Shoelaces

“Shoelaces” is my most deeply personal film up to this point. I had really desired to explore the relationship between close family relationships and mental illness, myself having been in the places of both brothers at one time and another, my entire household family being diagnosed autistic with half of us being diagnosed bipolar. The brothers are two people who want the best for one another, but they do not know that yet due to years of pain.

The film is done in the style of one conversation. Although there are elements that break up the driving sequences, this is one conversation, one learning experience that they both go through. It was crucial the film does not truly resolve the relationship in any way. Both brothers will learn from each other and change for the better, but this is not the final fix to their relationship, rather it is the step for their relationship to change.

Realism was crucial in that regard and in the portrayal of mental illness. There was a famous film that “Shoelaces” drew many comparisons from early in preproduction, and while I enjoyed that other film, “Shoelaces” was made as a direct response to it. Exploring these brothers, it was crucial to make their relationship not rely on so many conveniences and to really get this familial relationship down. It was very intentional also that Miles did not have an explicitly stated mental illness, because while there is a lot of connection in my family to the illness that we aimed to create, we did not want to create the impression that this was the sole experience of this form of mental illness. One mental illness is not what this film is about, rather it is about relationships and how mental illness can create these ripples through it.