Children are innocent.
They spend their tender age under the guidance and protection of their parents. Every loving parent strives to ensure that their kid gets a conducive and nurturing environment while growing up.
But what if a child experiences a horrifying event that shakes them to the core?
What if a parent who is supposed to love and protect their young, transforms into a monster from those scary bedtime stories?
Worse, what if a child is forced to make one of the harshest decisions they ever had to make, at such a juvenile age, losing anyway no matter what they decide?
Testimony (2015) is a hard-hitting drama, addressing topics of domestic violence and alcoholism seen through the eyes of a child. The film is based on true events and features Irish award-winning cast and crew.
Testimony tells the true story of a 9-year-old girl who’s asked to testify in a domestic abuse court hearing. Her mother is the plaintiff, her father – the defendant, and she testifies in front of a judge with both parents present in the room.
When I was working with Kamila Dydyna, the film's writer and director, on the poster for Testimony, Kamila suggested that it’d be a good idea to use a drawing of the actors – this would link well with the visual documentation technique used in courts.
The first drawing I made for the poster inspired me to make a whole series of sketchy portraits, and in September 2015 I was presenting a selection of them to the public (POSK, Dublin, opening 5th of September 2015).
If you’d like to learn more about Testimony, click here.
Below is the movie showing some of the drawings, accompanied by the beautiful music of Conor Walsh.