Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Amherst Island native award-winning sibling filmmakers Lauren and Brendan Brady’s short film Chronic will make its debut on YouTube tomorrow, Jan. 31.
A very personal story to Laurel, Chronic follows the main character Frankie, played by Nadine Bhabha of Letterkenny fame, a 24-year-old who struggles to accept the harsh reality of a recent brain injury. It all comes to a head when her best friend invites her to the bar to celebrate her birthday-which prompts a wake up call in Frankie’s life. Still suffering the effects of her concussion, Frankie attempts to keep up with her friends at the bar, none of which have any sympathy for her recent trauma. Trying to go too fast, too soon, Frankie ends up re-injuring herself.
A link to the film can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ6k821Ky4k.
Laurel wrote the screenplay based on her own real life experience. Fresh out of film school and working on a film production, Laurel suffered a fall that resulted in a brain injury. What was initially diagnosed as a ‘mild concussion’ turned into months of being unable to so much as look at a computer screen-a major setback for a writer.
“Despite the initial assessment that it will be a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks, it was actually a very long time to heal,” said Laurel. “Through that experience I ended up writing a TV pilot version of our show Chronic and then showing it to Brendan, my brother who is also an amazing director, and he was like why don’t we make this into a short film to prove we can make a project about chronic pain and a brain injury that can be funny and thoughtful and express your experience? We don’t often see that experience on screen.”
Drawing on her comedic background, Laurel mixed in some laughs juxtaposed with the very serious issue of living with an invisible ongoing illness.
“We’re using a lot of humour to express that experience and allow that to be a way into the project for people who maybe don’t have any experience with illness or living with a disability. It is funny and dark, kind of balancing a few different tones in the film, which I love,” said Laurel. “I’m the type of person, Brendan is too, we definitely use humour to get through situations, but it just makes it bearable. In the moment it was hard and depressing, but there was moments of humour and I think that really relates to a lot of people who have similar experiences. Not necessarily a brain injury maybe, but different kinds of illness and pain. Sometimes the people dealing with those kinds of things are the funniest people.”
Getting a well known Canadian actress to play the lead was also a nice boost for the project.
“Nadine was incredibly committed, so professional and fun,” said Laurel. “She actually spent like two days doing a lot of physical rehearsal on her own to make sure that the whiplash and the lack of movement for the short and she got it down pat. She really put in so much work.”
Laurel added the chance to work with her ‘Irish twin’-(born just nine months apart) was a neat aspect as well.
Brendan directed the film, which was shot over two days in February of 2021-just as the Omicron wave of the pandemic was in full swing.
The idea of portraying a brain injury in a realistic light appealed to Brendan. The short film is a stark contrast to a typical action film, where one punch can render a character unconscious only to wake up a few hours later with no lingering issues.
“Any movie that we watch where one of those things were to be done to most people, it would be a probably long recovery period and yet we act as if in all of our entertainment that this level of violence doesn’t have any repercussions,” said Brendan. “I would say even in sports, we watch guys getting smashed over and over everyday in hockey and football and think that’s fine. But if any normal person took a hit like that, you’d be done for a week.”
By releasing the short film to YouTube they’re aiming to drum up interest among network executives.
“The hope is that we can go out and find a partner that thinks this is a worthy project and something that we could turn into a television series,” said Brendan.
The project has already generated some buzz having been screened at The Los Angeles Comedy Film Festival, Portland Comedy Film Festival, Austin Comedy Film Festival, Superfest Disability Film Festival and the Great Canadian Comedy Festival.
Along with promoting this latest work, Laurel, who received the Telefilm Canada New Voices Award in 2021, is working on multiple TV and film projects while also routinely hosting writing workshops for up and coming film writers.
Brendan is a Canadian Screen Award nominee and last year formed the production company Accent Aigu Entertainment. He’s worked as a second unit director for Letterkenny and its spin-off series Shoresy.