DIRECT ACTION, 13min., UK
Directed by Tor Kristoffersen
A teenage environmentalist leads a protest
against a coal mine, setting her on a collision course
with her father, the police and courts.

https://www.instagram.com/torkistoffersen/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

A few things – the first is obviously the climate crisis, which is pretty much the backdrop (in some way) for all the scripts I write – having this unprecedented and existential issue staring us in the face, which we’re not really dealing with has always motivated me to try and tackle it in some small way and I think fictional stories are a very important way of doing that. In England we’ve got a government which after making some good noises about Net Zero has started giving the green light for more coal mines and oil fields, while at the same time introducing some draconian laws making peaceful protest virtually illegal and giving some pretty hefty sentences to climate protesters which is pretty alarming. Most climate protesters don’t want to go out and start marching down streets (you can trust me on that) but they’re pretty well informed on the science – indeed the ones I know are some of the most educated people in our society such as doctors and scientists so it’s quite alarming when we start locking these people up for trying to raise awareness of the subject. I totally appreciate that their tactics can divide the room but the reason they’re doing this is because we’re ignoring the problem.

The other main issue I was interested in was how a lot of young females were being dealt with (particularly by the press in the UK) for taking part in these protests — basically how they were being branded as ‘fanatical’ and that reminded me of the suffragette movement. We look back on that with selective amnesia in the UK, Emily Pankhurst and the woman who fought for their rights are now rightly celebrated but at the time they were horribly vilified and they had to use some pretty hard core tactics which are never mentioned. A lot of women were imprisoned for simply wanting rights and I found there to be an interesting parallel here. So out of that (and a few women I have met) Emily Phliips was born – I then really liked the idea that her mum had played a role in activism but her dad saw work opportunities in the mine – this enabled me to bring the other side I wanted to explore as well – which is the struggle a lot of people have with paying the bills and how lack of political leadership makes the transition away from fossil fuels very real and economically scary for a lot of people. These are themes I was able to explore more in the feature but they’re touched on very lightly here.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

Probably just under a year – I was lucky in the sense that I’d written a feature already – so a lot of the character work was there. It was then a case of writing a script that touched on a small part of what’s in the feature but didn’t try to do too much as the canvas is obviously so much smaller and I don’t think you should try and squeeze stuff in. Once that was in place we obviously had to make it and it was a fairly large short, in terms of logistics so there was a fair amount to organise. I was lucky that a lot of people helped me in getting it made.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Wow that’s hard – Environmental justice.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

It was quite an ambitious short in terms of scale – there’s lots of moving parts with the protest, police and court so that was quite to pull together in terms of organisation – especially when you’re on such a tight budget.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It was great to see the reaction and I want to say thanks to everyone for taking the time to watch the film and share their thoughts. I felt they got it pretty spot on – it was also interesting to see the audience member who felt that Emily was affecting people’s lives negatively – in the UK the certain elements of the Government and the press are really anti these protesters. Obviously no one likes their lives being disrupted but the question is at what stage do we do something because as another viewer succinctly put it: this problem isn’t going away.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Quite early on – I remember seeing Lawrence of Arabia and a few other seminal films and just thinking I want to be involved in this somehow – I didn’t even know what was going on or the different roles at that stage just that these stories were amazing.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Hard to say – I’ve seen Lawrence a fair few – I watched Kes a load of times when I was younger as I was very affected by it. I’ve seen a few Kubrick, PT Anderson and Speilberg films multiple times. I also love Thrillers, so have seen Debra Grannicks Winter’s Bone and Tony Gilroys Michael Clayton multiple times – I think both of them are great.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

I think it’s been great – I’m looking to try and get a feature made so if you know anyone who likes stories based around climate then let me know!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

It’s been really good to be honest. I remember many years ago finishing my first short and the process was very different – you had to print off individual applications and send a dvd – that was a lot of work so it’s great that it’s centralised now and a lot less wasteful.

10. What is your favorite meal?

This is hard and changes – I love so many different cuisines and the weather really affects what I fancy – I’m half Norwegian so potatoes should feature.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

As I mentioned I’m trying to get a feature off the ground – there’s a feature connected to this and I’ve written a couple of thrillers and a TV pilot but it’s very hard – as I’m sure a lot of people can relate it’s difficult getting it out there which is why it’s great when you get a positive reaction from a festival like yours.