Kid's Qs from the Australian Film Launch

KQ1: How did you get Maeve's drawings to come off the page [of her notebooks and fly away?] (R. aged 8)
A: If you continue to work really hard on your doodles instead of doing your other work, then you too could grow up and get a job working at Mt Coot-tha like our animators, drawing dragons [and making kid's drawings come to life]

KQ2: Where can you buy the video? (M. aged 13)
A: Google "After Maeve". Its Marcom or something. [It isn't out yet but you can pre-order].

KQ3: Was it hard for the crew to be involved in such a sad story? (S aged 12)
A: Yes it was. Our main photographer, Danny [Philips], who was part of our family for that first year, deserves enormous credit for his sensitivity and courage. Our wonderful editor, [Rebecca Murphy], turned the job down two times before she finally accepted it, because she thought it would be too distressing. Several of our sound recordists cried with us. But every person working with the film found the overall experience uplifting. The [good food and] whiskey at Robyn and Frank's house helped.

KQ4: Ah.. Um.. I forgot (R. aged 8)

KQ5: How do you find Maeve's Birthday now? (G. aged 12)
A: Well, this year it was a bit hard, it was a bit sad. I have to acknowledged Zoe here, Zoe was Maeve's twin cousin, she was born on exactly the same day as Maeve, and it used to be they had their birthdays together, and now Zoe has her birthday all to herself, but also, it always contains a little bit of the sadness of losing Maeve...

KQ6: I remembered my question now: How did you make Maeve come alive again? (R, aged 8)
A: I beg your pardon?
R: I mean, first Maeve was dead, and then she was alive again, and [then she was gone, and then she was alive in the cottage again and then she was running around the field and then you were crying again...]
A: Its our clever [director and editor and] animators again. [Jan wanted to film us in exactly the same places we had been with Maeve, to show how Maeve, and the absence of Maeve, were still present with us in all those places. First she showed our old videos from our last trip with Maeve, and then she blended in footage that had been carefully matched on our trip with the crew last year, when she looked at the old photos and videos on a laptop and made us stand here or there to match it, like when we were going out the gate and Maeve was sitting on it and then she disappeared like the Cheshire-Cat. Then also the animators drew pictures of Maeve and put her on the dragon, because that's how we would like to imagine her... So our special places hold the past as well as the present and the future...memory and sensation and dream all intermingled... ]

KQ7: Do you see anything of Maeve in Tara? (M aged 13)
A: Great question. Yes, .... among many other deeper things, look who has the 'thick hair' now...

KQ8: Are there any sushi left? (E, aged 11)
A: No. You kids ate them all.