Flathead

Cinema has this incredible power to draw a direct line between reality and the subconscious.

With Flathead, I wanted to use this unique ability of the medium to blur the lines between reality and stylisation, in pursuit of an ecstatic truth. There was a trusted collaboration with both lead actors, Cass Cumerford and Andrew Wong, that allowed us to document their personal memories, real life events, while also creating fictionalised scenarios where their emotional truths could thrive. We created an environment that was completely comfortable for the actors, allowing us to capture intimate moments and interactions that dealt with addiction, race, faith, masculinity, grief and the forces that connect us.

Bundaberg’s vibrant regional culture permeates the film, showing the savagery of life and its silences.

My main focus as a storyteller is to depict maligned, working-class cultures and to explore the deep history of exploitation that has inscribed itself into the cultivated landscapes. Standing on the shoulders of the British kitchen sink realism movement, I wanted to make sure we dismissed any artifice to truthfully explore the blue-collar world I was raised in.

Building a distinct visual language for the film was essential. Director of Photography Brodie Poole and I did not want to over–glamourise the image. Romanticism would work directly against the film's subject matter, so we looked at how we could strip everything back to the rawest elements. This meant eschewing lavish camera movements, using documentary cameras, only utilising natural light, and keeping our production crew small and mobile. These decisions not only affected the mise-en-scène but drastically helped the naturalism of the performances.

Personally, the biggest motivator for Flathead was the opportunity to explore the effects of generational grief in a very real way. Some of the most visceral and confronting moments in Flathead arise with Cass and Andrew facing their own mortality, with the death of Andrew's father and Cass trying to reconcile the death of his son.

While dealing with the death of my own father as a young boy, I saw the disintegration of my family, witnessing the ones I loved desperately trying to cling to any spiritual hope they could find. It was important for me to explore this search for divinity and the effects it has on an individual and a community. We were able to embed ourselves with evangelist Christians who welcomed us into their church and openly shared their beliefs with us.