Heavy Petting

Heavy Petting is a short narrative film that explores the distinction and degeneration between loneliness and desolation, motivated by my own mental health struggles. It tells the story of two women that seem initially to be sharing a symbiotic longing for companionship, but who upon closer examination are experiencing something separate and gravely dissimilar. In making this film, I endeavoured to challenge perceptions about the banality of loneliness as a subject of my previous artistic work, to shock people out of complacency about a pervasive mental health crisis, and to illuminate those who are most vulnerable to alienation and how we contribute to their isolation. I hope that this film can offer solace and camaraderie to those struggling and urge observers to take these experiences seriously. This support paper describes the impetus for the project in emotional and conceptual terms and outlines my approach to the film’s research and writing process. It also provides theoretical context for the film’s exploration of mental illness, bisexual erasure, and sexual liberalism, as well as the script’s unconventional narrative structure. In the latter sections, this paper chronicles Heavy Petting’s journey through production and post-production, with an emphasis on my principal areas of focus as a director—casting, intimacy coordination, cinematography, and production design. I conclude by summarizing how the lessons learned making of this film will inform my future artistic practise.Arts, Faculty ofGraduat