Filmmaker Statement

Childhood follows you like an imaginary friend. As we grow older, memories fade, but they remain an undertone to everything—triggered by a song, a smell, a room. With Turpentine, we wanted the house itself to feel alive, marked by memory: creaking floors, empty frames, stains and objects that quietly testify to shared history. At the start of the film, these memories feel distant. As James and Abigail begin to forgive one another, the house remembers with them. Turpentine is about reconciliation through remembering—about how revisiting the places that formed us can soften old wounds. As James and Abigail pack up their childhood home, they rediscover the friendship beneath their grief. Through filmmaking, we were able to honor the enduring bond of family and the memories that shape us. Love, once shared, never truly leaves—it lingers in the walls, waiting to be remembered.