Jenna, the primary character in Emily Kent’s transfixing quick movie “Clear Woman,” appears to be doing all the pieces proper: She will get loads of train, retains her residence meticulous, and consumes each protein and plentiful self-care content material. The title refers back to the “clear lady” aesthetic, in style on TikTok, that emphasizes a minimalist way of life of magnificence and obvious effortlessness.

However within the movie, which performs at present on the Poppy Jasper Movie Competition, exterior interruptions preserve disturbing Jenna’s peace. She’s had a current breakup, her neighbors are annoying, and the TikToks she hopes will preserve her calm as a substitute ship anxiousness.

Kent drew on a disturbing interval in her personal life to jot down and direct the movie, by which Selene Winter Rose performs Jenna with a skillful mixture of vulnerability and management. Although Jenna by no means lets us into her internal ideas, the movie does, as onscreen textual content shows her anxieties.

Kent not too long ago accomplished her MFA in Cinema at San Francisco State College, about an hour north of the beautiful cities that host Poppy Jasper — Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy, Hollister, and San Juan Bautista. The pageant, celebrating its twentieth version, is in part of California the place wineries meet Silicon Valley. “Clear Woman” is a sometimes impressed selection for the well-curated fest.

We requested Kent about drawing on actual life, avoiding emotions, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Emily Kent on Making Her Brief Movie ‘Clear Woman’

MovieMaker: You mentioned on the “Clear Woman” Kickstarter web page that it’s based mostly on a time once you, like Jenna, had been coping with a breakup whereas working for a startup. Not like your character, you had been additionally making a movie. You wrote, “It was an inconvenient time for emotions, so I embraced my pure inclination to censor them.” That feels very common in a time when it’s really easy to only placed on a video or podcast or to grind by means of each second of the day. How did you arrive at this story as a approach to categorical that feeling? 

Emily Kent: I began writing “Clear Woman” as a brief story train for a manufacturing class I used to be in the place the main focus was sound design. I wished to point out simply how simple and destabilizing it may be to spend your complete day disconnected from what is going on round you. I began with the thought of somebody carrying noise-canceling earbuds all day lengthy, which is a reasonably widespread sight in a metropolis like San Francisco.

I do it too; you must, typically, as a result of it might get loud. However as I used to be writing the story, this picture took on numerous symbolism and I feel it expresses fairly effectively the lengths all of us go to with a view to keep away from our emotions.

MovieMaker: This has a really well-executed twist, and also you construct to with this cool sense of menace that comes from one thing I feel all of us undergo — this pursuit of psychological hygiene that may really feel very chaotic, as a result of it includes studying and watching a variety of issues that could be counter-productive. With out revealing the twist, when within the course of do you know what it might be?

Emily Kent: I knew it from the beginning! There’s a selected Edgar Allen Poe story (no spoilers!) that impressed me to jot down the movie, and I truthfully suppose there’s nothing extra macabre than the clear ladies I used to be seeing on TikTok on the time. Edgar Allen Poe would love clear ladies. There’s an eerie form of avoidance that’s inherent to that beige way of life of maximized productiveness that fascinated me and made me need to dive deeper, because it had been…

MovieMaker: What filmmakers (or different artists) do you actually like and take inspiration from? 

Emily Kent: I’m a giant Altman nerd and I took a variety of inspiration from 3 Girls for this movie. His movies have a means of capturing the zeitgeist with out being trite, and Shelley Duvall’s character, Millie, actually embodies what was en vogue on the time for ladies, to a sickening diploma. Clearly I see clear ladies the identical means.

Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman additionally served as inspiration. I attempted for some longer takes in my movie, and I’m undecided how efficient they’re in a 14-minute quick. However Akerman’s framing of Jeanne Dielman’s character and the gradual disintegration of her rituals had been a supply of inspiration for me.

MovieMaker: How did you discover your wonderful lead?

Emily Kent: My pal Teresa Fabbricino, who was a producer on the movie, was serving to me run auditions and he or she informed me that certainly one of her shut mates from faculty can be the proper Jenna. That was Selene Winter Rose! Selene despatched me a self-tape that completely embodied the position and it was clear after I talked to her that she felt large empathy for Jenna, so I knew the position was hers! Selene and I additionally didn’t have a lot rehearsal time collectively, however she jumped proper in and understood what she needed to do, day one.

MovieMaker: I favored using the textual content to replicate her anxieties. It’s like one thing from previous advertisements, or comics, but in addition feels very on-line. How did you arrive at that storytelling system?

Emily Kent: Talking of empathy! I wanted to provide the viewers a approach to actually put themselves in Jenna’s sneakers and I believed through the use of subtitles they’d hear Jenna’s ideas in their very own voice, pushing them to empathize with somebody they may not in any other case relate to.

My pal Kamila Abdygapparova turned Jenna’s ideas into colourful, animated subtitles that dance across the body so, because the viewer, your eye isn’t on the backside of the display for very lengthy. Subtitles had been additionally a necessity since a lot of the movie’s sound was by means of Jenna’s headphones and LOUD. I wasn’t positive they might work at first, and I used to be able to document Jenna’s ideas as voiceover, however I’m actually impressed with what we ended up attaining.

MovieMaker: Your Kickstarter for this movie explains that you simply’re “a filmmaker and barista based mostly in San Francisco the place she is ending her Cinema MFA at San Francisco State.” It sounds virtually just like the romanticized dream — you’ve a strong day job, and go away room to your artwork, whereas dwelling in a giant, adventurous place. I didn’t understand it was even potential anymore in a metropolis as costly as San Francisco. How laborious is it to make it work?

Emily Kent: Yeah, that does sound good doesn’t it! Since ending grad faculty my life has been trying much more 9 to five, and truthfully I’m a bit too anxious about cash proper now to search out the house for brand new inventive initiatives. It does really feel like a little bit of a self-imposed detox from the overwhelming expertise of being in an MFA program for 4 years (allegedly it’s a three-year program).

MovieMaker: Was this made as an SFSU venture? How was your SFSU expertise, and the way’s your native movie neighborhood general? Does Poppy Jasper really feel native, or distant?

Emily Kent: Sure, this was my thesis venture for the Cinema MFA program at SFSU. I feel I might say that it’s actually true that you simply get out of it what you place into it, however it was intense and a little bit bizarre at occasions — normally in an entertaining means. That mentioned, I’m fairly pleased with what I achieved, and with this venture specifically, the neighborhood of my cohort actually was invaluable, specifically, Josh Park who produced and edited the movie.

I’m nonetheless determining the place I match within the native movie neighborhood; I’ve produced a pair pleasant quick movies since graduating, however I’m nonetheless determining what’s subsequent for me. And sure, Poppy Jasper does really feel far! I needed to Google the place Morgan Hill is!

Important picture: Selene Winter Rose in “Clear Woman,” written and directed by Emily Kent. Courtesy of the filmmaker.