TRIP THE
LIGHT FANTASTIC
A lonely child and his absent mother are brought closer together after his latent disability comes to light during his first seizure at church, an experience that he conflates with his religious belief.
The film is inspired by the writer/director’s experience of having a neurological disorder that went undiagnosed throughout her childhood.
Synopsis
Benedict, a 10 years-old Filipino boy, sleeps alone in a dilapidated bedsit, decorated with religious items and laundry. A second-hand piano stands in the corner. His mother, Marilou, is a Filipino overseas worker, struggling to support her family back home while being a single mother to Benedict. She is a cleaner, currently out at work.
Benedict jolts awake with onset symptoms of an undiagnosed neurological problem – profuse sweating, auras and dizziness. He struggles out of bed, steadying himself on the piano for balance. He realises he has wet the bed and his pyjamas. Alone, panicked but unwilling to labour his mother’s day, he tends to the bed and cleans himself in the bath.
To console himself, Benedict sings a hymn, later playing it on the piano with tremor-affected fingers. When his exhausted mother arrives home, Benedict tends to her. She then sits with him at the piano and they sing the hymn together.
Attending church outside of mass, Benedict stands alone at the font in prayer, as Marilou gives confession. Mid-prayer, Benedict’s nose begins to bleed. Seeking his mother’s help, he overhears Marilou in confession; she feels guilt for not supporting her family in the Philippines enough and admits she has to take on more hours, to leave Benedict alone more often. This hits him like a ton of bricks.
In desperation, he runs to the church piano but as his external symptoms intensify, Benedict crumples to the ground in his first seizure. His internal symptoms - what he sees in his mind’s eye during seizure – are expressed through experimental animation. When Benedict comes round, he sees heavenly light pouring through the stained glass of the church and looks at it with fear and awe. He conflates his hallucinogenic seizure with his religion, only returning to reality as Marilou steps into view, haloed by the light as she tends to him.
Benedict wakes alone in an examination room, unnerved by his sudden loneliness and change of environment. He tests his hands for tremors, waiting in anticipation before he undergoes an MRI scan, which he finds unbearable for its noise. Marilou sees Benedict’s discomfort and holds his hand, assuring him she is here for him. In memory, we hear Benedict and Marilou talk about why Benedict didn’t tell her about his symptoms. He admits his loneliness, not wanting to burden her already difficult days and he questions whether his condition is a bad thing.
He remembers the heavenly light in the church which develops into the abstract kaleidoscopic shapes witnessed in seizure. These shapes gradually transform into real-time footage from the MRI scan of Benedict’s brain. We hear the hymn being played softly on the piano, soon joined by Benedict’s voice, a chorus and mechanical sounds heard in the MRI. As the footage of his brain blooms, the hymn crescendos, the combination of scientific and divine light create a ward for Benedict in the next chapter of his life.
Director’s Statement
‘Trip the Light Fantastic’ explores themes of religion, disability, and immigration from the point-of-view of a child of a low socio-economic background. These themes reflect my own family’s context: my mother came to England as an overseas worker to support our poverty-stricken family in the Philippines. When I was a child, she frequently had to leave me unsupervised to save money on a childminder in order to support our family.
The story is based on my experience of an invisible disability. As a child, I began experiencing obscure lights and unplaceable sounds. My imagination enabled me to believe these were something otherworldly. When I was 10-years-old, I had my first seizure at church during Midnight Mass. When I came round, I was certain I’d experienced God. This mindset shaped my understanding of my disability; I was amazed by it. Like most children, I didn’t know disabilities could be invisible. I was in awe of my experiences, but never thought they were symptoms of a neurological disorder.
For years, I underwent examinations that were studied at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the manner in which the adults examined and discussed my condition shattered my unique take on my disability. I became afraid of it. 11 years later, after a life-threatening seizure, I was finally diagnosed with two inoperable brain tumours. I recently worked on a Paralympics documentary that champions disability; yet, there is no representation of invisible disabilities, despite 1 in 10 people having one. It forced me to face the stark reality that there’s little consideration for invisible disabilities and what it means to be categorised as disabled beyond one’s own self-definition of capability. It’s essential to me, as a writer and director, to tell these narratives, to raise awareness of the little-known experience of invisible disability, so these voices are represented and the dialogue on this subject is furthered.
