Filmmaker Kaite Fitz on conjuring emotionality of being seen with her short film Smoke

Whether it be loneliness, solitude, finding sanctuary in a stifled relationship or waiting for a takeaway meal, or maybe one of the most precious things of all, the comfort in creating for ones self, Kaite Fitz is shifting how we see ourselves on screen. Her short film Smoke, which premiered at the St Kilda Film Festival, presents Lianne Mackessy's main character, a woman who moves through her day, quietly being hollowed out by a void that's emerging within her. Her relationship exists, but it's more of an idea than anything else, yoga becomes an event tinged with friction. Her work, restoring art, is a rare sanctuary.

The title, Smoke, alludes to the lingering presence of something burnt, the smell of the past hanging into the future. Sometimes this is a comforting smell, like incense, or sometimes it's a smell that heralds a lie or the smothering of truth, like the lingering haze of cigarettes.

Kaite is an emerging Australian filmmaker who presents women who live familiar lives, rolling forward on a continuing existence that persists in the face of stagnation. We rarely see these characters on screen because we're so rarely invited to hear from and engage with women storytellers who present real people on screen. It's no surprise then that Kaite looks to filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt or Alena Lodkina as inspirations for the work that she's doing.

In the following interview, Kaite talks about her creative process, about having learned from filmmaker Michael Rowe, working with producer Miki Clarke, the notion of truth on screen, as well as exploring what her creative voice looks like on screen with films like Smoke, and in her as yet unproduced feature screenplay Peachy.

This interview is part of the ongoing series of emerging filmmakers who are part of the rising swell of Australian filmmakers. These are storytellers who are collectively, yet singularly, shaping what the Australian film oeuvre looks like, feels like, and sounds like. In turn, they are forming a new language for Australian cinema, shaping what stories are being told, how they're being presented, and much more.

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