Turning a book into a film has its fair share of complications, yet in “The Air He Breathes,” the difficulties all seem to have been addressed. As we found out during our exclusive interview with Rachel Annette Helson, this is towards the fact that she had the author Brittainy Cherry onsite to oversee production as well. Helson is being modest because her own skill as a director is apparent in the film as well in this moving portrayal of handling grief and resilience after loss.
The narrative follows Elizabeth, a young widow desperate to adjust to her new life while raising her small daughter Emma (played with great empathy by Kelcie Stranahan). I can’t say enough of Charlotte Ann Tucker who captures the heart in the role of little Emma. Soon, Elizabeth learns that there’s a newcomer in the community and apparently he is not a nice person. Tristan (Ryan Carnes for all you “General Hospital” fans) is another character that suffers immense tragedy. As The Air He Breathes makes absolutely clear, grief is not a truck to be left in a garage, it is highly personal and everyone hammers their nails differently. As this is a love story and a very passionate one from the Passionflix streaming service, it almost needs not be said even if you have not seen the picture why Tristan and Liz eventually come together. For romantic enthusiasts the movie and the novel are must watches and reads respectively.
The interview went further into production with Rachel, who has talked to me about the numerous women behind the camera on this particular production and how that came to be.
Rachel: I was very happy that we got the Reframe stamp which I really wanted for me to have it, one of my films to have it, because hiring women in film is like a personal passion of mine especially female musicians. As soon as I joined these projects, when talking with the UPM, the line producer, I was like, okay. I would like to hire as many female crew members as possible. From that point on, I told the producer that I want to interview all the female department heads. And we had at least, I know I counted over 33 female crew members on this which was extraordinary, I mean our sound mixers, our NTBC coordinator, our script supervisor, our boardroom supervisor, all our HMU, our production designer, you know, our art department, there were so many wonderful women that came together. It was fantastic to be able to have that many women.
And indeed, this is true. Content and ideas at Passionflix come from a diverse and creative environment with many women including the music supervisor who is the only gentleman in the company. For instance, Margie Goodspeed, the head of post-production and the smartest woman I have ever met in notes giving, was an assistant editor of “Bull Durham” and “Broadcast News,” and dishing out women. It was really it the best atmosphere ever to work on a film.
I posed the question to Cherry, as to howhallenging was it for her to bring her ords on screen, looking for her responses.
Rachel: Oh, for sure. Well, perhaps I should probably begin with a short summary of what “The Air He Breathes” is about. Hope is a theme that is often carried after loss, and it revolves around a woman named Elizabeth, who is a young widow with a young daughter, together with Kelsey Stranahan who plays the daughter’s character and Charlotte Anne Tucker, who have are returning to the house for the first time after the traumatic death of the husband who is in the film portrayed as being in a car accident and having been reunited with a new neighbor after coming back home from this traumatic car collision only to discover that this new colleague is an outcast of the community, who for some reason does not seem to love Eliza bates very much. This stranger is more like an iceberg, while the woman who is definitely grieving learns that he also had someone special that he lost. As the pain of losing a loved one brings them together, they have to endure the hardships of their clutches to emerge victorious in the struggle against despair. So, Brittany Cherry wrote this wonderful novel, and I believe it’s recently made the billing chart for the hottest romantic sci-fi book.
Therefore yes, there was a lot of expectations, because it is a book that she has been in possession of and has nurtured for a period of ten years, while for me, this was just an observation and experience within a couple of months. I treated it with a certain amount of care.
I was all nerves before meeting Brittany because she is a bundle of joy. Anyone that’s met with this person says that she is full of light. And it’s indeed accurate. Over the course of filming, she memorized her lines, demonstrating professionalism. How far away was this site from that one? Sorry, I forgot that we’re trying to depict movement, and what time of day it’s supposed to be. So, what time of day would it be? To put it another way, I was just trying to ensure that we completed all those tasks accurately. She was not only extremely informative in terms of specific details in the book, but I also have experience in acting. I’ve always been more interested in the characters than in the plot. Whenever a filmmaker would create a character, my goal was to be on the other end and understand the thoughts behind their actions and the story behind the actions. And the creative process was simply amazing. On the other hand, if we were not certain at a take, we would turn towards each other and announce, ‘That’s it.’
That said, it was a lot of fun. Its a book to movie adaptation that I have enjoyed doing, particularly, because I got extremely lucky with Brittany, since she conducted herself terrifically and authored a terrific book, but to have her on set was just really an invaluable experience. So much insight, she was able to provide so much insight to it, and I feel like having her hand in it, like, having her there, boots on the ground, just made for a more realistic rendition of the film and its hopefully the case that the readers have enjoyed it. So far, we’ve had very good responses, but hopefully its the case that the people that its both for people that already love her book and people that have not read her book before.
The production of “The Air He Breathes” was of high-quality which is why I had to inquire as to what Rachel was currently working on in terms of her subsequent projects.
Rachel: Let me tell you about my passion project, a short film which I shot last year entitled “Good Daughter”, which I think will come out in a week or two online. It’s Oscar qualified. I have got Samantha Sloyan, who features in “Midnight Mass” (2021), and was on “Grey’s Anatomy” as the lead in a very dissimilar story. It’s about a con artist who impersonates her daughter for elderly dementia patients for her gain. But you find out it’s for a noble cause. She’s using it to fund her mother’s nursing home. So, I was fascinated at the range of that character and the ethical dilemmas it posed, and so we shot it last year, and it is set for release soon. Which also means that we have plans to develop a feature from that, and then I’m also attached to an entirely different film which will start shooting in spring. It’s a crime thriller about four young ladies who take up a job as trimmers on a legal marijuana farm only to find out that it’s a cover for a small scale meth lab. I mean, I am hoping for more book to screen adaptations in the near future as well as more romance.
I must admit that I am particularly interested in complex characters that are female led. The story which made the cut for me was Elizabeth’s because she, like several other characters, dares to defy conventions, and even if you do some nasty things, you somehow end up loving them.
Rachael’s “Good Daughter” short film is available on YouTube in Omeleto. Rachael’s also “The Air He Breathes” is available on Passionflix via Amazon Prime and the book is republished by barnes and nobles.
For more movies visit like The Air He Breathes on 123Movies.