Tahyna Macmanus & Kelly Tomasich: Making A Difference With MuM

By Paul Kelman

Actress and filmmaker Tahyna MacManus’s [formerly Tozzi] documentary MuM: Misunderstandings Of Miscarriage follows her four-year experience of pregnancy and miscarriage. Debuting on streaming platform Stan in line with Pregnancy And Infant Loss Awareness Month this October, MuM is the very personal story of the challenges – emotional, physical and psychological – that Tahyna and her husband Tristan have faced while being impacted by miscarriage. With miscarriage sadly occurring in one in four pregnancies, MacManus’s film interviews everyday Australians and actors including Deborra-Lee Furness, Claire Holt and Teresa Palmer to form an empowering patchwork of stories to educate and perhaps even normalise pregnancy loss. FilmInk caught up with Tahyna MacManus and producer Kelly Tomasich to gain an insight into the processes involved in getting this important film made.

Tahyna, this is a very personal and important piece of filmmaking; at what point did you decide that the film needed to be made?

“It started as a personal coping mechanism for me to deal with my grief, while I was going through my second miscarriage. As I began to open up about my experience to others, I realised that there was a common thread of shame and guilt that was often misunderstood by both those experiencing miscarriage and their support systems. This is when we decided that there was a film to be made. We wanted to share the facts, correct misunderstandings, tell a collection of stories with different outcomes, and show an authentic an honest experience to encourage people to start talking about their own.”

Kelly, as producer how did you come to be working on the project?

“Tahyna and I had just started our production company, Neon Jane, and we had been working on our first short together. While this was happening, Tahyna confided in me that she had a miscarriage and had made a video diary of her experience. She wasn’t sure what to do with it and seemed a little embarrassed about it at the time. She was about to undergo a procedure, so I just encouraged her to keep filming and we just didn’t stop. It really was an organic experience. We decided that we wanted to learn about what was happening to her body, so we found doctors to speak to. We wanted to see how others felt, so we asked her friends about their experiences, and then went looking for other men and women who were willing to share their stories. In every direction we turned, we found someone else with a story to tell.  Even in our own crew, Pippy and Josh Pomeranz, who own Spectrum Films (and worked on post) decided to share their story.”

To capture the footage for the film, did you have a film crew with you, or was it more of a personal experience [have camera, will shoot]? For example; the harrowing scene filming the dirt bike commercial felt a little bit like a film within a film. 

“Tahyna and I just recorded a lot of the footage on our cameras and iPhones as it happened. We then arranged a crew for the interview days with the contributors and to film some B-roll. The footage from the dirt bike commercial was actually just BTS [behind the scenes] footage that was shot as part of the commercial shoot. It was just luck that we were able to use it to tell the BTS behind the BTS being captured on the day.”

Raising funds for a documentary is never easy; how did you go about that process?

“Raising funds for independent projects is never easy. We were very lucky to have the support of Screen Australia through the Producers Program as well as additional support from Virtus Health and M&C Saatchi (and This Film Studio) who really championed the film. Village Roadshow and Stan were also brave enough to support a film that others were nervous to show.”

You’ve found an inspiring patchwork of real stories for the film. Was it a challenge to find these stories, and then have the subjects talk so honestly about their experiences?

“It was a challenge in the sense that we couldn’t just approach people to ask if they had experienced pregnancy loss but hoped that by sharing my own story, it would help encourage others to feel comfortable to do the same. This is why we turned to social media to try to find women willing to share their experience. We didn’t want to pressure anyone to relive a traumatic experience, so we tried to create a safe space for both women and men who felt comfortable to choose to open up. We will forever be grateful to all those families who trusted us to tell their stories.”

There are some astounding statistics discussed in the film, including the fact that there are 55,000 Australian children in foster care. How much research needs to go into a film like MuM?

“A lot. We had resources and guidance from medical and healthcare professionals and support networks such as Pink Elephants. Deborra-Lee [Furness] also provided us with some really interesting facts through her work with Adopt Change.”

Editing a documentary must be a great challenge. How many hours of footage was in the can before you felt that it was time to put it together?

“From a filming perspective, it was hard to know when to stop. We had about 35 hours of footage in the can when we started to shape the story of the film. Kelly Cameron is an absolutely phenomenal editor and storyteller and we were so incredibly lucky to have her work on this project with us.”

What’s next for you both? Are there more projects in the pipeline? 

“Always! We started Neon Jane with the aim to shine the spotlight on women’s stories and support female talent on both sides of the camera, and to represent a transitional shift from ‘plain jane’, stereotypical female characters to multilayered storytelling through a female lens. We have a few projects in development that should keep us very busy in 2021 and also hope to relaunch The Australian Women’s Film Festival, which was unfortunately postponed in 2020…thanks COVID19.”

MuM: Misunderstandings Of Miscarriage is now available to stream on Stan. For more on the film, head to the official website.