SYNOPSIS
VIVIEN’S WILD RIDE
Vivien Hillgrove has been a film and sound editor all her adult life. She's worked with many filmmaking greats: Francis Coppola, Phil Kaufman, Milos Forman, Walter Murch, and celebrated documentary filmmakers Lourdes Portillo and Deann Borshay Liem. When Vivien’s eyesight starts to deteriorate, the shame and loneliness she felt in 1964 come flooding back—having relinquished her baby as a teenage unwed mother when there were few choices for women was a loss that resonated throughout her life. Now she faces a new feeling of isolation and loss. Recalling her resilience as a young woman, she summons it anew and reinvents herself as a person with a new way of being and seeing, an artist with a disability.
Directed by Vivien Hillgrove, Vivien’s Wild Ride is a story of resistance and resilience. Uncovering the past proves to be a detective story in which Vivien’s longtime partner, Karen Brocco, steps in to investigate. Meanwhile, to survive the demands of filmmaking, Vivien and Karen create a sanctuary: Mom’s Head Gardens. They live two different lives, the fast-paced world of feature films and living on a little farm. Drawn to documentary films, Vivien begins connecting the two worlds. Vivien’s Wild Ride captures a story of transformation on many levels, reimagining what it means to see and to belong through acts of creation, connection, and caring, not just biology.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Over the past fifty years, I have worked as an editor working in collaboration with various directors to bring their stories to life. In the narrative feature film world, I found success working as a sound or picture editor on films like Amadeus, Blue Velvet, The Right Stuff The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Henry and June. But it was in the arena of independent documentary films where I found creative freedom. Working on films like Lourdes Portillo’s Devil Never Sleeps and Señorita Extraviada, I was able to edit picture, music, dialogue and sound effects. I love editing. But when I started losing my eyesight to Macular Degeneration, I knew I wanted to share my story with others while investigating in depth this journey through loss and resilience.
Vivien's Wild Ride explores three aspects of my life journey: working on commercial features alongside other pioneering women sound editors during the heyday of San Francisco Bay Area filmmaking; the experience of being an unwed mother and being forced to relinquish my baby for adoption; and losing my sight after decades of working as an editor and how this forced me to reinvent myself as a disabled artist.
This film has pushed me beyond my comfort zone emotionally and creatively. I have had to dive deep into memory and revisit previous trauma. I’ve also had to confront denial and grief around my sight loss. At the same time, I am finding my voice as a director. Working on this film is not only pushing the envelope creatively, but it is giving me new-found confidence that I can adapt and emerge in a different professional capacity within the film industry. Through this film and future projects, I am determined to show that disability and age need not prevent us from bold creative acts. I want to stand in the face of that stigma and argue that our abilities are as varied as ourselves.