Canadian filmmaker Jaron Albertin felt so inspired by Texan writer Brian Allen Carr's short story, "Whisper to Scar" that he molded it into the idea that became WEIGHTLESS. Along with writer Charlotte Colbert and Enda Walsh (Once, Hunger) they have created a truley introspective marvel that dives into father and son relationships and coming of age for a young boy and his father. Set amongst the beauty of the rugged Canadian landscape and you have a treasure of a film.
Here is my interview with Jaron Albertin.
In WEIGHTLESS, Albertin wanted to build a story around the concept of hereditary trauma, the idea that trauma, or extreme trauma, can be inherited. "In psychology, it's a phenomenon where traumatic experiences can be passed down from one generation to the next," he explains. "So, theoretically, a child can physically harbor past trauma from a parent. This idea intrigued me– how pain and suffering can be passed on and repeated in a cyclicalway." His original intent was to turn Carr's "Whisper to Scar," a story about a father and his morbidly-obese adolescent son, into a short film. But the more he thought about the situation,the larger the themes– and the narrative– became. "To me, there was a more nuanced story in here, that of connection and isolation. These were the big themes for me," Albertin observes. "I saw two people, both on the same path, with the same struggles. An overweight boy trapped and isolated in his own body, a man alienated from society, and the samedesperate and seemingly doomed pursuit of a human connection." From Press Kit for WEIGHTLESS
In my interview with Jaron we discuss working off of Carr's story and melding it with Enda into the final film. We dived into specific shots in the film and his overall visual look he cultivated with DP Darren Lew. I asked about the score of the film and also about the casting of Alessandro Nivola as his lead – Joel. Here is the full interview with filmmaker Jaron Albertin.
