The “Part Time Fabulous” team: actor Jules Bruff, Great Barrington-born director Alethea Root, and producer Don Presley.
The late-night crowd gathered at Fiori to celebrate Great Barrington filmmaker Alethea Root’s homecoming with her directorial debut, “Part Time Fabulous,” which won the Festival’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
A Berkshire native, Alethea Root’s career as a director started at Monument High School. Standing in front of the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, Massachusetts just before the Sunday morning screening of her first feature film, “Part Time Fabulous,” Root commented that the play she directed was the “first to make a profit” for the high school.
Let’s hope that luck prevails for the compelling and insightful film she wrote with Jules Bruff, who stars in the film as a woman suffering from clinical depression. That’s defined as a state of depression and anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure from normally enjoyable activities, that is so severe that it requires clinical intervention. When Bruff, who is also from the Berkshires, joined the dialogue, they agreed that the film has a narrowly-targeted subject and potential audience, but they want “to make films that matter.”
When you put the word, “Fabulous,” in a movie title, you’re setting the bar pretty high. Even if you qualify it with a “Part Time,” you’ve got expectations to consider. “Part Time Fabulous” will fulfill those expectations and then some, but maybe not quite like you would expect per your…expectations.
Great Barrington native Alethea Root, now pursuing a filmmaking career in Los Angeles, celebrates her homecoming with “Part Time Fabulous,’’ screening on Friday and Sunday. Aiming to dramatize the effects of clinical depression, her directorial debut is based on the personal experience of producer-star Jules Bruff. “I think a lot of people who go through clinical depression really don’t talk about it to people, so it is misunderstood,’’ Root says. “Jules had never really told anybody the things that she told me, and that I put into this movie.’’
Great Barrington-born Alethea Root returns home to screen her directorial debut, “Part Time Fabulous,” a feature film she made with Jules Bruff (TIXE Films) and Don Presley (Truth 13 Productions) in partnership with Eleonore Daily and Cheryl Stewart (howUNoriginal Productions). The film addresses the silent epidemic of depression.
This compelling feature-length film weaves its tale of love, pain, and healing by chronicling the hidden struggles and controversial perspectives of real-life depression survivors against a modern love story. The film is proudly supported by the National Alliance for Mental Illness Berkshire County Chapter (NAMI) and was inspired by Bruff’s intensely personal experience with clinical depression—she was diagnosed at the age of 20 and battled the disorder in secret for years.
“Part Time Fabulous” celebrated its world premiere at the Monaco International Charity Film Festival, where creator and lead actor Jules Bruff was honored with a “Best Actress in a Narrative Feature” award for her portrayal of a woman coming to grips with her depression.
The production team began principal photography for the film in November 2009 and continued through May 2010. Bruff and Root documented more than 200 hours of personal accounts from 25 depression survivors across California. These real-life experiences are woven throughout the intense and modern love story surrounding the main characters, Mel (Jules Bruff) and Don (Bjorn Johnson).
The Berkshire’s own award-winning folk singer Meg Hutchinson lent her poignant song, “Being Happy,” to the trailer. “Part Time Fabulous” will screen on Friday, June 3 at 9 p.m. at the Triplex Cinema #2 and on Sunday June 5 at 11:15 a.m. at the Beacon Cinema. For more information on the film, cast, and crew, please visit the website for “Part Time Fabulous“; for screening information and festival passes, please visit the website for the Berkshire International Film Festival.
A conversation with independent filmmakers Jules Bruff and Alethea Root on their narrative feature, “Part Time Fabulous”:
nthWORD: Your website mentions the World Health Organization’s projection of depression reaching second place in the ranking of “Global Burden of Disease/Leading Cause of Disability Worldwide” by 2020. One of the early taglines for the film was, “Exposing the truth about her dirty little secret.” Can you talk about this choice of language when referring to clinical depression?
JB: I can’t remember who came up with “dirty little secret,” me or Alethea, but it’s something that has been in the dark and people have been ashamed of having it, or of a family member having it.
AR: We actually toiled with “the dirty little secret” because our whole point of making this film was to take away that it’s dirty, or to take away that it’s a secret, but that is what we were coming up against: that nobody wants to talk about depression, so it is a dirty little secret. Our hope is to change that perception and start a conversation where people can talk about it and not be afraid or ashamed.
nthWORD: How did words like disease and disability impact your making of the film? This secret implies shame, it implies guilt, it implies stigma. Can you talk about that?
JB: There’s so much stigma around clinical depression—and mental illness in general—but our focus is clinical depression, and it seems like people who have it are embarrassed that they have it, and they don’t feel comfortable saying that it’s a disease and a disability. I think a lot of people who have it think it’s their fault.
(Note: nthWord is no longer published.)