[moon-flou-er] noun: a plant, Ipomoea alba, of the morning glory family, having fragrant white flowers that bloom from dusk until dawn. Moonflower, is a short documentary film by 1st Year Westminster Film School Students, about a retired botanist who, since 1998, began identifying them self as both transgender and transvestite. Rather than fully transitioning from a man to a woman indefinitely, they spend their daytimes as Robin the man, and their night hours as Louise the woman. Furthermore, Robin and Louise are married.
Moonflower was inspired by a number of different films, notably Spike Jonze's Her in regards to its organic cinematic and film-like quality - something that, like the colour scheme prevalent in a number of recent contemporary independent films, was at the forefront of the Director & Cinematographer's mind.
Although we were fully aware of the style of documentary we wished to use - observational and poetic - we wanted to create a certain aesthetic quality to the film with a specific framing and colour scheme. We also wanted to shy away from the conventional sit-down interview and hoped we could create a participatory relationship between director and subject.
The video below is a mock-up edit of the planned montage of 'Louise getting ready to go out'.
As Robin is a retired botanist, we will take him to his local allotment to film him describing his career in the study of plants. We will use his explanation of the hermaphroditic nature of plants as a direct metaphor for his status as someone who identifies as both male and female. Whilst he travels back from the allotment we will interview him about his opinion of the role of women in society. This will allow us to capture insert shots of women walking on the street with him and construct a Kuleshov effect style montage throughout the interview. A portrait of Louise hangs on the wall in their home, it was drawn by neighbour and close friend Mr John Holder. We will invite Mr Holder to the home and simultaneously Introduce Louise to the audience by asking Robin to describe his relationship with her to Mr Holder. All of our interviews will be designed to appear as though they have stemmed from the actions that Robin and Louise are taking, when in fact, we will be placing Robin/ Louise in the situations with the intention of asking very specific questions. Asking Robin to smoke a cigarette will be a perfect time to expose the nuance that Robin smokes and Louise doesn’t for example. The main conflict of Moonflower is the relationship between Robin and Louise. We aim to inexplicitly ask the audience whether Louise still needs Robin or whether she would live a more enjoyable life without him. As Louise is at the Diamond club with her friends enjoying herself we will edit the film making it appear that Robin remains at home, procrastinating, waiting for his wife to return. Can Louise ever be fully present in a moment if half of her remains hidden away? Themes of Identity and sexuality and society’s perception of both will also be apparent in Moonflower. By removing interviewer presence, creating pseudo monologue, this documentary may at first appear to be an observational documentary. However, by implementing editing techniques such as apparent parallel editing to present Robin and Louise as separate people, Rotoscoping, photographic stills, diagrams and staging this would be better described as a poetic documentary. The use of the Moonflower as a symbol for Robin and Louise’s duality running throughout the film adds to its poetic identity as well.
Production
We went to Cambridge, where Robin and Louise live and we filmed them in their home as well as visiting their allotment. Another key location was The Boathouse Pub where a transgender club event will be hosted by a group called The Diamonds on the night of Thursday the 15th February. As Robin is a retired botanist, we will take him to his local allotment to film him describing his career in the study of plants.
We will use his explanation of the hermaphroditic nature of plants as a direct metaphor for his status as someone who identifies as both male and female. Whilst he travels back from the allotment we will interview him about his opinion of the role of women in society. This will allow us to capture insert shots of women walking on the street with him and construct a Kuleshov effect style montage throughout the interview.
A portrait of Louise hangs on the wall in their home, it was drawn by neighbour and close friend Mr John Holder. We will invite Mr Holder to the home and simultaneously Introduce Louise to the audience by asking Robin to describe his relationship with her to Mr Holder.
All of our interviews will be designed to appear as though they have stemmed from the actions that Robin and Louise are taking, when in fact, we will be placing Robin/ Louise in the situations with the intention of asking very specific questions. Asking Robin to smoke a cigarette will be a perfect time to expose the nuance that Robin smokes and Louise doesn’t for example. The video below is a mock-up edit of the planned montage of 'Louise getting ready to go out'.