DOC Discussions: Marie Lidén, Director of ELECTRIC MALADY.
An interview with Marie Lidén, director of Electric Malady, a film about William, a Swedish man age 40, who has been suffering from electrosensitivity.
Watch the trailer:
Question: Marie, thank you so much for joining us today. I think your film is really powerful and also just personally, my family member had an illness that was not sort of recognised in the country that I come from. So it really hit me hard emotionally. But I hear that it is a personal story for you as well. Is that how you came to the subject of the film?
Marie Lidén: Yeah, so my, my mom suffered from electrosensitivity when I was a child, so from the age of eight lived with a very limited kind of exposure to electricity. We kind of completely rewired our house and used candles and oil lamps instead of lamps. And yeah, it was quite an unusual childhood, I guess.
Q: And what made you want to come back to that story as a subject, as a theme in your filmmaking?
ML: I was actually getting to the age that my mom was when she developed electrosensitivity, and I started thinking about it all the time and worrying that, is this genetic? Am I going to get the same thing? And then I was like, actually, this is this is a really interesting story. And then, from the beginning, the film was going to be about my experience and my mother's experience and the experience of a child looking at an illness like this and your understanding when you can't really see that someone is ill. And we filmed several characters as well, a child in Canada and…[a] teenager in Sweden and other teenagers in Sweden, but in the end, it was William[‘s] story and his family story just took up more and more space. In the end, there was no room for us.
Q: Wow, so it was multiple stories weaved together over sort of a subject, a theme, and then it really then became this personal story. That's incredible. Why William? …What really touched me was the relationship that he had with his parents and the parents' sort of dedication to [William’s health situation]…
ML: Yeah, I mean they're incredible and I think they're just such an inspiration for how to tackle or go through something like this but, I came across their family because I put an ad out in this magazine that goes out to electrosensitive people in Sweden, and I got so many letters, I just poured in you know some people can use internet so they I got emails as well and some phone calls and then one of them those calls were was William’s Dad, and so we spoke a few times on the phone and then I decided to go and see William.
And then I was really cautious in the beginning because William looks very extreme and he is very ill. Electrosensitive[s] are already really afraid of how they look or how they are seen, and so I just I don't know, I was a bit dubious about using William as a character but then after I just spend half an hour with him, I was just I think he's just amazing, he's so deadpan funny and he's so gentle and really philosophical in the way he thinks about life. He obviously spends a lot of time by himsel, thinking about life and memories and love and colours, all these things that he talks about in the film.
And I just felt like the way he looks and his experiences, this kind of metaphor really talks about a kind of general experience that electrosensitives have gone through. Yeah, and his family, I mean, his parents, they're just incredible. And you really see the pain that comes from being on the outside trying to help someone. Absolutely. And the anger, the kind of irritation that comes with that as well. And yeah, just feeling love with him.
Q: Interestingly enough, we are reviewing another documentary around “subjects” on this on this show..the idea of subjects in documentaries and the ethical ideas around sharing someone's story. And I wonder how you felt in approaching someone who's living with this [condition]. How did you approach the idea of telling his story?
ML: I mean, it was a really, really difficult film to make. First of all, because it was really dark for a while. William was really depressed. And the film talks a little bit about suicide as well, which is, I mean, so hard as a filmmaker to handle. I was speaking to psychiatrists and, also it's like you have to be like, “what kind of film am I making here?” Am I making a film by someone who's about to kill themselves? And which is horrible. And then, um, legally, what does that mean? He was speaking to me about things that he didn't speak to anyone about. I don't know, it's really hard to navigate. And it was filmed over a seven year time. And there was many ups and downs. Now he's in a really good place. But I think. I guess you always need to think about it like if you are exploiting your character, like, and it's really hard.
And of course, because just our presence with him there in the room had a physical effect on him. And what is this, this, massive extra weight on those thoughts already. And so we had to make so many compromises with our equipment. And we were using handcraft film cameras and, , small DSLR camera was what we could work with. And still he, after we've been filming for a long time, he would have to recover. But the whole thing, William really wanted to tell the story and. and it was important for him that we did this no matter how it made him feel. But yeah, it was really, it was difficult for that reason and really, emotionally, really hard and stressful sometimes.
