Exploring History That Isn't Often Discussed: Shaun O'Connor On His Short "A White Horse"
Director Shaun O’Connor is an Irish filmmaker whose work has screened and won awards at festivals around the world. Shaun has a personal interest in mental health issues, having suffered with chronic anxiety in his mid-20s and later writing a book about his experiences in order to help others recover, and his latest film, A White Horse, explores how mental hospitals were once used as catch-alls for people considered “troublesome” or “abnormal.”
1970s Ireland: A scared and confused young girl enters a phone booth and rings home. Her parents are waiting for the call, and we soon discover a hidden truth.
A White Horse touches on themes of mental health and homosexuality in the 1970s and has won numerous awards, including Best Irish Short at the Foyle Film Festival, making it eligible for the 2021 Oscars. We had the opportunity to chat with Shaun about his film, the importance of the project, finding the right visual look, and much much more!
How did you get connected with Paul Cahill to become attached to this project?
I met Paul at a scriptwriting workshop in Cork [Ireland] back in 2017. We ended up working on a series of projects and applications together, and developed a TV show together set in a psychiatric hospital in Ireland in the 1970s. We made the short film A White Horse as a proof-of-concept for the show.
What resonated with you most about Paul’s script or the film’s subject matter?
Paul’s script takes a snippet of life, one short phone conversation, but it implies so much about the world that the characters are living in. It’s a brilliant, self-contained script that conveys a powerful sense of what life was like for people committed to mental institutions because of their sexual orientation, and it does so through the eyes of one family.
Is there anything that viewers can do to help put conversion therapy to an end?
If you’re living in a country in which it’s still legal, speak to your local politician or representative and make sure to let them know that it’s a voting issue for you.
What tips can you give the young filmmakers out there about recreating a period with a limited budget?
Plan your shoot well ahead of time. Research the look of the time, the clothes, hairstyles, etc.
Choose your locations carefully, make sure that there are no obvious visual inconsistencies. And if there are certain problems you can’t avoid on the day (modern cars in the background, etc), it might be possible to paint them out in After Effects — but that should always be a last resort.
Tell us a bit about your cast.
We had an amazing cast, drawn primarily from theatre actors based in Cork city in the south of Ireland. Bridget is played by Amber Deasy, a brilliant young actress. Bridget’s Mother and Father are played by Cora Fenton and Jack Healy, both of whom I have worked with in earlier short films. We rehearsed over two full days; one day with just Amber, and one with Amber and Cora together. So even though they’re never onscreen together and the conversation takes place entirely on the phone, through the rehearsals they had a sense of the delivery and reactions the other actor would give. Their conversation is the heart of the film, and both Amber and Cora give beautiful, heart-rending performances.
How did you cinematographer Jass Foley develop the film’s aesthetics?
When Jass read the script, he immediately proposed a strong visual style for the film. Primarily, it would be locked-off shorts, and often with objects or barriers in the foreground, implying that each of the characters is in a prison, either of their own making or imposed by others. In terms of the grade, Jass went for a strong sense of contrast between Bridget and her parents, giving the audience the sense that Bridget has been isolated, emotionally and physically, from the warmth of her family.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into directing?
I loved film growing up and was always a big fan of Hollywood films. I watched way too much TV as a kid! When I went to college to study Multimedia, part of the course was a filmmaking module. I got to make a short documentary, which was a revelation to me in terms of the practicality of the process and how achievable it was. After college, I worked as a full-time musician for years, and it was only when I was 28 that I took the plunge, bought a camera and started making my own short films and music videos.
What films or filmmakers have inspired you, your style, or your approach to telling a story?
Growing up, Spielberg would have been a huge influence. And the more experience I get as a filmmaker, the more I can appreciate his craft; the ingenious use of blocking and camerawork to tell a story efficiently. In recent years I’ve been really influenced by strong independent filmmakers like Shane Carruth and Ben Wheatley.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
Hopefully people will be more aware of a part of our recent history that isn’t spoken about very often; the use of psychiatric hospitals in the 20th century as catch-alls for people considered “abnormal,” and how members of the LGBTQ community were seen as people who needed to be “fixed.”
Do you have any future projects in the works that you can share with us?
We’re currently developing a TV mini-series called Unclaimed that is based on the same characters as A White Horse and set in an Irish psychiatric hospital in the 1970s. We want to explore that world, in which being gay or in any way “abnormal” could lead to someone being subjected to psychiatric treatment or incarcerated for years. But also, we want to focus on culture being at the cusp of positive change, and our lead character Bridget learning to fight back against authority and tradition.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!