Title: Freefall

Year of Production: 2007

Country of Production: USA

Running Time: 9 minutes

Genre: Narrative Short

Cast: Neal Mayer

Director: Pawel Pawelczak

Writer: Pawel Pawelczak

Director of Photography: Bogdan Tyburczy

Producer: Ellen Bollert

Production Company: Hand Hammered Films

WINNER OF A 2007 BRONZE CHRIS AWARD

Blue skies. Singing birds. Gentle breeze.

The perfect day for lunch in the park –

until an unexpected echo leads to an emotional precipice.

Where do you go when all paths lead to the brink?

Freefall is a psychological snapshot of a Manhattan businessman suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

During a casual lunch break in the park, a sensory trigger – the sound of a low-flying plane – forces him to relive the events of 9/11. What follows is a struggle between his subconscious, which attempts to push the long-buried trauma to the surface, and his conscious mind, which fights to maintain stability by keeping the disturbing feelings buried.

Now that Pandora’s box has been opened, can he – should he – close it again?

“In Freefall, I wanted to look at how we, as individuals, deal with trauma – whether from a private, personal tragedy or, as in the case of 9/11, from shock and suffering on a large, and very public, scale.

People throw around words like ‘closure’ and ‘healing,’ as though we all inevitably move on and then everything is fine again. There’s such strong pressure in our upbeat, can-do society to find some kind of happy ending, that people who continue to suffer and grieve become a kind of pariah. So pain and grief are swept under the carpet.”

– Pawel Pawelczak, Freefall Director

Freefall is director Pawel Pawelczak’s

post-graduate directorial debut.

“If we don’t honestly deal with our past, as individuals and as a society, the past will eventually hunt us down.”

– Pawel Pawelczak, Freefall Director

BEHIND THE SCENES

Perhaps the greatest directorial challenge of the film was navigating through the emotions of a man living in denial. His conscious and subconscious mind are locked in battle. He’s unable to recognize his own feelings. But the audience needs to understand both sides of him, in order to see the true motivation behind his actions. It’s not until the climactic moment that the character himself finally makes the connection.

Recreating the sensory cues of that day was the cinematographer’s challenge. Anyone who was in New York on September 11th can recall the crystal blue of the sky and the crisp clarity of the air. Creating a parallel day with that same look and feel was essential – it made the emotional response to the plane flying overhead seem inevitable.

© 2007 Hand Hammered Films