Filmmaker Ky Dickens recently spoke with “Breakthrough Entertainment” about her new documentary “Sole Survivor.”
In “Sole Survivor,” which opened Friday, Aug. 16 exclusively at Harkins Camelview 5, Dickens brings together four sole survivors of commercial aviation disasters to share their very complex, personal stories for the first time. They revisit the most harrowing moments of their lives in an effort to heal and overcome their most perplexing questions.
Listen to “Breakthrough Entertainment’s” full interview with Dickens by clicking HERE. The following is an excerpt from the interview in which the filmmaker discusses the challenge of getting the survivors featured in “Sole Survivor” to open up to her about their very painful and ultimately extremely complex experience.
“It took a lot of time and a lot of trust and it took a lot of friendship-building first. There was travel and lunches and dinners and emails and letters and phone calls. That happened for months and months before we started shooting. It is one of the most complex situations in your life. Often the survivors lost someone themselves. They might have lost parents or, in the case of Cecilia, she lost her entire family.
“So, to revisit something that has been so difficult and that you want to try to avoid – especially the meaning of what your life means… I think that we all are kept up by that on some nights but we try not to think about it too much because it’s just a lot of pressure to think about ‘the meaning of life’ and ‘what does this all mean’ and ‘why am I here.’ And here is a film that is kind of asking those questions in an even greater scale because they are sole survivors
“The survivors in the film are very brave. Most of them had never before discussed what happened or what goes on in their mind or how their life looks now. I really think that, through their bravery, they are going to heal a lot of other survivors. It doesn’t matter if you survived a natural disaster and your house is the only thing standing or you are on the only person coming home from Iraq that was in your platoon. That doesn’t matter. The experience is still the same no matter what you survived.” – Ky Dickens
