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| Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke |
In their feature film debut, writer-director Ron Eyal and writer-director-cinematographer Eleanor Burke, have created a strikingly shot and poignantly acted film about love, loss, and the power of reaching out to someone different from yourself.
Oona, a young British woman dealing with the loss of her mother, reaches out to a stranger: Mani, a mysterious homeless man of Middle-Eastern origin, whom she invites to stay in her shed. Despite the myriad differences in their backgrounds and lifestyles, Oona and Mani share a quiet understanding and gradually form a meaningful intimacy that changes them forever.
Burke's seemless, slow-paced, affecting cinematography is as much a character of the film as that of Oona (Bridget Collins) or Mani (Adeel Akhtar), and it captures the myriad truly intimate, humane moments between these two unlikely allies.
Illustrating that one's worldview is mostly about perception, in looking out over the rippling ocean waters, Mani comments to his fellow homeless friend named 'King of the Road,' "It's beautiful there." King makes a face and quickly replies, "It's freezing." But, after a beat and with a slight smile, with assurance Mani simply reaffirms his statement, "It's beautiful."
In another poignant scene, this time of simultaneous human devastation and joy, Oona finally gathers the necessary courage to sort through her mother's closet. In a long, unhurried, quiet one-shot, the young woman's feelings of loss, but also love--and more so the rekindled memories brought forth by her actions--are displayed in her stance, in her wretched tears at one moment and joyous laugh and wide smile in the next, and in the simply way she breathes in the lingering scent of her mother captured between the woolen fibers of her clothing.
Illustrating that one's worldview is mostly about perception, in looking out over the rippling ocean waters, Mani comments to his fellow homeless friend named 'King of the Road,' "It's beautiful there." King makes a face and quickly replies, "It's freezing." But, after a beat and with a slight smile, with assurance Mani simply reaffirms his statement, "It's beautiful."
In another poignant scene, this time of simultaneous human devastation and joy, Oona finally gathers the necessary courage to sort through her mother's closet. In a long, unhurried, quiet one-shot, the young woman's feelings of loss, but also love--and more so the rekindled memories brought forth by her actions--are displayed in her stance, in her wretched tears at one moment and joyous laugh and wide smile in the next, and in the simply way she breathes in the lingering scent of her mother captured between the woolen fibers of her clothing.
Though finely acted and smartly written, for me the cinematography proved the most striking feature upon first viewing. Just as vulnerable as the characters, Burke's shooting style well represents the rolling tides and lush green meadows of the the seaside town of Hastings in East Sussez (UK) where the film was shot. And her stylistic tendency to shoot straight on, close up, and over the shoulder (from front to back), with visual access to only a 1/4 of the character's face--maybe only an eye and a cheek, or even less--gives the camera as much a point-of-view as the characters themselves; and, moreover, acts as an intimate conduit to draw viewers into the storyworld to live alongside these well-drawn characters for 75 minutes, yet leaves Oona and Mani mysterious and detached: to us, as well as to each other and even themselves.
No little cinematic detail is left unexplored in their feature film debut: from the close-up of the spider crawling down a pan left abandoned by its owner who has died, or the the heavy, dirt-ridden ring swashing around the tub--and the leaves and other bits of debris--that slowly train out of the tub after Mani has taken his first bath in God only knows how long.
This may be Burke and Eyal's feature film debut, but they are anything but green. Their specific and deep understanding of genre (the dramatic thriller), honed skills as narrative storytellers, and restrained and methodological pacing and precise framing left me utterly speechless. Indeed, STRANGER THINGS was far and away my favorite film at Slamdane 2011.
I conducted an interview with Eleanor and Ron on January 24, 2011, three days before their film won the Grand Jury Prize for best Narrative Feature at the 17th Annual Slamdance.
Ashley Elaine York (AEY): What was it like to make your first feature?
Eleanor Burke (EB): We actually had our first short at Slamdance in 2007, RUTH & MAGGIE. When we made that film, we started working with the actors in a particular way. We made the film work around them and their performances. So we put their work at the center of what we’re doing. Specifically, we loved working with Bridget Collins [who played Maggie] on that short, and another actor Adeel Akhtar, so we wrote this feature for them.
