Broken Social Scene: Sweetest Kill

“We’re really sorry, but we can’t promote this, we can’t play this on TV.” Words no director ever wants to hear. But surprisingly, they only make Claire Edmondson laugh. Having moved from sewing costumes in the back of a tour bus to hacking off limbs, there’s nothing that can daunt this stylist-turned-director, not even the banning of her directorial debut music video for Canadian indie band, Broken Social Scene.

Although born in Liverpool, the self-proclaimed ‘giant film nerd’ really began her journey as an undergrad student in Vancouver, where fashion won over film in the battle for academic attention. But film wasn’t going to give up that easily. In fact Edmondson soon realised that she was completely fascinated by the world her former director boyfriend inhabited, admitting, “I was way, way more interested in what he was doing than what I was doing. So directing was sending off little signals all along.”

So she dove right in, leaving behind fashion design to turn her hand to styling for various music videos and commercials, and building up a strong network of musician contacts and friends. In fact it was her friendship with Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew that led to her first foray into directing.

Drew was receptive when Edmondson told him her idea for a promo for the band’s song Sweetest Kill, featuring a woman who poisons her lover then dismembers him with an axe and buries the pieces in her rose garden. “It’s a love song,” Edmondson says, “and the song’s about being with someone who you can’t be with. It was just an honest expression of how I felt about the song.”

But others didn’t feel that way, and it was banned from some TV stations by Canada’s grant system (who had funded it in the first place but didn’t read the treatment). People were shocked by the gore. “All these fans were losing their minds in a way that I didn’t think they would,” Edmondson admits, “but at the end of the day I just really want to make a video that makes people feel something, so whether they’re really mad at me or they really love it, I feel like I did my job.”

Although never intending to be controversial, it doesn’t seem to be a trend that Edmondson finds intimidating. The next project she has in the works is a video for Austra, another Canadian band that Edmondson has worked with before. She’s more prepared for this video’s reception, recognising that “people might get a bit upset by this one too”. But despite the struggles that come with being flagged as a ‘problem director’, Edmondson remains confident. She is determined that staying true to her instincts is the only way to reach her ultimate goal, directing commercials and feature films. “I’ve become obsessed with the idea of taking an intelligent idea and figuring out how to package it for everyone to love.”