Distracting dogma sound but was truly cathartic to direct + film a documentary where I sat down (13 years after it happened) with my rapist who nearly took my life as well, not just my body. Obviously he wasn't present - I just spoke to him all night in my studio and filmed it. Can recommend as a therapeutic action if someone has similar experiences. Mine was never found or convicted. Tell me what you think. You can find a link on my profile. Blessed be your path who reads this.
Filmmaking / Directing : "A Night With My Rapist" (2020 documentary) by Velvet Elle
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An interesting concept. I'm trying to write a short structured around a woman in conversation with her younger self. It's hard for me to find my Directors visual.
Thank you Doug, it was really healing to do the film and I postponed it for quite some time. For years I had wanted to speak with the one(s) who did it to me, so they could fill the blanks that were haunting not to know. The idea scared me though. What if all the storms inside me would result a chaos not only onscreen? Afterwards I felt so serene, that it's difficult to explain. Something that had been a burden for over 10 years felt less heavy. I forgave. Its power is astonishing. I also like your concept, so many times I have been thinking like "Oh wow if I knew this when I was young!" and thematically that sounds fruitful, because sometimes the younger me for example feels to have possessed qualities and wisdom the older doesn't have, or has forgotten. If I can offer you anything you could use, on the project, I am more than happy to help!
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Wow, congratulations on creating something so brave, yet healing! Is this something you created to share or just created for the release?
Thank you Karen! Actually my intention was just to film it, just for the sake of myself, but as I edited it I thought the footage was too powerful to not be shown anywhere. So far I am building a thematic exhibition idea including "A Night With My Rapist" as a single-channel video art piece.
I'm trying to see this as a movie - I have the same issue with my own concept. It must be more than just a 'talking heads' film about the present you and the younger you. There needs to be action over the dialog to really make the story impactful.
If it's sheer fiction, then they could meet? They could sit down and talk to one another, go for a road trip, and as a twist something happens for either of them and she dies. The one that'd survive for let's say a car crash is destined to live in certain time, in certain place, and all she can do is her very best. Sounds like a super sad concept though, real nevertheless. The older could be just a projection of the younger's ideology, she'd be an idea of an adult, shot as point-of-view and then the focus would change to the older's point-of-view once the younger dies in the crash. Scenery would suddenly be totally different though the same; people would talk differently once the narrator becomes her current-self and is doomed to live in the adulthood with adult problems. What the younger one didn't "get" from the world, were morbid power games and issues such as what kind of mortgage is the best - you know. Grown-up stuff. Things we make ourselves busy with contra running barefoot on a field without any seemingly apparent reason than the joy of doing that. I have noticed that as I'm reaching 35 in two weeks, the illusion that I have seen everything more than once bothers me.