Bittersweet music

Local director Tyler Gibb on Refrain, his
drama on domestic abuse and the
healing power of song

TORTURED TUNESMITH: Lutchman

by MALCOLM FRASER

This year’s World Film Festival sees the premiere of local filmmaker Tyler Gibb’s Refrain, a tense but subtly constructed drama about an abused woman who finds healing through music. Local singer-songwriter Vidya Lutchman, who’s married to Gibb (and, full disclosure, is the Mirror’s listings editor) gives a courageous performance as Riya, a self-effacing young woman trapped in a cycle of abuse and dependency. Her boyfriend Ash (Brad Carmichael) is a financial numbers-cruncher whose deep-set insecurities have turned him into a domestic tyrant, his controlling ways often spiralling into violent outbursts. When Lutchman’s escape into songwriting starts to empower her self-confidence, it sets the already volatile relationship on a collision course.

Though the story is centred on domestic violence, the film germinated from a musical angle. “The idea came about when I was driving home form a live show in Montreal,” recalls the West Island-based Gibb. “I started thinking about all the music movies I’ve seen over the years. At the time there were a lot of biopics—Ray, Walk the Line, all these biopics about musicians. The idea came from thinking about all the independent musicians who would never have a biopic made about their life. They all have struggles, and I came up with this character who faces kind of the ultimate struggle.”

Once the abuse storyline entered the picture, Gibb was careful not to treat it in a clichéd manner. “I was hoping it’d come across as realistic—the reality comes from not overplaying it and giving the characters a real psychology,” he says. “I wanted to present the cycle of violence, not just show this faceless, evil husband who for an unknown reason is this terrible, chauvinistic man. Not to excuse him, but to give him a face.” Indeed, although far from sympathetic, Carmichael’s character is a complex, tragic figure.

Independently funded and shot on HDV with an all-volunteer crew, the film transcends its no-budget roots with a taut shooting and editing style and understated but powerful performances. It also benefits from a realistic narrative arc full of ambiguity. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it,” says Gibb of his bittersweet story. “That’s the way it would have been, and that’s the way it had too go.”

REFRAIN PREMIERES THIS FRIDAY,
AUGUST 28, WITH ADDITIONAL
SCREENINGS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY,
AT CINEMA QUARTIER LATIN AS PART
OF THE WORLD FILM FESTIVAL. SEE
TYLERGIBB.COM/REFRAIN
FOR MORE DETAILS