really remarkable to see them all in one space.

Marianne was partly responding to that and she must have a big seller or some big storage somewhere where she keeps all of these things. She also searched for as many kinds of materials as possible and colours that would bring together all of the different textures.

Mark’s Final Thoughts

• I enjoyed learning about Dorothy’s instinct to shoot Mickaella’s dance sequence in a concrete urban environment - it’s a fantastic choice that accentuates Mickaella’s aura, power and connection with everyday materials.

  Tags Documentary Experimental Live-action

The founder of Hommage, Mark Shaba published this interview on 28.10.2021. 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.