Interview:
"The Art of Loss" by Kathy Bruner
In the world of documentary filmmaking, a common adage is that the deepest stories often touch on the rawest elements of being human. For Kathy Bruner, this has been most of her work. In his latest film, The Art of Loss follows Laura Stevenson, a woman who performs various means of art-printmaking, sculpture, and porcelain to process her loss via miscarriage. It is a super emotional and intimate exploration of loss, healing, and creative healing. In this candid conversation, we spoke to Kathy Bruner about how her past film Last Year at the Crossing laid the groundwork for The Art of Loss, the emotional complexities of documenting such personal grief, and how this project has not only affected Laura but herself as well.
Q: You described your previous film, Last Year at the Crossing, as being very emotionally heavy. What was it about the experience that made you create The Art of Loss next?
A: "I’m not sure they were directly connected, but enough time had passed since Last Year at the Crossing that I was ready to handle another doc with heavy subject matter. I knew the story had a redemptive ending since Laura was using her artwork to process her grief, so I was drawn to that very visual and hopeful story."
Q: You once said, "Documentary film is a great way to tell real stories, investigate the beautiful and difficult parts of being human." How does The Art of Loss reflect those themes, considering it really deals with the context of grief and healing?
A: "Certainly the toughest things we deal with in life have to do with losing people we love. The Art of Loss deals with the unique loss of miscarriage. Laura, who was featured in the doc, identified her losses as “people she never met in this life” rather than simply fetuses. She carried them in her body, so there’s a beautiful intimacy there as well as deep loss."
Q: Working on The Art of Loss, you said filmmaking in and of itself became healing for you. Can you speak more to how making the film actually helped you process your emotions or personal experiences
A: "Making a documentary film is a shared experience between the filmmaker and the ones filmed, so we processed her grief together. It was also good for me to make a film with a clearly hopeful ending this time. That was never guaranteed in my previous documentary where I lost a lot of sleep worrying about the people whose difficult lives I was documenting. In this film, I knew that Laura was still grieving, but she was also finding meaning through the losses and rejoicing in her baby daughter’s life."
Q: Your collaborators, Hannah Johnson as editor and Josh Taylor as sound designer, played a major role in your film. Describe how their contribution supported the emotional tone and the impact of your film. At any moments did you lean on them to bring out the subtext deeper in your story?
A: "Hannah was a great collaborator, able to creatively cut together scenes for review. Her contributions directly related to the film’s tone since she was able to bring out the most impactful moments in the footage. Josh’s sound design was largely about cleaning up my mistakes from bad field audio, but I’m thankful for the ways his knowledge of software tools optimized what I brought him. He clearly elevated the film via sound design."
Q: This film focuses on how Laura Stevenson used printmaking, sculpture, and porcelain to process her miscarriage. What was the hardest part in showing the healing power of art through a documentary? Was there something or any particular time or art that made you connect more while filming?
A: "When Laura removed the porcelain forms from the kiln, what you see is her first reaction. She had not seen the results before we shot that scene, so that was a genuine reveal. And when she carried those two forms up on the elevator, that was the most moving scene for me to shoot. What you don’t see is what happened after she finished reflecting on the porcelain forms. I put the camera down, and we hugged and cried together."
Q: Why did you want to focus your book on Laura's personal story about miscarriage-a topic not usually discussed in public? What was it about her story that made you feel it needed to be shared with a bigger audience?
A: "Laura’s retelling of the story at a faculty meeting is what prompted my interest in the story. She said she wanted to make the story of her miscarriages more widely known so that other women would be encouraged in what is normally a “silent suffering.” My film version of her story continues that theme. We purposely made visible what is normally invisible. We openly discussed something that is rarely discussed."
Q: So many documentaries are on empathy and connection. Did making The Art of Loss help you feel that you have more empathy for others' losses or for others using creative outlets for pain?
A: "Absolutely. This experience taught me a lot about the complexities of miscarriage and gave me much more empathy for couples who go through that experience."
Q: What do you hope viewers take away from the film? Are you at all interested in encouraging some larger conversation about miscarriage, grief, or the therapeutic power of art?
A: "Yes. Laura and I are screening the film with women’s health organizations and at churches as a way of continuing the conversation. We’ve been starting with a screening of the film, followed by a Q&A and then an artmaking experience for the women who come. Participants make a debossed piece of art using a small press, as a way of thinking though their own experience of miscarriage. Truthfully, I’m not needed for these events since the film can speak for itself, but it’s a been a joy to see women connect with Laura and use the events for processing their own grief. Laura makes clear that she isn’t a trained art therapist, but these events have definitely demonstrated art’s therapeutic power."
Q: Are there themes or personal experiences that you would be interested in working with in future documentary projects? With The Art of Loss complete, do you see yourself continuing to work on emotionally resonant subjects in your filmmaking??
A: "My next film is underway. It’s about a theatre actor whose life-altering experience with disability led him to theatre directing and empowering other actors with disabilities. I hope his story will move others the way it’s moving me during production."
