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 written and directed by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn.[1]
| The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Kathleen Hepburn |
| Written by | Kathleen Hepburn Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers |
| Produced by | Tyler Hagan Lori Lozinski Alan R. Milligan |
| Starring | Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers Violet Nelson |
| Cinematography | Norm Li |
| Edited by | Christian Siebenherz |
Production companies | Experimental Forest Films Violator Films |
| Distributed by | levelFILM |
Release date |
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Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
The film centres on a chance interaction between two Indigenous women of contrasting lived experience and socio-economic position, Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and Rosie (Violet Nelson), as they navigate the effects of intimate partner violence.[1] The majority of the film consists of a single, continuous long take.
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.[4] In 2020 the film won the Toronto Film Critics Association's Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, Canada's most prestigious film award.
Plot
editThe film opens with a series of vignettes introducing Rosie, a young Kwakwaka’wakw woman, and Áila (Blackfoot and Sámi). Rosie is pregnant and 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 screaming at her down the street. Áila, unsure of what to do, offers Rosie shelter in her nearby apartment.
Once inside, Rosie is reserved and hesitant to hand over her clothes to dry. While changing in the bathroom, she steals a bottle of 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 going to a safe house.
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 will not go the police, due to him being on bail, and her belief that they will not 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 will not be angry if she returns right away. On the way out, Sophie assures the frustrated Áila that it is 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 is mad at her. Áila says she is not, and tells Rosie she will 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
editThe film's title comes from an essay by Billy-Ray Belcourt. The story is based on a personal experience of Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers.[5]
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.[6][7]
Real-time transitioning technique
editThe 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 five days of shooting.[8]
Reception
editCritical reception
editThe 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 8.3/10. 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."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 8 critics.[10]
Accolades
editAt 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,[11] and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it received the Best BC Film Award and the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award.[12]
On December 11, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list.[13]
At the 8th annual Canadian Screen Awards, the film was nominated for six awards, including Best Motion Picture, and won three, including Best Director.[14]
In January 2020, the film was named the winner of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Canadian Film,[15] and of the Toronto Film Critics Association's $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.[16]
References
edit- ^ a b Jason Asenap (June 24, 2019). "No happy ending in 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". High Country News.
- ^ "Berlin Film Festival: First Generation Section Films Unveiled". Variety. September 19, 2018.
- ^ Peter Howell (July 31, 2019). "Indigenous films highlight Canadian slate at TIFF 2019". Toronto Star.
- ^ "Toronto film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open' - CityNews Toronto". toronto.citynews.ca. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Li, Norm (October 2019). "Long Take: Norm Li, csc (Q&A)" (PDF). Canadian Cinematographer. 11 (5): 23.
- ^ "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
- ^ "The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". Metacritic. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- ^ a b Townsend, Kelly (October 28, 2019). "imagineNATIVE awards 'The Body Remembers', We Will Stand Up". Playback.
- ^ a b Townsend, Kelly (9 October 2019). "'The Body Remembers' wins two awards in VIFF's BC Spotlight". Playback. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Wilner, Norman (December 11, 2019). "TIFF announces Canada's top 10 films of 2019". Now.
- ^ a b Wilner, Norman (18 February 2020). "Écrans canadiens : Song of Names, The Twentieth Century et Antigone en tête des nominations". Ici Radio-Canada.
- ^ a b "Vancouver film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". Tri-City News. January 7, 2020.
- ^ "Toronto film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open". 660 News. January 9, 2020.
- ^ Malyk, Lauren (21 October 2019). "In brief: 'The Body Remembers,' The Twentieth Century nab prizes". Playback. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ "2019 Awards (23rd Annual)". Online Film Critics Society. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ "Toronto film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". The Canadian Press. 9 January 2020. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- ^ "2020 Nominees Announced". Vancouver Film Critics Circle. December 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2020.