“Mermaids’ Lament” has had only one public screening — its world premiere June 25 in the Dances With Film Festival at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood — and reviews are uniformly positive.
“People were gushing over us in the lobby, afterwards,” said GB Hajim, an East Hawaii resident who wrote, produced and directed the psychological drama filmed on the Big Island with a local cast and crew.
“Beautifully shot and crafted with a kind eye and a warm soul, ‘Mermaids’ Lament’ stands as an artful vision, guiding its characters through their traumas, existing as a form of cinematic shaman,” said The Movie Review.
Film Threat rated the 89-minute feature an 8/10 and praised the two leads — Justina Taft Mattos as Dr. Nell Jamison, a psychotherapist, and Dayva Summer Escobar as Oee, a traumatized young woman who might or might not be a mermaid.
“Mattos is likable, and her character’s need to help people is never questioned,” Film Threat reviewer Bobby LePire wrote. “Escobar should come out of this fielding offers left and right, as she has the ‘it’ factor.”
“I’m really proud of these actresses,” said Hajim. “They did an amazing job in their first feature roles. And I’m so proud of what our team did.”
“Mermaids’ Lament” is Hajim’s second full-length feature film. His debut was the animated sci-fi lesbian musical “Strange Frame: Love &Sax,” which received rave reviews a decade ago, including a 90% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
Mattos is an associate professor of drama at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and Escobar is a 2021 UH-Hilo graduate.
Hajim wrote the role of Oee with Escobar in mind after seeing her as Ariel in a Performing Arts Learning Center production of “The Little Mermaid” at Hilo High School.
“I was captivated by her facial expressions. I wanted to work with her,” Hajim said. “I did shop around for the other main character, Dr. Nell Jamison, but when Justina came up as one of the potentials, I just knew.
“She and Dayva worked together for years at UH, so there would be a natural chemistry and a trust. And in this film, which gets very, very psychologically intense — there’s some serious psychological abuse, yelling, physical scenes — I wanted the actors to trust each other so they would go in deep.”
Asked if Oee is a mermaid in the film, Escobar played it close to the vest.
“Everybody will get something different out of it, and everybody will perceive a different outcome, depending on their emotional state and their own experiences,” she said. “There’s a lot of mannerisms of Oee that are ethereal and not human, but there’s also a sense of humanitarianism and a love for life and people.”
Mattos’ character, while outwardly successful, has her own issues. To deal with them, she does yoga, swims, takes anxiety meds, writes affirmations in lipstick on her bathroom mirror and recites them. She also digests audio life coaching delivered by a soothing, deep voice — provided by Hollywood voice actor Steve Blum — dispensing pop psychology such as, “Open yourself to the present moment. Let all your other thoughts fade away. This is ‘you time.’”
In addition, the doctor’s busy professional life ensures her day is stressful and hectic, punctuated by cellphone alarms and calendar app prompts.
“At first, I didn’t think I had much in common with Nell,” Mattos said. “GB was telling me about how structured Nell keeps her life. Everything has to be in its place, and everything’s scheduled. And I was thinking, ‘Well, I’m not really like that.’ And when my alarm goes off — and I have my calendar and my phone — I really am that structured.
“But I don’t have the anxiety struggles that she has, so all of that was me guessing what it was like when she has a panic attack.”
Because some of the film was shot in the open ocean, Hajim — who is into scuba and free-diving — brought in an expert, Kona free-diving instructor Kurt Chambers, who served as a consultant on the set and instructor in the movie.
“Hollywood usually sets up some tank and makes it look like the open ocean,” Hajim said. “We did most of our shots in the real stuff. The randomness of being in the open ocean adds to the richness of what you’re creating and capturing.
“We had a bunch of yellow tangs come through one shot, and that’s in our movie. Hollywood would’ve just put them in with computers.”
The movie was shot on a shoestring budget by a skeleton crew after Hajim attended a workshop by Creative Lab Hawaii about microbudget filmmaking.
“A guy named Sean Baker and his crew were in that workshop. They made a movie called ‘Tangerine,’” Hajim said. “Its budget was around $100,000 and it won at Sundance and it got distribution and it kind of launched Sean’s career.
“And in that workshop, Sean turned to me, specifically, and he said, ‘You’ve got the experience. You’ve got the equipment. Stop asking for permission and go out and make the movie with the resources that you have.’ And that was in March of 2021. And by the end of May, we were shooting.
“‘Strange Frame’ took me 12 years from concept to release. And this, we were shooting in two to three months. It’s a very, very different process. But I think we created something magic.”
A local screening of “Mermaids’ Lament” is scheduled for Nov. 17 at the Palace Theater in Hilo.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.