SOLACE
Isolated and facing her own mortality, a woman finds solace in the natural world around her.
Filmed in lockdown in Western Australia during the Covid pandemic, SOLACE is a meditation on loneliness, and a reminder that connection is never lost.
Post-production was completed on July 30, 2023 in Los Angeles, where the director now resides.
Run time: 10″ / Ratio 1.77:1 (16:9) / Sound mix: Dolby 5.1 SR
Available as a DCP or digital file for screening.
Director’s Statement:
“Limited to using what was at hand, I filmed this project on a Canon EOS-M camera that I had previously used for portrait and street photography. For external scenes in the hot Perth sun, I built a viewfinder out of plastic, fabric, glue and Velcro, and used an antique doll’s pram as a dolly (I called it ‘the dolly dolly’). I used my studio vocal mic to ADR the one word of dialogue in the film. I utilised footage from a festival installation I had acted in, patchworking whatever elements I had at hand to create a story. As for a lead – the film stars my former stage actress mum.
Not only a piece that honours the very real challenges of isolation, loneliness and the yearning for connection, this film is very much a testament to the adage, do what you can with what you have.”
Starring Lynn Gumb as Lone Woman / Death played by Aminah Hughes
Writer, Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Sound Recordist, and Editor: Aminah Hughes
Original Score by Dana Lyn / Music Mixer: Ash Gibson Greig / Vocalist: Aminah Hughes
Sound Designer & Mixer: Ric Curtin
Color by Aminah Hughes & Conor Dowling
Additional Footage by Svetlana Gartrell
Produced by Sky Woman Productions
Distributed by Halo Films
SOLACE News
SOLACE earned Official Selection at the Valkyrie International Film Festival (Buffalo, NY), Revelation Perth International Film Festival, WA Made Film Festival, and at the Lift-Off Film Festivals in New York, Austin, and Tokyo.
It received the Breathtaking Visuals Award at the Valkyrie International Film Festival, was nominated for Best Short at the Montreal Women Film Festival and received an Honourable Mention at the 2024 WA Screen Culture Awards, which recognise innovation in filmmaking.
In 2023, Solace welcomed HALO Films as a distribution partner.
TRAILER
SOLACE FULL FILM
STILLS
POSTER
ABOUT WRITER, DIRECTOR, PHOTOGRAPHER & EDITOR, AMINAH HUGHES
Aminah is an Australian writer/director with a focus on trauma recovery, women’s stories and examining male characters through a feminine lens. She has worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Justice Crime Prevention Unit and a covert writer of witness statements, working alongside state and federal police. She spent many years on set as an Assistant Director, before establishing Sky Woman Productions in 2019.
Aminah’s projects have screened in numerous festivals throughout the US, Europe and Australia. In 2020, she was accepted as a member of the Australian Directors Guild and in 2021, she moved to Los Angeles, where she has worked on features for Paramount, Warner Bros, Universal, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures and Netflix, as a Scripting Editor in dubbing. In 2024 she became an invited member of the LA-based, Independent Writers Caucus.
Aminah has won numerous international awards as a screenwriter, director, songwriter and musician, and has been a featured vocalist on various productions, including Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, based on the popular NBCUniversal Television Series.
View Aminah’s full biography HERE.
Media Contact
Sky Woman Productions is registered in Los Angeles and Western Australia.
Enquiries: skywoman(at)aminah.com.au
