„Chicas Tristes“ by Fernanda Tovar in this year’s 14Plus competition follows two girls on their journey to realize and cope with the sexual assault against one of them. After the film had premiered on the first Saturday of the Berlinale, some members of Generation Reports (fGR) had sat down to discuss the film. We all had been shaken and moved by the film. Meeting up with the director of the film, Fernanda Tovar, a few days later opened up new perspectives on this debut feature film.
fGR: I’ve read somewhere that it took you seven years to write the book. With it being such a sensitive topic, how do you deal with something like that, that is so intense and hurtful, over such a long time, without breaking, but still conveying hope through the film?
Fernanda Tovar: I broke a lot of times in the process, and almost gave up so many times. The last years were really frustrating as we were applying for funding and didn’t get it. It was very tough. Making a film is such a long process. You really have to make it about something that you are deeply passionate about. When I was getting a little bit bored about something in the film, I would put something else inside, like the tarot theme, or the brother, the dancing scenes.. This kept making it new for me, and challenging to write again, trying to make it better. In the end, I think it is more a compilation of the things I went through during the past eight years, like going to salsa lessons, loving tarot, etc. Obviously, the seed of the film was talking about the violence itself, but I think it transformed a lot during the whole process.
fGR: In the film, the audience realizes what has happened at the same time as the girls. Can you tell us more about your intention behind that?
I always wanted to have the point of view on them to not give the spectator a more informed version of what happened. By that the audience would learn through them, how difficult it is to learn and realize what has happened. In the film, I actually think it happens quite fast. In reality, it sometimes takes years.
I really did not want anyone to know more, as sometimes when this happens in real life to someone young, everyone knows best. Your mom, your aunt, everyone will tell you what to do. This is not what I wanted.
I also wanted to give Paula the right to hide from us, to hide her feelings, to hide what had happened to her, to disappear from the screen at times. I just naturally felt that this was the ethical approach when portraying someone going through this.
fGR: You chose to not place the slightest doubt in Paula’s side of the story — which is pretty much the opposite of what media would do (unfortunately). Can you tell us more about this perspective?
I did not really want to get into this „do we believe her, do we not“. I thought about how we would make everyone believe her. And it was quite obvious: the girl’s perspective. You never doubt your friend. I think it is so important to speak about this topic in a way that is not full of shame and guilt, but rather try to see the bright side.
fGR: On stage it felt like you all were very close. Did you do workshops to prepare the actors and to create a trusting atmosphere to address this sensitive topic?
After the casting, we rehearsed for three months. The girls learned swimming, because they did not know how to swim professionally. We also did a lot of improv sessions around the script, but never rehearsed the actual script. At the beginning, it was character building. Then we started doing some improvs around the subject. I was a bit scared, because I was not sure how to talk about this topic. I did not know if they had been through something like that. So, I really did not want to make them feel worse. In the end, they knew so much already. They understood what happened from reading the script, they understood why Laura and La Maestra did what they did. Actually, Rocio Guzmán, playing La Maestra, strongly disagreed with her character telling the dad, so this was a very hard scene to shoot for her.
We talked a lot about the subject, and violence, and how everyone felt, not only me and the girls, but the whole cast, the whole swimming team. Maybe that is what brought us closer. Everyone opened up at some point to tell a story about them, or friends, or their sister. We realized that we all had some connection to this story. This really motivated us to do this film.
The most important thing was communication, and being really, really open about what we were thinking, and how everyone was feeling. We did not have any guidance on set, but I have a very good friend who is a psychologist, specialized in women and gender violence. I was constantly talking to her. In the end, it actually was way more comfortable and easy than I thought it would be.
fGR: Can you explain a little bit more how the improvisation process was like? Did you improvise and then change the script accordingly?
Do you remember the scene with the chalk? In this scene the only thing that was written was the second part, where they talk about going to Brazil and the story about the girl who had a firework explode in her face. On that shooting day I said, let’s do an improv to warm up, while we started recording. They started painting and just talked and talked and talked about things like the sound of the universe. The whole improv is two hours long. We were just cutting, changing the camera battery, changing the memory card, and continued. Out of these two hours five minutes ended up in the film. Obviously, there were beautiful moments throughout those two hours, but how it is now is how I thought it worked best. Another example is the scene where they talk about Paula’s worries that the pill might not have worked for her. This originated from the girls’ casting process. The girls felt like the script was not speaking to them so I told them to just improvise. And parts of this beautiful conversation then made it into the actual script.
