Film And TV Now recently spoke with film-maker Mat Sheldon about his new short film THE ELECTRICITY IN ME.
Watch the interview here:
About the film:
THE ELECTRICITY IN ME has gone down a storm on the festival circuit, screening at the BAFTA Qualifying Leeds International Film Festival and Norwich Film Festivals, and the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts and New Hampshire festivals. Lead Ellora Torchia has also gone on to win Best Actor at the 2022 Cornwall Film Festival.
It is a searing, first-person confessional based on the true story of Sheldon’s birth mother, Joan Stockdale, who discovered she was pregnant by her 50-year-old university professor, who she referred to as ‘my monster’ in her diaries, on a University of Regina (Canada) theatre trip to London.
She stayed to have her baby, giving her son up for adoption as a newborn. After the birth, Joan made a new life in England, only occasionally returning home to visit family in rural Saskatchewan. She worked in Senate House as a secretary for the University of London — a job she was ambivalent about, at best. She died of metastatic cancer, in February 1987, at the age of 37.
Torchia outlines why she was so drawn to the material:
“Sometimes you stumble on a secret, and it chooses you to let it out. This is how I felt when I laid eyes on Joan’s diaries for the first time. An everywoman diary transforming itself before me into genius writing with every turn of the page.
I felt like I was holding an undiscovered Sylvia Plath in my hands. I am honoured Mat trusted me with this story and humbled to have had the chance to hold on to it briefly and share this with you, trying to be fair to all the delicate threads woven together to make this story true. A brave mother, a brave son. A story about an unconditional love.”
Speaking about the film, Sheldon stated:
“THE ELECTRICITY IN ME is a portrait of Joan Stockdale, my Canadian birth mother. Built around an eviscerating stream of consciousness performance, the film is a three-dimensional reflection of her in me, an undoubtedly flawed mirror, reflecting her quiet grief recorded in her diaries. What I do know is Ellora Torchia’s extraordinary connection with the character is wholly real; a living and breathing embodiment of my flesh and blood.”
The backdrop to Joan’s story is Canada’s shameful post-war history of treating unwed pregnant women as societal pariahs, only recently acknowledged by the Canadian Government report ‘The Shame Is Ours’.
The Washington Post noted (article found here) on publication of that report that:
“Their stories would not seem out of place in an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale: pregnant women shuttered away, violently restrained during childbirth, banned from looking at their babies — and, finally, coerced by social workers into signing adoption papers.
More than a half-century after unmarried and largely non-consenting Canadian women were sent to maternity homes to give birth in relative secrecy, a report released by a [Canadian Government] Senate committee acknowledges a “disturbing chapter” in Canadian history, when the country’s adoption policies led to hundreds of thousands of unwed mothers being forced to give up their babies for adoption.”
The Electricity In Me was shot on location in Punnichy, Saskatchewan in Canada and Mile End in London., Sheldon and his crew succeeded in turning cold, oppressive environments and a difficult story into a loving if painful cinematic piece.
His crew included Emmy nominated Production Designer Adam O’Neill (EMPIRE OF LIGHT, PROMETHEUS, GLADIATOR), 4x Vimeo Staff Pick Director of Photography David Foulkes, and composer Rutger Hoedemaekers, who collaborated with Jóhann Jóhannsson on ARRIVAL and Oscar-winning JOKER composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on TRAPPED.
Joan was brought to life by 2021 BAFTA Breakthrough, BIFA nominated, and Screen International Star of Tomorrow actor Ellora Torchia. A 2014 RADA graduate, Ellora is currently shooting the new BBC/Paramount+ series THE GOLD and has recently been seen in GRANTCHESTER playing new regular ‘Maya’.
Ellora’s other television credits include: THE NEVERS for Netflix, THE SPLIT for BBC, and BROADCHURCH for ITV. Her film credits include Ben Wheatley’s IN THE EARTH (for which she was BIFA nominated), Clio Barnard’s ALI & AVA, CRISIS opposite Gary Oldman, Ari Aster’s MIDSOMMAR, and Thomas Bidegain’s LES COWBOYS.
