During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it?

The Wound was cast almost entirely with non-professional actors who speak Xhosa, a language which I do not understand. In the film they enacted a very nuanced rites-of-passage ritual which I had no first-hand experience of. Despite the support of exhaustive research, excellent script translations and a full-time facilitator on set, I knew that the only hope I had of achieving any kind of life in front of the camera was to surrender control and to put the power in the hands of these men. Every day, the same moment arrived – when all our planning gave way to an open space and unexpected, beautiful things began to happen. Our failure of communication gave way to a kind of mutual trust and collaboration that I have never experienced with a cast before.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, January 22 at 8:30pm — Prospector Square Theatre]

Sundance Responses 2017