Project Pitch narrative feature entry – Cracked

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, the city is brimming with creative talent. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. Project Pitch’s narrative feature film competition champions projects that hope to produce Canadian-made feature-length films, with at least 50 per cent of filming taking place right here in London. The winner of the narrative feature competition will win a $60,000 prize package to support their production.

One pitch that I’m looking forward to learning more about is CRACKED by Toronto-based creative Becca-Willow Moss. The script follows Gabby, a woman who runs a doll factory with her husband, as she recovers from a miscarriage and embraces dolls as a means of reconnecting with her own strength amidst domestic abuse.

I first met Moss at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she shared her excitement for the opportunity to return to London and pitch her feature film at FCFF. We reconnected over Zoom to discuss her pitch, grief and the sense of community unique to London.

EA: Could you tell me why you think stories like CRACKED are important?

BWM: I think especially in Canadian films, we don’t often showcase grief. I think that Canada, bless its heart, has a culture of repression and of politeness, which is one of its stronger qualities in many regards. However, in my own personal grief journey and in my work as a filmmaker, it’s really important to elucidate that everybody has their own process, and that there are no seven stages of grief. So showcasing various ways of grieving is very important to me, and we need to continue to shed light on different perspectives.

EA: What led you to telling this story as a feature film?

BWM: It’s important to the story that it is a feature length. It’s a lifelong decision whether or not people have children. Sure, there can be a powerful short film about something of this nature, but for me as a writer-director, the longer we can sit with a character, the more we can really show the audience that it’s a lifelong journey of grieving, and the length adheres to that. 

I chose to write this after experiencing my own grief,  going through my own relationship to fertility as a young woman. In these narratives that I write, I allow my own personal loss to lead as inspiration for the script. And I always try to acknowledge the complexity of a sick body and a disabled body, which I relate to, in Canadian cinema, because I think we’re used to one type of narrative.

EA: What brought you to London for your film?

BWM: I think London itself is such a beautiful place to be telling stories, I’ve always had positive experiences in London. My creative producer, Sarah Cleveland, lives in London, and one of my most formative filmmaking and directing experiences happened in London during the pandemic, where I rented a location from a friend who was studying at Western and it just became my safe space to tell stories. There’s a laundry list of reasons why London is the only place where this would be perfect to shoot. There’s also a longstanding history of artisans in London, and that’s a huge aspect in the script. There’s such a long-standing relationship with doll makers in London, Ontario.

I have shot in larger cities, but I think the tone of this film surrounding motherhood and reproductive decisions just felt to me like a London, Ontario story. In my own grief journey, one of the motherhood groups that I explored and had consultations with is based in London, there’s wonderful organizations and different sects of community in London that show up. In these glorious big cities, so to speak, where they have larger filmmaking hubs, you lose that sense of community. People bringing dinners to those in mourning, and people bringing dinners to those going through postpartum. My experience in London has been that ability to form genuine connections.

EA: I am really happy that you’re interested in London this way, and happy that we’ll have a film that shows your appreciation to the city.

BWM: And appreciation for the people! Crewing up locally is very important for me on any set, and there’s so many amazing people based in London that I’m looking forward to getting to know better.

EA: Is there anything else you’re really excited about for the festival?

BWM: Starting a dialogue about this film and about this topic is such a privilege. So whether or not we’re successful at the pitch, to me this feels like I’m the luckiest person in the world to be able to get up on a platform and talk about destigmatizing miscarriages and destigmatizing maternal grief. In addition to that, I see this as a way to make friends. Meeting you was so fruitful, and it was just because I was there during TIFF. So London is just wonderful ground for the ability to make new friends and like-minded filmmaking friends.

EA: Do you have any hopes for the future of film in London?

BWM: You know, every time I say I’m excited to shoot this film in London, people’s initial response is, “Oh, London, England, that’s so cool!” And I say, no, London, Ontario. It’s a city in Southwestern Ontario and it’s near Lake Erie, and it’s beautiful. And I want people to say, “Wow, London Ontario, that’s awesome.” I want London, Ontario to have the reputation that it has in my eyes — a showcase of regional art and beautiful, wholesome people who want to commit to a story, and I hope that it continues to grow on the world stage.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.