Director's Statement

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   Guilt is one of the core elements of the human experience, and it is inescapable. Sometimes it is minor, sometimes it is suffocating – but it is always there, one way or another. Sometimes you get the chance to face it and apologise, to put it behind you and move on. Other times…it’s too late. Whoever you need to apologise to, they’re gone – and all you’re left with is a longing for impossible forgiveness.

   This is the core of Bloodwater – to explore an element of life we like to brush under the carpet. Mia’s story tracks that of someone burdened with a guilt she can only alleviate internally, but continues to try and combat externally. As she hops from ritual to ritual in hopes of contacting her mother, Mia is performing the most human of actions – running away for her problems. As the narrative unfolds, the terrors become more and more suited to Mia’s own psyche, culminating in the voicemail she left her mother and forcing Mia to confront her own actions. 

   While this exploration of guilt and denial builds towards what will seemingly be a catharsis, Bloodwater is not intended to be the classic tale of ‘overcoming the monster’. No, Bloodwater is a tragedy, a moral warning of the effects of falling too deep into your guilt, and allowing your denial to build up too much. Bloodwater is a stark reminder that when we refuse to face our internal struggles, we get stuck in a never-ending loop – an inescapable room of pain, despair and moral anguish.

   Bloodwater is rooted in my own personal experiences with family. There was a long period where a family member, someone I love very much, was struggling and lashed out at all around them. Amid the anger and the confusion, I cut this person out of my life and swore to disown them entirely.

   Years on, they have sought help and are in a much better place, and our relationship is stronger than ever. While I forgave them for their actions, they forgave me for giving up on them. The 'what if?' in my head, the sadistic question of how things would've unfolded had they never returned, had they been taken forever in some tragic accident, haunted me. Haunts me. Sometimes it keeps me up at night, and the hypothetical that I avoided (for which I am eternally grateful) has been channelled into this film - a living testament to the bullet that I dodged. A bullet that has torn through many, many a person on its endless orbit.