Do you think you could survive a nature documentary? The Schmidt family film ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS, fresh off its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, posits the question with alternately tense and heartwarming results in its story of three young orphan girls who sneak away from their home for a day at the beach and get stranded on an island of sea lions and abandoned architecture. A true family affair, Autumn, Avila, and Scarlet Schmidt star in the film and performed all their own stunts on location at a remote island off the coast of Baja, Mexico, frequently encountering groups of wild animals. Autumn and Avila also co-wrote the film with their director parents, Brian and Ann-Marie Schmidt.
This collaborative approach explains the aura of threatening whimsy that envelops the film, positioning it comfortably in the realm of Barrie’s original vision for Peter Pan, where placing children in dangerous situations and relying on their own instincts for survival is par for the course. The sisters’ natural chemistry shines through, allowing audiences a peek into their world that makes the ever-more-dangerous stakes all the more engrossing.
Sea lions seem to be one of those animals that appears cute enough on the outside when minding their own business or being observed through the lens of a camera or from behind a zoo enclosure, but in reality they are extremely dangerous and territorial creatures. ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS relies on this duality of allure and danger inherent in both nature and the exploratory inclinations of youth to build its tension. Told predominantly through the alternating experiences of the three girls, with past flashbacks interwoven into the present, what results is a heart-rending meditation on family, loss, and the lengths we’ll go for the ones we love.
LOST GIRLS feels uniquely ambitious in its willingness to let the sense of childlike adventure take hold and guide the story even in its moments of deepest risk and tension. It feels like an adventure story that could have only been created with the input of children. The inherent sense of wonder tied up in the fear of the riptide, sea lions, and scaling of the sea cave; the moments framed as mysterious and potentially violent that turn out not to be so; and the reprimanding of each sibling along the age hierarchy all come through so thoroughly from the mind of a child you can’t help but invest in every moment of their journey.
The ability to balance these conflicting but connecting tones so well speaks to the strength of every member of the Schmidt family, but of the daughters in particular. Each of them is remarkably young—young enough that spent part of the time covering my eyes and scrunching away from the screen in fear for their safety—and impressively capable. LOST GIRLS is a very physically and emotionally demanding film, and to see each task handled with such authentic charisma and apparent ease by actors so young is unique to say the least.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a film that so frequently pushed me around from anxiety for someone’s well being to smiling at their connection and back again so frequently and with such ease, but ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS did just that. Full-family filmmaking teams are proving to be a rich playground of new stories and approaches that promise tapping into a new level of authenticity and daring that only comes from a heart of deep familial trust. While I may never be able to look at sea lions in quite the same way, the Schmidt family has proven that there is no underestimating the strength of sisterly connection, and that involving children in creating their own fairy tale scenarios will prove to be an awfully big adventure.
Tags: Ann-Marie Schmidt, Autumn Schmidt, Avila Schmidt, Brian Schmidt, Fairy Tale, Fantasia Film Festival 2022, Film Festivals, Island of Lost Girls, Nature, Peter Pan, Scarlet Schmidt, Survival
Hey thanks for watching our movie, we love your review. It brought a big smile to all the girls.