Research Statement

Research Questions

This project emerged from a reflection on films about grief and bereavement and a tendency to portray grief in a largely narrative-based manner, offering superficial depictions that fail to capture the lived experience of grief in emotional, psychological, and physical terms. As a result, these screen depictions can be misleading – and even dangerous – by either negating the real impact of grief or constructing mourning as a process that, while painful, will incrementally and (relatively quickly) dissipate until one is essentially 'over it’. As current grief discourses attest, the grieving process is a far more complex and multifaceted experience, and Nothing Echoes Here (Hay, 2022) – and the wider project that it is part of – seeks to explore the potential for conveying grief in a more nuanced, authentic, and empathetic manner. It does so through engagement with current grief discourse, phenomenology, and film theory – particularly Gilles Deleuze’s work on the time-image and the any-space-whatever – and asks the following research questions:

• Can grief be portrayed in a more nuanced, authentic, and empathetic manner than it predominantly is in fiction cinema?

• How can the formal elements of film be used to achieve this?

• Can a phenomenological approach to grief serve the filmmaking process in the creation of an empathetic aesthetic?

• How can Gilles Deleuze’s writings on the time-image and the any-space-whatever help us better understand the disorientating and non-rational nature of grief? 

• Can these theories be applied to a practice-research context to serve an experience-focused portrayal of grief in fiction film?

Context

Nothing Echoes Here is a Brigstow Institute-funded short film (26 minutes), that I wrote, shot, and directed in order to investigate the portrayal and representation of grief in fiction cinema. While the characters and story are fictional, the film is informed by an autoethnographic reflection on phenomenological elements of grief. In terms of narrative, it charts a 36-hour period in the life of a woman and her two children, following the recent death of their husband and father. Formal elements of film language and performance in Nothing Echoes Here seek to portray grief in an authentic and empathetic manner, prioritising a sense of experience over story and narrative. The film explores the role that space – interior, exterior, familiar, non-familiar and the aural space of silence too – plays for those grieving a sudden, profound loss.

Neat, linear portrayals of grief are ubiquitous in the classical narrative structure of fiction film, these portrayals perhaps supported by the still pervading misunderstanding of Elisabeth Kübler Ross’s (1969) theory of grief as five distinct stages, which culminates with ‘acceptance’. Kübler Ross’s seminal approach to grief has been understood in far more simplistic, continuous terms than was intended, despite the author cautioning against a rigid or linear interpretation in the original text, noting that ‘the different stages that people go through when they are faced with tragic news….will last for different periods of time and will replace each other or exist at times side by side’ (1969: 122).

Wider understandings of grief in the last half a century have tended to be based more on generally accepted assumptions rather than on current grief literature. As a result, grief has tended to be understood as following a relatively distinct pattern (often following the stage-based process above), is considered relatively short-term and finite, and the continuation of grief has been seen as abnormal and even pathological. This dominant discourse exists in contrast to contemporary grief literature as ‘the prevailing construction of grief, endorsed by laypersons, mass media, and many service providers, remains a stage-based reaction, where recovery occurs within a relatively short time frame, where there are normal and abnormal reactions to grief, and continued attachment to the deceased is pathologized’. (Breen, L. & O’Connor, M., 2007: 202)

My film aligns with contemporary grief discourse, a key element of which understands grief as a ‘dynamic process of oscillation’ [between] ‘loss-and-restoration-oriented coping, [a] juxtaposition of confrontation and avoidance of different stressors associated with bereavement’ (Stroebe & Schut, 1999: 212-215). Rather than grief being deemed linear and finite, it should be understood as a perpetual back-and-forth process – what Stroebe and Schut coined the 'dual process’, where ‘at times the bereaved will be confronted by their loss, at other times they will avoid memories, be distracted, or seek relief by concentration on other things’ (ibid: 215-6), in order to cope with what is most often a fundamentally life-altering experience. The idea that grief is ever concluded is now largely disregarded; nevertheless, it is still regularly portrayed this way in cinema. Moreover, the pervasiveness of the portrayal of grief as a linear and finite experience is not a harmless one, as ‘unrealistic aspirations towards closure can encourage expectations that harm the bereaved’ (Higgins, 2020: 9) by offering a picture of grief that does not correlate with reality.

