Viviane is sight seeing in Paris with a book called 'The Best Places to Kiss in Paris.' An attractive stranger, Oscar, meets her on a bridge and they begin a romance.

Interview with Writer/Director April Hirschman and Producer Nathalie Poingt

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

It was an opportunity to collaborate with an amazing editor/film maker: Nathalie Poingt. It was also a challenge to see if I could write a script simple enough that it could be shot in one day, with no rehearsals, and actresses that we met and secured the night before the shoot.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

This film is subtle, poetic, visually beautiful, with a slow smoldering romance taking place in one of the most breathtakingly romantic cities in the world: Paris.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

Through this emerging romance between our two strangers, we wanted to emphasize the importance of opening up to others. Sure, when you take a risk and throw yourself into the unknown, you’re vulnerable. But whenever you put yourself in a situation like that, you’re also opening yourself up to fate, chance… and sometimes love.

There’s a specific reason behind why we chose to depict a gay couple in this particular scenario: we believe that greater representation of gay couples in film leads to increased acceptance of gay people in everyday society.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development and production?

The script was originally in English, so it had to be translated in order to be shot in French. Of course, we kept it as close as possible to the original. The dialogue for the first and last scene was scripted but the everything else was improvised during the shooting of the film.

We allowed ourselves to be inspired not only by locations, but also by the creativity of our actresses. Since the movie was made on such short notice, we were unable to rent sound equipment, so we had to post-synchronise all the dialogue. Since one of the actresses was only available on the day of the shooting, we had to make quick decisions about which takes we wanted to keep.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

People have told us that the film was beautiful, moving and visually stunning.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

Yeah, completely. I didn’t expect a lot from a movie prepared and shot in a single day! It was a real challenge, but we learned a lot from the experience and the feedback turned out to be amazing.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

Connection with other film makers and film enthusiasts. Hopefully to show something peaceful and moving.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

We’d obviously love for the film to get more exposure from film festival directors and journalists.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

We’d like to inspire young filmmakers within the gay community to create their own films in order to increase LGBT visibility.

Would you like to add anything else?

Just that it was a pleasure to make this movie and we hope to make many more in the future.

What are the key creatives developing or working on now?

April Hirschman is working on a feature film about belly dancing. Nathalie Poingt is working on a documentary about the Cannes Film Festival and creating a lesbian webseries.

Interview: January 2017

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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

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How to Kiss in Paris

Viviane is sight seeing in Paris with a book called 'The Best Places to Kiss in Paris.' An attractive stranger, Oscar, meets her on a bridge and they begin a romance.

Length: 6.5 minutes

Director: April Hirschman

Producer: Nathalie Poingt

Writer: April Hirschman

About the writer, director and producer:

Nathalie Poingt is a film editor in Paris and works on a variety of television shows.

Key cast:

Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):

- film festival directors

- journalists

Funders: Self-produced

Made in association with: This film is 100% independent.