Heartbreak is always very raw when we’re going through it.
When someone we love leaves us, the pain can seem almost unendurable. Everything slows down and life seems impossible. We have a constant stream of memories with our loved one that we can’t seem to let go of. Over time, the memories fade and we make changes to our lives. We go to the gym, start eating better, maybe meet someone new. As the pain fades away, we forget all the pain—and we also forget who we were in those relationships.
Unless something reminds us of the time that has passed, that is.
Victoria Mapplebeck is a director and media studies professor living in London, England.
While cleaning out her house one day, she came across a decades-old Nokia phone in a drawer. She plugged the phone in out of curiosity—just to see what was on it. What she didn’t expect to find were 100s of texts saved in a three-year-long text thread between her and a former lover. Mapplebeck told her story to reporters at The Atlantic:
“The story of our relationship unfolded in just 100 texts: how we met, dated for a few months, broke up, and subsequently dealt with an unplanned pregnancy.”
The experience sent Mapplebeck into a spiral of emotions which she wasn’t sure how to deal with.
To make sense of it all, she decided to channel those feelings into a creative project she called 160 Characters, a short documentary about how their relationship unfolded—and how she and her son were ultimately left to fend for themselves. The story takes viewers from the immediate days after the first date in April of 2003 through an entire rollercoaster of feelings, ending in 2008.
The story is told in snippets and small images—and it packs a serious emotional punch.
Above all, Mapplebeck said 160 Characters was a good way to process everything and to finally find closure from a hard situation.
According to Mapplebeck, the film asks hard questions and doesn’t provide too many easy answers:
“I didn’t want to come across as a victim and neither did I want to cast my son’s father as a pantomime villain . . . the situation we found ourselves in was complex. I’m sad about it and sometimes I’m angry . . . I felt it was important to create space for viewers to come to their own conclusions.”
After watching the video, what are your feelings on Mapplebeck’s story?
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