Judith Hancock has always felt that was different from her siblings. Having spent her youth in boarding schools, Judith felt disconnected from her family in more ways than just distance. When she returned home from boarding school, she spent most of her time with children from an orphanage where her father worked.

Judith felt other aspects of difference in her family that caused her to wonder whether she was adopted - her siblings were much older than she was, and her mother was not particularly caring or loving. This lingering lack of closure for Judith was amplified after her mother passed away with the question of Judith's parental connection never being truly resolved.

Judith is now 87, and with the support of her grandson, Archie Hancock, and his creative filmmaking partner Jack Zimmerman, she is given the opportunity to have that discussion in the documentary short film The 'Conversation'. This dramatic short film plays out like a cinematic sibling to the work of Kitty Green, notably her impressive 2017 film, Casting JonBenet, which saw actors play the roles of JonBenet Ramsay's family, trying to get to the core of the truth of that enduring mystery.

With The 'Conversation', the mystery of whether Judith was adopted or not is almost secondary to the experience of talking through her concerns with someone 'acting' as her mother, with Judith given the chance to expend the emotional weight she has been carrying over these years. Call it manufacturing muscle memory or role playing if you will. What results is a film about catharsis and the mental toll that was left behind from the era of forced adoptions that occurred in Australia in the decades between the 1940s to 1970s. These are lingering emotional and traumatic events that have been left unresolved in the nations history, and it's with younger generations, like the ones that Archie and Jack are part of, who are seeking to resolve and rectify the trauma at hand.

The following interview with Archie and Jack sees them both talking about the foundation of The 'Conversation' and how they worked with Archie's grandmother to give her the space to explore this aspect of her life on screen. They also discuss the emotional resolution that the film might offer to other people who are equally experiencing confusion about their heritage. Along the way, Archie and Jack also discuss the foundation of their production company, Tally Productions, and a lot more.

The 'Conversation' screens at the St Kilda Film Festival, with an online release in the future on the horizon.

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