Little Bits of Light

Intimate, acutely observant filmmaking with real emotional power, Campbell Walker’s digital feature bears witness to a young couple’s struggle to survive one partner’s crushing bouts of depression.

Little Bits of Light, New Zealand, 2005

Director/photography/editor: Campbell Walker
Producer: Mhairead Connor
Screenplay: Grace C. Russell, Campbell Walker with Nia Robyn, Rob Jerram
Production manager: Andrew Mitchener
Sound: Brendon Pickford, Dayton Lekner, Chris Barrett
Music: The Mountain Goats

With: Nia Robyn, Rob Jerram

DV, 116 minutes, R16–content may disturb

“Intimate, acutely observant filmmaking with real emotional power, Campbell Walker’s digital feature bears witness to a young couple’s struggle to survive one partner’s crushing bouts of depression. Alex and Helen are taking a winter break in a rambling old house in the Taranaki countryside. The days may hold distinct and pleasurable ‘little bits of light’, but the nights are hellish and long. Alex’s hyper-alert concern is no palliative to Helen’s illness. Walker (Uncomfortable Comfortable), who evolves his films in collaboration with his actors, is also working here with his partner, Grace Russell, drawing on their own relationship. Nia Robyn elucidates Helen’s anguish and her arresting off-kilter liveliness with unstinting clarity. She has her match in Rob Jerram who plays Alex without a hint of self-serving nobility. This is screen acting of such a high order that it’s like watching the private struggle of two real people, played out in real time, but sharpened into dramatic focus and suffused with the filmmaker’s love, wonder and dismay.” — Bill Gosden, Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals, 2005

“With New Zealand filmmaking speeding forward with international co-productions and foreign blockbusters dominating the landscape, it would be easy for a unique New Zealand cinematic voice to get lost, and swept under the push for commercial filmmaking in this country. Thankfully then, the independent spirit is still alive and well in the Aro Street filmmaking community... Little Bits of Light is every bit a Campbell Walker film, focussing on intimate relationships, punctuated with long contemplative pauses, and as he calls it ‘incremental changes over long periods of time’. This time around Walker pushes his performers to their limits, forcing them to deliver emotionally raw and vivid performances that will linger in your mind long after the credits roll. Alex (Rob Jerram) and Helen (Nia Robyn) decide to take a mental health vacation of sorts in the barren Taranaki countryside. Alex struggles to cope with Helens incapacitating depression coupled with bouts of self-mutilation and impending suicide. It's a relatively thin story, but Walker's never been interested in convoluted plotting. Instead, he meticulously dissects and interrogates every facet of their relationship; often leaving the camera running for extended long takes as Alex and Helen painfully expose their most intimate moments in a way few filmmakers have ever achieved. That the story is openly acknowledged to be based on Walker and co-screenwriter Grace C. Russell's relationship makes the portrayal of depression and love all the more potent. What's missing though is Walker's sense of humour, memorable in his equally challenging 1999 debut Uncomfortable, Comfortable. It may be a reflection of the far more sullen subject matter, but Little Bits of Light seems to be a far more cathartic experience than any of Walker's previous films. Its conclusion is bittersweet and heartfelt, an uneasy resolution that adroitly focuses on slight changes rather than the kind of life affirming saccharine we'd expect from a lesser filmmaker. Walker also achieves a kind of integrity and truth rarely seen on screens, uncluttered by any sense of artificiality. This is aided by the gorgeous digital video images that would have the Dogma '95 crew drooling in the aisles. But unlike the Dogma crowd, Walker's work has never conformed to any standard or formula, except his own. And for that, he, like his New Zealand contemporaries Gregory King and Florian Habicht are a godsend to our growing filmmaking community. Little Bits of Light should be on everyone's must see list...” — Shahir Daud, Lumière, July 2005

Screenings: Little Bits of Light screened on 26 September 2007 as part of the season Desktop Cinema: 8 Recent Digital Features from NZ selected by Diane McAllen