So, generally, it was a very healthy mix between improv and scripted, planned out sequences. Those improvised scenes gave them the opportunity to explore their characters. Afterwards, when they had to repeat dialogues that were written, they already had so much depth.
For me, those improv sessions were the best days of shooting. It was important for me to be open to realize when I had to do an improv, or when I would have to follow the script. I believe I felt them, and they wanted to go further, so I always tried to give them the freedom to just go for it, and do whatever they want.
fGR: It sounds like you gave the whole film a lot of time and space, I guess this is quite uncommon.
We shot in six weeks, which is not a lot, but for a film like this it is a good time. Of course, there were days where we were in a hurry. But usually, when I got home at night after shooting, I thought about the next days, and thought about where we should have an improv. We then rearranged the shooting days to have more time of certain scenes. Some scenes were shot in one hour while others were shot in two days.
fGR: There is so much detail in the composition. In the Q&A after the film you said, that every scene is completely thought through. It could have turned out to be completely overloaded, but instead it is very well balanced. How do you manage to strike that balance?
I kept imagining the film in my head, before shooting, and while we were shooting. Always trying to imagine the rhythm, closing my eyes for two hours and „watching“ the entire film. I did this all the time. This helped me to realize „oh no, tarot is coming up here, but it already was a topic three minutes ago“. So, I would have to cut out one of the scenes.
A lot also happened in the editing process. Since we did a lot of improv, half of the material we shot ended up on screen, the other half is still on the hard drive in Mexico.
The editing process is almost like writing your film all over again. It did not change much from the script, but those things of keeping the balance definitely happened in the editing room. Of course, it is hard to kick out so much of what you had already filmed, but it is for the better.
On the other hand, the detail in the framing was a lot of work before shooting. We took photos of every frame of the film beforehand, so on the shooting day we would already know what we were looking for. We still changed some things, but it was very planned.
fGR: How did you develop the character La Maestra‘ brother? How does that connect to the esoteric world?
He is a character that is very connected with Tarot and the esoteric world. He is kind of an urban shaman. I am very touched by a character like that, because many people in my life are like this, for example my father. The actor is actually the brother of my best friend, so I always wrote it with him in mind.
I always wanted to have a male character that was really empathetic and nice, because I did not want the film to feel like women against men. This male character was supposed to not be like what you expect from masculinity, this alpha-behavior, which we are seeing with the boys of the swimming team.
The character was further developed when we started rehearsing with the actor. He is a musician and a super creative, crazy guy, who had lots of ideas. He had an amazing chemistry with the girls, and it evolved nicely into what it is now.
fGR: Spirituality was a big subject of the film. How did you decide that this was going to be a subject? And not for example religion, as religion is what people often cling to if they go through hard times.
I did not want to make a movie that was super hard to watch. I thought that having these connections to magic would make the film lighter. When you’re going through something hard, you need something to believe in. At least for us, my generation, this is not religion. We all rather turn to astrology, tarot, etc. It felt like a real portrait of this younger perspective would include this.
I think it is important to have hope, so I wanted to have hopeful characters that had the ability to believe that they could be better, and that things will work out somehow. This opened the little window to hope.
fGR: You have so many powerful images in the scene. Did you have the images in your head, and then wrote the script. Or was it perhaps the other way around?
It happened both ways. Often images came first. For example, I thought it would be cool to have the girls floating in the water holding hands. So, how do we get there?
For some other things, it was super rational. The dancing scene, for example, where Paula tells La Maestra what had happened. This scene was very calculated and completely written like that. I was really nervous about directing the actors in such a difficult scene with dialogue. However, I had realized during my short films, that whenever an actor is doing something else, other than just sitting somewhere, they tended to act in a more unconscious way and didn’t think as much about the dialogue. So, I thought that it would be better for me and them if we had something going on. Hence, the dancing.
So, to come back to your question, I think some images are super intuitive, others are rational ideas where it was more of a work of how do we create a beautiful image around something.
I currently am writing again, and I feel like I only have images in my head. I’m curious if it is going to be the same, or if it will be different this time. I guess every film is different, ideas come from weird places, and you just have to be open to catch them.
fGR: Did you always plan to addressed a young audience with this film?
I always wanted to do the film I wished I had seen when I was 15. Whenever I was in doubt, I thought: Would my 15/16-year-old self like this?
