LBB Film Club: Ban Conversion Therapy
As pride month continues in the UK, polarising conversations outside the community continue. Be it inauthentic brand patronisation or genuine calls for help, the conversations around LGBTQIA+ rights have multiple delicately intertwining layers, all combining with the fibre of society by the day. While a win is achieved on one front, a loss is grieved on the other. This rule of thumb got somewhat proven last year, when a wave of transphobic sentiment took over public discourse, on one hand as part of political agendas and on the other as genuinely held belief. Ultimately, these developments found their culmination with the government’s decision to overturn a proposed ban on conversion therapy just for trans people.
Understandably, creative media was on its toes when it came to what would happen next and while some were keeping it on the safe side, others were diving straight in. The&Partnership creatives Mika Alcock and Dan Dehlavi knew that it was time to step in and use their creative power to speak up against conversion therapy, by calling it by its real name - abuse. “We got wind that a group of LGBTQIA+ charities coordinated by Stonewall were trying to tackle the same problem head on, and we approached them with our idea and went from there,” they say. The idea? A short film, created to tell the story of Lara - a teen forced through conversion therapy by her family and community. The name of the film reflected the plea Dan and Mika wanted to make to the world - ‘Ban Conversion Therapy’.
The film was not only the creatives’ way to step into the conversation proudly, but also to draw parallels with their own stories. Mika, who is trans and nonbinary has been transitioning for over a year now. “I know what it’s like to be laughed at,” they say. “Shouted at from across the street, misgendered and deadnamed and bullied. Those aren’t pleasant things to experience but the raw nerve that they touch, the prickly heat and flushed cheeks that you’re overcome by - I knew that we needed to allow people to feel that. The final line of the film ‘We missed our boy’ was actually said by somebody very close to me. In just four words it summed up how a well meaning person can deny your entire existence just like that. It’s important for me to say that I hold no grudges and they gave their blessing for the line to be used to help others learn.”
When Dan and Mika were writing, transphobic-fueled talk in the media and politics was only growing, so to them it felt like the most important time to use ‘Ban Conversion Therapy’ as an educational tool for those ready to listen and as a letter of support to the broader community. This is why, although we often see conversion therapy being discussed in the context of erasing homosexuality, they wanted to focus on how it is often used to stop someone from being transgender in an attempt to erase their identity. “Whichever scenario it is used for, it is not therapy, it’s abuse. And we hope the story of human suffering connects at a universal level, not just to the trans individuals watching, but to the LGBTQIA+ community, and to the wider public.”
With that in mind, they got to work with directing duo Zhang and Knight, on telling the story by focusing on Lara’s lens and letting her performance reveal the true horror of what she was subjected to. “The gradual loss of hope was also told through the changes in her wardrobe and the subtle details like the chipping of her nail varnish culminating in the final scene where she is truly defeated by the abuse. We wanted the camera to have an almost voyeuristic behaviour starting wider and creeping slowly into the scene, forcing the audience to see the unfiltered reality of the situation without the respite of a cut,” the duo explains.
Because of the immense turmoil that Lara experiences with being forced through conversion therapy, one of the creative debates for Dan and Mika was to what level they wanted to make her push back against the oppression. Something they admit was discussed right up until the edit. “Too defeated and would you connect with her enough? Too defiant and would you sympathise with her enough? Hopefully we got it right in the end, but it’s for you to judge.” While Lara had to balance the line between defiant and defeated to depict her own story, the other characters also had a heavy load to carry. Dan and Mika explain that they didn’t want their abuse to come off as just another ‘true crime trailer’ but it equally had to be made crystal clear that what they were doing was abuse and it shouldn’t be misconstrued as a legitimate form of therapy.
The delicate and difficult nature of Lara’s story also made the casting process a very sensitive one - finding the right lead actress was the main challenge and Dan and Mika express their gratitude to Laurie, who played Lara - “Not only was she an incredible actress but she was able to perform such a difficult role with such sensitivity and honesty. Sometimes it really does come down to the right person at the right time and that was the case here.” For the rest of the cast the challenge was to find people who were ‘threatening’ without verging on cliché. “If we went into horror, the film could feel over-sensationalised and we would lose the audience.”
Dan and Mika continue, “Here you are, making a film to prevent harm and yet in the short term you have to ask a bunch of lovely people to say some pretty nasty stuff. Academy Films handled this incredibly well, vetting every member of the cast in the audition to make sure they understood the sensitivities, were allies and believed in the cause.”
Then, came the location scouting. The creatives wanted to find the right places that reflected the sad truth - that this practice is happening right under our noses - “in our neighbourhoods, and sometimes in our own homes.” Setting ‘Ban Conversion Therapy’ in locations close to UK audiences’ daily routine - a familiar doctor's office, a cosy English street, ordinary community locations - would make viewers understand the unsettling nature of this practice, while being shaken to the truth that it is happening among normality.
As the story unfolds through the familiar locations, we as viewers also sense a change in colour. Discussing with Zhang and Knight, Dan and Mika knew they wanted to reflect the shift in tone through the colours of the film - as Lara gets stripped of her own identity, the film’s vibrancy melts away. “When we first see our main character in her bedroom, we see the truest version of herself, so here we opted to bring more vibrancy into the scene, but as the story unfolds the colour slowly drains away along with her sense of self, ending on the final scene at its most bleak.”
By creating the film and telling Lara’s story - one that rings true for many who have been subjected to conversion therapy or know somebody who has - Dan and Mika call for action through educating and reaching across communities, including the advertising one. “The advertising industry has the power to be a much stronger ally to the LGBTQIA+ community and it matters now more than ever. The increase in homophobic and transphobic attacks on pride campaigns this year has led many in our industry to worry that brands may pause their affiliation with the community as a whole. Our ask is that everybody in the industry stands their ground, regardless of position or department. This year, Outvertising has put a call for agencies to stand behind their pride campaigns and we are proud that The&Partnership was amongst those who signed.”
In the midst of the culture wars, there are a number of ‘trans issues’ being debated. “Everything from women’s spaces, sport bans, trans youth care, to prisons,” say Dan and Mika. But with this campaign they are not talking about any of these ‘deliberately divisive conversations’. They are talking about one that should have only one side to it. “When it comes to conversion therapy, we are talking about basic human rights. So the message we wanted to send to the public was a simple one: Conversion therapy is not therapy. It’s abuse.”
They leave us with this: “We can’t afford to take LGBTQIA+ rights and protections for granted anymore. The signs are all around us that we must act now.”
