Cannes Short Film Corner 2018 - Loretta’s Flowers
On a long summer’s day in Toronto, a young queer woman cycles between increasingly intimate encounters with three diverse individuals, but remains trapped in a pattern of insatiable longing.
Interview with Writer/Director Brendan Prost
Watch Loretta’s Flowers here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made this film because I was starting to feel estranged by my own loneliness, and thought that the sensation was so strange it must be worth sharing and having a conversation about. I couldn’t understand how, despite my diverse social network and best efforts to stay active, I still felt so profoundly isolated from everyone I knew. But, as I reflected further, it became clear to me that I was dissociating as a way to cope with an overwhelming plurality of social choice, and the exaggerated sense of expectation that came with it. This sounded like such a definitively modern problem that I knew it couldn’t possibly be an experience limited to me. So, I made Loretta’s Flowers as an expression of solidarity with my peers who might share a similarly confounding and insatiable sense of longing.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I think people should watch this movie if they’ve ever felt lonely and not been sure why. Or, if they’ve ever desired to make sense of how odd it is to yearn for something that seems to exist everywhere all around you. It can be so hard to talk about the abstraction of human feeling in adult life generally, but I think especially so when those feelings seem unfounded or irrational to us. Loretta’s Flowers aims to capture that sensation, emphasize its legitimacy, and put it in a context for us to dissect and talk honestly about. That’s what every good movie is to me—an opportunity to connect and galvanize people who share an emotional experience, and to hopefully illuminate some understanding of it.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I make films that are personal to me and just hope they’re universal. I aim to speak truthfully and specifically about ideas and feelings that I relate to, and know that an audience will bring their own experience and empathy to bear on what they watch. I suspect that although the external idiosyncrasies of the character’s journey in Loretta’s Flowers are unique and distinctly hers, the emotional core of that experience is not alien to a broader audience.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Other than the usual attrition and compromise that happens during the course of production, on a macro-level this film stayed pretty close to how I initially conceived of it. The main character, the dynamics of her relationships, the story structure, the bike riding sequences, the setting, the visual design, and even the end song were all there at the film’s inception. But, you can never really anticipate how the actors and other key collaborators will breathe life into the movie and change it.
The subtleties and surprises they brought are hard to describe, but I know because of them the film became something much better than I imagined. You can’t write or direct a scene to have the magic of that three-minute take in the bedroom between Harveen and Sochi, it can only be birthed in the moment. That might be an evolution, but I prefer to think of it as transcendence.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The most important feedback I’ve received thus far is that the movie is authentic, and that it effectively captures a distinct mood that resonates with people. Authenticity was important to me in a number of ways, but chiefly in terms of how we represented the interactions between queer women in Toronto, and how we showcased the city itself.
Knowing that there’s a palpable emotional chord reverberating throughout the movie is also gratifying, because it means all the filmic elements are working together to reflect the inner-workings of our somewhat mysterious main character. We may not understand exactly what she’s after, or the nature of all her relationships, but we connect with her on an invisible emotional level.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I’ve been surprised how unfazed people are by the main character’s level of disaffection. The pattern of disassociation and unrequited longing portrayed in the film seems to be taken for granted as a fact of modern life, like it’s been normalized. I think I see more tension at play than most people who watch the movie do.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I want to connect my film with people who will be excited about it, and this seemed like a great platform on which to do that.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
At the moment, this film principally needs festival programmers to give us an opportunity to share our work with audiences, and critics to help people discover and unpack it once we have that opportunity. But, I am always open to the range of other collaborators out there who can help connect the film with the people meant to see it.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I hope that this movie will resonate with, and galvanize, a diverse community of young adults who feel estranged by their own disaffection, and don’t quite know how to put words to the experience. I think there’s an opportunity with Loretta’s Flowers to lend clarity to an emotional experience that can be confusing, hard to diagnose, and even more difficult to talk about.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I’m interested in making the film part of a broader conversation about alienation and how society is inflating our expectations for connection via advances to communication technology, growing urban density, and sexual liberalization. What reason is there to feel alone, when you can communicate with anyone at the push of a touch screen? Why do we still experience unrequited cravings for intimacy in an increasingly sex positive culture? Why do we experience solitude, when we’re constantly surrounded by other people? Loretta’s Flowers is a film that grapples with these apparent paradoxes.
Would you like to add anything else?
If you read this, watch the trailer, or see the movie—let me know what you think! I am eager to connect with audiences and other filmmakers.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Right now I’m in post-production on a new short film, I’m developing a new feature, and I’m writing three new shorts with the intention of shooting two before the end of this year. I’m also going into production on a music video for Jordaan Mason very shortly.
Interview: May 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. 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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Loretta’s Flowers
On a long summer’s day in Toronto, a young queer woman cycles between increasingly intimate encounters with three diverse individuals, but remains trapped in a pattern of insatiable longing.
Length: 15 minutes
Director: Brendan Prost
Producer: Sara Blake + Brendan Prost
Writer: Brendan Prost
About the Director: Brendan Prost is a dogged and unabashedly personal filmmaker from Calgary, currently based in Toronto. His directorial work includes four features and several eclectic shorts.
Key Cast: Harveen Sandhu, Steffi DiDomenicantonio, Matthew Gouveia, Sochi Fried
Looking for: Producers, Journalists, Programmers, Buyers
Social Media Handles:
· Facebook – http://facebook.com/bprost
· Twitter – http://twitter.com/bprost
· YouTube – http://youtube.com/brendantoast
· Vimeo – http://vimeo.com/bprost
Funders: Self-financed
Made in association with: A generous group of talented artist friends
Where can I watch it next? Loretta’s Flowers will screen at a prominent European film festival yet to-be-announced in June of 2018.