Motivational speaker Andrea Aviet collaborates with director Linzy Attenborough as producer and lead on the short film DON’T CRY, a short film adaptation of her book ‘White Sorrow’
The film, that reflects the inner feelings and thoughts of her own journey from being the victim of domestic abuse, is a hugely powerful and touching affair, based on suggestion and her own perspective. It is a movie that should inspire and help others who have been in a similar position.
Watch Film And TV Now’s interview with Andrea and Linzy here:
Director Linzy Attenborough reflected on the experience of the making of the film here:
“Award winning motivational speaker Andrea Aviet was introduced to me by a mutual friend and founder of ‘itswhoyouknow’ Richard Selwyn-Barnett. After listening to her heart-breaking and inspiring story I was inspired to write and direct the short film ‘Don’t Cry’
Andrea has published ‘White Sorrow’ a book which tells the story through her abusive relationship to her recovery. We decided to work together to make a micro-short film based on her book. The film highlights her journey from the happiest day of her life, through her darkest moments to the time when she found the strength and courage to leave her abusive partner taking her children with her. We hope that our film will inspire women in the same situation to find the strength Andrea found.
We discussed how best to approach this and Andrea was able to condense her story to a few life-altering moments. She came up with the concept of a looking-glass as she watched herself and her self-esteem fall and rise throughout the abusive relationship. I wrote these moments down and quickly turned this into a short three page screenplay and visual treatment.
Whatever we go through in life the world keeps on turning and our film doesn’t stop moving. I wanted the journey to be continuous and to be seamless, not distracting by choppy editing or cutting within the scenes. Our transitions are visual and not digital.
I added very minimal dialogue; her daughter’s conversation in which they mention that they don’t have a father and ‘the man’s voice’ based on Andrea’s real stories and the words her ex-partner said. Our sound designer, Kelle Thompson added an echo so these hurtful words echo through Andrea’s head. Our director of photography, Violetta D’Agata, Gaffer Barry Read and I worked out a mood and tone for each scene amplifying the darkness and light of Andrea’s inner journey.
On the shoot day it was an emotional experience for all of us as Andrea chose to play herself in the film meaning that she re-experienced the trauma of her past. This is not dissimilar to Stanislavski’s ‘system’ or ‘the method’ in which actors use real emotions from their past. However, Andrea is not a trained actor and she was not putting real emotions into a make believe scenario but in fact reliving the past.
This was very challenging as the constraints of length and complexities of our shots meant that we have to do multiple takes to accomplish every scene, so she had to draw on these emotions many times. Obviously this is challenging even for the most experienced of actors. I am very happy with Andrea’s performance and believe that our film has the power to influence women globally to find the strength to change their lives.”
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