“The Method of Places” By Aman Johnson

HOU'LEY (ABSENT) Fond du Lac is a Dene First Nations community in northern Saskatchewan. The name quite literally translates to “Bottom of the Lake,” It has one of the highest suicide rates among youth in Canada. In this documentary short, one grieving mother tells the story of her fifteen year old son and his untimely and tragic death from suicide. With limited mental health support, it has been nearly three years since she has been able to speak openly about the trauma she and her family experienced following the loss of her son. Director: Alexander Sworik Editor: Brian Chambers Colourist: Sam Zook Re-Recording Mixer - Alastair Sims Produced by: Northern Bridge

Synopsis

A daughter tries to hold onto the memories of her father.

Directors statement

The idea for this film slowly developed over time but took on personal meaning when my father passed away a few months before my son was born. I have always been fascinated by memories and the inherently tragic juxtaposition of their importance and their fragility. The idea of losing a loved one is heartbreaking, but the idea of slowly losing precious memories over time seemed to me to be a different kind of suffering.

I wanted to write a story about this unique kind of loss, but it didn’t entirely come together for me until I read a book about memory competitions. I was fascinated by how the use of mind palaces allowed participants to remember an immense amount of information and retain that information much longer than they would normally.I was also captivated by the idea of creating physical spaces with in your mind –architecture untethered from reality and built solely from memories for memories.

At that point, the concept of the film became a series of questions for me. What if a child tried to use a mind palace to save the memories of their father? What would it feel like to travel through that mind palace over the years, revisiting those precious moments? And what would it feel like to begin losing those memories –one at a time–no matter how hard you tried to keep them? What would it feel like to wake up one day to the realization that the loss of those memories is unavoidable?And how would you find solace in that tragic realization?

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Credits

Starring:
Presley Fuentes, David Lee Hess, Elizabeth Tabish

Producers: Aman Johnson, Lee Rothenflue
Writer/Director: Aman Johnson
Production: Johnson Media Co.
Cinematography: Josh Verduzco
Sound Supervisor: Brian Ramos
Edit: Lee Rothenflue
Colorist: Brandon Thomas
Online Editor: Kagan Durmer
Production Design: L.G. Adams
Musical Score: Brian Ramos
1st Assistant Camera: Derrick Mitchell, Matthew McCloskey
2nd Assistant Camera: Bella Rothenflue
Gaffer: Peter Klemek
Key Grip: Jason Griego
1st Assistant Director: Jenee Arthur
2nd Assistant Director: Lars Frazer
Grip: Maurice Vellas
Hair/Makeup & Wardrobe: Mandy Johnson
Production Assistants: Zach Thomas, Kristofer Snyder, Dave Walker, Ellen Louis Cox, Will Dooley
Still Photography: Joshua Curtis
Assistant Production Designer: Rachel Love

Background:
Philip Stanton, Alisa Salikhov, Debra DeWitt, Milan Salazar, Benjamin Musgrave

Featuring:
"Cats" Written by Karl Toft Performed by David Lee Hess

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