Circle interviews with the Alumni: Meet Rachel Close - CIRCLE Doc Accelerator 2022 participant.

We've asked our Alumni to share their Circle experience with us: motivation, outcomes, how

it helped them shaped their projects and what it means to be part of the Circle family along with their views on the current cinema landscape and how gender has been an asset or barrier.

Q. Please introduce yourself and your project briefly.

SOMETHING FAMILIAR is my first feature-length documentary. I am a social worker and university lecturer living in the north east of England.

The film: While helping a fellow adoptee locate her birth mother, British-Romanian filmmaker Rachel turns the camera inward, launching an international search for her own missing sisters. As she unearths a legacy of abuse and silence, she asks: Can the act of storytelling help rewrite a haunted past?

Q. What made you apply for CIRCLE?

My producers at Manifest Film in Bucharest suggested I apply for Circle; they had encouraged other directors to apply for Circle and it had proved really beneficial.

Q. Can you compare your experience at CIRCLE with other similar platforms that you have been part of?

Circle is the first and only workshop I have undertaken during the making of this film.

Q. How has participating in CIRCLE helped you and/or your project?

Circle helped me to grow as a filmmaker, as well as helping to develop my film. The information, connections, guidance, support and nurture I received from Circle have been invaluable.

Q. As a woman working in the industry, have you faced any barriers or issues related to your gender?

Thankfully I do not feel I have encountered any barriers in relation to my gender when making this film. I have greatly appreciated the input I have had from female mentors who have been really supportive in their efforts to champion the voices of new female filmmakers and talk with one another plainly about the challenges they have faced.

Q. What's the most challenging part of being a Filmmakers under the current world circumstances?

Limited resources, tragedy tourism, and the commodification of trauma. I feel strongly that we must hold space for silence, for authentic conversations, away from money, away from the current trends. We need stories, we need art, we need diversity in discourse. I have felt a growing rigidity in public discussion about politics, arts and human rights. Filmmakers are ideally placed to offer a nuanced, complex and humanising alternative. Resource them properly to do this.