When I was asked by filmmaker Kyoka Tsukamoto to write the narration for a film that she had already shot but wanted to re-edit, I was somewhat startled. It’s usually done the other way around…but it was an interesting challenge, putting words to lovely images, no holds barred.

I watched the film, already entitled Dreams and Mirrors, and wrote whatever first came to my mind. I then looked for the thread that would pull it all together into a semblance of a story and found that abandonment resonated loudly. Since I was also writing Silent Women at the time, the lines between the two main characters, Sara in the film and Erika in the book, often crossed and blended, since both personified the personal pain I was experiencing at the time. Ultimately, the process of writing about young Sara’s dreams helped me tremendously in better understanding and defining all the characters in my novel.

It is my belief that things sometimes happen for a reason and in the order needed to learn important lessons. Kyoka’s request to write new narration for her film, coming as it did when I was in the midst of telling a painful story of my own, was so much more than a job. It was an extraordinary gift for which I will be forever grateful.

View DREAMS AND MIRRORS online.

Read Ingrid’s DREAMS AND MIRRORS NARRATION SCRIPT