A popular concept in grief theory is that of the assumptive world – a phrase coined by Colin Murray Parkes (1975) – which refers to ‘the assumptions or beliefs that ground, secure, stabilize, and orient people. They are our core beliefs’ (Beder, 2005: 255). When faced with grief and traumatic loss, one’s assumptive world is shattered and in its place the grieving person experiences profound disorientation, anxiety, and even panic – all physical, embodied states of being – as the ‘security of their beliefs has been aborted’ (ibid). Reflecting on Murray Parkes’ concept, and the writing of phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Matthew Ratcliffe writes of grief:

There is a profound sense of being lost; it is not that the right path cannot be discovered but that there is no path to follow and nowhere familiar to retreat to.  (2020: 660-1)

This understanding of grief aligns with Gilles Deleuze’s writing on the time-image and the any-space-whatever, describing characters in cinema who find themselves ‘in a situation that’s beyond any possible action, or to which [they] can’t react. It’s too powerful, or too painful, or too beautiful. The sensory-motor link is broken’ (1989: 51). For Deleuze, the sensory-motor link is associated with the cause-effect narrative structure of classical – or action image – cinema, and its breakage allows situations of infinite possibility to occur, no matter how painfully for the characters involved. The relevance to portrayals of those grieving a traumatic loss is considerable because in this state, ‘identity and meaning remain part of an indeterminate possibility’ (Rodowick, 1997: 64). With the shattering of their assumptive world, bereaved individuals are required – for the rest of their lives – to integrate their grief into a new identity. Joan Didion, when writing about the difference between grief as we imagine it and grief as it actually is, talks of the ‘unending absence that follows, the void, the very opposite of meaning, the relentless succession of moments during which we will confront the experience of meaninglessness itself’ (Didion, 2005: 189). Grief changes us; it sits within us indefinitely and rather than being processed, accepted, or concluded, it must rather be incorporated into the construction of a new assumptive world. In the immediate aftermath of a bereavement, however, when the assumptive world is shattered but not yet rebuilt, the grieving individual exists in ‘a pure locus of the possible’ (Deleuze, 1986: 113), where their post-bereavement identity and sense of self is undefined and unknown. It is this space that Nothing Echoes Here explores.

Nothing Echoes Here attempts to conveys a more empathetic, phenomenologically minded portrayal of grief that is informed by the research context discussed above. It does so by, for example, deliberately countering any sense of conclusion or emotional ‘acceptance’ in its narrative construction, which eschews a clear resolution and is edited with a measured pace that counters a cause-and-effect linear progression. Instead, it explores Stroebe and Schut’s dual processthrough the central character’s oscillation between moments where they reflect and face their grief overtly, and moments where routine activities and child-care serve as distraction or restoration-oriented activity. Consequently, a highly subjective experience is portrayed through a proliferation of tight close-ups and a consistently shallow depth of field, as well as a further constricting 4:3 aspect ratio and intuitive hand-held cinematography that follows and clings to the main character in an oppressive and entrapping manner. A sense of interiority is further emphasised through the near absence of dialogue in the film and a lack of interaction between the woman and any other adult characters. Finally, the film foregrounds the outside space of the woodland camp, unidentified coastal locations, and the unoccupied, transitory space of the launderette, to reflect her isolation and desire to be away from the family home – a determinate space rooted to her now shattered assumptive world. This absence of determinate locations serves to construct a cinematic space of grief and bereavement, a space of placelessness and indeterminate identity that, following Deleuze, resembles an ‘alternate world lacking even the basic coherence we need to function’ (Higgins, 2020: 9)

Impact

The film was screened as part of the Good Grief Festival 2022, which took place during Dying Matters Week in May last year. This was attended by over twelve thousand people, and the film received positive feedback on its affective portrayal of grief in the immediate aftermath of a bereavement. One viewer felt compelled to write a blog post about the film following a screening, commenting that ‘Nothing Echoes Here is a film about the locality of grief and the way in which memories are stored in spaces and objects. It examines the potential of space to cultivate grief but also the potential of space to offer one places of respite and freedom from memory and experience’. In addition, the film has connected with a number of grief organisations and support groups following screenings, including The Good Grief Project, The Grief Gallery, and The Grief Series, who noted: ‘Loved watching the beautiful, subtle film Nothing Echoes Here by @jimmy_m_hay about grief. Resonated with my experiences and really looking forward to another screening of his work tomorrow.’ A founding hypothesis of my ongoing project on cinematic representations of grief is that empathetic portrayals of grief and bereavement could prove valuable in counselling and therapy contexts. To this end, the screening of the film at Good Grief has also led to discussions with Cruse Bereavement Care, who it is hoped will partner with me for the final short film of this project (shot in June 2023 and currently in post-production). It is hoped they will lead on the collection of qualitative data at subsequent screenings of this film that will serve to assess the contribution that these films can make in a broader understanding of the importance for nuanced, empathetic, and authentic portrayals of grief in cinema.

Through engagement with current grief discourse, phenomenology, and film theory, Nothing Echoes Here considers and explores whether it is possible to portray the lived experience of grief affectively and empathetically in a fiction film. In doing so, it opens a much-needed conversation on cinematic portrayals of grief – considering the representational, ethical, and broader public health policy implications of this – while also contributing to the burgeoning, but still significantly underrepresented, practice-research engagement with fiction filmmaking.

