Creating magic: Wyatt Winborne gets introspective in writing 'Water Rises,' to screen at SFiFF

Oct. 18—Wyatt Winborne never imagined that his pain would translate to a feature film.

Yet, the California-based filmmaker took the reins and began to develop a story.

What came from this process was the script for "Water Rises."

The feature film is set to screen at the Santa Fe International Film Festival at 7:20 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.

"I conceived of this project right when I graduated from college," he says. "This script came from my life. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and I was in angst. I began to write and went where the writing took me."

The film follows the struggles of a young couple as they attempt to rescue themselves and a family farm — a eulogy to a ravaged environment in rebellion that, despite every attempt, yields only a very mysterious crop.

The film stars Lewis Pullman and Emma Pasarow.

With a production budget of $18,000, and a principle crew of only eight people, Winborne says the film embodies what is so wonderful about independent filmmaking.

"We filmed for 22 consecutive days," Winborne says. "There was no stopping and no weekends. Basically the most difficult part was getting people out to the farm. Feeding them and making them feel safe in the space. Foe me, it was so grueling and I had a lot of mental exhaustion."

Winborne says after the production wrapped, they had to do four additional days of photography.

He enjoyed the set being small because it allowed each person to do their job.

"I think at the peak of it all, there were 14 people on set in one day," he says. "We tried to keep it as small and contained as we could."

Winborne utilized a series of self-imposed creative dogmas, similar to those employed in the Dogme '95 movement and the Iranian New Wave, to develop the film's nonlinear structure.

Winborne credits the process for guiding the story.

"The actors had to lose themselves in the game, to turn into players limited only by the rulebook of the film's world: each scene would be simplified into no more than a location, a theme, and a collection of characters," he says.

"Water Rises" was also Parasow's first feature film and was impressed with the experience.

"With such a small crew, we were all included in the brainstorming, crafting," Parasow says in a statement.

"We were given the freedom to improvise and contribute." Pullman adds: "It was incredible to be reminded of the basic tenets of filmmaking on such an intimate set. There was something so beautiful about everyone's intentions being in the right spot — when everyone's the PA and the grip, you know everyone's in it for the love of filmmaking."

Winborne says being able to create the film was an amazing outlet for himself.

"I learned a lot from this experience," Winborne says. "In a very plain sense, I wanted to direct a feature before I was 25. I'm 28 now and ready to see how I can take what I learned from this experience and move forward to the next project."