Clara Pasieka and her new film at Cannes Film Festival 2013

Cannes is no doubt one of the most important film festivals in the world, and to any artist it is a real honor to be there. This year’s Cannes Film Festival started on May 15th and will be closed on May 26th.

Clara Pasieka, a Toronto based actress, writer and filmmaker, co-chair of Young Emerging Actors Assembly (YEAA), is going to Cannes with her new short film Pretty Thing, a drama in which she plays the leading female role. The film will premiere at Cannes this Monday, May 20th, at 1.30pm. The short drama Pretty Thing is not one of the 10 films competing for the Palme d’Or (no Canadian films are this year), but Canada is certainly being represented in the out of competition screenings. Pretty Thing is part of “Canada: Talent Tout Court”, a program that Telefilm pushed for so more Canadian stories would be reaching more international players and audiences.

Pretty Thing is an imaginative short film following the erratic memories of an old man and the unhappy reality about the girl he loved. Lewis reflects on last moments and broken truths surrounding the butterflies escaped from the mouth of the girl who got away.

The directors and the script writers of Pretty Thing are Matthew Defilippis and Elisa Mirabelly. Clara Pasieka’s co-stars in this film are Nicholas Markesnis and John A. Petitti. The directors, the producers, one of the actor leads and Clara Pasieka herself are all really young, under 30.

Clara Pasieka says about this fiction film: “Most of the film is told through its vivid imagery, including a beautiful shot where memories of our love story play out on my bare back as we lie in bed together. I’m curious how international audiences and distributors will feel about the film. The great thing is, the images communicate in a universal language and I think that the story reads even on mute.” She also shares that this is the first time she has had a film at Cannes. “As actors we often don’t know where our work will go, what life it will have. This venture certainly turned out to be worth it!”, Clara says. After shooting this film with cinematographer Kelly Jeffrey, Clara Pasieka hired him to shoot her own film, Bejide, because she thought he was really special. Bejide, the first short film produced by Clara Pasieka, was featured at ReelWorld Film Festival 2013 in Toronto last month.

Pretty Thing was shot entirely in Ontario, Canada, mostly on a farm in Tottenham, in the middle of winter, mostly outdoors. It was freezing, Clara Pasieka shares. How Canadian! It’s 12 minutes long and it was made in HD, in June 2012. Other festivals where this short film was showcased at were Black Maria Film Festival (Director’s Citation Selection), Spirit Quest Film Festival, WIFT Short Film Showcase.

Clara Pasieka in short film "Pretty Thing"

Photo credit: Courtesy of Alyssa Buttarazzi