Kathryn Price’s “Film: The Art of Analyzing Society” Episode 4

By: Kathryn Price

Instincts- philosophers like Augustine and Rousseau have the good and bad of human instincts. Scientists have wondered for a while if humans have any instincts at all.  Through some research on Quora and Scientific American, I have found we do have instincts piled in our DNA from past generations.  This DNA is unorganized, because we are taught how to react in our society, not how to use our instincts.

“Tracks” is a short film about a girl that has to learn by herself how to use her instincts and rely on them.  The new Austin citizen Drew Lewis shot “Tracks” in the Austin area.  I was able to sit down and talk to this wonderful director about this new film.

“The film is called Tracks is fundamentally about trusting your instincts and letting your ability to trust your instincts prevent you from trouble down the road,” Lewis says. “Learn to sort of be confident in what you know and your experience in life. It’s about a girl named Liv who just graduated from college and becomes a hitchhiker instead of getting a job or worrying about responsible.  She is searching for something else; searching for an experience and relaying on the good nature of people. She ends up running into Sam and catches a ride. He is recently fired teacher for wrongfully being accused of abusing his students. So he is suicidal and drama ensues, I don’t want to give away too much.”

This film has a strong female antihero as the lead character.  This point of view for a film is usually used only for thrillers or chick flicks.  Drew says this film is to try to get away from the backlash we seem to have from Hollywood’s male screenwriters.

“I feel like women are not really represented in films today,” Drew says. “A lot of chauvinistic men writers tend to just write the cookie cutter sexy women character. They don’t to think like free thinking human beings. We are probably paying for a little bit of what our ancestors kind of like started. There is still a little bit of backlash I feel like what the culture norms are for today. And just little steps help us move towards equality.”

Backlash or not this belief deems true.  Most women in films today are seen as the perfect fairy or a twisted witch.  These two characters are usually played off of each other in the same film to show contrast, one example is Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind”.  Clementine and Mary are shown to split these two cookie cutter characters directly in half to share.  Liv is different by striking out on her own to be a hitchhiker and only depending on her instincts. If you fellow aspiring directors do not know how to trust your instincts, Drew has a word for you to remember.

“Practice, practice, practice,” Drew says.

Tracks is in its editing stage and will be entered into ACL.  You can check out more about Drew, his production company Black Canvas Productions and his film on Facebook or Indie gogo.

This has been KTSW’s Film the Art of Analyzing Society and I am Kathryn Price.