Written & Directed by Jonny White
Artistic expression can save your life. 'Ballet & I' is an intimate portrait spotlighting a dancer’s relationship with her mental health following the introduction of dance in her life.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JAMES
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
I studied Film & Television Production at York St John University in 2016, where I made my first documentary, which went on to win a Royal Television Society Student Award. The documentary told the story of one man’s experience with sleep paralysis, which I decided to tell through cinematic recreation. From this, it stemmed my interest in stories about people – what makes us tick, what makes us human. After Uni, I worked (and still work) several jobs which pay the bills, whilst self-producing and directing short films, experimenting with style and storytelling, figuring what kind of work I want to make. Eventually, I went back into documentary filmmaking, which is my passion and where I see my future in filmmaking as I continue to try and establish myself in the industry.
What inspiration and influences made you want to tell this story?
Christie – the dancer. I was reaching out for dancers for a new short film, where I wanted to capture why dancers dance, spotlighting unique and talented artists, looking at what drives them. Christie was one of those dancers who reached out, and her story completely encapsulated me. She is an incredibly inspiring person and I wanted to tell her story. What drives my passion for non-fiction, is using my work to try and educate and inspire audiences, telling those often untold stories from seemingly ordinary individuals, which can get lost in a very saturated world of celebrity culture and social media. These are the stories, in my opinion, that can resonate a lot further with audiences, because they are relatable, ‘ordinary’ people.
Documentary filmmaking is often run and gun, but your film feels so well thought out. What is your process?
My process changes depending on the project, and what drives that change is what creative elements the story needs to have the strongest impact on audiences. In the case of ‘Ballet & I’, Christie’s words are so powerful and inspiring, they hold on their own as a voiceover. You can really hear the emotion and passion in her voice, so I wanted to avoid a ‘run and gun’ style, as well as a traditional ‘talking head’ documentary approach, and compliment her fantastic testimony on how artistic expression ultimately saved her, with visuals that feel theatrical and dream-like, as if you’re watching an intimate ballet performance celebrating just being alive.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
As always with documentary filmmaking for me, the primary obstacle is my own anxieties and ensuring that I am doing the brave people who contribute justice. Those who agree to be part of your film are placing a lot of trust in you, particularly when it’s such a personal subject and they are opening a part of themselves which you are showing audiences they haven’t met. It’s the balancing of creating the film I want to make and ensuring the messages I want to convey come across, but also not letting down those involved. It’s probably a case of overthinking, but it always happens.
What advice would you have for filmmakers who want to make a documentary?
Perhaps it’s a cliché answer, but make sure what you want to make a documentary about, you are passionate about that subject. What resonates with you not only as a filmmaker, but as a person. Then think about what message you want to convey, what is telling this story going to achieve – what is the film’s purpose? Expect the unexpected. There is a certain element of control with fiction filmmaking, but documentary can often be reactive filmmaking, in terms of the actual content, which makes it challenging, but incredibly exciting. Be passionate, reactive, and adaptive, but with a consistent end goal, or ‘purpose’, in mind.
This film resonated with us because as artists ourselves, our art really helps balance our mental health. What advice would you give to filmmakers struggling with mental health?
This is something I’m still figuring out myself. I think a lot of artists can experience struggles due to the nature of our passion. There is a lot of rejection, reliance on validation, low income, self-comparison to other artists, frustrations that close friends and family perhaps don’t really care about our work but will support high profile public figures/organisations. I think it’s important to fixate on why we create our art for ourselves and forget everything else. For me, I love telling stories that I feel are important and will make a difference to how people think and feel, even if it’s in a tiny way. It makes me feel as though I’m making a meaningful contribution.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
My success at this stage of my career is still quite limited in terms of audience reach, as I’m still working to establish myself and ‘get noticed’ if you will. However, I’ve found I have had better success uploading my work to Vimeo and targeting online film platforms, such as KINO, alongside other platforms like Directors Notes, BOOOOOOM TV and Film Shortage, as opposed to film festivals. I love attending film festivals, I’ve been to Camerimage in Poland three times! However, through these online platforms, particularly for short form work, the right people are still seeing your work, you can still network, make contacts, build relationships. You can still showcase your work in the right place, in front of the right people without film festivals, and whilst I encourage people to still submit to festivals of course, I would certainly suggest putting an equal onus on submitting to online film platforms that feature work – especially short form.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
There’s a couple of shorts I came across on Vimeo that really stuck with me. One has such a shocking ending which perfectly encapsulates what message the film is trying to highlight, and that is ‘A Life Interrupted’. It does exactly what a documentary should do in my opinion – leave a profound effect on the audience that lingers in your mind long after viewing. Secondly, another documentary that stuck with for me, is ‘Gina’. It’s such a simple documentary but it left me completely speechless and emotional. Its power is in its simplicity. Thoroughly recommend those two, but Vimeo is plastered with incredible shorts as we all know.
In terms of feature films and just visually, anything Wong Kar-wai has directed, particularly ‘2046’ and ‘In the Mood for Love’. Christopher Doyle as a DoP is a genius, and those films contain such bold, visceral, and emotive imagery that really changed how I viewed cinema as a visual medium.