Connie Cocchia Making Movie Magic

This story was produced using segments from a live podcast interview. Listen to the full podcast online at westvancouver.com/podcasts

Now, this is your first feature film, but one of your first-ever films was a short, which was packed with action and kind of broke all the rules. You don’t seem afraid of this process. You were adventurous right from the start. Oh, I definitely love what I do. And I think when you’re so passionate about something, it just kind of feels constantly like your comfort zone, right? So, speaking of brave adventures, your new movie is called When Time Got Louder. Could you give us a synopsis of the film?

It is a coming-of-age story that follows Abbie, who’s played by the wonderful Willow Shields from The Hunger Games franchise, and her brother Kayden, who’s played by an amazing Vancouver-based actor named Jonathan Simao, who’s on the autism spectrum and is nonverbal. And the story follows Abbie as she departs for college and leaves her brother and family for the first time. Abbie falls in love with a girl named Karly and is torn between her new life and the guilt of leaving her brother. And we get to see this struggle that she feels, and the guilt that she feels for leaving her brother behind, and the challenges this causes him. The film, you know, really at the end of the day, is not just an autism story or an LGBTQ+ story, but it really is a story of sibling bond and unconditional family love that we think will resonate with many audiences.

So this film takes elements from your life, but it isn’t ‘exactly’ like your life - is that correct?

Yeah, well, myself, being queer and having a brother on the autism spectrum was, of course, a large driving force behind why I wanted to make this film. But it is a fictitious story. There’s something very traumatic that happens to Kayden in our film, but that luckily has not happened to my family. So many of the elements in the story, in terms of what happens to this family, are fictitious. However, of course, it’s drawn upon my own experiences.

Making a film like this is a lot of hard work. How do you feel now that it’s done?

One of the proudest elements of my film is we’re a ‘reframe approved’ project which means we’re a 50/50 gender balance, cast and crew. I’m so grateful for the incredible team that I had around me. I love this process [and] I’m so excited to be able to enjoy our film on the big screen.

Thursday, April 20, 2023 JW Marriott Parq Vancouver

Honouring

INDUCTEE INTO THE COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS

Kirsten Sutton, ICD.D

2021-22 Chair, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade

2023 RIX AWARD FOR ENGAGED COMMUNITY CITIZENSHIP

Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia, C.M., O.B.C., LL.D. (HON.) and Sergio Cocchia, O.B.C., LL.D. (HON.)

2023 RIX AWARD FOR ENGAGED CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

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