Bruce Sweeney premieres new feature at Whistler Film Festival
Gabrielle Rose and Camille Sullivan play mother and daughter at odds in She Talks to Strangers.
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The ability to move quickly is key while making an independent film.
Vancouver director/writer Bruce Sweeney knows the best way to do that is to surround yourself with people you share a creative shorthand with.
Sweeney has continued that approach with his new feature film She Talks to Strangers. The film is one of 35 features and 62 shorts from 14 countries that will be starring in this year’s Whistler Film Festival (WFF), Nov. 29 to Dec. 3. She Talks to Strangers has its world premiere at the WFF with screenings on Dec. 1 and 2.
“I’m an old dog. I’ve been through all sorts of experiences. Some on the set can be really frustrating, so if I work with people, I know it’s not going to get there. I know that I could scold them, and they’ll be fine,” said Sweeney, who shot She Talks to Strangers in Vancouver over 15 days. “I like to work with actors that have a strong work ethic, but also, they’re people you can go camping with.
“They are sturdy. You can get in tents, and everyone sort of tugs on the same rope, and we try to get through it.”
One of those “sturdy” actors that Sweeney likes to enlist is Vancouver’s Gabrielle Rose. She and Sweeney have made five films together.
“You can go camping with Gabe. She’s tough and she’s willing to do anything,” said Sweeney. “She’ll do whatever you want. And you spend a ton of time on the set just shooting the breeze. She makes it fun.”
Rose when asked about the camping comment laughed and said: “Maybe cottaging now,” she said adding: “I do feel I am pretty sturdy physically and mentally, hopefully. Yes, I’m not a fading flower.”
After all these movies with Sweeney, Rose chuckles when asked about her shorthand with the director.
“I know the type of woman he is after,” said Rose. “I can almost know by a twitch of his eyebrow if he likes what’s coming out or doesn’t. And I don’t take it personally if he doesn’t like it. I know it’s never meant that way, He’s very direct and very honest and we move fast.”
Rose’s co-star, Camille Sullivan, has two Sweeney movies on her resume and says she wouldn’t hesitate to do more with the director.
“Everyone is very good at their jobs. Everyone knows their job,” said Vancouver’s Sullivan. “Everyone is there because they want to be. They love the script, and they just want to make something fun and enjoy each other’s company. That’s a big draw for me.”
In She Talks to Strangers, Rose plays a mother with a fractious and uncomfortable relationship with her daughter, played by Sullivan.
You can’t really say much else about the film without spoiler alerts.
Broad strokes: Leslie (Sullivan) is a single woman who lives with and focuses ferociously on her dog, John. Staci (Rose) is also alone and sees Leslie’s devotion to her dog as off-putting and insulting.
Leslie’s life is upturned when her shady ex-husband (Jeff Gladstone, also a Sweeney veteran) shows up and squats in her basement. Leslie’s once dull life disappears as her ex-husband’s nefarious plans are revealed.
“Going in, Bruce really wanted us to be a mother daughter that every interaction was a clash. Every interaction set off those kinds of deep-rooted sparks,” said Sullivan.
Rose says the tension between the characters was an easy exercise for her and her scene partner, who have played mother and daughter in three films, including Sweeney’s last movie Kingsway and previous to that, The Birdwatcher.
“In film, we’re both good at confrontation with each other. But if Camille really confronted me that way in my personal life, I’d be crushed,” said Rose. “But my character isn’t crushed by it at all. She’s just energized by it.”
Sweeney wrote the script with Rose and Sullivan in mind.
“I wanted to write a project for Gabe and Camille, basically a mother-daughter project. I wanted something that I knew they would crush. And they did,” said Sweeney.
Sullivan was happy to return to familiar familial territory with Rose.
“It’s a dream, it’s a dream. I would play her daughter in any movie any time, anywhere. She’s so incredible to work with. She has such a spirit of teamwork and she’s so much fun,” said Sullivan, who is currently shooting Season 3 of the NSFW Canadian TV comedy series Shoresy.
“We’re friends outside of working. And that friendship dynamic is not mother daughter. It’s very much like co-conspirator, colleague. She’s a riot. She’s hilarious to be around and she’s so game to do anything. And she’s so encouraging of me and my work.”
When asked about Sullivan, Rose returned the adoration and respect.
“I love her,” said Rose. “One, she is a great pal. And then, two, she is a beautiful actress. She is intuitive and fast and funny. Everything is real. Nothing comes from a phoney place. It’s never devised. She just is.”
She Talks to Strangers, which also stars a Sweeney regular, Agam Darshi, is Sweeney’s first film since Kingsway in 2019, something that Whistler Film Festival’s programming director Paul Gratton points out.
“I think there are far too many years between his features,” said Gratton, during a recent phone interview. “I think it is a return to what I would call Hitchcockian form. I think Gabrielle Rose has one of the great performances … I think she is bloody hilarious as the sweet little mom with the psychopathic soul.”
She Talks to Strangers is one of three B.C. world premieres at WFF. Joining Sweeney’s film, are Jeremy Lutter’s ZOE.mp4 and The Affolter Brothers’ Altona.
With over 1,900 submissions sent to WFF, the popularity of the festival circuit is as unwavering as it is necessary for the independent filmmaker.
“Festivals are hugely, critically important to me,” said Sweeney. “Theatrical in this country, for Canadian independents, is just a joke. In that way alone, festivals are super-important for a project like this.”
If you can’t make the festival in-person, a selection of films will be streamed online across Canada from Dec. 4-17.
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