In only nine short minutes, Carmelle Danneman’s debut film Send in the Clowns manages to captivate and tug at the viewer. “I wanted to make this film so that it would remind people to never give up and to never lose hope–and of course, to never stop smiling,” the Stern College junior told The Observer over email.
The film follows Sarah (Kate Kilcoyne), a seven-year old girl suffering from childhood cancer. Throughout the short there is very little dialogue, and the scenes are instead set through emotional deliveries and brief one-liners. At the start of the short, Sarah is seen in the hospital waiting room laughing at the resident clown, Amy (Dawn Campion), even though we can’t hear what Amy is saying. Scenes later, Sarah is in a large, black chair receiving sickening chemotherapy, and her mother (Ann Lukens) tearfully pulls out a clump of her hair. Even without a word, viewers begin to fear that the worst is to come.
Soon Sarah is bedridden in a room at the hospital, and Amy is needed to cheer her up more than ever. Before the clown enters Sarah’s room, the nurse prepares her: “She’s not having a good day today…she’s not feeling very well at all.” But it’s not this dialogue that resonates with the viewer; rather, it’s Amy’s voiceless preparation outside the hospital room. She slumps over, looks at the floor, takes a deep breath, and then assumes an animated march as she embarks on the important task of making Sarah smile.
Despite its short runtime, Danneman spent over a year creating Send in the Clowns. She not only directed the film, but also produced it, acted in it, wrote the script, and aided in filming–all during finals week last year. “Every time I was stressed or too busy with school, I told myself that I had to get through it and do well because I had a film to create!” she said. While Danneman had experience acting in a few other films, this was her first major, independent project. To assemble her cast of seven actors and actresses, as well as her camera and set crew, Danneman posted on various professional casting websites.
“At the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing!” she said. “Figuring out all the logistics on my own was really challenging. Every time I accomplished one thing, there was another obstacle or challenge that came up that I had to figure out.”
Not every feature of Send in the Clowns came from pure, hard work–in fact, Danneman was graced with some beautiful luck for one of its most important aspects. She notes that the most difficult logistic of Send in Clowns was securing a hospital to film it in. After contacting several large commercial hospitals around her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Danneman reached out Newton Medical Center in Covington, just outside Atlanta. Interestingly, other filmmakers hadn’t always been so lucky with Newton.
“After agreeing to allow us to film there, Anne Gantt, the marketing director at the hospital, told me that students call her all the time to film, but she always turns them away,” Danneman recalled. “So I asked, ‘What was different this time? Why did you say yes to me?’ and she said that she just felt like she just really wanted to help me.”
Perhaps some of Gantt’s desire to help Danneman came from the clear personal investment and importance that Danneman injected into the film. Send in the Clowns is dedicated to Betty Danneman, Carmelle’s grandmother, who passed away from cancer. “When my grandmother had cancer, I watched her suffer in pain, and it hurt me that there was nothing I could do to help her,” Danneman said. “I wanted to create something in her memory, while at the same time giving hope and inspiration to anyone who watched.”
To do even more to aid those children suffering from cancer, Danneman donated a portion of the film’s proceeds directly to 6-year-old Katheryn Brezina, who is currently living with an aggressive brain cancer.
Send in the Clowns has already garnered recognition at the Audience Choice Award at the Fifty-Four Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. It was also accepted into the Student Art Festival in Orlando, Florida and will be screening there at the end of May. But for Danneman, these awards aren’t even the most rewarding part of the filmmaking process.
“This film has touched and inspired so many people. Some people living with cancer and survivors have come up to me saying how much they appreciate the film…I really didn’t realize so many people would be moved by it. Knowing that it’s doing exactly what I had in mind for it to do is what gives me the greatest reward,” Danneman said.
Danneman is still waiting to hear from several film festivals as to whether they will screen Send in the Clowns over the next few months. But in the meantime, she already has her eyes set on another production. She hopes to begin another project this summer, also in Atlanta. While she didn’t reveal any details, fans of Send in the Clowns can only expect great things from the young director/producer/actress extraordinaire.