Unsettled lives intersect in ‘Black Conflux’
Shot and set in Newfoundland, the debut full-length film from Nicole Dorsey opens in St. John’s on Thursday
What happens when two people from different worlds find themselves face to face at crucial moments in their lives?
Is what happens next fate, like the waters of two rivers mixing at a predestined point? Or is it pure chance?
These are questions writer and director Nicole Dorsey found herself puzzling over when writing “Black Conflux,” a movie set in 1980s Newfoundland and shot in the province as well.
The story follows two main characters, Jackie and Dennis.
Jackie is a teenager in a small community just outside St. John’s, dealing with the contrast of physically maturing while still developing mentally.
Dennis is a troubled man employed at a local brewery. He’s isolated, delusional and is overwhelmed by the life he feels he is owed but can never have.
“In bringing two people from different worlds together, I think there is an inherent tension in that,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey provoked that tension by filming lesser-known areas of the Newfoundland landscape as a visual motif, sparse dialogue, a soundtrack enunciated by chimes, harps and marimba, and hits from the ’80s like Gowan’s “Moonlight Desires.”
WHERE CHARACTERS EXIST
St. John’s-based actor Rhiannon Morgan played the part of Brunette Woman, a character whose existence outside of the mind of Dennis, played by Ryan Mcdonald, is questionable, though not entirely imaginary.
“It’s really an intriguing character because … in her own right, she stands alone as a character. But she exists as part of society as well,” Morgan said. “I had to really understand the character of Dennis. Essentially, you’re working on a character of your own, but also trying to understand the motivations of another completely separate character. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”
Unlike Morgan, Holyroodborn actor Kate Corbett didn’t need to study the character of Margaret too closely.
After crudely shrugging Margaret off as a “tart,” and standing her up, Dennis invites her to a house party, where she makes a less than savoury impression on the guests.
“Only Newfoundland women can party that way, jump on the couch and (yell), ‘Who wants to have fun?’” Corbett said.
She took influence from people she knew growing up and combined them. But she also drew on the feeling of unhappiness that can show up when stuck in a small town.
“I don’t even know if this line was in Nicole’s script, I may have just ad-libbed it, but I (said), ‘Nobody knows how to have fun anymore.’ Which was kind of her baseline,” Corbett said.
A DISTANT INSPIRATION
Though the story and character of Jackie do not resemble her in any meaningful way, one of the initial inspirations behind the movie was the tragic story of Dana Bradley, who went missing in December 1981.
Last seen hitchhiking on Topsail Road, her body was found days later in the woods, her schoolbooks under her arms. Her skull had been fractured and she had been sexually assaulted. The case has never been solved.
Dorsey, who is originally from Burlington, Ont., learned about the tragedy while visiting Newfoundland in 2010.
“That sparked the initial idea because I was obsessed with how did … two worlds collide and in a fatalistic way especially. How does that timing exactly happen? What placed that person at that place at that exact moment in time?” Dorsey said.
“But when I started writing the feature, I really started thinking more about identity. That’s really when it shifted entirely. I started thinking more about what shapes us. Is it the culture we surround ourselves in, the media, is it nature versus nurture, is it a combination of both?”
“Black Conflux” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. A special screening will be held on June 17 in St. John’s at Scotiabank Theatre in the Avalon Mall, before heading across Canada.