Demitra \u2018Demi\u2019 Kampakis | Film Editor<\/p>\n
As the opening credits of BARE<\/i> unfold, writer-director Natalia Leite instantly transports us inside the underground allure of a Nevada truck stop strip club.\u00a0 With its whirling array of glossy lights flashing against the pounding beats of club tunes, this space instantly transforms from a seedy nightlife interior into an intoxicating neon oasis rife with temptation, seduction, and the allure of reckless abandon.\u00a0 Juxtaposed against the parched, bleached-out and barren desert landscapes that dominate the daytime, and it becomes clear that Nevada is as integral to this film as its characters\u2014a dynamic presence with as many faces and personalities as the people who reside in it.\u00a0 Indeed, Leite gets potent mileage out of this spatial consciousness, and she effectively uses the vivid, contrasted Nevada tableaux to inform the film\u2019s narrative, as well as enrich its visual tapestry and the world her characters inhabit.<\/p>\n
Leite\u2019s film directorial debut stars Dianna Agron as Sarah Barton, a disillusioned Nevada townie who finds herself utterly unfulfilled in every aspect of her life: with a vapid job as a cashier at an equally dismal local supermarket, an estranged father, a depressed mother, maddeningly dull friends, and a boyfriend who doesn\u2019t seem to satisfy her libido or stimulate her mind, Sarah becomes increasingly dejected from both the stifling banality of her life, and her town\u2019s limited worldview and opportunity.\u00a0 Determined to break free from the shackles of conformity and complacency that plague her surroundings, she languidly passes her days in search of something to jolt her out of her fugue state and give her life the purpose and passion she so desperately craves.<\/p>\n
That spark soon comes in the form of Pepper (Paz de la Huerta, in her usual air of spacey badass vixen), a sexy drifter whose dodgy yet colorful past, charisma, and spontaneity seem to mystify the more reserved Sarah and ease her existential ennui.\u00a0 Broke and on the run from a mounting debt, Pepper ingratiates herself into Sarah\u2019s mundane existence and introduces her to the hedonistic thrills of sex and drugs, and the insights of spirituality.\u00a0 Entranced by Pepper\u2019s free-spirited nature, Sarah\u2019s curious intrigue quickly develops into a deep, mutual affection, and the two women soon find themselves in the throes of an intense affair.\u00a0 Choosing to no longer be a passive bystander to her own life, our young heroine falls deeper into Pepper\u2019s world, seeking exhilaration and sexual liberation as a stripper while further isolating herself from friends and family.<\/p>\n
In an impressive display of stylistic synergy, the film\u2019s cinematography, editing, and art direction come together to inform Sarah\u2019s narrative arc in ways that are visceral and illuminating.\u00a0 Its vibrant visuals and lush vistas beautifully backdrop our hero\u2019s journey to finding her inner tempest\u2014and in one particularly memorable scene involving a peyote-fueled tryst in the desert, Leite plays with the scenery\u2019s natural exoticism to create an atmosphere of sensual mysticism and animalistic carnality, as a nude Sarah frolics in the sand while entwined with a snake.\u00a0 Most remarkable, however, is a brisk edit in the film\u2019s third act, when Sarah, in an act of quiet defiance, decides to finally disengage from her friends\u2019 narrow-minded judgments and petty gossip. \u00a0Standing up to quietly leave the baby shower she\u2019s attended, she exits the front door and emerges through another in an entirely different location and scene.\u00a0 By preserving the continuity of Sarah\u2019s actions, this seamless editing technique visually mirrors our protagonist\u2019s new found independence.\u00a0 At times, cutting off ties and leaving parts of one\u2019s life in the past comes with the territory of self-assertion, an act of catharsis that Sarah understands to be a necessary evil in claiming agency over her identity and her life, as she walks down the winding road to her unknown future.<\/p>\n Shortly after the film\u2019s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. Leite and co-producer Alexandra Roxo, who plays drug-loving Texan stripper Ginger in the film.\u00a0 Since meeting at a queer party in Brooklyn a few years back, the two Brazilian natives have closely collaborated on multiple projects together including documentaries for VICE<\/i> and the web series Be Here Nowish<\/i>, which they co-write and star in under their Purple Milk production company.\u00a0 Given that this talented duo are on the fast track to being the future of female-driven indie filmmaking, I was eager to pick their brains on the creative process of filming, feminism and spirituality, and what it\u2019s like to be on the same artistic wavelength.<\/p>\n How did you get on board with this film?<\/b><\/p>\n Natalia: <\/b>This is the first feature film I wrote, and I went through a million revisions and renditions of the script.\u00a0 I came from a visual arts background and had studied photography and performance before I decided to get into film.\u00a0 Even though Bare<\/i> isn\u2019t autobiographical, the script is definitely inspired by relationships and events in my life\u2014more an allegory, if you will.\u00a0 And when I met Alexandra, I shared the script with her.\u00a0 After being cast aside by many producers, finally we went ahead and decided \u201clet\u2019s do it!