Exploring women’s mental health in cinema helps to spark conversations that provide a deeper understanding of it’s complex realities. In the case of Sybil Chamberlain, we’re caught in the whirlpool of her unraveling sanity as she struggles with loneliness, loss, and the dark desires that consume her. We sat down with Rebecca Calder, who portrays Sybil in Broken Bird, on the film creating a powerful dialogue on mental health.

Mo Moshaty: In the aftermath of trauma and the weight of loneliness, Sybil goes through some intense emotions. Which side of Sybil do you find most interesting as she faces the world?

Rebecca Calder (lead actor): There are so many fascinating sides to Sybil, embodying her makes it hard to choose. I’d love to hear which the audience favours! But If I had to choose one now, I’d say ‘Mortician Mode’ was really fun to play – the mask she wears with clientele and her employer Mr Thomas. So professional, considerate… efficient. Sybil excels in her creative control.

MM: The Gothic vibes of the supernatural and unchecked desire perfectly blend with her heartbroken need for revenge. What’s one thing you’d love for audiences to take away from this tragic story?

RC: I suppose the veil of reality vs what we project. We can never really understand the complexity of trauma and how broken one can be inside such a perfectly porcelain exterior. Essentially, we never know what someone is going through. Be kind. But in Sybil’s case, you need to be careful too!

MM: In my background in Behavioral Therapy, I’ve learned that there are so many instances where clients believe their late parents still haunt them in the most supportive ways years later as a form of the parental validation they cannot receive as adults. Is there a certain view of the afterlife that you have?

RC: I love that. Our early lives are sculpted by our parents, so the idea that there’s a lasting imprint during our times of need is beautiful. Certainly for Sybil, she’s always searching for her Father, his reassurance in a lonely world. I’d like to believe we will reunite with our loved ones in an afterlife. It’s reassuring. But I do often think about the concept of Karma and rebirth. I like the idea that you could be rewarded for living a good life, or have the opportunity to make up for our failures. 

MM: Sybil’s only want of “a happy family”, is bound in the all-out destruction of those around her due to her mental state. Past this beautiful performance of yours, how can the industry get better at conveying women’s mental health on screen?

RC: It’s a great question, I wish I had a simple answer. But I think writing these duplicitous roles is a great place to start, we are darkness and we are light. The fact that Broken Bird has producers who greenlit a film conveying women’s mental health on screen, where there are two other female stories (Sacha Claxton as Emma and Robyn Rainsford as Tina) in an intertwined experience of mental health deterioration, is paramount.

MAIN SCREEN
THURSDAY 22 AUGUST – 5.30 PM
Director: Joanne Mitchell.
Cast: Rebecca Calder, James Fleet, Jay Taylor, Sacharissa Claxton.

OPENING FILM – WORLD PREMIERE – FrightFest celebrates one of its beloved supporters and genre savvy creatives with their astonishingly brilliant feature debut as director. As a writer, producer and actor, Joanne Mitchell has appeared at FrightFest in many guises in such banner attractions as INBRED, BAIT, EVIE, WOLF MANOR, BEFORE DAWN and ATTACK OF THE ADULT BABIES.
Now, she has skilfully turned her 2018 award-winning short SYBIL (original story Tracey Sheals) into a rich, absorbing and disturbing tale about a quiet soul in emotional turmoil. Sybil Chamberlain works as a professional mortician at a funeral parlour. She has spent her life looking for love. Brought up as a privileged, carefree child, at the age of ten, she lost everything in a tragic accident. A darkness fell over her as the bright lights of her life were snuffed out swiftly and cruelly. Now, an emptiness, an aching loneliness prevails, a gloomy void she seeks to fill. Reality and reason are slipping away from Sybil, and her dark desires are becoming more insatiable and progressively out of control. Will she ever find happiness and contentment, especially as the company she keeps is mainly deceased?

Rebecca Calder masterfully portrays Sybil in a riveting, nuanced interpretation of the complex character’s quirky, unsettling behaviour. See how Joanne Mitchell has honed her craft as a horror storyteller, capturing all and maintaining a firm grip on performance, story, and style to deliver the most beautifully creepy rendition of a tormented mind spiralling into a vortex of madness.