A Feast of Light on the Silver Screen

Liz, I’m sure everyone asks, but the Filmable fam is clamouring to know, what inspired you to create this film? Why Breatharianism?

Liz Cairns, Director, Photographed by Brian Van Wyk at the Filmable Portrait Studio

Elizabeth Cairns (EC): Several years ago, I developed an interest in the 'breatharians', people scattered around the world who claim to be nourished by light alone. I began researching this spiritual practice, finding that it could be traced back to the Medieval ages and saw a resurgence in the Victorian period with the 'fasting girls'. I was both moved and disturbed by this belief, given my own relationship with disordered eating in my youth. I wrote INEDIA to explore the root of this spiritual practice, focusing on one young woman's quest for well-being.

And is there a specific aspect of the film that you are really excited about?

EC: Amy Forsyth gives a brilliant performance as the lead. Working with her was incredible, as she lends such depth, nuance and intelligence to the character. Jeremy Cox's photography is beautiful, as is the haunting score composed by Jesse and Josh Zubot.

Those are some talented folk that make the whole experience a breeze. Spill the tea, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the production of this film?

Still from INEDIA

EC: We had many challenges all throughout, so it's a long list! There were wasps everywhere, with everyone on the shoot getting stung at least once if not more. We shot the project on 16mm and when we received the first batch of dailies, there was significant damage on the scans. About 70% of our film stock turned out to be damaged, and had to undergo a restoration which delayed post-production. In the end, it all worked out. We got a short break after shooting as we figured out the best path forward and Elemental Post did an incredible job with their pain-staking restoration work.

Well, heck. Wasps are bad enough, but to have even 1% of the stock come back damaged is horrifying!

Kudos to you and Elemental for persevering. It must feel super gratifying to have emerged triumphant from those trials and tribulations. Do you have a favourite scene or moment in the film?

EC: There is a scene when Cora (Amy Forsyth) and Joana (Susanne Wuest) have a feast together. At this point in the film, Cora has been resisting food for several days, and there's an incredible release of energy as Joana encourages her to enjoy the enticing fruits laid out before them. The art team made a beautiful spread of fruit for the scenes and things got messy as we filmed. It was the first scene that Susanne and Amy did together on the shoot, and they had a lot of fun.

That scene sounds delicious. On that note, can you describe your process for writing the script? How did you approach the story structure and dialogue?

EC: The screenwriting process for INEDIA was very difficult, given that it was a personal story exploring my relationship to disordered eating. A part of me was resistant to writing and I struggled a lot in development. I would have to put the draft aside for long periods of time. I read every screenwriting book under the sun and was always trying out different structures, which ultimately was a kind of mask for avoiding the more personal aspects of the project. Several months before production, I was completely blocked and that I couldn’t go on. I made a couple phone calls to see if we could push the production another year. I felt trapped, unable to move forward with the writing process and yet, too far along to quit. One night I woke in the middle of the night with a renewed sense of inspiration. I wrote from 6am until 10pm, and had a new draft that night that I sent off. This is the draft that went into production. I could’ve worked on it for another year, no doubt, as I’ve always been a slower writer, but ultimately I’m glad that I was able to find a way forward.

Inspiration strikes at 6am, they say! How did you go about casting the actors for your film? Were there any specific qualities you were looking for in the actors?

BTS from INEDIA, Photo by Terrance Azzuolo

EC: Amy's audition tape took my breath away. Amy stood out from all the other audition tapes, as she brought such a subtlety and depth to her read, a pain that was just under the surface. I had a meeting with her, and she was such a bright, beautiful spirit with an incredibly thoughtful understanding of the material. I knew she was ‘Cora’. One thing that’s remarkable about Amy is that she never had a false note in her performance, across all the footage. It was unreal. In the edit, myself and Lisa marvelled at this. Amy was in every scene in the film, with arguably one of the hardest jobs among us, and she was always present in the character. As soon as we would call ‘cut’, Amy would be laughing, chatting with the crew, and putting everyone at ease, and then when we were ready for another take, she’d be right back into the scene and the character, like a switch she could turn on. It was an incredible privilege to work with her.

For casting Joana, our executive producer suggested Susanne Wuest, whom we’d worked with on another film. He sent her the script and she agreed to take a meeting with me. I fell in love with her the moment I met her. She had such a brilliant understanding of the character of Joana, with the complexity and sensitivity needed for the role. Hilda's audition tape similarly blew us away as well. For the role of Merri, we held a casting call on Salt Spring Island, seeing a number of kids and ultimately casting the wonderful Nova Brown, who was only 5 years old at the time of the audition and marched into the room with such confidence and presence, we knew we’d found our Merri.

That sounds like a dream casting and editing situation. So what is the most important lesson you've learned from making this film?