\u201d<\/p>\n Alexandra<\/b>: Natalia and I had been working together for a while by the time this project truly took off, and at the time we met, we were both working on our own feature scripts.\u00a0 I read an early draft of Bare<\/i>, and she read my script for Mary Marie<\/i>, <\/i>and we gave each other feedback while also beginning to collaborate on other projects together.\u00a0 Finally, after some frustrating delays, we just pushed forward with this film.\u00a0 It was very challenging, but very rewarding.<\/p>\n How is feature film different from music video, documentary, fashion films or web-series formats, for which you have prior experience?<\/b><\/p>\n N: I definitely think I use similar themes in all my work, so it\u2019s consistent in that way.\u00a0 Be Here Nowish<\/i> is a collaboration effort with Alexandra, and with music videos you also work closely with others\u2014so there\u2019s other creative voices as well.\u00a0 Web series allow you to be a bit more free form, whereas with feature films, structure becomes so much more important, and you have to be really tight as a whole since scenes do get cut.<\/p>\n A: For Natalia and I, dabbling in various projects has allowed us to build our brand, and fortunately our work and themes have come to us rather than us seeking it out.\u00a0 But it\u2019s really more about the material itself and the heart of our work, rather than a particular awareness of the medium used.<\/p>\n Though it does have its darkly funny moments, Bare<\/i> is certainly a more serious film, as was Marie Mary<\/i>\u2014whereas Be Here Nowish<\/i> is a comedy.\u00a0 Is it easier to utilize humor, or work with the conventions of drama?<\/b><\/p>\n N: I think it\u2019s sort of easier to do comedy, because there\u2019s a fine line with drama\u2014people have to be really invested for it to work, while comedy can still be fun and entertaining even if you\u2019re not necessarily as invested in the characters.\u00a0 But with drama you REALLY have to feel something, you know, so that\u2019s definitely more of a challenge.\u00a0 Even with this film it was important to include some comedic moments caused by the simple awkwardness of the two characters coming together, and the satire of it.<\/p>\n A: A lot of the comedy in Be Here Nowish<\/i> is taken from our own lives and the ridiculous, hilarious situations we encounter in real life.\u00a0 Yet the story of Bare<\/i> didn\u2019t lend itself to that\u2014it\u2019s more about a particular moment in someone\u2019s life.\u00a0 The same goes for Mary Marie<\/i>, which explores the boundaries between female friendship and romance.\u00a0 The cool thing about our collaboration is that we have been able to do different things and experiment with multiple genres\u2014it\u2019s such a bummer when a director has to strictly choose because at the end of the day, our lives are full of drama, comedy, and tragedy\u2014so why should we be forced to stick to one thing?<\/p>\n This film assumes a very sex-positive outlook, and Ginger particularly embodies that sexualized female empowerment. Would you consider your work to be feminist?<\/b><\/p>\n N: That\u2019s a good question, and that really depends on how people define feminism because I think that word has taken on so many definitions through the decades, and for me I would say I don\u2019t like to put that label because it can be misinterpreted.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about the story and not necessarily about a specific message we\u2019re going after, you know?\u00a0 But of course I want to do what empowers women because I want women to feel empowered\u2014that\u2019s important in society, so if that is feminism then yes, I would say so.\u00a0 At the same time, I also think that we haven\u2019t seen Paz in a role quite like this, where she\u2019s not using her sexuality to get what she wants\u2014she has to be able to manipulate situations and be magnetic and attractive in other ways.\u00a0 And even for the character of Sarah, I think that by her working in a strip club, she\u2019s being more real and true to herself, so I think that in terms of creating multi-faceted roles for women, my work reflects that part of feminism.<\/p>\n A: The word \u2018feminist\u2019 has changed and lived in so many different iterations, and I think that I have definitely called myself a feminist since I was young\u2014I just find the current iteration of it to be a little bit problematic, so I think Natalia and I both don\u2019t necessarily identify with that current language as is.\u00a0 We prefer to just tell strong stories and have great characters going through real problems and real emotions.\u00a0 At the end of the day, that\u2019s more important than whether or not our work has a feminist agenda, because we\u2019re just making work that we love\u2014and if it happens to be sort of provocative in that way, then cool.\u00a0 Once while on location at the strip club featured in Bare<\/i> for an episode of VICE<\/i>, we had some people preaching to us that we were too feminist, while others were saying we weren\u2019t feminist enough.\u00a0 I remember thinking \u201cwow, this is a really interesting conversation to have\u201d\u2014but at the same time you can\u2019t please everyone, so we instead want our work to shed light on individual subjective experiences that are isolated from any larger agenda.<\/p>\n There was a stark contrast in the film between the love scene depictions involving Sarah and her boyfriend, and those with Sarah and Pepper.\u00a0 How did you approach each?<\/b><\/p>\n N: Well, I see that in the beginning Sarah is with this boyfriend, and maybe there\u2019s not a lot of passion in her life, and that carries out in her relationship.