Ron Eyal (RE): Many film shoots can be taken over by the equipment. So, we decided to minimize the amount of equipment we used. And we only used available lighting. We also shot with a much smaller crew. It was a very intimate shoot. There were only 6 on the set, including us.
AEY: Besides wanting to work with Collins, who is flawless as Oona, and Akhtar, who has already received some critical acclaim for his comic work as a British Muslim extremeist in Christopher Morris' FOUR LIONS earlier this year, I'm curious: Why this film and why now?
EB: It started off as a discussion about "insiders" and "outsiders". Oona, a young woman dealing with the loss of her mother, reaches out to a stranger, Mani, a homeless man. And, gradually she lets him in--in the many senses of the word. We were interested in the idea of “inside” and “outside,” because both characters are outsiders isolated in a particular way. Oona’s loss of her mother is part of that. His homelessness is part of that. But also I was specifically interested in my grandmother, who was itinerant at various points in her life, and I started thinking about her and her experiences. She inspired Mannie, the homeless character. We wanted to explore this outsider being let in. That idea really excited us.
RE: We had met in the NYU grad film program [The Tisch School of the Arts] while we were getting our MFAs there. We were so hungho. First, we decided to pull our resources and work on something together, so we made [RUTH & MAGGIE]. And after that experience we decided we were going to make this film and wouldn’t let anything stand in our way.
EB: Even though we're based in New York, we shot STRANGER THINGS in the UK.
RE: Because Eleanor has resources there--she is from London and had a lot of resources to make a film in the UK on a tight budget. For example, the house we used to shoot STRANGER THINGS is owned by a friend of Eleanor's. So, we wrote the script with that house in mind.
EB: I spent a lot of time in East Sussex during my childhood holidays. I had always loved that area. But the seaside town of Hastings, by the village where we filmed, is run-down and attracts a lot of down-and-outs. It’s a place where people from different walks of life live in very different worlds from each other. So I was inspired by that. But, after we shot in the UK, we found additional resources in the US during post-production. And, then we found the IFP Independent Filmmakers Lab, which was enormous help. They helped us tackle a lot of issues.
[NOTE: STRANGER THINGS was one of only 10 films from across the US selected to participate in the 2009 IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab, where it won the lab's top award: the IFP Narrative Lab Finishing Grant]
RE: We decided to think in the moment. And only after it was shot did we think about where to send it. So were are so surprised that we got into both Woodstock and Slamdance.
AEY: Has your recent success--winning the Grand Jury prize at the Woodstock Festival (2010) or getting accepted to Slamdance 2011, among other accolades--affected you as filmmakers? Have you or your approaches to filmmaking changed as a result?
RE: They've obviously had an impact, these seals of approval and signs of support from the film community.
EB: When we were making this film, we were excited about the process and the story, but even more excited about sharing this quiet drama. People viewing this film seem very engaged and we hear people laughing [during screenings]. It’s just so nice to hear that response. Doing Q&As--and getting that contact--has also been great.
RE: For example, this film is about a mother dieing and her daughter going through the bereavement process. One viewer said, "I just went through this. I was cleaning out my father’s stuff after he died." She, like others who've watched it, felt connected to the characters on an individual level--to their experiences with bereavement or to making connections with people. It touched them personally, which is wonderful for us.
EB: I personally love stories like that and I’m excited to see more of that, with less Hollywood, fast pacing, and more like the theatre or with an European influence. I love it when people tell me that they have this personal connection [with STRANGER THINGS], and identify with this depiction of companionship, with one character reaching out to another from a different walk of life. Hopefully these characters will open people up and otherwise touch people, which can lead to more human connections in real life.
AEY: Although it is going to be hard to top this fabulous first feature, what are you working on next?
EB: It's an actor-driven piece about a woman looking for her father. They're estranged. Like STRANGER THINGS, it will be a character-driven drama.
