A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Tomorrow Island
Genre: LGBT+, Thriller
Date: 6th November 2018
Director: Gwenn Joyaux
Producer: Shruti Sidhan
Writer: Ana Falcon
Cinematographer: Michael Tebinka
Production Company: Kinoeyes
Budget: EUR 17,790 (estimated)
Financing: Kinoeyes & crowdfunding
Shooting Format: Digital, 3.2K
Screening Format: DCP, 2K
World Premiere: TIFF – Tirana International Film Festival. Tirana, Albania, 2018.
Awards:
– Special Jury Mention, Promofest Summer Short of the Year 2019 (2018)
– 1st prize, Best Short Film, Prémio Sophia Estudante, Portugal (2018)
– Best Performance (Daryna Butryk), 10th Watersprite International Student Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Best Director Foreign Dramatic Short (Gwenn Joyaux), Hollywood Women’s Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Best Student Film, Swindon Independent Film Festival (2019)
– Winner GOLD Best Short – Love is Love, Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner GOLD Best Actress (Daryna Butryk), Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner SILVER Best Cinematography (Michael Tebinka), Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner BRONZE Best Director – Student (Gwenn Joyaux), Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Honorable Mention Best Supporting Actress (Mira Gaydarova), Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Annual Queen Supreme for Best Short Love is Love, Queenpalm International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Best International Short Film, Regina International Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Best Thriller, 13th Pentedattilo Film Festival (2019)
– Winner Best Action/Thriller, 4th Trujillo Independent International Film Festival (2019)
– Honorable Mention, 10th Wasteland Film Festival (2019)
– Best LGBTQ Short, Open Window International Film Challenge (2019)
– Best Movie of the Month (September), Vertigo Film Fest (2019)
– Best Director (Gwenn Joyaux), Vertigo Film Fest (2019)
– Best Actress (Daryna Butryk), Vertigo Film Fest (2019)
– Special Mention Best Staging (Gwenn Joyaux), Festival Internacional de Cine Austral (2019)
– Top Short Films of the Year – National Competition, CinEuphoria (2020)
– Top Ten of the Year – National Competition, CinEuphoria (2020)
– Best Short Film – National Competition, CinEuphoria (2020)
– Grand Prize Winner – 5th Annual Stage 32 Short Film Program Contest (2020)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowislandfilm/
The Official Trailer for Tomorrow Island (2018) directed by Gwenn Joyaux
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Gwenn Joyaux (GJ): Tomorrow island is a bleak dramatic escape story set in the Bering Strait at the beginning of the Cold War. It deals with accepting sexual identity to embrace love as the ultimate way to get security. The idea for the project comes from a piece of brief news about the Diomedes islands I read some time ago in the touristic section of a local newspaper. The time difference between the islands and some other historical events related to them blew my mind. I took this information to Ana Falcon, a former classmate, and she wrote this wonderful lesbian thriller.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing, and sales?
Gwenn Joyaux (GJ): The short film premiered at Tirana International Film Festival, an Oscar Qualifying festival in Albania, and has since screened in other 85 film festivals around the world. It won 24 awards for the best short film, best student film, best thriller, best LGBT short film, best director, best performance, best cinematography in festivals such as Queenpalm International Film Festival, Watersprite International Student Film Festival, Regina International Film Festival, and the Annual Stage32 Short Film Program Contest. Currently, it can be seen in two LGBT+ & Women-Focused Streaming Platforms from China and Australia.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Gwenn Joyaux (GJ): In the dawn of the Cold War, a young Soviet telegraphist makes a desperate attempt to save her American lover from being stranded on the Russian side of the Bering Strait after receiving a border closure message.
Development & Financing?
Gwenn Joyaux (GJ): Tomorrow island is my Master’s thesis and it’s produced by the Kinoeyes in the frame of an Erasmus+ mobility program. The financing comes from the University Consortium, plus a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The writer and I wanted to tell a story that could explore the insanity of borders plus the overcoming of divisions against all odds. But not only in terms of geography but also and mainly in terms of thinking, because that’s the core of the story: how much damage our inners divisions can make. In her case, she’s from Mexico and she found a connection with what’s happening in her country with the nonsense project of building a wall to separate Mexico from the U.S. In my case, my mum had experienced military persecution and exile during the last dictatorship in Argentina, therefore I could immediately connect with Sveta’ story of surviving and fighting for what she wants no matter what. The beginning of the Cold War was the perfect time period to create a story that could speak out on this topic.