… I think in a way, he was so open with me from the very beginning. And I think a lot of that some thing comes from not being able to see the person that you're speaking to as well. And there were some times when I was so upset, just crying so much, but I managed to kind of hold that away from my voice. And so we just kept talking, even though I was a complete mess. Because he's talking about wanting to end his life and how desperate his situation is.
But that didn't affect him telling me things. So in a way, it was a gift of him being covered. However, that was very hard to get the film funded. People were like, how are we going to relate to someone when we can't see their face?
Q: That segues well into one question I had, which you did bring a little bit up of the cameras you used. But I just found your film to be incredibly gorgeous and just the way you shot lights and outside and, and all these details about the world that you need to stop and watch and reflect upon. Yet a lot of the actual action is kind of in this room that was quite, I mean, very depressing and sad and whatnot. So I wondered how you approach the idea of how to tell the story but also I think yeah and I guess my second question is yeah what was the process in terms of selling the film like that so and how how long did it take for you to get it out there in the world?
ML: I mean the whole process took about 10 years and really really hard -funged. I think it's a very controversial subject, it's about an illness, it's not a happy film and we were this is my first feature so I I guess I was really inexperienced in in listening to myself or being strong enough and everyone told me that you need to have science it needs to be a scientific film having all these ideas like it should be you need this you need not you need loads of other characters and then when enough people tell you that you're like okay well maybe we need to explore that to see if that's possible and then it just took us on this really long journey just to end up back at the same kind of place that it should be about a family's experience going through this and but yeah yeah it was really difficult and I nearly gave up before we got the final funding to to to complete the film I was in I was like I can't call myself a filmmaker anymore this is ridiculous I don't and I can't go on any more of these pitch forums and tried to make money get money for this and I was so just really ready to give up ….because no one like it's just me who's like seeing this incredible story but yeah luckily I didn't give up and but it was not easy.
Q: What I find really interesting as well is that it could like you said it could have been a science film; it could have been…on different sort of different maladies, controversial maladies sort of like a more approach to try to win the audience over and believing the characters, or, I mean, [that] the actual disease exists or something like that. I think this is just much more effective because it's a creative film that you really get to know the person and you believe in the story and you believe in their their pain and their their trauma and yeah, it's incredible. Thank goodness you did stick through because it's doing quite well. I think it premiered its CPH:DOX or and now is your nominated for a debut feature award at the BAFTA. So congratulations. How has the process been for you yourself as a, as you said, a first time feature film filmmaker, taking it around and, and sort of, yeah, now that it's done, I mean, it's a different part of the arc of a film, isn't it?
ML: So yeah, I mean, the BAFTA nomination was just incredible. I know we never thought that would happen. And it's amazing. It's amazing for William’s family and electrosensitives in general, because it's like, whether or not you believe this is real, there's so many people in who suffer from this or think they are suffering from this. So, it's exists, and people are really suffering and, living in their cars, kind of fleeing the masks. That is real. And so, yes, incredible. I was really worried that I was going to get attacked by people, not attacked, physically, but that because it's such a toxic subject. I guess you're always worried when you show your film to people the first time. I just thought people are going to get angry. And the response in the UK has been amazing, especially the UK. People are really moved by the film, and people have contacted me who like you were saying, like who who've gone through experiences of other invisible illnesses. And the ME or Fibromyalgia, like these diseases are quite little understood and they feel so connected to the subject. Which is amazing. Yeah, it's bigger than electrosensitivity. It's about long diseases that just go on and on for years and eats up your whole family. Somehow from inside, you know, people sacrifice their lives for their family members. And it's like really hard.
Q: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us and we look forward to seeing the next one when it comes out but in the meantime, everyone should check out Electric Malady which is out in cinemas on the third of March right in the UK is that correct?
ML: First of March in London….Yeah, lovely talking to you too. Thank you.
This interview was carried out by Amanda Rogers. The interview was conducted on Zoom and has been edited and condensed and also is featured as part of the Cinetopia Radio Show and Podcast. Check out the full audio version of the interview below.
