Author/director Liz Sargent’s “Take Me House,” a U.S. Dramatic Competitors premiere right here at Sundance, strikes a very private chord for the filmmaker: It’s a feature-length growth of her 2023 Sundance proof-of-concept in need of the identical identify, and it additionally stars her sister, Anna Sargent, in a groundbreaking efficiency as an actress with cognitive incapacity.
Anna performs a Korean adoptee residing with incapacity who has to care for each of her older, adoptive mother and father, one among whom dies and the opposite of whom is struggling reminiscence loss. Anna reconnects together with her older sister (Ali Ahn), additionally a Korean adoptee, and the function model of “Take Me House” tracks their relationship whereas coping with surprising tragedy.
The set of the film, as Liz Sargent and her solid defined on the IndieWire Studio at Sundanceintroduced by Dropbox, mirrored the anti-ableist goals of the film: Anna had an appearing coach (Terra Waterproof coat) {and professional} caregiver, whereas accessibility was granted at each degree on all sides of the digicam by way of a grant from Caring Throughout Generations.
“We discuss a lot about accessibility as in bodily accessibility, however what’s cognitive accessibility?” Liz stated. “Anna was primary on the decision sheet, so we simply had been versatile about what she delivered to a scene. It was, in a approach, a grasp class within the pivot. Ali and I’d discuss like, what is that this scene changing into, what is going on, and the way can we shift the vitality and nonetheless get what we want?”
Ahn added, “And constructing time for Anna to take breaks when wanted and letting form of information what we had been going to seize that day. The improvised construction — we had a script written the place there have been issues I actually connected to within the writing, which was simply form of a street map. We’d open it up for Anna to deliver what Anna felt like on that day, and in addition issues advanced in methods we didn’t count on that had been usually higher than what we might have predicted. The takes are generally 10, quarter-hour, and generally you’re simply sucking for a extremely very long time, and there’s nothing occur. A few of it being anti-ableist is about having the endurance and religion for one thing to emerge in that silence.”
Anna Sargent added, “Appearing was actually good for me as a result of I’ve an appearing coach. She’s actually cool. She’s very nice. She’s positively superior!”
Watch the total dialog with the “Take Me House” workforce within the video above.
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