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that she doesn\u2019t like him or doesn\u2019t want to be with him, but that she is just lacking passion in her life as a whole.\u00a0 And Pepper is someone who is very alive, and very interesting\u2014almost like an alien in her town\u2014so the relationship with them becomes more about how different and intriguing this is for Sarah, rather than it mattering whether she\u2019s with a man or a woman.\u00a0 The love scene with Pepper, then, had to be this sexual awakening for Sarah, she had to feel like she was really ripping off a layer of herself\u2014which I wanted to relay through that really deep orgasm\u2014while images of Paz in the desert are being intercut.\u00a0 This light is flaring on her, and as Sarah is consumed by euphoria, Paz becomes sort of this animal instinct.<\/p>\n Speaking of, there\u2019s a very animalistic\u2014but also humanistic\u2014balance in the film. Like Be Here Nowish<\/i>, sexual fluidity seems to be at the forefront and isn\u2019t necessarily defined through any labels, or even directly addressed.\u00a0 Is that ambiguity an important factor in your work?<\/b><\/p>\n N: Yeah, it\u2019s present in all the work that I\u2019m creating or what I\u2019m attempting to do because I think, Sarah is in a box, so she\u2019s not going to leave one box to go into another box.\u00a0 She\u2019s not going to say, \u2018Oh, you know what? I think I\u2019m gay,\u2019 or \u2018I think I\u2019m bisexual.\u2019\u00a0 That\u2019s all that matters.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a story of her figuring out what other box she fits into, but rather just being able to get past those labels.\u00a0 I think their emotional connection is more unique to their circumstance than it is reflective of a greater \u2018lesbian dynamic\u2019 because this particular story is about this character being totally raw and vulnerable with another person, who just happens to be a woman.<\/p>\n The film makes many symbolic associations between the desert and bodies of water.\u00a0 It\u2019s an effective visual metaphor for the mysteries that lie within the ocean\u2019s abyss, which can be scary but also exotic and hopeful\u2014as opposed to the disillusionment and emptiness conveyed by the arid desert, the sense of wasted potential and being dried up and withered away.\u00a0 Can you elaborate on that duality?<\/b><\/p>\n N: There were a lot of visual metaphors that we were working with.\u00a0 Like you pointed out, Sarah wants to be part of another world, and that is certainly woven into the film; where we see Sarah swimming on the floor of the supermarket as part of a daydream, Pepper talking about how octopuses are her spirit animals, and finally as the two are swimming in a pool together amidst the blue light that bathes them, which translates Sarah\u2019s desire to completely immerse herself in this other world.\u00a0 So thank you for noticing that [chuckles].<\/p>\n Of course!\u00a0 While we\u2019re on the topic of visual metaphors, there is a great symmetry in the way the cinematography alternates between the saturated color schemes of the club and nightlife scenes, and the more muted hues of the outdoor desert.\u00a0 Had you known early on that you would use this visual dichotomy?<\/b><\/p>\n N: After mapping out a bunch of reference images with our DP Tobias Dayton and our production designer Lisa Myers, we agreed that Sarah\u2019s world and her town should be very monochromatic and more starkly flat.\u00a0 Whereas for the club the intention wasn\u2019t necessarily seedy, but more alluring and sexy and almost confusing because it\u2019s a little psychedelic, so when we did our color session for the film we totally bumped up those colors to make them more intense.\u00a0 Certainly this club wouldn\u2019t exist in real life, but that\u2019s exactly what we were going for.<\/p>\n Almost like a fantasy\u2014which relates to the film\u2019s overall flirtation with mysticism and references to spirituality, not to mention two ethereal and surreal fantasy sequences.<\/b><\/p>\n N: Exactly, as a way to emphasize that this story is through Sarah\u2019s point of view\u2014we are seeing and experiencing what Sarah is seeing and experiencing.<\/p>\n Any upcoming solo or collaborative projects in the works?<\/b><\/p>\n A: Natalia and I just shot and are currently editing season 2 of Be Here Nowish<\/i>, which has deeper and fuller character arcs than season 1.\u00a0 We tried writing it as close as possible to how it would be written for television since that\u2019s our ultimate goal\u2014so there\u2019s actually a bit of drama this season in addition to the comedy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little nerve-wracking since we\u2019re taking greater risks this time, but I\u2019m excited.\u00a0 We\u2019re also thinking about writing a script for a thriller together which should be very interesting, and solo-wise, I just finished working on 4 episodes for The Knick\u2019s <\/i>upcoming season\u2014so I can\u2019t wait to see how it all comes together!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Following festival buzz of their sexy and stylish new film starring Dianna Agron and Paz de la Huerta, this talented Brooklyn-based queer duo has cemented themselves as the new faces of future female-driven indie filmmaking. Featured Image:\u00a0Dianna Agron and Paz de la Huerta as Sarah and Pepper in BARE.\u00a0 Purple Milk Productions. 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