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The Fear Inside “Life in Flight”
By Tracey Hecht, writer/director
(from the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival)
I think many writers find writing about themes in which they have some personal connection most compelling. That's definitely why I wrote, and eventually directed, Life In Flight. I mean, come on - if you're going to lock yourself away for several hours a day alone in a room, it's got to be personally compelling. And for me, the relationship we all have with fear felt very forefront to me. It's such a universal emotion, in all stages of life, and yet we don't have much language or expression for it in our culture. Fear mostly gets expressed in the adverse, as action or strength. Almost like the quicker you translate fear into something else, the less likely you'll be afraid. Which is pretty hilarious in that it so doesn't actually work like that.
But for me, I was aware of how things I was afraid of personally - choices I'd made in my private life, challenges I'd taken on professionally - were making me uneasy. I think that's actually natural, and probably an OK thing (I feel as if I should be consulting with a shrink on this piece!), but the way I was burying those fears rather than dealing with them was what inspired me to write the film. I decided to use four characters and put them all on a spectrum, each representing a different degree of awareness to the things they were going through in life and the fears they had within.
In the film, there are two males and two females who represent this spectrum. If you see it, you'll nail the four right away. One is toward one end of the spectrum - having been through a lot, he is much more open and honest. Then there are two characters who represent the middle - they have awareness that they're struggling but haven't decided whether to open themselves to that struggle or simply put their heads down and keep plowing forward. And then there's the last of the four, one of my favorite characters - the one who feels the fear and the pressure but just doesn't have the strength or the tools to navigate them.
The film follows these four characters, primarily the three in struggle, and explores the ways that fear has the ability to shut us down or, ultimately, allow us to open. I wouldn't say it's hugely profound or enlightening, but I do think it's provocative in that most people who see the film relate to some spot on that spectrum. They find the film gets them thinking about which direction they want to migrate. |
| In some ways, the film is representative of things much bigger: fears we have as a country, in the world or with the state of humanity. In general, however, I wrote Life In Flight to encourage thinking and introspection on a personal level. It's a quiet story and one I hope reaches people wherever they are on that spectrum. -MPM Photos: (top) Tracey Hecht with Patrick Wilson, (bottom) Tracey Hecht; courtesy of the filmmaker.
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