Many people I know who have seen Yannick Jamie’s fascinating documentary “The Big Weight” have said something along the lines of “I think this might be my dream job.” The film depicts a couple who run an emergency airport in Forrest, Australia. The only people in this desert town are these two lovely people, Greg and Kate Harrington, who have a street of cottages to keep clean in case a plane has to make an emergency landing there and the people on board get stuck. How often does that happen? Rarely, but if it happened to any of us, it probably wouldn’t be such a bad day.
Greg and Kate’s day included weeding the airport runway, washing and folding towels at the cottage, dusting, playing racquetball in the airport hangar, driving down the runway at full speed (why not?) and mowing the lawn. Is. They also cut each other’s hair and keep in touch with loved ones via Skype. Can’t someone be crazy there? It feels like a desert outback version of “The Shining.” This will probably depend on your temperament. Occasionally a freight train passes by, which, if nothing else, tells you that the world is still turning.
Jamie’s film is fifteen minutes of quiet contemplation and, for some, an effortless film of wish fulfillment, although the chances of any of us ending up in this compromise are as remote as its setting. It’s never explained how these two got here, and perhaps we’re not supposed to (the inner workings are explained in the Q&A below), but you get the feeling there are no better people for the job. Ernst Rijsager’s score has the perfect sound to compliment the isolation, while Jamie also lets the serene landscapes do the work of helping the audience acclimate to the serene atmosphere. Lots of majestic scenery and expansive views may remind you of some of the amazing desert scenes in Wim Wenders’ “Until the End of the World”. In a way, this film is a perfect companion to that film.
All year long, in this column, I’ve been writing about films that examine our relationship with technology, how it’s grown, how it’s consumed us, and how it’s helped define our identities. Is. It feels right to end this year’s column with a film about getting away from it all and living a quiet, simple existence (this wasn’t planned). I’m sure there will be more short films next year that continue to explore these issues, but I’m sure films like “The Big Weight” will also be needed. In many ways, Jamie’s film feels like a true breath of fresh air.
How did you find this place/these people? How long were you there with them?
The way we found this place was somewhere between finding it and stumbling upon it. It is so remote, about 5 hours away on a very rough dirt road from an already incredibly inaccessible highway, that anyone going there has to seek it out. But, initially my intention was just to go to the Nullarbor Plain, because I was so fascinated by this landscape of complete emptiness, and find the people who lived there and see what life was like for them. These people mostly lived in larger “stations” or on the plains, but our filming with them didn’t go so well (it was a bit boring, so to speak). The Forest was one of the few places on the map as a stopover where you could refuel your car, so we always treated it as a passing place, we had no idea it was a There’s the airport and all that. But when we got there and met Greg and Kate, we immediately knew that this was what we were always looking for. And luckily, they were ready to be filmed right then and there on the spot.
We spent a little over a week there, filming them and getting to know them. So, there was a real sense of spontaneity about the whole thing. In a parallel universe, the entire town of Forrest could have been a set built for a fiction film. But fortunately for us, it already existed in reality and Greg and Kate were the most amazing actors you could ask for, and we shot it in just a week without any money. It’s the best part of documentary filmmaking, when you stumble upon a dream (or a nightmare) that already exists, already created for you and all you have to do is bring a camera.
I’ve talked to people who see it as a “dream job.” What was your personal experience of living there during that time? Do you like this kind of peace and quiet at all?
Yes, emptiness and void definitely fascinate me. For me personally, that scenario sounds extremely comfortable. You can see a pure straight horizon spanning 360° around you and see the entire dome of the night sky… and on top of that, it’s so quiet that you can hear nothing but the faint sound of noises in your ears. Can hear. Your brain doesn’t even know how to process it. So when you’re out there camping alone, it’s as if the whole world has become your room: the earth is literally your bed and the sky is your roof, and it’s all you have.
It’s a strange place where what’s going on inside you is also reflected in the landscape outside you. You are constantly experiencing this physical void around you, while simultaneously emptying your mind, doing a kind of fasting of your thoughts and external stimuli. I’m not surprised that this kind of job would be a dream job for many people these days, and it will become even more so. It is clear that in our modern societies there is a common adverse reaction to the amount of noise and stimuli with everything now being online and with AI. Everyone can use a mind detox, and there’s no better place to do it than the Forest. Eventually, you’ll go crazy there, but in the beginning the point is to go there because you feel like you’re already going crazy in the city. So it’s a really interesting dynamic. It’s about finding a certain balance between maintaining the structure of society and finding some kind of freedom from it all.
Have you kept in touch with them? Are they still there?
Yes, I am still in touch with him regularly, but he is not there anymore. In fact, per my previous point about eventually going crazy, managers are only allowed to stay on a job for a maximum of 2 years to avoid going crazy. It’s a bit like being a lighthouse keeper, but in the desert. So now it’s in the hands of other managers, and it changes every year or two. Greg and Kate now live on the east coast of Australia, but will always dream of the Forest.
The shot of the lawn mower at the end is a wonderful choice. Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you and how you accomplished it?
When we were talking one evening toward the end of our stay, Greg told me that his mower is “self-propelled,” meaning you trigger it to go on its own instead of pushing the engine. Can do. Werner Herzog has always been one of my favorite inspirations and I share his fascination with machines that can move by themselves, like the boat in “Fitzcarraldo.”, Or the cars driving in circles in “Even Midgets Start Small”. So there’s definitely some subconscious Herzog there, but the image just came together in that moment that night: it should end with the lawn mower running on its own across the endless lawns of the Nullarbor Plain. Has Greg finally gone mad, or has the mower itself gone mad? Or is it trying to escape the madness? I don’t even really care about the meaning…when something like this comes to you and feels so perfect for the film, you can’t let it go. You can’t try to make it happen! So from there, it was really just a question: Is it possible?
The next day we took the mower out into the field and gave it a try to see what it would do if we zip tied the self-propelling system and let it go. Immediately, you could see that it was perfectly capable of doing the job and the question was more technical about getting the drone at the right speed and the weather conditions being right. I had to practice the drone a bit and we needed a very windless day so the dust from the mower wouldn’t aggressively go everywhere… so it took a few days to get it right.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a short fiction film, which once again involves “crazy” people waiting for something that never comes. I am also working on several short, medium and feature length documentaries, mostly about the current diversity crisis, i.e. vanishing cultures, fading traditions and languages around the world. One of them is also about a strange city in Australia where everyone lives underground. For the most part, it seems I’m interested in diverse worlds, different lifestyles, absurd things, and uninhibited people who challenge our notion of sanity.