Softcore by Tess Paul.

          Among the many film production students premiering their shorts this year at the annual Persistance of Vision Festival is Tess Paul, a fourth year hoping to finish her last year at UBC with something truly special. I sat down with Tess for this interview less than a week away from POV’s opening night, she had just screened her film, Softcore, in Freddy Wood and was still stressed about sound mixing complications. Needless to say life as a student filmmaker is a bit stressful. Tess and I talk about Softcore, a coming-of-age film Tess describes as, “a story about a young girl named Imogen (Ellen MacNevin) who has a fight with her mom and runs away form her very privileged life… and falls in with a group of girls who she thinks are really cool… and discovers the dark underbelly of East Vancouver, kind of that cool girl world.” But this film isn’t only about discovering life on the other side of the tracks, or falling into the wrong crowd, Tess emphasizes the theme of “acceptance” in this work, as Imogen, at sixteen, realizes “how vapid her life is”, and her experience “trying to find meaning in other people and ultimately failing in the end.”

          The film’s three main characters Imogen, Lux (Caitlin Davidson), and Maggie (Stephanie Horak) can be seen as facets of her own life says Tess. “Imogen is me at sixteen, not really knowing what’s up, and Lux is my party phase, which still probably isn’t over…and Maggie is the serious, but still in her party phase, late twenties version of myself that I expect to be.” The three together form a complete narrative arc. But these characters aren’t just about her, “I hope everyone can sympathize with [Imogen] at least a little bit, because when we are young, whether you’re a guy a girl, it’s pretty reminiscent of a time you wanted to belong, to be accepted.” Tess can’t praise her actresses enough; she smiles a lot talking about this topic. “They all just clicked perfectly… Ellen’s face looks so good on screen, she really fit what I was imagining.” Ellen is an up and coming actress in Vancouver, and was just selected as one of fifteen applicants in a local women in film mentorship program.

          When asked about what was challenging about making Softcore Tess laughs about the time crunch, and more normal stresses of student film-making. One key scene was written on the fly on set, “one of my actors came to me, with an idea to expand a scene, and we were in the middle of shooting… I was in such a collaborative mode with my actors, they were all really amazing, so I was open to it. It ended up being one of favorite scenes in the film. It’s a bathroom scene between Imogen and Lux, a really tender moment… It’s the scene that sums up everything the best, and it’s the one I wrote on the fly on the day. It’s really cool how that happened.” We both have a good laugh about how so many films have revealing and heartfelt scenes in bathrooms. “It’s very cliche of Girls, in every episode of Girls there’s a bathroom scene. I love bathroom scenes. If I’m making a film this year, it’s having a bathroom scene.” There’s actually a few bathroom scenes in Softcore, one in a public bathroom shot in Strathcona Park in East Van.

          She kept the crew small, only ten of her fellow film-production students, “that’s the way I like working, I hate managing thirty people…It was just such a dream to have everyone on set, just working on my film. I was just amazed.” The sets were minimal. There were “a lot of restrictions for shooting outside,” and much of the film takes place in Tess’s own apartment. Local musician Patrick Fiore volunteered to score the film. “I’m really lucky to have an amazing score for this film… It really sounds like my film, with reminiscence of that twitchy-pop thing I had in mind when I was writing it… it’s very neo-noir with a lot of evo guitar.” You can catch more collaboration between Tess and Patrick Fiore soon, she’s set to direct a music video of his this summer. After she graduates, Tess plans to “stay in Vancouver and pursue writing… short fiction is what I would like to do. Take a break from film for a second, and probably do a project this summer. A small independent project… a little mumble-core movie, that’s in pre-production right now.” She also does film reviews for the magazine BeatRoute. To finish off our interview I wanted to know what films Tess was looking forward to at POV. “I’m really excited to see Devil on Frog Mountain, and Unravel, and Violet and June,” these are all third year films. Tess has already seen all the fourth year films, and helped on the set of a few of them, “those are done by some of my friends, and I just know they’re going to do a good job. [I’m] excited to see those up on the big screen for sure,” and I’m sure many of us can say the same for her. Catch Softcore on April 29th and 30th at the Freddie Wood theater.