EC: I learned some invaluable lessons throughout the process of making a feature. The biggest learning was learning to tune into and act on my intuition, and strengthening that quality is what I consider the most integral to my work as a director. There would be times on set when I felt a moment wasn’t working, or that I had a strong feeling about something. When I didn’t listen to that gut feeling, I regretted it in the editing room. Being confident in your intuition can be difficult, but it’s necessary. Second guessing yourself or over-thinking something will often lead you astray.

Amen! What are you working on next? Are there any upcoming projects you're excited about?

EC: I am developing a feature length documentary, centered on a man that I met while filming INEDIA. I’m excited to explore the intersections between fiction and non-fiction filmmaking, bringing my narrative lens to a documentary subject. I’ve been working in a more intimate manner for this project, moving between development and shooting as I go, often with only myself and the subject, and I’m enjoying the process immensely. I’m writing two narrative features, one of which I’m especially excited about. The idea came to me fully formed, in a dream, and though the writing process will inevitably bring challenges and there’s an enormous amount of work to do, the characters and the world are vivid and exciting, and I hope it will become my next narrative feature, to which I will bring all the experiences (and lessons) from INEDIA.

Thank you Liz! We are excited to chat with you about this next project when the time comes.

Turning the mic over to your editor, Lisa Pham Flowers. Lisa, how did you approach the storytelling aspect of the editing, and what techniques did you use to enhance the narrative?

Lisa Pham, Editor, INEDIA

Lisa Pham Flowers (LPF): The storytelling of Inedia is driven by Cora's inner state and how she receives the world at a given time. Before the adventure begins, scenes are put together in a pretty linear/straightforward way. Then as the story takes off, one of my favourite sequences is of Cora traveling to the island. I remember feeling like we should get a little silly with it as Cora escapes her life; using minimal continuity and just highlighting little moments of Cora's excitement, rumination, and apprehension when she finally arrives at Sun Haven. Once we get to know Joana and the group, we open up the storytelling to play with time. Some scenes linger to showcase the rich environment and relationships forming. Some scenes implement jump cuts (which I'm a huge fan of) during Cora's moments of intense struggle. It's hard to tell by the end of the film how long Cora's been on the ranch because we're so anchored in her perspective, and in a way get lost in Sun Haven as well.

How did you determine the pacing of the film, and what factors influence your decisions?

(LPF): Pacing was something we went back and forth on a lot! It's so hard to get right. It was important to Liz and the team that this story be presented in a way that would suspend judgment for its characters dealing with disordered eating. Liz did such an amazing job with the script in writing a variety of lived experiences for the cast on the ranch, especially with Sun Haven's leader Joana who we get to know slowly and cautiously. In the end, pacing for Inedia was really about honouring these characters and where they end up in the story, as well as our personal experience. What audiences imagine for Cora after the film ends was directly impacted by the order of scenes, which is why we went over and over the middle to last sequence of events. I think we ended up with 28 versions of Inedia before picture locking, and opened up the timeline again after lock! Timing can feel so intuitive and magical.. and maddening... but I think we got to a really beautiful and honest place in the end.

Intuitive, magical and maddening. That seems like the perfect analogy for filmmaking. On the note of maddening, what is the most challenging aspect of the editing process, and how do you handle it?

(LPF): Getting to work has always been a challenge for me. Going through large amounts of footage and staying alert to view each take thoughtfully can be tedious, especially when receiving all the footage at once. Because so much of editing is about making decisions over and over, the start to building a scene can be paralyzing. What setup/angle do we start with? Which take and which character? What next? It's a mountain of choices to make. To trick myself into getting to work, I edit the scenes out of order, usually following the order of the shooting schedule. This takes a lot of pressure off me to assemble a perfect first cut because while editing a scene, my brain can't remember how the previous scene was edited - I might've tackled it 30 scenes ago! It also prevents me from agonizing over continuity details and makes room for more intuitive editing as I regard only the moments in front of me and how it relates to the story. Another bonus is that as I get closer and closer to a full assembly, I've left myself so much in the dark that when I can finally watch the film in its entirety, my eyes are fresh and (hopefully) more insightful on what the next changes should be. My second pass (which will be the Editors Cut) always feels magical and exciting because with the smaller minor decisions out of the way, I get to really focus on the story.

Great approach! How closely did you work with Liz during the editing process?

(LPF): Super close! To get us started, I had a good amount of time to put the editor's cut together and dress it with temp sound effects and temp music. After that first cut was released, Liz and I spent 4-5 days a week, every week, for 3 months, in person - working out of my home edit suite with my sweet bunnies (Willow & Thomas) and Liz's energetic & happy dog (Romeo). We shared a lot of conversation, laughs, cries, and lunches - it was an unforgettable experience! Having this time together, and Liz's close guidance and input in-person was invaluable and super paramount to us figuring out the heart of the story.

Thank you Lisa! We hope you both enjoy all the well-deserved success Inedia has in store. See you at VIFF!