References

Beder, J. (2005) ‘Loss of the Assumptive World – How We Deal With Death and Loss’, in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 50(4) 255-265

Breen, L. & O’Connor, M. (2007) ‘The Fundamental Paradox in the Grief Literature: A Critical Reflection’, in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying. Vol. 55(3), pp. 199-218.

Deleuze, G. (1986) Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Deleuze, G. (1989) Cinema 2: The Time Image. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Didion, J. (2005) The Year of Magical Thinking. London. 4th Estate (Harper Collins).

Hay, J. (2022) Nothing Echoes Here. Brigstow Institute.

Higgins, K. (2022) ‘Aesthetics and the Containment of Grief’, in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Vol. 78: 1. pp. 9-20.

Kübler Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying. London. Macmillan.

Parkes, C. M. (1975). ‘Determinants of Outcome Following Bereavement’, in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 6, 303-323

Ratcliffe, M. (2020) ‘Towards a phenomenology of grief: Insights from Merleau-Ponty’, in European Journal of Philosophy­. 28: 657-669.

Rodowick, D. N. (1997) Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine. London, Duke University Press.

Stroebe, M. & Schut, H. (1999) The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement: Rationale and Description, in Death Studies, 23:3, 197-224

Peer Reviews

All reviews refer to original research statements which have been edited in response to what follows:

Review 1: Accept submission for publication with no amendments.

This research explores the intricate nature of grief in response to a dearth of fictional portrayals which illustrate the reality and complexity of loss. The author draws on grief scholarship particularly concepts of dual process (Stroebe & Schut,1999) and  Parke’s (1975) concepts of assumptive world to underpin the conceptualisation of the accompanying film. This exploration works towards dispelling the myths surrounding grief as a staged process and as an experience which has an orderly resolution. This is particularly important in the understanding and assumptions made about this human phenomena/ Drawing on Deleuze’s writings, the author visualises filmic solutions to express the character of loss in a way which offers an authentic articulation of what is felt, seen and experienced

The research offers genuine understanding of the nature of grief and through No Echoes Here,  illustrates moments which clearly express the way we experience loss. Throughout  the film we observe examples which are painful and grueling interspersed with the normalcy of day to day life. The central character’s return to domestic life is a constant reminder of her loss, a space where she experiences that which is absent and that which is present. Images and sound are used successfully to communicate this. Of particular note are the scenes in the laundromat, where music triggers deep despair and additionally, the bedroom images, which illustrate that absence inherent in loss. These depictions of spaces and objects are reminders of the central character’s loss which are inaudibly and relentlessly present in her home. In this sense, the researcher has achieved his goal of incorporating scholarship into practice using a nuanced approach, creating a work which is a series of evocative vignettes.  It would be valuable to include some reflection on creative practice. Given the film was written, directed, shot and edited by the researcher (an enormous feat) it would be interesting to know more about this process, both the practice of making and reflection on the making.

The thinking and research are clearly articulated. Utilising grief scholarship and Deleuze’s writings on the time-image and the any-space-whatever whilst applying formal elements of cinema is a challenging research project. These contexts support the artefact in the discovery of cinematic ways to express this very human experience.

Review 2: Accept submission for publication with no amendments.

Firstly, it is important to note that this is a film which does set out to explore an aspect of the grieving process and does so in a thoughtful and evocative manner. The main claim of the work is that it explores grief and in particular the grief associated with bereavement in a ‘more empathetic [and] phenomenologically minded’ manner. The work posits the implications of the traditional utilisation of grief within mainstream fiction film as a status which does not ebb and flow but that continues unerringly to timely resolution.

With this focus in mind the work certainly offers a genuinely touching portrayal of grief and offers no concept of resolution within the narrative associated to the finite grieving arc identified as problematic within the statement. In this way the work does fulfil the purpose offered by its creator. There is clearly emotional oscillation within the character in terms of the moments they are alone and in the company of their children. There is a pertinent range of theory to situate the final film and academic concepts of bereavement are strong. This could be extended by further narrative considerations and examination of their impacts upon the creation and realisation of the work. For example, any additional research into grieving using real experiences and reactions to offer the verisimilitude of the characters’ experiences.

The accompanying statement is well written and clearly offers the initial concepts of the work. It would be enlightening if the process of writing, character choice, directing, and working with the actors was offered within the overview of the work. These aspects form a foundation for approaches moving forwards in delivering grief in a more realistic manner and are choices which it is believed are fundamental to this piece working as well as it does to communicate the emotional challenges experienced by the central character.

Unpacking these relationships is very important, as this is where the power of the piece lies most clearly – alongside the technical selection in delivering the actors’ work. Another area that would be of note to address would be the concepts of female grief, role as mother, and the impact of class within this narrative and approach to offering realism. In this case the mother seems to have the resources to follow this course of self-preservation where a different set of circumstances would well offer different challenges than those presented here. It would be really useful to see the process of creation which went into the character choices for the script.

All reviews refer to original research statements which have been edited in response.