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| White Noise |
For people who are easily overwhelmed by noise, whether that’s due to a hypersensitivity like misophonia or a difficulty in filtering out important sounds from unimportant ones, life can be very difficult, and trips to the cinema require special care. Director Tamara Scherbak and co-writer/producer Christina Saliba managed to turn that around, however, by creating short film White Noise, which addresses the experience of living with this type of disability. It’s screening as part of the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, and when Tamara and I met to talk about it, she explained why it’s such an important piece of work.
“Christina, the producer, has suffered from this condition of misophonia since her childhood. A few years ago she had an idea to use the genre of horror and thriller to explore what it's like living with this condition. She took me on as a writer for the feature version so that's how we got started on the project, and then we got some funding to make the short film version that's like a microcosm of some of the topics and events that happen in the feature version of this film.
“It was really, really important to both of us to show the invisible suffering and the invisible pain. Hypersensitivities like misophonia and the invisible suffering that a lot of women experience within the medical system, and medical gaslighting. While the film deals specifically with hypersensitivity to sound, it kind of works as an allegory for lots of different conditions as well. We wanted to connect, as well, with the wide range of invisible sufferings.”
I explain that for me personally as a disabled person, although I have a different type of disability, there was a lot in it which was easy to relate to, and Tamara tells me that that’s what they were hoping for. I ask her what’s happening with the feature version.
“We're in development,” she says. “We have some development funding from Telefilm Canada, which is a very big funder, and we're working with the brilliant and wonderful Karen Walton as a script editor. She’s now polishing the latest draft. And we're hoping to apply for production funding in the autumn and in the winter. In Canada, like the UK, we have a lot of government funding.”
So how did they approach turning the experience of misophonia into a story which could work in a film?
“We had many, many discussions about that. I guess the one of the main points is that sound is a character in the film. The sound is the monster. It's the antagonist to the main character. That's one of the reasons why the sound design has a world of its own. We brought on a brilliant sound designer, Sylvain Bellemare, who's an Oscar-winning sound designer, and we had a really fun time developing sound into an antagonist. We knew we had to incorporate the medical system and showing how the character is being failed by the medical system. That was another key point to cover. And the anechoic chamber was just a perfect setting that visually represents everything happening inside of her.”
I tell her that I was impressed by the sound design in the film because it manages to convey what the heroine, Ava, is experiencing, and show us how overwhelming that is, without becoming so obnoxious that the average person will find the film difficult to watch.
“Definitely, yeah. We spent a lot of time on the sound design and the sound mix with Hans Laitres, who's a wonderful sound mixer as well. It's definitely a balance to instil fear and maybe even a level of disgust in the audience with the sound design but not take it too far. We incorporated low decibel levels that maybe you don't necessarily hear at, but you feel it. Especially in the cinema version with a 5.1 mix, you can really feel the sounds, which I'm really excited to show in front of an audience at Fantasia.
“We wanted the audience to have a slice of life for the main character suffering from misophonia, of how they experience sound and go through their daily lives. So it's a fine balance, getting the audience to feel some of that pain, but still allowing them to experience the film as a whole and not get distracted.”
Obviously, casting is really important. The central performance by Bahia Watson is amazing. How did they find her and work with her to make that possible?
“Bahia Watson is a phenomenal, phenomenal actor. And yeah, she was just brilliant, and always on point. So we got her through the wonderful casting director that we worked with, Jesse Griffiths, who recommended Bahia for our initial auditions. Luckily, she was very interested in the project and wanted to come on board. And she was absolutely smart, intelligent, powerful, nuanced. She really embodied the character very well.
“One of the most brilliant takes we did is that there's a high angle shot throughout the film for the security cameras. We had to film her inside the chamber on her own, basically doing a one take run through all of the anechoic chamber scenes you've seen, and she did it in one take, brilliantly, for that high angle shots, and it was perfectly phenomenal. She hit all the points. exactly the right point. We were able to bring her in the day before we started filming and give her some time in the anechoic chamber itself, because we shot in the real anechoic chamber. I think that helped her character decisions as well.”
We talk about the visual techniques used to help the audience relate to Ava’s experience.
“We really wanted to see the film within Ava's eyes, and make the journey with her. So definitely, when she's wearing the noise cancelling headphones and taking them on and off, we played with the sound design to show the point of view of the sound shifts from her perspective to the outside world, and back and forth, to create that dynamic. We definitely wanted to be up close and personal with her anguish throughout her sound attacks.”
Something else that stood out to me as a disabled person is a moment in which Ava is told that she must want to have a normal life. It strikes me that that's something that is very much an abled person's viewpoint, that a normal life is the best possible thing, and maybe there's actually a better compromise for her. Tamara says that this was an important aspect of the story.
“The bodily autonomy and self choice of the character is a key element. I won’t give away the ending, but she makes a decision that shapes her life. And, you know, why can't she, if that's a solution to her issues?”
Is there anything that ordinary people can do in their lives to be more accommodating of people with this kind of disability, and to make life easier for them?
“One of the goals of the film is to create more empathy and understanding of people that struggle with invisible illnesses because they go unnoticed, and they suffer silently. The main takeaway is to be curious and try to understand what life is like for other people. And, you know, don't be judgmental, because you never know what someone else is going through.”
So how does it feel, as a native of Fantasia’s home city of Montreal, to have this film included in the festival line-up?
“Fantasia is one of the first film festivals I ever experienced, years and years ago as a teenager,” she says, smiling broadly. “It's really amazing to be screening White Noise at Fantasia. We shot the film in Montreal, and it's great to have a hometown première with such a fantastic festival audience and our wonderful programmers. They’re so knowledgeable. Fantasia has a very special place in my heart.
“Filmmaking is a team effort. I had an absolutely wonderful crew and cast. Bahia is a phenomenal actress. My DoP, Roland Cody Larocque, was amazing. My production designer, Christina Vincelli, is fantastic. Together we shaped the visual style of the film. We brought it to life.”
