18th BFI Future Film Festival, 2024
"I think such festivals are super important for young filmmakers, it enables us to share our work, get feedback, network, and learn about the intricacies of the industry…"
Blanche
Malet
STITCHES AND
Stitches and Solace poetically explores the emotions the filmmaker felt during the days surrounding her father’s passing.
Hi Blanche, thank you for talking to TNC. How does it feel to have Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace part of this years BFI Future Film Festival?
Hi dear readers of TNC! It’s a great honour and pleasure for me. It’s the first film I am sending to festivals, and I am so glad it can be shown to a wide audience. I am also super happy to be able to screen it at BFI Southbank, a cinema I love and visit so often.
Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace has already had an amazing festival run, what has it meant to you to see your film get such a wonderful reception?
It touches me a lot, especially because my film addresses such a personal story, I am glad it resonates with others in such a meaningful way.
You’ve recently graduated from the Royal College of Art’s Animation MA programme, what was your time like at the RCA and what would you say was the most valuable lesson you’ve taken from your time there?
My time at the RCA was so inspiring. I met wonderfully talented animators, a couple of whom have their films selected along with mine in this festival. I also got the chance to be taught by such a wide lens of practitioners and scholars. The most valuable lesson for me was to dare to experiment with the medium of animation. I think I still don’t experiment enough, but it’s definitely something I am trying to implement more in my practice.
How important are festivals like Future Film Festival in creating a platform for short films and emerging filmmakers?
I think such festivals are super important for young filmmakers, it enables us to share our work, get feedback, network, and learn about the intricacies of the industry… It is also a way to gain confidence, to feel like we are recognised in some way, which is quite needed, especially after graduating and being confronted with the harsh reality of finding a job in the film industry.
What more can be done on a local/national level to offer short films more visibility to audiences outside of the festivals circuit?
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to reach a wide audience with short films. They rarely have dedicated screenings contrary to feature-lengths. Perhaps cinemas could implement the screening of a short film as a sort of supporting act to feature films, like it was the case a long time ago when they were showing a cartoon or something before a block-buster. But I don't really know what that would take in terms of rights and organisation etc.
Can you tell me how Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace came about, did you have any apprehensions about making a film that comes from such a personal place?
At the start of my MA at RCA, I was told I had to choose a subject for my grad film. At first I had another topic in mind, but then a tutor suggested I incorporate some kind of personal experience to my project. I always knew I wanted to address my experience of losing my father – I had thought in the past to create a contemporary dance choreography inspired by it, but it felt quite triggering back then. That tutor’s suggestion brought me back to the idea, and this time I felt ready. I didn’t have too many apprehensions about making the film, I felt quite confident. I was perhaps a bit doubtful on whether it would be enticing for the audience.
SOLACE
Has it been somewhat cathartic for you looking back and exploring the emotions you felt at the time when your father passed?
Well, I started this project thinking it would help me accept my father’s death. That’s maybe a reason why I wasn’t so scared about making it. It definitely had some kind of cathartic effect on me. It helped me accept what happened four years earlier, in a way that I could not have anticipated. I think it is mostly because it forced me to face those memories, and express them in a way that brought meaning to my experience. Also, I chose to draw everything by hand, frame by frame, on paper, which was laborious but meditative. It enabled me to reflect on my emotions at a slow pace.
When working on a short like Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace how much flexibility do you give yourself with your filmmaking process, do you prefer to stick to a plan or do you allow for a more fluid production?
I give myself a lot of flexibility! I naturally don’t work with full storyboards. I do a couple of sketches for scenes I have in my head, and go straight to testing. I then edit the extracts together in an animatic, to try different combinations. It feels more genuine that way, I leave some room for improvement, doubt and radical choices.
Have you always had a passion for filmmaking?
I think I did, yes. I hesitated a lot on what to pursue after high school. I studied medicine for 3 weeks – as I wanted to be a neuroscientist – and then completed an undergraduate course on the influences of Greek and Roman cultures on the contemporary world. But I think deep down, I always dreamt of being a filmmaker. I am fascinated by films, and always been playing with the medium of moving image, whether by filming random scenes on my phone, doing montages with archive videos or animating short films. As I have been practising drawing since I was a child, animation was quite an obvious choice when it came to filmmaking.
What filmmakers have served as inspiration for you?
In animation, William Kentridge has had a big influence on me, which perhaps is quite transparent with Stitches and Solace in particular. The charcoal and the red thread I used in Stitches and Solace were partly referencing his work, which was a conscious choice, as he was one of my father’s favourite artists. Apart from animation, I really loved The Quiet Girl by Colm Bairéad and was probably influenced by it to some level for this film. Finally I am really admirative of Paolo Sorrentino’s films, which probably inspire me everyday on an unconscious level.
In making Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace do you think you’ve gained a newer perception of what loss means and why it impacts/effects us all so much and in such different ways?
Making this film made me gain a new perception of what grieving means, rather than of what loss means. What I needed to go forward was to reflect on the past and be present with it. Making Stitches an Solace enabled that. It became really clear to me when I read The Grieving Brain by Mary-Frances O’Connor after finishing the film, a book which explains how the brain apprehends grief, from a neuroscientific point of view.
What does Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace say about you as a filmmaker and the stories you want to tell in the future?
Hopefully Stitches and Solace does not tell too much about who I am as a filmmaker. I really enjoyed making it, but I do not want to trap myself in a genre or a technique, I still want to experiment with many other ways of making films. Although I would say that making this film deepened my interest in the feeling of grief. I am planning to explore this idea further in my future project, but from a different lens. I want to address the feeling of grieving a homeland after moving to a foreign country.
"Sometimes, we fall into the intense process of animating our scenes and we lose track of what it will end up looking or feeling like for the spectator."
What does Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace say about you as a filmmaker and the stories you want to tell in the future?
Hopefully Stitches and Solace does not tell too much about who I am as a filmmaker. I really enjoyed making it, but I do not want to trap myself in a genre or a technique, I still want to experiment with many other ways of making films. Although I would say that making this film deepened my interest in the feeling of grief. I am planning to explore this idea further in my future project, but from a different lens. I want to address the feeling of grieving a homeland after moving to a foreign country.
Is there any advice/tips you could offer a fellow filmmaker about to start their filmmaking journey?
I am quite at the start of my filmmaking journey as well (hopefully), but I would advise a fellow filmmaker to trust their instinct when it comes to editing but also to keep a critical eye on what they are making at all times. Especially for animators. Sometimes, we fall into the intense process of animating our scenes and we lose track of what it will end up looking or feeling like for the spectator.
What has been the best advice you’ve been given?
I think the best advice I’ve been given was to not care too much about what other people think. I know it’s quite basic, but I think it’s good advice.
And finally, what do you hope your audiences will take away from Sutures et Consolation / Stitches and Solace?
I hope my audiences will understand a bit better what it feels like to lose a loved one, if they haven’t had this experience yet, or feel like someone shares their feelings to a certain extent if they have.