Kena interviewed Just Charlie director Rebekah Fortune at the Mardi Gras Film Festival. Just Charlie is an award winning British drama that tells the emotionally charged coming out story of young Charlie. Kena “Just Charlie is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen. Coming from someone who has gone through the process of coming out as transgender and as a teenager, I can tell you right now that this film captures it all.” (read Kena’s full review here)
Why did you make this film? Why do you feel that today’s audiences need to see a film like Just Charlie?
Just Charlie began its life as a stage play twenty years ago inspired by a daytime television programme. Peter Machen, who wrote the screenplay for Just Charlie and I, were fascinated by the idea that someone could be born and feel completely disassociated from what they saw in the mirror and how those around them identified them. No one was talking about the issue at the time but the more we explored the issue the more we began to feel angry about the treatment of the Trans community and the injustices they were suffering. Skip forward twenty years and although some things have changed and there are more high profile figures in the Trans community, there is still a great deal of work to be done to try and make people understand. Many of the Films, TV shows etc have dealt with trans adults but we felt compelled to explore what the reality is like for a young person in the UK, how with the right help and support they don’t need to suffer all their lives, but also explore the ripple effect this very brave decision has on the world around them.
For me, Just Charlie really highlights something we all go through and are constantly challenged on. Who we are, or rather, who are we? In modern times we have been encouraged to express ourselves, to be who we want to be, to go out into the world and say,”This is me!” However, if that does not conform with what people believe you should be, well you are just plain weird and there is something “wrong” with you. It’s a modern story and it’s a story that will continue to develop as we progress as human beings. We wanted it to be a story we can all participate in and not just be a story about transgender. Transgender issues in the UK are moving forward but it’s a real struggle. Especially in the current political climate and the fact that very totalitarian views are given oxygen and have emboldened people to allow their fear and hatred to take centre stage. I hope that Just Charlie can help show that we are all people struggling to define who we are and that by supporting each other unconditionally we can actually have much healthier happier lives.
In contrast to many transgender films going around, Just Charlie has a prominent focus on not just Charlie’s acclimatisation to her gender but also her parents’, which I found particularly moving and striking. Why the big focus on the parents?
We felt it was vital to show the struggle parents and siblings face when someone in their family is going through a major crisis. It is easy to just vilify parents who don’t immediately support their child but for many, they find it immensely hard to come to terms with losing the child they thought they had. After interviewing parents and siblings of transgender children they often spoke about grieving in very much the same way as if their child had died (and this was in families who wholeheartedly supported their children). As a parent of a child who has always struggled to fit in due to her Aspergers we wanted to look at the fathers fear for his child, trying to fit in in a world that can’t cope with and is taught to fear and reject difference.
Can you tell us a little bit about your filmic career? Where did you study, what have you worked on?
I originally trained as an actress but had always directed at school and youth theatre etc. After completing an MA in Shakespeare and classical theatre I began focusing on Directing classical work, a film director saw one of my productions which tended to have a very visual content and included lots of movement sequences which almost acted in the same way as montage, he suggested I might have a go at directing a film. I bit the bullet and made a short film in my back garden for no money, this was the short version of Just Charlie it got superb reviews and was selected for many film festivals along with being selected by Channel 4 TV for their short film strand. I made a couple more shorts and kept applying for funding for a feature but kept getting turned down, even Just Charlie was rejected so Karen Newman my producing partner and Peter Machen the writer just decided to do it anyway with no money, and we are glad we did.
If you had to pick between acting and directing, which would you choose for the rest of your career… and why?
I would most definitely choose directing, I love acting but mainly in Theatre and mainly classical work. I think the day I knew that directing was truly for me was after three12 hour days of shooting we had a day off, I was devastated, I didn’t want a day off, I wanted to be on set. I love film people they are so open and collaborative and eager to support and help each other. When I am on set and in post, I really feel alive.
What was your favourite moment on set of Just Charlie?
That is a very difficult question to answer. It was an amazing experience all round, I think my favourite moments came when overcoming challenges, as we had no budget we were often at the mercy of others, people not turning up etc, so we had to just think creatively. In the opening sequence we were meant to have two full boys football teams but they didn’t turn up, so the DOP Karl Clarke and myself just thought on our feet grabbed two boys who were passing and created what we now think is a beautiful sequence and reflects Charlie’s joy at playing football in a much more beautiful and magical way.
Who was your favourite actor to work with?
There was absolutely not one actor, they were a team, the family worked brilliantly as a unit and each one brought their own passion, energy and skill to the table which in turn helped everyone else. The supporting cast were also fabulous to work with. It was definitely a machine that only worked because each cog was doing its job.
What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
Some scenes were very much shot using almost a theatre workshop approach. The scene in which Charlie is caught dressing for the first time, for instance, I didn’t want to rehearse, it needed to feel fresh and truthful, however I was the guardian of a 14-year-old boys emotional well being so needed to prepare him. For this scene I talked to Harry (Charlie) and Scott (Paul) independently about their motivations, needs, wants but neither was aware of what the others brief was. After doing some very basic blocking we shot the scene twice. Harry was very emotional and I knew it was that raw emotion we needed on screen but was not prepared to put him through it time and time again.
Can you tell us about your future plans for film?
There are so many I can’t count, identity will always be a big subject for me and The Plough which we are currently financing, is a magical romance between two characters, one with Aspergers, one with dual heritage, trying to find their place in the world. Peter and I have previously worked on a play about domestic violence but where the man is the victim, this is a subject rarely talked about, and one we feel is very important so we would very much like to make that. I would like to make a film about the Pendle Witches who were tried and hung as witches primarily for being women, poor and having the wrong political beliefs, and the film I always said I would win an Oscar for is an epic story of Mata Hari and how she was an innocent woman used as a scapegoat by politicians, along with working on a post-apocalyptic feminist Western because I adore Westerns.
What film made an impact on you in your youth?
I remember watching Pressburger and Powells A Matter Of Life and Death and being completely transfixed by its visual imagery and theatricality, I also loved Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor for very similar reasons. Silent movies were also a big draw and D.W Griffiths Broken Blossoms had a massive impact on me too. But as a teenage girl, I am not going to lie, Dirty Dancing was my go to.
Just Charlie is screening at the 2018 Mardi Gras Film Festival.