A Black and Paper interview with film director and writer Hannah Kathryn Kelso talking about her short First Timer. The well received work made its debut at the HollyShorts Film Festival London in the Official Selection.
Why did you decide to make a film about a first time health care worker?
Kelso – The film is inspired by my friend Kim and a moment she had with an elderly woman while working as a student nurse. It was her first week on a ward and she was bathing a woman who passed right there in her arms with no prior indication she was about to take her last breath. This story stuck with me for years. It felt obscene to me that health care workers are dealing with life and death on a daily basis and have to clock in the next day to do it all over again. I think the core of this idea was always in my mind during the rise of the caring crisis in the UK and during my ruminations it made sense to pull these two threads together. I didn’t just want to tell a story about a home carer, I wanted to tell a story about the recipient of care and a moment of connection between them both.
Filmmaker Hannah Kathryn Kelso
On developing the story, the set up moves into the black comedy area, am I wrong?
Kelso – You’re absolutely right. My day-to-day job is working as a screenwriter (mostly in TV) and there’s an element of dark comedy in everything I write. I would say that the tonal mix I bring to the page is what I’m most known for in the industry. People say there’s an art to it, but I feel like a fraud as I genuinely just write what I know. It’s instinctive to me. Scottish people often surf the line between tragedy and comedy in a “beat-to-beat” sense, and I love doing those moments justice on screen. It takes great actors to nail this tonal balance without it verging on caricature, and I was so thrilled to have Alyth Ross and Anne Downie come on board because thanks to their skill and talent these scenes turned out better than I could have imagined. Whenever I’ve watched the film with a packed audience, I can really feel them lean in when Meghan and Bonnie’s characters finally start to connect.
Meghan and Bonnie are like cinnamon and chicory, did you model them after anyone?
Kelso – My characters are always a tapestry of many people who have imprinted on me, though I must admit I’m not always aware of exactly who they are. My subconscious really takes the wheel when I’m drawing up characters and I feel my way into them rather than consciously put them together. With time and space from writing the piece, I think there are elements of my mum in both Meghan and Bonnie. Meghan’s character is a young mother and Bonnie is incredibly stoic – just like my own mum. It might sound strange, but I think my dad is in Meghan and Bonnie too. I remember my dad going out to work to support his family and all of my musical influences come from him. He’s an incredibly talented self-taught musician and was the one who introduced me to the song ‘Stoney End’ By Laura Nyro that features so heavily in the film. That song is Bonnie’s anthem. There’s no way there can’t be a part of him in there too.
Are you working on a feature film now?
Kelso – I’ve got a few irons in the fire that are potential candidates for my first feature. One is a “not-so-romantic comedy” in development with Screen Scotland and the other is a pastiche of a wish-fulfilment comedy I developed at Working Title. Comedies aren’t all that I write – in the TV space I’m developing thrillers, a sci-fi, a drama with an “on-the-road” element. I’m a big fan of genre. Ideally I’d like to get a few more shorts under my belt and a shadow directing opportunity in the next few years.
Check out our coverage from the HollyShorts Film Festival.