During the pandemic, while finishing the documentary, I had a seizure and was isolated in a stroke ward for 5 days. Between MRI scans and spinal taps, I found myself reflect-ing on my first seizure. I realised my disability had a positive impact on my relationship with my mother, it brought us closer together. In this film, I want to share the message behind that positive change, challenge the typical negative depictions of disability, so that audiences can recognise that good also comes from the disabled experience.
Creative Statement & Filmmaking Team
Animator: Sanjana Candrasekher
‘Trip the Light Fantastic’ will feature experimental documentary animation to illustrate how the visual senses are affected when in seizure. Unique to this film, the animation will be based on an interview with the director about her experiences of having a seizure. Merging documentary animation within a scripted film enables a layer of authenticity that cannot be achieved otherwise. We see the animation layer as intrusive, rapid and glitching, utilising collage and light play to exact the internal disorientation and confusion. The animation is integral to exploring the film’s theme of religion. It will act as a window into the protagonist’s mind, enabling the audience to witness what the character believes is a religious experience.
SOUND ARTIST & CO-WRITER: ANTOSH WOJCIK
The sound design will be idiosyncratic, exemplifying and re-imagining what internally happens to someone during a seizure. The animation will be punctuated by the sound design, these layers colliding with the realist film to juxtapose and exact senses of hallucination, confusion, disorientation and surprise that occur. These are essential modes for communicating what lucid and difficult feelings are experienced when in seizure, for the viewer. The soundscape for the animation will be based on an interview with the director about about her experience with seizure. The sound design will be used to explore how perception of time can become confused during a seizure.
CINEMATOGRAPHER: MICHAEL FILOCAMO
The cinematography for ‘Trip the Light Fantastic’ is inspired by Wong Kar-Wai and cinematographer Christopher Doyle (‘In the Mood for Love’). It will feature in-camera effects like step printing, filming with broken lenses, through glass and on reflective surfaces. This style of cinematography will be used to express the protagonist’s struggle with isolation. The film will be shot predominantly using natural lighting, with long takes and on a locked-off camera, reminiscent of Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Ida’. Tonally, this will establish a stillness that will be juxtaposed with the experimental animation and soundscape used during the film’s seizure sequence.
PRODUCER: AMY GEORGE
Amy George has produced seven short films to date, including BBC New Creatives’ ‘Backbone’ with Xenia, and been involved in the production of many more, backed by various organisations from Qwerty Films to The Guardian. The films she’s worked on have won numerous awards including Best Documentary at The Smalls Film Festival for ‘Little Pyongyang’. She is also an executive at Celsius Entertainment, where she acquires, develops and negotiates international distribution deals for their slate of feature films, including ‘The Bookshop’ (Bill Nighy & Emily Mortimer), ‘The Artist’s Wife’ (Bruce Dern & Lena Olin), ‘The Last Bus’ (Timothy Spall), ‘Juniper’ (Charlotte Rampling) and Park Chan-wook’s ‘Oldboy’.
WRITER/DIRECTOR & PRODUCER: XENIA GLEN
Xenia is a producer at Misfits Entertainment (‘McQueen’). In 2020 Xenia made her directorial debut with ‘Sew’, a documentary about a Filipina mail-order bride. ‘Sew’ won the Talkies Commission and the Other Brother Fund. In 2018 Xenia produced ‘Porcelain’, an experimental short that explores skin lightening in Southeast Asia. ‘Porcelain’ won the Last Word Film Fund, the Ex-Animo Fund, and was featured at the Roundhouse Festival.
Before this Xenia worked at Shooting People on commissions for Puma’s Films4Peace, Channel 4’s Random Acts, and she founded New Shoots, SP's filmmaker scheme and fund. Xenia won the Film and TV Charity’s John Brabourne Award to support her slate of films. Her upcoming projects include ‘Backbone’, a BBC’s New Creative commission, 'Trip the Light Fantastic' which was developed as a part of the BFI’s New Voices programme, and her feature documentary debut ‘Kafala - The Help’ (working title), which she is developing with Brondesbury Films and Misfits Entertainment.