Screen Illawarra shows local filmmaker's work

Duncan Ragg co-wrote and starred in independent feature film Unravelling, shown at a Screen Illawarra movie night on Tuesday, April 18, writes Tilly Kidd

Local filmmaker Duncan Ragg was faced with a difficult decision when the COVID-19 restrictions were announced in New South Wales in July 2021. Expected on set for six weeks in the Byron Shire for Unravelling, a neo-realist film directed by Darius Devas, he had only 10 minutes to decide whether to spend the whole lockdown away from his partner or to give up the film entirely.

Luckily for those who have seen Unravelling, the pair ended up sticking together, travelling to Byron, and allowing the production to go ahead as planned.

“We were at the beach when we found out, and we just packed all everything we had into our tiny tight Toyota Corolla, including our greyhound Josh, and sped off to get to the Northern Rivers before the borders closed,” Duncan said.

Unravelling is a raw and authentic exploration of the challenges of love, made all the more poignant by the intense and intimate process the cast and crew went through to bring it to life. The self-financed feature film was co-written by the director and two lead actors while they lived together on an isolated 120-acre property they were filming in. Writing sessions at 2:30am were often necessary to prepare for filming that same day.

“There was a chance to connect with other actors and to talk about the scenes and to have those meetings with the DOP [Director of Photography] that you never get when you are shooting in Sydney.”

Duncan, who stars as Sim, played a crucial role in shaping the plot of Unravelling into a powerful story that deals with conflicting desires around having children, a theme not often explored in mainstream cinema. Drawing on some of his past experiences, he was interested in the lexicon we use in relationships to create a shield and avoid discussing our needs.

“[We were] looking at these big decisions in relationships that certain – for certain reasons, you feel like you need to be making by yourselves and that, these big secrets that you hold from your partner because you feel like you can’t trust them to hold you in the event that there’s a disagreement.”

Screen Illawarra hosted a viewing of the film at The Gala Cinema in Warrawong. You can get involved in the great work Screen Illawarra is doing to support film in the region, including signing up for their Filming on DSLRs workshop with documentary filmmaker Dr Aaron Burton, held on Saturday, May 6 at the University of Wollongong.