{"id":189945,"date":"2024-12-12T14:28:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T13:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=189945"},"modified":"2024-12-12T16:40:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T15:40:10","slug":"blog-jaydon-martin-on-flathead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-jaydon-martin-on-flathead","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe people we depicted gave me their souls to put in a film\u201d: Jaydon Martin on Flathead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI’ve always wanted to make a small, strange film that people stumble upon\u201d, says Jaydon Martin about the journey he went on with his first feature film. The Australian filmmaker made his feature directorial debut at IFFR 2024 with Flathead<\/strong>, a black-and-white intimate docu-fiction portraying the lives of a small working-class community from Bundaberg, Australia. Flathead <\/strong>was part of IFFR\u2019s trademark Tiger Competition, where it was the recipient of a Special Jury Award. \u201cAfter winning the Jury Award, it just snowballed from there\u201d says the filmmaker about the award and the success of Flathead after Rotterdam.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI never saw cinema that spoke to me and addressed the experience of living in a working-class town.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in a low socio-economic area in Australia, filmmaker Jaydon Martin made his way to independent international cinema only around 15 years-old, when he had access to the Internet. He mentions this \u201copened the floodgates to international cinema\u201d. He was jolted by the social realism depicted in Ken Loach\u2019s films and felt represented and inspired to portray the experience of the working-class community where he grew up through cinema: \u201cI thought that\u2019s something I could do\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve always just wanted to do guerilla filmmaking.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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After being in film school for about a year, the Flathead filmmaker realised this might not be the path for him. \u201cI dropped out and bought a one-way ticket to London. I was so poor and struggling to get by in the UK for years‘<\/em>\u201d, says Jaydon. Reflecting his \u201chumble beginnings\u201d, Jaydon crafted his own path towards the world of filmmaking: he started working for a magazine and doing behind-the-scenes video work for theatre and opera companies. \u201cThat was really my film school\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After eight years away from his home country, he felt ready to go back and make his first feature film. \u201cI wanted to do a feature that incorporated the people I grew up with. So, I made a pilgrimage back home and started working on Flathead\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere’s not much cinema or media depicting working-class Australians in a real and authentic way.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The journey of Flathead<\/strong> started from Jaydon\u2019s drive to shed light on a community of people that, even though makes up the majority of the country, does not get revealed often in its purest form. \u201cThey have a lot to say and feel in this world\u201d, says the filmmaker about the community he grew up with. Not only did he want to make a film entirely \u201cbased on them\u201d, but he wanted to do so in a pure and genuine manner, where fact and fiction blend to re-create intimate and traumatic experiences from people\u2019s lives. \u201cMore than anything, I want to come across in a sincere lens. I think the most beautiful way of communication is through sincerity\u201d, explains the filmmaker about making the film\u2019s characters relatable and merging fact and fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He further explains that within each scene, the people depicted \u201chave agency towards what level of truth and reality they want to share [with me] in the film, it\u2019s up to them\u201d. He recalls that they would sometimes re-create scenes that dig up particularly traumatic or emotional experiences in a fictional scenario. \u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful way of working because there\u2019s a cathartic nature to recreate something that you\u2019ve lived through. You can really get a more authentic feeling on screen, even though it’s staged. And that’s the beautiful trick of film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe beautiful thing about black-and-white is that it strips everything away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Flathead<\/strong>, memories are laid bare, and Bundaberg is a \u201cland scarred with fields\u201d. About the stylistic decision of coating the film in black and white, the Australian filmmaker echoes his references of black-and-white films about working class communities made by Ken Loach and Charles Burnett. \u201cThat was always at the forefront\u201d. Furthermore, reflecting his commitment to always working with cinema through a sincere lens, Jaydon uses this stylistic choice as a vignette that sucks the audience into the characters\u2019 lives and emotions. \u201cThe beautiful thing about black-and-white is that it strips everything away. And you\u2019re left focusing on the emotions of the characters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comparing a black-and-white Bundaberg to a \u201cland scarred with fields\u201d, the filmmaker explains how he protruded this serene landscape with archival footage in pops of colour. Within a small working-class community where \u201clife is living day-to-day, black-and-white\u201d, expectations are subverted and memories are laid bare, unstylised, and real: \u201cOur memories are the most vivid things we hold onto and the most vivid things we have. I always think they should be done in colour\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur experience at the festival was nothing short of amazing. Everyone was so lovely and had such a love for cinema.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Among seeing the \u201camazing response\u201d from the press and the audience, getting a review from The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s chief film critic Peter Bradshaw, and winning an award in competition at the festival, Jaydon calls his experience at IFFR \u201cnerve-wrecking\u201d: \u201cYou never think you’re going to get it [the film] done, let alone come to Rotterdam, in competition. To get that response was beautiful\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the support of IFFR Pro and the Pro Hub mentorship, networking and panels for filmmakers in selection, Jaydon further remembers to have found at IFFR a place where \u201cyou realise how great the industry is, and how many like-minded people there are.\u201d He explains how, as a filmmaker having to work on a film for years, it often happens that you lose perspective and \u201cyou\u2019re kind of isolated and feel lonely. Then you come to a festival like Rotterdam and it\u2019s just so refreshing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cRotterdam is pushing the boundaries in the selection of films. The programming is so amazing, so vast, so daring.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At a time when theatrical runs for small, independent films are limited and finding distribution gets more difficult, \u201cto have festivals like Rotterdam champion independent and unique voices is amazing, that\u2019s what we need to push independent cinema forward\u201d, says the filmmaker when discussing about the professional doors IFFR opened for Flathead<\/strong>. He adds that \u201cas a filmmaker, all you want is for your film to be out in the world. You want as many people as possible to experience it. And the only reason the film\u2019s out in the world is because of IFFR and the brave and bold curation of the programming team and the artistic director Vanja Kaludjercic\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m only a very small part of why the film has connected with so many people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Five years and a successful international reception later, Jaydon and his crew went back to Bundaberg to give back the film to the community where it was born from. \u201cWe packed out a theatre there\u201d, recalls Jaydon. \u201cI\u2019m outside in the lobby pacing and hoping that they like it, because this screening really counts\u201d, adds the filmmaker. As if \u201cvisiting old family members\u201d, the Bundaberg screening concluded with a wonderful reception, and an emotional evening of talking at the pub. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a really beautiful cathartic experience\u201d, remembers Jaydon about going back to Bundaberg after five years have passed and seeing the people depicted in the film again: \u201cbecause I’ve been in the edit for so long, they stay preserved in the edit and preserved in the images you’ve captured. But then five years go by and everyone’s aged. It\u2019s a strange feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing, living with a film.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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At the end of this full-circle experience, the filmmaker reflects on the passing of time and the timely nature of cinema, emphasising the privilege of having the people of your film be part of your life forever: \u201cThat little black box of a camera allows you to step into people’s lives and worlds, and they open up to you sometimes more than they would ever open up to their family members. It\u2019s an extraordinary thing, because you live with a film, but also with the people you\u2019re filming. You grow with them for years and they\u2019re always part of your life. And that\u2019s such a privilege. Even if I didn\u2019t press record on the camera, just this experience alone is life-changing, transformative, and wonderful.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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