Back to selection
“A Joyous Return to the Wonder and Thrill of Youthful Invention” | Albert Birney, OBEX
Still from OBEX. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?
We filmed a few scenes in the woods behind my childhood home. I know these woods like the back of my hand. I know where the deer paths are and where the ground is steep and where the old abandoned stone building is. I’ve been playing in these woods for as long as I can remember. These are the woods I played in with my friend J.T. the day we first saw Jurassic Park and ran out of the woods screaming, sure we had heard a dinosaur roar. These are the woods where my mom said fairies lived and were only visible to those who believed. By that tree over there I was once stung on my knee by a hornet, and it swelled up so much I couldn’t walk for two days. Over by that steep section I watched my younger sister fall down an embankment and sprain her ankle.
As children we’d spend hours playing, making up characters with elaborate backstories and hideous monsters who could smell you from a mile away. In these woods is where I first discovered the potent magic of storytelling. Our film contains monsters and fairies, so filming within these familiar woods felt like a natural extension of these childhood games, a joyous return to the wonder and thrill of youthful invention, this time, however, with a camera recording it all.
See all responses to our annual Sundance Question here.
