The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (Kwakʼwala: Malkʼwalaʼmida uḵwineʼ leʼołeʼ yax̱idixa̱nʼs ʼnalax̱, Northern Sami: Rumaš muitá go máilbmi rahtasii, Blackfoot: Koistominno saakaisksinima ksaahkomm otsitsikowohpihpi) is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn.[1] The film centres on the interaction between Áila (Tailfeathers), an indigenous woman with a stable and happy domestic life, and Rosie (Violet Nelson), a more impoverished First Nations woman who has just been a victim of domestic abuse, after they meet in the street.[1] The majority of the film consists of one long, unbroken shot.

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Film poster
Directed byElle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Kathleen Hepburn
Produced byTyler Hagan
Lori Lozinski
Alan R. Milligan
Written byKathleen Hepburn
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
StarringElle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Violet Nelson
CinematographyNorm Li
Edited byChristian Siebenherz
Production
company
Experimental Forest Films
Violator Films
Distributed bylevelFILM
ARRAY
Release date
  • February 9, 2019 (2019-02-09) (Berlin)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

The film premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival in the Generation program,[2] and had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.[3] It was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and won three, including Best Director.

Plot

The film opens with a series of vignettes introducing Rosie (Violet Nelson) and Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers). Rosie is a young expectant mother living with her violent boyfriend and his mother. Áila visits a doctor to have an IUD inserted. After her appointment Áila encounters Rosie, battered and barefoot in the rain, having just fled her boyfriend, who is fast approaching down the street. Áila, unsure of what to do, offers Rosie shelter in her nearby apartment.  

Once inside, Rosie remains on the defensive, hesitant to hand over her clothes to dry. While changing in the bathroom, she steals Áila’s anxiety medication, and later her wallet. Rosie slowly opens up, revealing that she was recently phased out of foster care, but remains adamant they not call the police. Áila insists they should at least find a women’s shelter for Rosie to spend the night. She eventually agrees to consider an abuse safe house, but only if Áila comes with her and they make a stop on the way, although she avoids saying where or why.

On the way, Rosie becomes good-humoured, telling the cab driver she and Áila are sisters, and that Áila is on her way to enter in rehab for her drinking, much to Áila’s bemusement. She tells the story of their father dying, possibly mirroring her own truth. At Rosie’s stop, Áila secretly follows her into an apartment complex, and witnesses her exchanging the anxiety medication for cash. Back in the cab, Áila quietly confronts Rosie over the drug exchange, who turns hostile and accuses Áila of looking down on her. As they reach the safe house, Áila refuses to go in with Rosie until she tells the truth. Rosie insists she was only selling, not using, and pays for the cab after Áila realizes her wallet is gone.

The two are greeted by Cat (Charlie Hannah) and Sophie (Barbara Eve Harris). Áila explains what happened, and Rosie details some of her boyfriend’s abuse, but restates that she won’t go the police, due to him being on bail, and her belief that they won’t treat her with respect. She also does not wish to join her grandparents in Port Hardy, for fear of being judged as a young single mother. Sophie and Cat offer Rosie a room at the safe house for as long as she needs, and access to social services. After a moment alone with her unborn child in the bathroom, Rosie tells the others that she wants to return home to her boyfriend, downplaying the abuse she shared earlier, and insisting that he won’t be angry if she returns right away. On the way out, Sophie assures the frustrated Áila that it’s normal for victims of abuse to need several tries before gaining the courage to leave their abuser, and gives Áila money for the taxi.

Áila and Rosie share a quiet ride back to Rosie’s apartment. Rosie asks Áila if she’s mad at her. Áila says she’s not, and tells Rosie she’ll be a good mother. Rosie says Áila will too. At the apartment, Áila tearfully watches Rosie walk away before driving off as night falls over East Vancouver.

