Henderson

When I first wrote HENDERSON, its sole purpose at the time was to serve as a catharsis of my personal experience. As a performer most of my life, I know the value of owning our experiences and the power in sharing our stories. There is strength in our vulnerability.

Each time that I shared parts of this story with close friends or family members they immediately shared about a personal experience that they or someone close to them had also experienced.

Drink spiking has become all too common nowadays.

So what had started as a step in my healing journey, became a compulsion to translate this to the screen for audiences so that anyone affected by this experience may feel less alone in the world.

We shot the film Henderson in Kamloops, BC which has a similar dry climate I was looking to emulate. In scouting the location with my cinematographer, we found it worked nicely and the Kamloops film department and commission were very accommodating and helpful in preparation for the shoot.

Lesli Brownlee (Ally) and Raf Rogers (Nicholas) were both offered the roles in this film (I did not audition anyone) as I was very familiar with their work and depth and understanding of story. I knew they would bring a richness to the internal lives of their characters and that they would be a delight to direct. It was an honour to work with both of them.

What I was interested to explore in directing this piece was to show the aftermath of a traumatic event on an individual and how she navigates the world right after it happens. That in contrast to the people she meets just having a regular day.

When a person experiences a trauma, something happens to the brain. The prefrontal cortex of the brain begins to function less effectively. This means that in the midst of trauma, a person may not be able to think through the situation and make simple decisions. What might seem as the logical choice to someone watching may not be the same as someone experiencing the trauma.

We see Ally in her state of shock and disassociation, and everyone else just seems to be living their day like nothing is wrong - there is a disconnect between the two worlds. She also has moments of memory recollection which are captured with different lighting, colour and sound scapes. Dave Chick (sound design/mixer) brings in the tinnitus sounds early in Ally's journey and fills the mix so well throughout the piece (and even cameo's in the gas station on the phone), his addition of the entire wedding in the background starting outside of the bathroom is impressive.

Red Janes, with her original song she wrote accompanies the closing image of the film with a stunning accuracy. Her composition supports Ally's movement well throughout the piece.

Our editor Mauri Bernstein made moments work that I wanted in this film but wasn't completely sure how incorporate them. She did this with such ease and precision.

Our cinematographer was the first on board for this project and had a clear understanding of the vision early on. He included a treatment to the Vegas footage at the beginning to enhance the message this sequence was a memory.

Our production designer included many touches that you will find throughout and his team created a spectacular wedding set up in the Coast Kamloops hotel (among other things).

This film was shot over 2 days in a distance location with key crew members hired in Vancouver and additional crew hired locally in Kamloops. One of our biggest challenges we had was that there were wildfires entering the area and one of our cast members (our bride) was on evacuation alert so was unable to travel to set the day she was set to be shooting. Lucky for us there was a bride in the conference centre when we were filming that was having her bridal party the same day! We asked her if she wanted to be in our film and she agreed. (Note: The previous 'bride' and her cats luckily avoided evacuation and are safe at home)

One final note to share - My crew were comprised 50% female identifying and 50% male identifying, with primarily females in key roles.

I hope you enjoy the film.