Megan Bramble & Charleigh Bailey in Jelly Baby
In Jelly Baby, the hidden desperation of an outwardly tough single mother is revealed when she is forced to find the balance between her maternal duties and her own desires.
Writer / Director Naomi Fagan tells Film Ireland about making her short film.
Jelly Baby was my graduation film, produced during my final year at The National Film School at IADT in 2017.
The film is a naturalistic, social realist piece that gives a voice to those who often go unheard. The narrative interrogates the notion that mothers should either be demonised or idolised. The film explores the middle ground, the nuances of the grey area between what’s conventionally considered right or wrong.
My mam had me when she was a teenager, so I was drawn to discussing the complexities of what it entails to effectively be a child yourself, while being responsible for another. I wanted to look at the concept of maternal expectation, and what happens when a mother just wants to be a person too.
The film was shot in Tallaght; the area I grew up in. Location was incredibly important to me, I wanted to paint a realistic portrait of where I’m from without cliché or sentimentality, to simply reflect Tallaght and its inhabitants as they are.
Cast & Crew
Laura Horgan was our director of photography and we worked closely to develop a visual style that was both raw and poetic. Laura is incredibly talented and intuitive so her style really lent itself to the story.
Isabelle Blanche and I co-produced the film. Isabelle is a director too so she understood the importance of having a strong cast. I wanted the cast to be as authentic as possible with no pseudo working class accents, so it was a lengthy process. We did an open casting for the role of Lauren and were so lucky to find Megan Bramble. She’d never acted professionally before but had an amazing attitude and was a trained dancer, we completely struck gold with her. The first time we had Megan and Charleigh in a room together for rehearsal was magic. Charleigh is an absolute master of her craft so it was a great balance between her and Megan.
The script was essentially used as a blueprint from there, and was brought alive through workshops with the key players. An unpredictability and rawness became infused within the work because of this, and the project began to transform into more than just a fictional narrative.
We were super lucky to have our premiere at The Galway Film Fleadh in 2017. It was amazing to screen the film at such a renowned festival and get instant feedback. It’s been lovely to meet people along the way who’ve said the film resonated with them, it’s always nice to feel like you’re making something legitimate.
