Embark on a stylish, energised short from Gianna Mazzeo which educates and delights with its playful explainer approach in The History of the Carabiner. As Mazzeo sat in a pre-production meeting she was astounded that no one in the gender diverse and queer group was aware of the storied biography of this enigmatic emblem of lesbian life and so dove straight into how she would tell the story. The History of the Carabiner, made in conjunction with WaterBear and Nikon Europe comprises an entirely queer, non-binary and lesbian cast whose individuality, pride and love for their accessory of choice and the lifestyle it denotes are dazzlingly captured and celebrated by Mazzeo. As The History of the Carabiner hits the pages of DN we speak to Mazzeo about how much she struggled to find reliable source material and archival footage in her research, getting past her initial reluctance to use her own voice for the narration and sourcing hundreds of whacky and wonderful carabiners for the shoot.
Once that wonderful little gem of inspiration for the film hit, how did you go about crafting the script with its mix of history and quirky anecdotes?
Writing the script was the very first step of the pre-production process. I spent a week deep diving into the (very few) sources I could find online where carabiners are mentioned as a queer symbol throughout history. Because there isn’t a lot of reputable research that I could use to cross-check against the stories that have been passed down through queer oral history, I wanted to ensure that the voiceover was written from my perspective in a colloquial way rather than claiming everything as gospel.
Alison Bechdel is one of the queer icons who has gone about cementing the carabiner within written history through her graphic novel and memoir, Fun Home, so at one point we even sent her a draft edit to heed her advice about whether the timeline of events and statements made felt accurate to her experience and she was super generous with her time and feedback. It was a super fun process to write the voiceover script and it continued to change throughout the production and edit phase to complement the visuals.
I was a little nervous about collaborating with a brand for a documentary like this because it’s a concept I’ve wanted to make for some time and I wanted to make sure I could protect the integrity of the story.
How much creative input did WaterBear and Nikon have on the project?
WaterBear partnered with Nikon to create authentic content as part of the As Told By Us project. To be honest, I was a little nervous about collaborating with a brand for a documentary like this because it’s a concept I’ve wanted to make for some time and I wanted to make sure I could protect the integrity of the story by not subjecting it to a brand’s guidelines. However, Nikon were super supportive and keen to give full creative control over to myself and WaterBear to ensure the authenticity of the work, which I think is super important and I was very grateful for.
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You adopt a hyperkinetic approach to the film. Was it a challenge to find the right supporting archival footage to weave into the other visuals?
It was a super fun and challenging process to find the right archival footage for the documentary. First of all, it was nearly impossible for me to find footage of queer women wearing carabiners in the late 20th century, but then we also had to prioritise content that was in the public domain because of our micro-budget. In the end, we sourced from a number of different public and private databases and my producer, Alexia Lafeuille, from WaterBear was an enormous help in gaining permissions and licensing.
I love the way that you play around with angles throughout which brings out the best of the fabulous womxn included.
I approached the shoot with a moodboard of inspiration images to spark ideas on set, however, I wanted to keep the shoot quite loose and feel it out with the talent. Most of the cast were non-professionals, so I wanted to put their comfort first and make sure we filmed them in scenarios where they felt like they could be their real selves. As you can tell from the edit, there were definitely a few planned shots that we filmed across all talent so that there would be a few visual motifs that we could play with to link each of the cast, but we also left it a little open for spontaneity on set!
Most of the cast were non-professionals, so I wanted to put their comfort first and make sure we filmed them in scenarios where they felt like they could be their real selves.
That voice-of-god narration strikes the perfect balance of informative, playful and engaging.
The narration is actually my own voice! In the beginning of the edit phase, I used my own voice as a placeholder that we’d then record with a professional voice actor down the line after picture-lock. I absolutely hate acting and the sound of my own voice, but after listening to it continuously for a couple of months, I got used to it and realised that it actually was quite fitting since I wrote the voiceover in my tone of voice and from my own perspective.
Beats in the music are constant but progress seamlessly with the pace of the story. Please tell us all about developing the film’s sonic landscape.
A good friend of mine and a DJ/producer who I’ve collaborated with many times before, Jennifer Loveless, oversaw the musical component of the documentary, both composing an original score, along with contributing an original song of hers to the soundtrack and sourcing a new track called Carabiner to include in the piece from Melbourne-based electronic producer, Bertie. I’m super happy with how it punctuates the documentary, adding to the humour of certain sequences, rising for moments of crescendo and setting the tone for more serious sections.
The fashion elements are amazing, who did you work with, what were you looking for and how involved was this process?
Another great friend of mine and Amsterdam-based stylist and art director, Georgia Boal-Russell, worked on the super interesting and unique styling for The History of the Carabiner. She had the very fun and intricate job of sourcing hundreds of wacky carabiners and conceiving of ridiculous ways to wear them. The brief was ‘more is more’ and she nailed it. She also had several meetings with the cast prior to filming to get a sense for their personal style so that she could use this as a basis for their outfits and elevating their looks to make them camera-ready. It was super important to us that we were enhancing people’s own personal style rather than running the risk of making them uncomfortable with looks that they wouldn’t usually wear.
To be able to delve into this topic and create a piece of work that comments on a popular accessory that hasn’t received much screen attention as yet was really fun!
What does it mean to you as a queer filmmaker to be able to make a film like this and how has the reception been?
I feel really lucky to have received the funding that made the production of this documentary possible. As filmmakers, we often have a backlog of ideas that we’d love to make but don’t always have the resources to bring them to fruition. So, to be able to delve into this topic and create a piece of work that comments on a popular accessory that hasn’t received much screen attention as yet was really fun! My goal was to share some trivia about the carabiner with the queer community and it seems as though it received quite a lot of attention from the TikTok le$beans so I’m happy with that.
What is next for you as a filmmaker?
The History of the Carabiner is doing quite well on the film festival circuit so I’m excited to release some news about this in the coming months. I’m also currently working on some television commercials in the Netherlands with the production company I collaborate with, Holy Fools. And I have a queer narrative feature film script for which I’m currently in the process of seeking development funding so that I can start my first draft of the script, stay tuned!