Production

The film's title comes from an essay by Billy-Ray Belcourt. The story is based on a personal experience of Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers.[4]

Production of the film involved an indigenous youth mentorship program, funded through Telus Storyhive, which placed 11 young First Nations filmmakers within each department as mentees. [5][6]

Real-time transitioning technique

The directors initially intended for the film to play as one continuous, real-time shot in order to create a heightened state of immediacy for both the actors and the audience. When cinematographer Norm Li suggested shooting on 16 mm film, they were faced with an 11 minute limit due to the size of 16mm film magazines. To circumvent this, he orchestrated a system dubbed "Real-Time Transitioning" in which, at planned cut points, he would hand off the spent camera to an assistant, and be handed another to continue filming; the two shots would then be stitched together in editing. In total, 12 cut points are hidden for the final film. This also allowed the editor, Christian Siebenherz, to blend different takes together from the 5 days of shooting.[7]

Reception

Critical reception

The film was critically acclaimed upon release. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97%, based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 8.33/10. The website's consensus reads, "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open uses an encounter between two strangers as the catalyst for a thoughtful drama as poetic as its title."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 8 critics.[9]

Accolades

At TIFF, the film received an honourable mention from the Best Canadian Film award jury. It was subsequently screened at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, where it won the award for Best Dramatic Feature,[10] and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it received the Best BC Film Award and the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award.[11]

On December 11, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list.[12]

In January 2020, the film was named the winner of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Canadian Film,[13] and of the Toronto Film Critics Association's Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.[14]

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Canadian Screen Awards 28 May 2020 Best Motion Picture Tyler Hagan, Lori Lozinski Nominated [15]
Best Director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn Won
Best Original Screenplay Won
Best Actress Violet Nelson Nominated
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Nominated
Best Cinematography Norm Li Won
Festival du nouveau cinéma 7–18 October 2020 Grand Prix Won [16]
imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival 22–27 October 2019 Best Dramatic Feature Won [10]
Online Film Critics Society 6 January 2020 Best Non-Theatrical Releases Won [17]
Toronto Film Critics Association 8 December 2019 Best Canadian Film Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn Won [18]
Vancouver Film Critics Circle 16 December 2019 Best Canadian Film Won [19][13]
Best British Columbia Film Won
Best Director of a Canadian Film Won
Best Actress in a Canadian Film Violet Nelson Nominated
One to Watch Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Nominated
Vancouver International Film Festival 24 September–9 October 2019 Best BC Film Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn Won [11]
BC Emerging Filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Won

References
  1. Jason Asenap (June 24, 2019). "No happy ending in 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". High Country News.
  2. "Berlin Film Festival: First Generation Section Films Unveiled". Variety. September 19, 2018.
  3. Peter Howell (July 31, 2019). "Indigenous films highlight Canadian slate at TIFF 2019". Toronto Star.
  4. Sullivan, Robert (December 5, 2019). "In 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open,' Two Women Grapple With Trauma and the Past". Vogue. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  5. Aquino, Tara (2019-11-25). "Advocacy In Action: How A Film Became A Mentorship Program For Indigenous Youth (Q&A}". FREE THE WORK. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  6. "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open From Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn Starts Filming". What's Filming?. 2018-03-29. Retrieved 2019-12-11.
  7. Li, Norm (October 2019). "Long Take: Norm Li, csc (Q&A)" (PDF). Canadian Cinematographer. Vol. 11 No. 5: 23.
  8. "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  9. "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". Metacritic. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
  10. Townsend, Kelly (October 28, 2019). "imagineNATIVE awards 'The Body Remembers', We Will Stand Up". Playback.
  11. Townsend, Kelly (9 October 2019). "'The Body Remembers' wins two awards in VIFF's BC Spotlight". Playback. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  12. Wilner, Norman (December 11, 2019). "TIFF announces Canada's top 10 films of 2019". Now.
  13. "Vancouver film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". Tri-City News. January 7, 2020.
  14. "Toronto film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". 660 News. January 9, 2020.
  15. Wilner, Norman (18 February 2020). "Écrans canadiens : Song of Names, The Twentieth Century et Antigone en tête des nominations". Ici Radio-Canada.
  16. Malyk, Lauren (21 October 2019). "In brief: 'The Body Remembers,' The Twentieth Century nab prizes". Playback. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  17. "2019 Awards (23rd Annual)". Online Film Critics Society. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  18. "Toronto film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". The Canadian Press. 9 January 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  19. "2020 Nominees Announced". Vancouver Film Critics Circle. December 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.