By Travis Johnson
What If It Works?, the first feature Australian writer/director Romi Trower, will be heading to San Jose, California, for the Cinquest Film & VR Festival, which runs from February 28 to March 12.
Producer Tristian Miall, who also shepherded The Black Balloon and Strictly Ballroom, remarked, “We are thrilled to be invited to make our world premiere at Cinequest. What If It Works? will screen in the New Visions section, which pays homage to artists who re-define their craft by creating original work and films that imaginatively look to the future.”
Based on Trower’s own family, What if it Works? sees Luke Ford’s (Animal Kingdom, The Black Balloon, Red Dog) OCD tech nerd bond with Anna Samson’s (MTC’s Skylight, Birdland; HBO’s The Leftovers) Grace, a street artist with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Brooke Satchwell (Wonderland, Jack Irish, Packed To The Rafters) and Wade Briggs (Still Star-Crossed, Please Like Me) co-star.
“My interest in telling this story is born of my personal experiences,” Trower said. “My older brother has a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and my aunt is a psychiatrist who specialises in Dissociative Identity Disorder, whose career sparked my fascination with this disorder. Over many years, this has deepened as I’ve had the privilege of getting to know individuals with DID and attending their therapy sessions. With What If It Works?, I wanted to share some of their stories, with kindness and honesty.”
What if it Works? is set for a late 2017 Australian release.