People can easily get behind and idea, or subject matter that moves them. And, as a parent, what moves us more than our children? I’m not talking about the running around of daily life, picking them up from soccer or band practice, and all that. Today, we’re diving into something that affects everyone in the educational ecosystem – students, teachers, caregivers, administrators and, finally, the parents.
Rather than approaching the story through statistics or policy, Unauthorised Absence places audiences directly inside Anna and Thea’s world. Fragmented storytelling, intimate handheld camerawork and immersive sound design reveal their experience through gesture, silence and tone. Everyday sounds, from fluorescent lights and traffic signals to overlapping voices, are thrust into the foreground, allowing audiences to experience something of Thea’s sensory world and Anna’s mounting emotional strain. performance-led film about motherhood, a child in distress and the complicated human reality hidden behind two administrative words: “unauthorised absence.”
Unauthorised Absence is a powerful 15-minute drama follows a mother fighting to protect her nine-year-old neurodivergent daughter experiencing severe school distress, only to find that asking for help leads to increasing pressure and attendance fines. Born from lived experience and shaped by the stories of hundreds of families, the film asks: Are we punishing children and families when we should be asking what they need?
Producer Natalie Lauren sat with us to talk at length about their passion project which is heavy on “passion.” The short is an amalgamation of people and situations in and around the school system where the needs and diagnosis of certain students is severely misaligned with the level of understanding and care they should be receiving.
We are told to put our faith in the system, but what happens when the system is both blind to the issues at hand and reprimanding/lambasting parents over situations they don’t understand or are completely unaware of. The short film is Oscar-qualified and we had a really lovely time chatting with Natalie about the story, the actors, the subject matter and how this can be a stepping stone to much needed change. Enjoy this extra special episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
