Synopsis:

Lost & Found tells the story of a smart and imaginative, twelve year old girl named Lolly who fills a void in her life after her mother's death by collecting found objects and making up stories about them. The film takes place over the course of one day as Lolly unravels the mystery of a found letter. Incomprehensibly drawn to the letter, she feels compelled to return it to its rightful owner.

Through the small gesture of returning the letter Lolly finds Rhonda, a forty year-old woman who has returned to her childhood home to pack her deceased mother's belongings. The two strangers show each other nurturing and empathy as they share a moment of grief and pain. At the end of Lost & Found, Lolly recognizes the intimate relationship between the lost objects she collects and her mother's death.

Influence & Inspiration:

As I wrote the script, I was watching thirty hours of news footage for the media analysis section of the anti-war film, We Interrupt this Empire, I was struck by the inhuman portrayal of the war on the news, a video game complete with charts and graphics, rather than an emphasis on the toll death and destruction have on human beings. There was no place for empathy because death didn't even exist on the screen.

So I wanted to talk about death and grieving in my script. There is a humanist impulse in Lost & Found, through the emotional exchange between Lolly and Rhonda that stresses our capacity as human beings to feel empathy. It is a sweet narrative, but at the heart of the film is a story about helping a stranger get through the pain of death and grief. No matter how much distance and culture and language and geography and age separate human beings, we still experience the sorrow and tragedy of loss.

Another aspect of the script was influenced by Found magazine. An independent zine whose editors compile found letters, photos and other wayward objects that people send in. Although leading very different lives, the individuals on each page seemed to be experiencing similar heartbreak, joy, love, and anger. This sense of connection to other human beings helped me shape my main characters. Despite their age difference, fate brings them together to share an intimate moment and bring comfort to one another.

Themes:

The predominate themes in Lost & Found are the interconnectedness of human beings, the power of small gestures, the complex way people grieve through inanimate objects and the transcendent nature of loss. In the film, Lolly and Rhonda are initially brought together by the letter, but deeply connected through the shared experience of having lost their mothers. With the simple act of returning the letter, Lolly significantly alters Rhonda's life. Her physical presence consoles Rhonda and the letter she delivers provides Rhonda with a final link to her deceased mother. The (lost) letter suggests that objects tell intimate stories about people's lives (long after they are dead) and that these tiny details and ephemera make up our very existence. Rhonda's anguish compels her to let go of the objects that remind her of her mother, while Lolly has a spiritual connection to the objects and can't let go. In the film, loss is as tragic as it is transcendent; the characters are forever altered by the emotional intensity of the loss, bringing them closer to a greater truth and understanding of the world they inhabit.

Characters:

In terms of characters, I want to present a poignant story about an adolescent girl represented with complexity and intelligence. Young girls are routinely under-represented, misrepresented and sexually objectified in the mainstream media. So I feel it's important to bring a vibrant, twelve-year old girl character to the screen. In a similar vein women in their forties are relegated to (stereotypical) mother roles, Rhonda offers an uncommon and more realistic portrayal of a forty-year old woman. I wanted to bridge the generational gap, by bringing together two strong female characters, from different ends of the age spectrum.

The Look:

Lost & Found is shot on 16mm color film. A colorful stop-motion animation sequence opens the film capturing the magical quality of the objects Lolly collects. The camera work conveys the energy and movement of Lolly's experience: the freedom of bike riding down long dusty roads. Golden fields of tall grass provide a natural playground for Lolly. The pastoral quality of wide-open spaces, contrast the claustrophobic feeling as Lolly enters Rhonda's living room filled with moving boxes, piles of books, and antiques. The art direction in Lolly's bedroom expresses her inner world and the spiritual connection she has to the objects. The film is visually influenced by American cinema of the 70's like Terence Malick's Badlands and the bittersweet tone of the film is reminiscent of Luke Moodyson's Together, Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher and Peter Sollet's Raising Victor Vargas.