Alone Together

ALONE TOGETHER - Documentary / Comedy

Director: DYLAN HESP

Follow Dylan Hesp, a self-proclaimed big deal television actor with plenty of friends, on a comedic quest to understand loneliness. In this insightful and hilariously awkward documentary, Dylan goes on friend dates with strangers, gets offended by expert opinions, and even tries cuddle therapy to understand the true impact of social isolation.

Director statement:

As a comedian and filmmaker loneliness is a theme that I’ve been accidentally exploring through my work for a long time. For whatever reason I’ve always been fascinated by people and our connection, or disconnection, from one another.

A little over a year ago this fascination sparked a desire to better understand the issue of loneliness, and what I found really surprised me. Not only was loneliness considered by experts to be a problem of epidemic proportions, but most shockingly, no one around me was talking about it. Think about it, when did you last talk to a mate about loneliness?

It’s fascinating to me that in a society that is becoming so proactive in encouraging discussion around mental health, that we still aren’t ready, or perhaps equipped, to talk about social health. Loneliness is a silent killer. It’s having an immense impact on our communities, but sadly the stigma surrounding the issue seems to be preventing us from creating a conversation.

It’s obviously hard to say “I’m lonely” and sadly I think insecurity or a fear of vulnerability can easily lead us to ignore this issue. The simplest action being to assume it’s an issue for ‘lonely people’ and not for you or I. After all there’s no way that I could be lonely, could I?

This thought became the key inspiration for Alone Together. A Comedic documentary following a fictional overly insecure Dylan Hesp, that just can’t acknowledge he’s lonely. Even when everyone around him is making it abundantly clear that he is. I think it’s very human to ignore the signs around us, or to push them into the ‘too hard basket’, and I really wanted to create a film that comedically explores that tension and hopefully encourages reflection.

Alone Together is a very silly documentary about a serious issue. A light hearted satire on connection, identity and documentaries themselves. My hope is that as people follow Dylan’s journey from a friend date with a real stranger, to a cuddle therapy session experience, that they too will be encouraged to contribute to the conversation around loneliness. Oh, and they better bloody laugh too.