Tera Toma, the experimental digital split-screen film shot in real time is getting a special screening at the Blue Walnut Cinema in Torquay as part of the View from Here film festival followed by a Q&A from director Josh Gaunt. Lee Morgan of D+CFilm caught up with him to talk about horror, violence and performance that has no limits
LM: When I first described Tera Toma as horror, I remember you said you were a little taken aback. But the film has been considered too shocking for a younger audience. What’s your take on that, and what do you put the response to the film down to? The film has a sense of creeping doom, is it that or the single act of violence that people are reacting to?
JG: Well, I’m not entirely against the idea that the film may be considered a horror. I love horror films, and they have always been a strong influence on me. I just never thought about genre when we were making Tera Toma. I always, first and foremost, thought of it as an experiment in performance and technique. The film for me was about the process of putting it together and I guess that this is why, when you mentioned genre a few days after we finished shooting, it struck me as odd.
I was aware that the film was disturbing, however. It’s true that the film’s main influence stems from horror literature, but I think the film’s subject matter, its characters and plot lends itself much more to films that disturb rather than horrify. Blue Velvet, Dead Ringers, Man Bites Dog are all films that I have in mind, not to say that I think Tera Toma is on equal par with these films, just that I think it is as equally difficult to classify. However, film critic Kim Newman, would describe the above films as Horror because they are, by nature, shocking. So maybe you’re right.
Tera Toma was performed, like a play, over a five-night period and much of the film’s content was devised by myself and the cast during the week preceding the shoot. When you approach a film production from such a vague angle, the final result is always surprising. After our first take on 7/11/09, I was a bit taken aback by the violence that had ensued. I had discussed the approach with the actors and the crew, but nothing quite prepares you for seeing it live.
So, after Monday’s take, we put great care and effort into building the tension and filling the characters out so that the violence would not seem out of place, or gratuitous. This can always be a very dangerous thing when you are making a film and I think it’s important that any violence has a clear meaning and motivation behind it. I also think, however, that a filmmaker’s responsibility is to live up to the promises made by the film that they are creating. If there is a character, like the one in Tera Toma, that says he has a feeling of dread and violence in the pit of his stomach, it’s the filmmakers’ responsibility to make sure this feeling is experienced by the audience (not physically, of course!).
I think, for the most part, that people are reacting more to the psychology of the characters. I have had some audience members tell me that the violence within the film is not what they found disturbing, but more the way the lead actors slip naturally into madness over the course of the film. This is coming from people who I know are squeamish when it comes to violence. But, you can never control how people react to your work, so I just hope that those who see it aren’t taking the violence out of context, because then it would be inappropriate.
Personally, I wouldn’t screen the film to an audience under the age of 15. Others say 18, but when I go to a 12 certificate movie and see Heath Ledger shove a gangster’s face into a pencil… I just don’t think we should have double standards.
• Watch Tera Toma at the Blue Walnut Cinema, Torquay on Wednesday, December 2 at 7.30pm
