World of Facts
2018
Digital Video / color / sound / 97min.
true mourning in
the apartment
—not cemetery—
furniture
–Mallarmé
After an accident no one could have expected, Maureen (Gretchen Akers) must return to her hometown so that her partner, Ted (Alex Stein), can receive medical care under the supervision of his family. Meanwhile, a long-term illness forces Maureen and her father, Peter (Bryan Saner), into mirrored positions of caretaker, watching over an unconscious spouse in differing degrees of comfort and confidence.
Once home, Maureen and her sister, Louise (Rebecca Spence), reorient themselves to the new routines and the challenges of holding bedside vigil amid a cluster of beeping machines, trapped in that purgatory particular to hospital visitors. With his daughters home, Peter makes the decision to remove Daniel (David Givler), his partner suffering a long-term illness, from the ventilator which supports his breath, hastening his eventual passing.
WORLD OF FACTS explores the inherent tension between hyper-intimacy and minimalist observation, and manufactures through formal means the experience of its characters. The film explores both the vulnerability and strength of a family’s most profound, yet most common, experience.
Borrowing its name from a passage in Paul Auster’s memoir about his father’s death—”I have entered the world of facts, the realm of brute particulars”—the film focuses its attention on the closely observed details of the everyday, which pervade the time-out-of-time experience of modern mourning and of grieving for things yet to come.
Full film available at NoBudge: http://nobudge.com/main/world-of-facts
CAST list (order of appearance)
Maureen / Gretchen Akers
Ted / Alex Stein
Louise / Rebecca Spence
Izzy (Voice) / Clara Spence
Peter / Bryan Saner
Metrah / Metrah Pashaee
Daniel / David Givler
Haley / Haley McCoy
Jim / Jim Snitzer
Annelise / Annelise Jacobson
Bartender / Rich Lemay
Frank / Frank V. Ross
Dale / Teresa Pankratz
Rian / Corinne Teed
Van / Gabe Bodzin
Izzy / Sadie Bodzin
Cornelius / Noah Bodzin
Rachel / Rachel Young
CREW list
Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor / Mike Gibisser
Additional Writing by / Gretchen Akers, Frank V. Ross, Bryan Saner, Jim Snitzer, Rebecca Spence, Alex Stein
Production Design / Hannah Givler
Sound Recordist / Metrah Pashaee
Boom Operator / Corinne Teed
Camera Operator / Laura Iancu
Gaffer / Daniel Rada
Additional Camera and Sound / Jesse McLean
Makeup / Ora Jewell-Busche
NCEC Consultant / Jorge Salazar
Music / I/OWAR, Benoît Pioulard