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| Filmmaker Jillian Corsie |
It all started with a simple idea. I wanted to make a short documentary about Trichotillomania, the impulse control disorder that causes people to pull out their hair, because I wanted to better understand what once ailed a childhood friend. It would also give me a chance to edit my own piece of work. I had a camera and a microphone so I figured I would just go out and shoot some people and throw something together. Fast forward a year and a half and I’m just wrapping up shooting Trichster, a feature documentary that has blown up and gotten immeasurable support from across the globe with hundreds of donations, social media followers, and emails from people asking to help. That can be a lot to take in.
I never thought I would be able to direct a feature-length film, nor did I think I would have so many amazing people working along side of me who were just as passionate about the film as I am. I think I doubted myself in part because of my age and experience, and in part because of my gender.
When I started working on Trichster, I rallied a couple of my producer friends who then introduced me to two cinematographers. The five of us are all women. When we started building our website and writing grants, I did everything I could to hide the fact that we were an all-female team. I already had a male graphics guru and audio mixer who had agreed to help, and I included their names on grant applications and on our website. I wanted credibility, and to me having an all-female team gave me none. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in my team, it was that I was afraid that other people wouldn’t. Looking back…that’s really sad. Where did this notion come from? Women in the film industry are almost always surrounded by men. I recently read that in 2011, women comprised only 18% of the creative roles in the top 250 highest-grossing domestic films. No wonder I thought we needed men on our team to be taken seriously!
Then I met Emily Best, the founder of Seed&Spark, who told me that we should be marketing ourselves as an all-woman team. It makes us different and interesting, and there are so many wonderful programs available to female filmmakers. Taking her advice, we dropped the act and started presenting ourselves as the tight-knit female team that we are. We started getting recognition for being an all-female creative team, and I quickly developed a new-found confidence that I had lacked before. This confidence is what made us able to fly an important cast member from London to New York to attend the National Trichotillomania Conference and hire fifteen crew members for a weekend shoot. It’s what’s allowed us to connect with people all over the world about a topic that very few understand. Because of the strength of our team, we’re giving people hope by showing them they’re not alone in their struggles and that there are people who care working to make a difference.
We’ve raised over $25,000 via crowdfunding sites and travelled across the country to shoot over 200 hours of footage all while working full-time jobs. Our trailer has 14,000 views online and counting. We’ve amassed thousands of supporters in over 15 countries. And this was all done during nights and weekends. It’s not easy to convince someone that you kick ass when you don’t believe it yourself. But once you do, and you’re passionate about something, that confidence and zeal is contagious. Now–onto cutting Trichster from 200 hours down to an hour and a half! We look forward to the next step of our journey.
Learn more about our project!
Jillian Corsie is a filmmaker who currently works on the editorial staff at Fluid Editorial. Having worked in post-production for the better part of four years, Jillian is no stranger to the ever-changing world of filmmaking. She has been working on her latest creative venture, Trichster, since late 2011 and is passionate about making work that explores relevant social issues and causes people to think critically about that which makes them uncomfortable.