Kena from Film in Revolt spoke with Ian Watson, director of AACTA nominated Unsound – a coming of age romantic drama about LGBTIQ+ pride and deaf culture.
Kena: I saw Unsound almost exactly a year ago when it screened at the Mardi Gras Film Fest in 2019.
Ian: Yes, it was a year before that when we finished shooting and started post-production, so two years now! As Unsound releases into cinemas, the film is coming back to me. And with all the interviews coming out, it’s reminding me why it was such an important film to make.
How did you come to be the director for Unsound? Because you are primarily a TV director, right?
That’s right. A colleague of mine, the producer of the film, Tsu Shan Chambers, studied the post-grad producing course at AFTRS with me. She was always talking about the film then, and when the then-director pulled out two months from shooting, she asked me to direct it! They’d already committed to making the film, they’d already cast, so turning back at that point would have been financially rough. Tsu Shan gave me the script, asked me to have a read of the script, and I was amazed. The simplicity of the script really encapsulated so many fantastic ideas about the trans community and the Deaf community, and I thought, this is in my capacity to make this. I can do this.
So you came late to the pre-production party, basically, how did that affect your approach to directing?
We had a great and extended rehearsal process two weeks before we started shooting, where I could exercise my theatre background. We worked through the scenes, even ran the whole film in order. I approached that as a theatre practice, because when you shoot the story is fractured, so rehearsing like that gave the actors the through-line they needed, and I loved it.
How did you feel about directing a story about deaf, trans and queer characters?
I don’t identify with either community, which I think gives me an objective perspective and more drive to come at it as an adolescent-romance-driven identity story. My objectivity can present it in a non-political way and make it about those communities. Of course we had consultants on-set and during pre-production, both trans and Deaf consultants, so we could properly own the material and ensure we represented those communities through the film.
It’s interesting you can come at it from an objective, uninvolved perspective, because the topic of representation (and especially in traditionally marginalised stories) is such a hot topic at the moment.
It certainly is; it’s a hot topic about who gets to own the story. I used the resources of the people around me, and what comes from myself, my own compassion and humanity, but it’s also significantly about the research we did and the support we got. Our actors represented those communities, and they brought their own resources and experiences to their performances, which was fantastic. I really saw the film as about community and identity, because essentially love is love, no matter your identity.
It’s really quite a fresh intersection, Unsound, between Deafness/transness/queerness…
Absolutely, and I think it raises a lot of fascinating questions about that. So we have a trans person (Finn) that begins as a woman and is moving into becoming a man, who has an emotional attachment with a gay man (Noah). So the question of how Noah perceives Finn, what part(s) of Finn that Noah is in love with, is raised.
Is there an answer to that question – as in even for Reece Noi to understand his character of Noah, did you decide that between yourselves, the answer?
No, it’s an open question. What was Noah loving about Finn? The woman pre-transition or the man he has/is becoming.
What would you say is the most important moment in the film for Finn?
What most people comment on is when Finn is sitting by the water. Noah goes for a swim, and Finn realises the journey towards Noah is a difficult one but one he wants to go on. That moment of realisation that Finn won’t be complete until he makes that step, and owns that step. The next moment is the decision to go in with his clothes on. That’s a really defining moment: love is love, it doesn’t matter where you sit. That was virtually the last scene we shot on one of the final nights of shooting, and it was an incredible way to finish production. That scene is the one I’m most proud of. And I loved shooting in Manly – I still had control of location amongst the other things a director decides. It was great to see Finn in a real community place, in a real environment rich with character.
Yeah I’m pretty sure any trans person who lives on the coast can relate to Finn and his vacillation in that moment, and I loved his compromise – to go in fully-clothed.
This is a bit of a cliche question but I love to ask, what was your favourite scene to shoot and why?
The scene in the Deaf Club, where everyone is dancing and the music is pumping! The Deaf cast and extras there were all chatting, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and their world was so joyous! That completely rubbed off on all of us. It was a beautiful, joyous experience rehearsing the song, everyone chimed in and it was just an awesome celebration of what we were doing and what the film is about.
Had you worked with Deaf cast and crew previously? What was it like having interpreters on set, how did that change the everyday production schedule and process?
I have had experience with a film in film school which had a Deaf cast, which was in Melbourne and that group have still remained friends. I learned some basic Auslan from that experience, and my grandmother taught me the sign language alphabet years and years ago, so it was wonderful engaging with Auslan – it’s such a beautifully visual language, which makes me wonder why it’s been absent from film for so long, and will that change now?
It was fantastic having interpreters on set, for example in the scenes at the Deaf Club, where we had such a range of Deaf identities there with us. It was obviously imperative for us to be really accurate with the signing in the film, so having our Deaf consultants was awesome. In regards to the production, we shot it in a month, which is roughly 6 minutes of screen time a day. I didn’t feel pressured or rushed at all, it was great!
Yes, I love Auslan. I’m currently studying it with the Deaf Society.
I really like how the sign for boyfriend/girlfriend is the same sign – it doesn’t differentiate – Auslan takes such a non-discriminatory position in some cases. And of course there’s been quite an increase in Auslan learning since we’ve seen Auslan interpreters on TV interpreting the COVID-19 messaging.
You’ve mainly been a director of theatre and television productions throughout your career, had you always wanted to try feature films?
Yes, absolutely – I began in theatre, went to TV, all the time chasing film projects and trying to develop my own films. I’ve always pursued directing cinema, but it’s very competitive. There was a huge divide between what cinema directors are capable of vs what TV directors are, but that seems to have narrowed somewhat, so I hope to do more film work in the future.
Is there another film in the pipeline? The arts have been hit really hard by the pandemic and its restrictions, but what’s next?
Right now I’m in Alice Springs doing a TV series for ABC about MotoCross racing, but I hope there’s more. I keep looking for projects, some I’ve written myself that I hope to dust off. But I mainly jump from one TV production to the next, which I love. As a filmmaker I get enormous satisfaction from directing television. I’m a lucky man, I enjoy what I do.
UNSOUND
Upcoming screenings:
MARCH 18
The Backlot – Perth
Dendy Newtown – Sydney
Dendy Coorparoo – Brisbane
Dendy Canberra