By: Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/26/23- Have you ever wondered about the mind frame of those that survive traumatic events? If you have, Amend is the perfect short film for you. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jianna Maarten Saada who was in the running for an Academy Award in 2020 for one of her short films entitled Sin Cielo, which addresses the issue of girls being trafficked in Mexico. In Amend, Jianna addresses the grief and disconnection of PTSD after gun violence alongside actress, writer, and producer Belinda Gosbee. The pair explore a bond between a woman who works at a coffee shop and a young boy who finds himself homeless with no one to call on. The unlikely bond forces the two to address their trauma head-on, which is difficult, especially for the women. Without giving too much away we are sure that viewers will enjoy the plot build-up. Amend is also unique in that it is made up of an almost entirely female production., which is rare by industry standards.
Click below to see the whole live interview:
We look forward to seeing all this film has to offer as it debuts this Sunday, July 30th, at the closing night of the LA Shorts International Film Festival. Please look at our interview below for more insight into how the filmmakers brought this well-thought-out short to life.
THT: Do you see a difference in the world of film festivals?
Jianna: The bigger festivals have had lower turnouts than they have ever had before. There’s also been this change about making things available online, so now they have online tickets, it makes it more available for people that cannot travel to that city, but I think it takes away from the in-person experience that you get from a theater. I’m going to see the Barbie movie and I’m dressing up and making it a whole experience. I grew up in a time when people went to the theatre, and it was really impactful on me. I hope we don’t lose that in person experience cause as a director I cherished that.
Belinda: In Australia there are more film festivals beginning to pop up. It’s a long way to travel so I don’t know how expansive we will get, but I’m sure people will travel for the bigger more impactful festivals. We are also starting to see more digital experiences, but for us that may not be such a bad idea, given that we are so far away.
THT: Your short film Amend is a female driven production. How important is the representation of women in the industry?
Belinda: When I first set out with this film as a producer, it was important for me to see what women were out there and who we could get. Every little piece that came together someone had a friend to recommend and we just ended up getting these amazing women attached. Before we knew it, we were like wow, look at our team!
THT: Amend is making its debut at the LA Shorts. Why are films like this important and which messages can viewers take away?
Gionna: We approached it from the perspective of what PTSD and grief does to people. As a society we are told that there is a grieving period and you get over it, we are expected to bounce back. We talked about the correlation between veterans and teachers and how these school shootings are similar to combat, and it has a lot of the same effects, and the PTSD is also similar they experience trouble dealing with certain noises, not looking at rooms the same, always looking for exit points. All of these things relate back to the PTSD that people in combat face and it relates back to the grieving process and how people are just expected to get back to normal and it’s clear that they’re not. Now what does this look like in an increasingly gun heavy society for people that haven’t even been trained to deal with these types of situations?
We also posed the question of what the film is asking us to interrogate within ourselves and within society at large. And we don’t have the answers, I don’t think anyone has the answers. If we all had the answers, we wouldn’t be asking the questions. I think movie making is about asking questions. These were the ideas we were looking as, especially with the increase of gun violence in our society, specifically in the US.
Belinda: We also talked about the labeling of being a survivor as “being the lucy one.” Contrary to belief survivors don’t feel particularly lucky in the suffering they go through. It’s a very interesting parallel.
THT: How does the share in trauma between the two main characters allow each of them to confront their grief?
Jianna: The little boy is having a completely different experience than the women, but neither of them feel safe in the world that they suddenly found themselves in. It poses the question of rather safety is physical or emotional? We also wanted to show how safety looks within adult’s vs how it may look for children, but also how the two can run parallel to one another. The women Rachel in the film is triggered by the boy who acts as an emotional mirror for her, which makes her have to confront her grief.
THT: Where can we see the film?
Jianna: We are screening it on July 30th which is closing night of the festival.
THT: What’s next for you two?
Jianna: I’m working on a thriller centered around AI. I also have several other things I’m working on with friends.
THT: How can our readers find you?
Belinda: We are both on Instagram under our actual names @Jiannamaartensaada & @belindaleegosbee. We also have a website for the film which is Amendshortfilm.com. If you go to the film website all the links should be on there.