I wanted to create a film for a young audience, that at the same time is not only for young people. Some of the craziest reactions around the film have come from older people. It seems like younger audiences were quicker to understand the characters, for example why Paula did not report it, which for me is quite obvious: if you don’t want to say anything, that is okay. But it has been very interesting to see the difference between different generations watching the film and listening to their reactions.
Generally, it has been really nice here at Generation. People who viewed the film could relate a lot to the film. For me, that is everything that I had dreamed about. Festivals are cool, prizes are cool, but in the end, you do it for people to watch them and feel things. If that works, that is the biggest compliment you can get.
fGR: The teenagers in the movie, Paula and La Maestra, were portrayed so truthfully to how teenagers actually are, or what I feel like teenagers actually are. Sometimes you go to a movie and the characters were written by a 50-year-old man somewhere. In „Chicas Tristes“ it all felt very real and very accurate, so thank you for that.
Thank you for telling me. I was very nervous about that, because I’m not a teenager anymore. I wanted to do a fair representation of teenagers, because when I was a teenager, I felt the same way as you, that these characters were written by an old dude. I thought „no one speaks like that, no one cares about this..“ There are so many things said about youth nowadays by old people, like they are always in love and they don’t care about anything. However, for me, it was the best surprise ever to work with all of these young actors. They were incredibly smart and committed and respectful. They are not getting a fair representation.
I’m watching films of young people doing horrible things and being completely unempathetic, but that is not true. At least that is not what I experienced during the shoot. I really wanted to do a film where people are nice and smart and good people. Because I believe that we need these kinds of stories in times where the world is so complex and dark.
fGR: How did the title come about? Did you have the title first and then wrote the script?
At the beginning, the title was „One Sad Girl“, like „Una Chica Triste“. Then I went to this script residency and my mentor asked me „Why is your film called A Sad Girl if there are two? They are both sad“. I realized that this is true, so I changed the title.
I chose „sad“, because it would open up questions as to why they are sad. What is the reason behind the sadness in girls, even if it is hidden? So, you would start watching the film and see happy girls, and would wonder what is going on. And then you begin understanding the reason behind a hidden sadness of women in general.
fGR: You have only done short films before. What is the difference between making a long film and a short film? What did you notice that is really different?
For my short films I did not plan as much. Last time, I did not even have a script. I just had a character, a rapper, that I followed around for three days. I felt much lighter during the whole process with more creative freedom. I could do whatever, because it was super cheap. Here, with this crazy budget, a crazy hundred-person team — I have never worked with so many people before — I was very worried about being able to find the same creative freedom with so many things on top of me, like time, money, people.. Before that, I usually was on set with three people and a camera. Here you had to move 20 people, the lights, everything. I felt we were losing so much time. This is when I figured that if we plan better, we will somehow have a chance to improvise, and have a certain freedom.
Another thing that I learned about myself — I think most people don’t talk about this — is that it is exhausting to do a feature film. In a short film, you shoot for maybe a week, and then you rest. Then you edit for a while. The processes are shorter. But here, I have been exhausted for the whole last year. I am completely burned out. Nobody talks about that, but it is incredibly tiring. So, resting and managing your own energy is important. And to be healthy. This is something I never had to pay attention to in this way before. I could go with no sleep during the entire shoot for a short film, that would be fine. But you cannot do that for six weeks.
fGR: As the message of the film is so important, hopefully this gets shown to a lot of people. What kind of is the trajectory do you have for this kind of film? If it was hard to fund, it might also not be easy to screen it?
Yeah, it’s hard. The cool thing about coming to a festival like this is that the film gets a lot of applause. It is easier then to grab distributors‘ attention. Right now we are going to go to other festivals around the world. Then I hope it gets distributed here, in France and Spain, at least. And there are also a couple of other countries where I hope it gets shown, and obviously Mexico, Brazil and Latin America. Getting your film to be seen feels like another mountain to climb in the process of creating it.
Having people talk about the film is super powerful as well. I mean, all our screenings are sold out. I think that is because people have been recommending the film.
A lot of people have asked me whether it is coming to Germany and I told them go talk to the German distributors. So, hopefully that will happen. And I hope for it to have a nice festival year, that will strengthen the film for eventually distributing it. We actually just got invited to a screening in Munich.
fGR: That’s great to hear! Thank you so much for being so open and good luck on your further journey!
