Dating Violet

Written & Directed by HOLLY TRENAMAN

Produced by MADELEINE JURD

In a small-coastal town, where everyone knows everyone, Violet’s life crashes down when she is dumped by her boyfriend and her parents contemplate divorce. Violet realises she has never known love at all and it affects her personal relationships. Violet is imprinted with scars of domestic violence, her parents failed marriage, and the pain of heartbreak, but through her friendship with Hunter Thorn, who is dealing with similar issues, she begins her road to recovery. Together, they depict different perspectives of broken families and exhibit the healing power of love, as they learn to accept the love they deserve.

ABOUT THE FILM

DATING VIOLET is the short film directorial debut of writer/director Holly Trenaman. Earlier this year we had the pleasure of screening it at our Kino Short Film Open Mic, however, the film enjoyed it’s World Premiere at Flickerfest International Film Festival. Additionally it won Best Director at Far South Film Festival and the Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Nominee at Byron Bay International Film Festival.

ABOUT THE FILMmaker

Holly Trenaman is a writer and filmmaker from a small town south of Sydney. She has a Bachelor of Screen Production from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and a Masters of Creative Writing from The University of Technology, Sydney. She’s the writer and director of 6-part 'SISTAS' web series on YouTube, the award-winning short film 'Dating Violet', and she's in post-production on her first documentary short film. She works freelance in the TV industry - across reality and scripted - working her way up to screenwriting, while also writing fiction on the side. She hopes to address mental health topics, sex positivity, and darker issues through comedy, as well as alleviate standards of perfection in society by creating work that showcases imperfect characters.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY

Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.

I consider myself a writer first, and I actually decided to explore the film industry as a writer/director after stumbling upon the BFI London Film Festival in Leicester Square in 2017. I was on my gap year, and looking for 'purpose' as you do, and I ended up going to two weeks worth of premieres and screenings, and networking with other filmmakers, and knowing I needed to be part of this world. Being from a small town south of Sydney, I'd never seen anything like it, so I'm always very grateful that I decided to take that walk that night.

**Tell us about the genesis of Dating Violet. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the film?**

Dating Violet is an allegory for domestic violence, which explores mental health issues and the different forms of violence in relationships through the perspectives of Violet and Hunter, who have both grown up in abusive homes. It details how this can affect children who have witnessed violence second-hand, since they are equally afraid that they will grow to perpetuate these violent behaviours in their romantic relationships - and I hope to expand on this if I can develop it into a longer form piece. Again, I thought of the title while standing in the crowd of a film premiere at the BFI LFF in 2017. I knew I wanted to explore these themes, but when the character of Violet came to me, it gave the whole idea clarity, and I went back to Sydney to study Film Production to understand how to execute ideas. I made this film in 2020 as my graduation film.

**What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Dating Violet and how did you overcome them?**

Filming the ocean scenes were the most challenging. They were so key to my vision for the film, since I wanted to capture visceral highs and lows, the turbulence of the ocean, and see Violet 'beneath the surface'. Violet and Hunter surf for the escapism, and I wanted to give the audience this feeling of freedom to contrast with their darker lives on shore. We filmed this at my local beach with a small but dedicated team, with volunteer lifeguards, and many friends and family members on set offering their help too. That is the only way we overcame and got these incredible shots on no budget!

Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights.

Our world premiere at Flickerfest in 2022 was special because that was a goal of mine, in a dream location, with Flickerfest being held on Bondi Beach. Byron Bay International Film Festival was also a highlight, since the night was hosted by Jack Thompson, an Australian veteran actor. But also I won prize money in other film festivals, so they are close contenders as well! I've also since done local screenings for people in my hometown who hadn't seen it, and it's been well received. The film is dedicated to my ex boyfriend Kane Richardson, and to my late cousin Zane Cahill, and I really felt their love during our screening at the KINO Open Mic night in London 2024 too.

What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?

Just do it! But also, I had written and directed a no-budget web series consisting of six 6-minute episodes before making Dating Violet and this was a masterclass in filmmaking do's and don'ts. I don't think I would've been able to pull off the quality of this short film without having the experience of the web series, as I was able to delineate certain production standards and up my game a little bit professionally too.