A Late Thaw

A Late Thaw is an eighteen-minute drama based on the loss of my boyfriend in an ice climbing accident when I was nineteen. The film is largely a poetic exploration of love, grief, and hope. The narrative is fictionalized in order to tap into the universal themes embedded in such an experience. It exposes how unresolved grief can be triggered by outside forces, changes and upheavals, or by inner forces such as a desire to hold on to the memory of the loved one. In some cases, feelings of grief can remain frozen until an event draws attention to that which is still in need of healing. Often feelings of pain and loss become intertwined with love. These conscious and unconscious forces complicate the healing process. The goal of the film is to recount the story events (cause) while expressing the inner grief process (effect), creating two story worlds and bridging them together in a seamless way. The challenge lay in externalizing an internal process so that the viewer would understand and perhaps recognize the feelings being conveyed. The research behind the film reflects this bridging of inner and outer worlds, as I turned inwards to my memories, the healing process, and physical artifacts of that time, and outwards towards research in Post Traumatic Stress as well as other films that explore similar themes and subject matter. Part memoir, part research, and part production journal, this paper examines the inspirations, influences, and decisions behind A Late Thaw.