Interview with Sherren Lee

Photo Credit: Kristina Ruddick

Director Sherren Lee is currently absolutely killing it with her award-winning and critically- acclaimed short film "The Things You Think I'm Thinking". The film has screened in several festivals around the world and has received multiple accolades and awards including the Best Canadian Short at the 2018 Inside Out Film Festival and the AWFJ EDA Award for Best-Female Directed Short at the 2017 Whistler Film Festival. It has also been in competition at over twenty festivals including Slamdance 2018 and SXSW 2018.  I was lucky enough to have a chance to chat with her. Check out our Q&A below:

What did you learn about yourself and your craft while making The Things You Think I'm Thinking? 
Before making the film, I had not met anyone like Prince or worked with anyone who is differently abled. Prince’s courage, generosity and open heart really put a spotlight on the discomfort I felt when first interacting with him, making me examine why I had those feelings and how those feelings reflected more about me than about him. In terms of my craft, I'm always looking for new ways of telling a story. In this piece, I chose to shoot with anamorphic lenses as I wanted to hold both characters in the frame as much as possible, without cutting back and forth too much. I had a really great time looking for ways of holding one shot for a long time while continually moving the camera. That was very exciting to accomplish. 

How do you hope viewers will feel watching this? 
If this film can help audiences have more empathy and be less uncomfortable interacting with people with disability, or simply, people who are different than them, then that would be enough. But if we can look inward, examine the assumptions we make about other people, and reflect on how much of that is merely a projection of our own demons, I think we could probably change the world that way. 

Would you consider turning this short film into a feature in the future? 
Jesse LaVercombe, the screenwriter, is currently drafting the feature screenplay! I'm really excited to see what he comes up with.