Local filmmaker premieres Sensitive Parts at the Globe
By Rachel Woodward, March 21 2017 —
Local filmmaker Brendan Prost will showcase his softer side with Sensitive Parts, a feature film premiering at the Globe Cinema on April 13.
The film explores the anxiety and mishaps that come with relationships, as Delore — played by Canmore-born Carolyn Yonge — must face her fears regarding her best friend and boyfriend. The dramatic comedy will make its debut in Calgary before travelling to Vancouver and Toronto for a national release.
Prost says he is excited to premiere the film in the city where he cut his teeth in film and theatre as a child.
“I got my start in my creative career as an actor on stage at Theatre Calgary and eventually got into acting for shows on television. At a certain point, my acting career ground to a halt because I was no longer the cute little boy and I became the homely man that I am today,” he says. “It was around that time that I was on set as an actor that I started taking an interest in the filmmaking process.”
Sensitive Parts isn’t the first project produced by Prost. His films Generation Why, Choch and Spaces and Reservations have all been screened at the Globe. After the April 13 premiere, there will be a Q&A with Prost and select cast members.
Prost’s film background was also influenced by the city of Vancouver, where Sensitive Parts was produced and where Prost received his undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University. He says the distinction between the film industries in Calgary and Vancouver makes a big difference in his work.
“The film community in Calgary is so wonderful because everybody can know one another and be involved in one another’s projects and can contribute in meaningful ways to them,” he says. “I love Vancouver, but Vancouver is a service industry town for the American film industry and there are a lot of filmmakers that live there and there’s a lot of competition. There’s a lot of judgement that goes on there, so whenever you’re screening work, it’s a constant pissing contest. It never feels like that in Calgary, which I really value.”
Prost says the story for Sensitive Parts came to fruition during a conversation in 2015 between him and Yonge about relationships. He says the film interacts with the idea of self-consciousness and how an individual can create an idea in their head and become self-destructive.
“Unfortunately what happens when her best friend is back in town and she introduces her best friend to her new boyfriend, they discovered that they had a less than platonic personal history,” he says. “This kind of disrupts her idea that she is a unique special person and also makes her feel small in comparison to her best friend. So Delore gets very carried away with her reaction and her self destructive impulses start to sabotage both relationships.”
The film introduces Fierce, a pop-star persona played by local actress Monice Peter, who acts as a sort of imaginary friend for Delore. Prost says this idea demonstrates how one’s anxieties can cause for them to get carried away in their own mind.
For Prost, film in Calgary is an important outlet for anyone creative. He has high hopes for what audiences will take away from the screening.
“Films are like any other art form that can come from your community and from your own backyard. As a matter of fact, they’re often more resonant and they’re more impactful to you because it’s speaking to your experience and your culture and your community and things like that,” he says. “I hope people when they come to a community screening of any kind of look and find it inspiring to think ‘I don’t have to go to Hollywood, I don’t have to go off to Toronto to make meaningful film work that will excite my peers and my neighbours and friends’.”
Sensitive Parts will play at the Globe Cinema on April 13 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available online or at the door for $10.
For more information visit sensitivepartsfilm.com