N.S. director mines 'deep, dark places' in new coming-of-age film

Nova Scotia director Stephanie Joline called a draft of her debut feature film "the risky draft" and never intended to show it to anyone.

But it's the version of the film audiences will see on the big screen today when Night Blooms opens in Halifax.

"I wrote all this crazy stuff in there … and I sat on it for a few days and then I went, 'That's the movie,'" she said.

Night Blooms is about a 17-year-old girl who has a relationship with the 40-something father of her best friend. The backdrop is small town Nova Scotia in the 1990s. 

It's not strictly autobiographical, but the film is influenced by some of Joline's experiences as a teen.

"I was one of those typical bad teenagers that just went out and got drunk and high and did stuff you weren't supposed to do," she said. 

The story of a rebellious teenager isn't an original idea, Joline said, but she hoped opening up about the mistakes she made back then would resonate with people.

For a long time, those experiences felt off limits.

"I'm really learning how to be compassionate with myself, and just be like, yeah, I made some mistakes that I used to be very embarrassed of … but overdramatized versions of some of my mistakes are now in a movie."

Even though Night Blooms is set three decades ago, it wades into some contemporary issues, like consent. But it doesn't draw any easy conclusions. 

"I really love the grey area, and I especially like going into that grey, murky area when people don't want me to," said Joline, who has also worked as an editor and videographer with CBC Nova Scotia.

This kind of fearless and personal storytelling is something that Joline remembers learning during a screenwriting class with Andrea Dorfman. 

Dorfman, a well-known film director and animator, encouraged the students to "go to a place of shame and embarrassment" because that's what resonates with people.

"I think we allow ourselves that incredible space and freedom and weightlessness that happens when we let go of shame, and realize that, 'Oh yeah, everybody feels this,'" Dorfman said.

At first, it was a frightening idea to Joline, who at the time was struggling with an eating disorder she had kept to herself.

She decided to write about it in a script that she eventually showed to a few friends. It became her first short film.

Joline ended up acting in Dorfman's 2014 film Heartbeat. 

Night Blooms stars Jessica Clement and American actor Nick Stahl, who Joline met on the set of the movie Afghan Luke. 

Stahl is best known for his role in the 2003 sci-fi action film, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

The two bonded over a love of Canadian Indie music. Once Joline had written the character of Wayne, she knew she wanted to ask Stahl to play the part. 

Clement plays the lead character Carly, a teen who desperately wants to be a rock star, but lacks the discipline to learn how to play an instrument. 

Clement said her character makes a lot of choices she wouldn't make, but Joline helped her understand the motivations behind them. 

"I didn't hate the character but I definitely was annoyed with her at times," Clement said. 

She told this to Joline at one point during production, not realizing that Carly is based loosely on the filmmaker's own life.

"And I was like, 'Oh, I've got to backpedal,'" Clement chuckled. "But she's very open about how her teenage life was, and she kind of really honed into that when she was writing ... the embarrassing things that maybe she wouldn't have shared otherwise. I think those are the things that really sell this story the most."

Joline knows not everyone will like her film, but she's proud that she's made something that feels real.

"I don't think I could have made it feel that real if I wasn't going to some deep, dark places that feel very personal," she said.