Waiting For the Ice Cube To Melt

Self-doubt in a world that is loaded against you is debilitating. Waiting For The Ice To Melt is a pyscho socio exploration into breaking out of isolation, turning your back on those negative voices and finding joy in community.

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Of course, with Alex Falconer as director, there are strong images, elements of poetry, balanced pacing, movement and storying telling, and a positive call to action.

Waiting for the Ice Cube to Melt - Trailer

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Alex plays with colour and sound to highlight a suppressed, repressed world of Nova (Eleanor Hawkes). Nova’s dreamscape is one of being trapped in a grey forbidding forest. Her waking life is grey and mundane. Smart editing and scene-setting keeps the mundanity from being boring. And there’s a real build-up to the primal release.

It mixes rain and sunshine to make rainbows. And what better way to celebrate than dancing in the rain? We asked Alex about the film.

Waiting For the Ice Cube To Melt – where did the idea come from and what does the title refer to?

Like many of us, I was in quite a dark place during the pandemic, I lost all my work, I was completely dependent on the government grants and I was worried for the safety of all those closest to me. Added to that the Tories had just won a huge majority, climate change continued to accelerate and I was just sat in my flat watching it all unfold.

So the title and idea came from this experience, this feeling of purgatory, existing without living. The title embodied that for me, watching a process slowly unfold, turning into a completely different state and being helpless to stop it.

How important is film in being able to tell these stories in new ways?

I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of what film can do as an art form. Like all art it’s a way to reflect a moment in time and hold a mirror up to yourself and society. That being said I think before we even consider trying to tell stories in new ways, we have to get the fundamentals right, character, tension, emotion, things that seem to get forgotten about all too often. Get those fundamentals right and you’ll unlock new ways to tell these stories.

There’s a poetic element to your films, with both movement and colour. How does being a filmmaker let you explore these different aspects of storytelling and what do they add to the film?

Film is the only art form that can capture life and life is in constant motion whether we can see it or not, if it doesn’t move, it doesn’t exist. When I put together a film I’m always excited to find ways to tell the story using all the visual and audio tools available. Colour is a major part of that, it drives the emotion of a piece on a subconscious level and can heighten the audience’s connection to the story.

How does the poetic nature of your filmmaking lead your directing and what do you look for in your actors?

I’m very fortunate to work with my main actress Eleanor Hawkes, she’s extremely adaptable and throws herself into the performance. The challenge is to convey everything without dialogue and Ellie is really good at this, she’s a very physical actress and uses her body and face to express so much.

I’m not sure how the poetic nature of the filmmaking leads my directing, I think I approach every project in the same way, I often start with referencing music and cinematography that aligns with the story I’m trying to tell and then add from there. I think the key is to make sure by the time I’m on set I’m just tweaking, everyone knows what needs to be done and it’s just a case of staying calm and making the thing!

Your film Awakening From Silence also deals with environmental issues – what themes do you explore with your work?

I seem to flit between the deeply personal and the more thematic. I’ve focussed on domestic violence, overcoming trauma and abuse, then I’ve also looked at climate change, revolution and the fall of capitalism. I think I’m ultimately striving to reach a point where I can interweave these two things.

You’re working on a follow-up to your 2018 film Escape – how’s that going and how do you think you’ve evolved as a filmmaker since then?

I am, it’s called Violent is the memory that holds you back. I’m very excited about it, we’ve just finished a very good draft of it and I’m now about to workshop it a bit before pitching it to some Producers. It’s based on mine and my brother’s relationship, the tension between us as we sought to come to terms with the violence we suffered at the hands of our Dad and ultimately how we learned to stop being violent towards each other and work through our emotions.

As I director, I feel I’m getting better, more confident and also more patient. I lost the buzz for filmmaking during the pandemic, but now I’ve got it back with a vengeance.

Thank you Alex!

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