The context was given by the setting: one of the Diomedes islands was bought by Russia to the Government of Alaska at the end of the 18th century. Before
the Cold War outbreak, there were families living across the two islands. In 1947 those who lived in the Russian Diomede were forced to move to concentration camps in Siberia. Today, these families, stranded on the American side, are trying to find and reconnect with the survivors in Russia. Their quest faces obstacles since the border between the islands is still closed.
Production?
Gwenn Joyaux (GJ): Crew and cast were around 30 people, mostly students, from 17 different countries and there were 14 different languages spoken in prep and onset. It was the most beautiful and diverse experience I have ever had. With actors and some crew members, we rehearsed every single day for about 8 hours during two weeks. I would make the actors play together, rather than going through the lines. For me, the lines weren’t the problem, but the cultural differences were. Daryna, the lead actress, and I had worked together before and we were raised in an open-minded Latin culture, so for us the body contact and the hugs with people you barely know are normal. We don’t react to the human contact the way it happens in the Baltics. I noticed this difference while living in Tallinn. I truly love Estonia but not being able to hug a person to salute her was close to a nightmare for me during the year and a half I lived there. Besides, for Daryna and I, the LGBT+ community with all its rights are part of our culture, but in the Baltics, it isn’t that natural at all.
So there were different barriers I needed to break in order to make the performances and the crew dynamic on set to work out. Prep last several months but these two weeks were key to build the needed trust to go on set ready for the challenge. We shot the short film at Topu, Laanemaa, on the west coast of Estonia. Most of what you get to see in those long shots is the frozen Baltic sea. It took us 5 shooting days and I must say that Michael (DOP) and his camera & light team did magic. We had only 6 hours of daylight and this is a short film full of exteriors. We really did run. Terje (Art Department), and Sigrit (Make-up) were both extremely efficient and production was prompt to solve every single unexpected problem.
Those two weeks of rehearsals provided all of us with a precise understanding of what was central to focus on. Weather conditions were against us, not only due to the -17 degrees (Celsius) but because of the sudden blizzards, haze, and every change in the sky and the light you can imagine to break the continuity. Luckily Ana (writer) and Abdallah (editor) were on set. So for every change in the weather, we could come up with adjustments in the story together to keep the continuity.
The screenplay was linear, but since prep, I discussed with the editor several options to break the timeline into a puzzle-like structure. It is something I like to explore in my work. At a personal level, I really dislike the linearity of time. I find it fascinating how things show a new meaning once you can analyze them out of time, in an order that isn’t established by a straight line from past to the future. In the editing room, we explored 5 possible alternatives to the linear version and the final order came to place once the sound and music joined and complete the whole process. Both, editing and sound design were parallel and simultaneous. Color correction plays a key role in this film and Risto and Margus have done an amazing job. There was a constant dialogue between these three departments in order to convey the gloomy and very atmospheric mood the short films has.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
GJ: The school provided us with an extra budget for festivals. The number was small and at the beginning, we aimed for top-tier festivals. Tirana International Film Festival was one of the first we applied and it got selected. Next on our wishlist was PÖFF because it’s the Estonian main film festival. It got selected too and called the attention of a person from aug&ohr medien. Right after the festival, they contacted us to include Tomorrow island in their catalog and they designed a new strategy: to apply to festivals focused on female filmmakers, lgbt+ stories, and historical films.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
GJ: Not so long ago I’ve been told only 4% of the highest-grossing films in the past decade were directed by women. Being a queer woman making my way as a director and facing this reality, I think my advice for aspiring (especially female) directors would be: Work your ass out because no one will open the doors for you. Tell female stories, we are worth the effort. And despite all the obstacles, try to enjoy the process: you’re making what you dreamt to come true.
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