Interview With 7 From Etheria Director Rebecca Thomson
The interview train just keeps on runnin’ here at Dread Central, and we were lucky enough to grab a few minutes with Rebecca Thomson, whose short film The Jelly Wrestler made it into 7 From Etheria, and she was more than gracious to describe the film’s origin (quite the interesting story), as well as what she’s got coming up on her work slate – check it out and enjoy!
DC: Can you give us a description of your short film that you’ve included into 7 From Etheria?
BT: The Jelly Wrestler is an action comedy about washed up barmaid Eileen, crowned “Queen of the Gelatine” in the 80s at the peak of her career, who is coaxed into training young barmaid Amy for an up-coming jelly wrestling night. With one last shot at jelly glory, Eileen must grapple with ageing, betrayal and her own jelly wrestling demons – a task that may well put her down for the count…
The inspiration for this film came when I actually participated in a local jelly (‘jello’ for the US audience!) wrestling fundraising night which was hilarious, much harder work than I anticipated and crazy slippery! Writer Claire d’Este was clearly so inspired by my amazing moves that she came up with this story for The Jelly Wrestler that was further inspired by the feature film The Wrestler. Claire and I also love films about women being weird and behaving badly so this story also ticks those boxes.
DC: What does it mean to you to have your film included alongside such talented female filmmakers?
BT: I am completely thrilled to be part of this anthology with all these other amazing women and very original, diverse films. It very much feels like power in numbers as we can use our collective energy, resources, and distinct networks to promote each other and hopefully to introduce a new audience to each others work.
DC: Who are some of the people whose work you admire, or draw inspiration from?
BT: I really love watching a whole range of styles and genres but am definitely drawn to filmmakers and stories with a stylised approach, that take you into a different world. I deeply love the aesthetic of Park Chan-Wook films and also Tim Burton – dark fairytales with humour . I also had the pleasure to meet the NZ director Gaylene Preston at a festival recently and I really enjoyed her films which are intelligent, humorous, and have interesting, complex female characters at the heart of the stories.
DC: Lastly, after the release of 7 From Etheria, what can your followers look forward to seeing from you in the future?
BT: I’ve got a number of different projects in the pipeline or just out of the pipeline. I have just produced, directed and edited my first short documentary about a strange and colourful sound artist who uses radios as instruments and makes records out of chocolate that can be eaten as well as played. That docu can be viewed at www.womenoftheisland.com I also have a number of dark and delicious genre projects in development with writer Claire d’Este and we are currently setting up a production business VEXATIOUS FILMS. Stay tuned! People can keep up to date with what I am doing either on Facebook or at www.rebeccathomson.com.au!
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