A short film about trauma you do Knot want to miss
Photo courtesy of Justin F. Lee.
Knots is a 15 minute film about overcoming grief, avoidance, and trauma directed by UVic Theatre alumnus Justin F. Lee. Lee premiered the short film at Reelword — a Toronto-based film festival, on Oct. 17, during the festival’s 25 year anniversary.
The film’s story is told through alternating flashbacks and present-day scenes, which shows viewers how the protagonist, Carolyn (Linda Watters) has, over the years, carried her guilt and trauma from a sailing accident.
The film wastes no time pulling viewers into the emotional backstory of Carolyn, a grieving widow. In the opening scene, she’s in therapy, obsessively circling an item on her to-do list: “fix the damn boat.” Right away, the boat is established as a symbol of her trauma, and as something she’s been avoiding.
Avoidance is a major theme in the film, as seen by Carolyn’s tendency to lie. She lies to her therapist about dating again, and lies to her friend about being at physio, rather than admitting she was in therapy. Carolyn lies not to be deceptive, but to avoid being vulnerable.
Around the four minute mark, she steps onto the boat and the first flashback scene occurs. Viewers see younger Carolyn (Danielle Klaudt) — who went by the nickname “Ollie” — preparing for a solo sailing trip. Her husband, Bert (Pedro M. Siqueira), tries to talk her out of going alone, and she eventually lets him join her. This decision becomes central to her guilt, even though the film never spells it out directly.
The flashbacks are the strongest part of the film. Knots makes it clear through these scenes that Carolyn isn’t just grieving — she’s blaming herself. This is most evident in my favorite scene from the film, a flashback of Carolyn performing CPR on Bert. Till now, every flashback scene has been present-day Carolyn watching her past self. This time, instead of watching her past self, the film places present-day Carolyn in the memory, performing CPR, while her younger self screams that she’s “doing it wrong.”
In this moment, the film shows viewers everything Carolyn believes — Bert’s death is her fault.
The actors’ performances were also excellent, especially Watters’. With such a small budget, I half expected the performances to be done by actors with limited experience, but this wasn’t the case. Watters especially really sold her performance; During Carolyn’s most emotional scenes, I felt like I could see genuine grief on her face.
Visually, the film tells a lot of its story without dialogue. In an interview with the Martlet, Lee said that the present-day scenes were shot in a colder, harsher style, while the flashbacks are warm and hazy to mimic the feeling of nostalgia. The contrast is simple, but effective at reflecting Carolyn’s mood in the present-day vs the past, when Bert was still alive.
Knots is impressively polished visually, given its small budget of roughly $6 000. With such a tight budget, Lee said he had to get creative. The storm scene, for example, was done with a “poor man’s process” — a dock, a hose to simulate rain, a bucket of water to simulate waves, and flashlights flickering on and off to imitate lighting. It’s low budget, but it’s convincing once it’s all put together, and shows what can be accomplished with a little creativity.
The film also uses some shaky camera shots. While these aren’t my favorite, they’re done with purpose, and effective in simulating the feeling of being on a boat during a storm.
As a piece of constructive criticism, I think the ending is slightly rushed. After Carolyn hits her lowest point — the CPR scene — the resolution arrives a little too quickly. One more short scene to bridge the gap between her final breakdown and her decision to finally take the boat out onto the water would have made the ending feel a little smoother.
Lee told the Martlet that he had to cut many scenes to stay within 15 minutes, so festivals would screen the film, which meant some sacrifices had to be made. Still, the film conveys the message it’s going for. You don’t have to share Carolyn’s exact circumstances to understand the feeling of being stuck, guilty, or afraid to finally face the thing you’ve been avoiding.
“I’d be proud if [viewers] felt excited to go back out into life and pursue something that [they’ve] put away,” Lee said.
Lee’s next project is a TV show in the style of The Beachcombers meets The Trailer Park Boys, based on the residents of the Portside Marina in Brentwood Bay.
Lee said he is hoping to screen Knots at CineVic — a Victoria-based society of independent filmmakers — but regardless, would do a screening in Victoria for residents who want to see the film.
Editor’s note: This article has been amended to include The Beachcombers as one of Lee’s inspirations for his next project, which was not mentioned in an earlier version of the article.