AEY: Are you shooting the new feature in the UK, as well?
RE: We’re considereing whether it’s going to be shot in the UK or the USA. There have been cuts to the arts in the UK, so maybe not.
EB: We work in a pretty unvonventional way, whether in relation to the UK or here, so we'll have to see.
RE: We want to step things up a notch, to see what kind of talent--actor-wise--we can bring to our next project, but still stay true to what we have been developing since RUTH & MAGGIE.
AEY: Tell me about these stylistic acting techniques you've been developing? And, how did you originally conceive of your personal directing style?
RE: First, we had really great teachers at NYU.
EB: In their MFA program, the directing students also have to take acting classes. Our instructor Tom Noonan [the offbeat character actor who finely portrayed "Detective Victor Huntley" in FX's DAMAGES in 2010] opened our eyes to the possibilities of all you can do with actors, how to use freedom to get more out of them, and in general the different ways of working with actors. While growing up in the UK, I watched a lot of Mike Leigh films. These ideas gave us permission to discover a lot of other ways of working with actors, as well. And we continue to develop our actor-centric methods from that.
RE: When you watch a Mike Leigh film, it doesn’t feel like anyone else’s form. It's a Mike Leigh film, period. Same is the case with a [John] Cassavetes' film, the actors are doing something you don't find in other director's films. There is something about their process of directing actors that translates to something that can be felt and heard on screen.
AEY: So, what specific techniques of working with actors and directing make an "Eleanor Burke/Ron Eyal" film unique?
EB: Mainly, we minimize distractions on the set
RE: Yes, sometimes its only us two on a set, besides the actors.
EB: Also, before the shoot, we workshop the characters and their backstories with the actors. Then, during production, we give them the script in segments. This means that the actors only know as much as their characters would for any particular scene. Revealing the plot to the actors in segments gives them the freedom to act spontaneously, and to feel the same things the character feels in any given moment.
AEY: How do actors like Collins and Akhtar feel about your your process of holding material back--only sharing pages you're currently shooting--or granting them large amounts of freedom to go where they want to with a scene?
RE: Bridget and Adeel were ready to play the game and wanted to go with it.
EB: Yes, and as we moved through the film, like the night before we would show them a little bit more about what was coming up. But, at the beginning, we revealed very little beyond the current scene we were shooting. We know we were lucky to work with these actors, who are both brave and committed. And they are responsible for creating many of the most touching moments you see in the film.
AEY: How do you feel about being named two of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine in the Summer of 2009?
EB: Thilled.
RE: Scott Macaulay, the editor of Filmmaker Magazine, contacted us. We had met him when we were in the IFP narrative lab. He’s been a big supporter of us and the film.
EB: When you’re an emerging filmmaker, all of these little validations...they're like badges. And they really make a difference.
AEY: Many independent filmmakers do it all. First feature end credits often reveal that the film was Directed by, Written by, Produced by, Shot by, Edited by, etc. the same person. Do you similarly consider yourselves Renaissance Men, or do conceive of yourselves as masters of particular domains of filmmaking, whether it be directing, writing, shooting, or producing?
RE: In the past, we've assembled the crew ourselves. And, Eleanor shot the films, due to her background in cinematography. But, in general, we see ourselves as writers-drirectors. In the case of STRANGER THINGS, it was out of necessity that we produced. But we're going to try not to do that again (laughs).
EB: We see ourselves as filmmakers, foremost, with a slightly further reach that writers-directors normally have.
RE: Just like most independent filmmakers, I guess.
EB: Right.
Wrong! There is nothing average, common, or general about these highly talented, yet humble and grounded, creative artists, each with a genuine gift for visual storytelling. I'm sure that STRANGER THINGS will continue to play at film festivals around the country until (hopefully) it is sold. So, if you ever have a chance to catch this brilliant first feature, don't hesitate. Burke and Eyal's film is more than a movie: it is a 75-minute journey that explores the benefits of living one's life as an open, humane, selfless, and glass-half-full kind of person, which is a great lesson for us all to learn.
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