Redemption through a sexually transmitted disease?
Youre about to get That Burning Feeling, the most non-saccharine romantic comedy youll probably ever watch.
The début film by Vancouver director Jason James is about a young man who finds love while in the midst of the painful process: he has to tell the many women with whom hes recently had casual sex that he might have given them something more than just the quick brush-off the morning after.
I wanted to do a romantic comedy about the least romantic thing possible, says James, who also worked with SFU film school grad Nick Citton on the script.
That Burning Feeling explores what happens when you think youre in the place youre supposed to be and youre still not happy, James said at the recent media launch of the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Adam Murphy (Paulo Constanzo) is, on the surface, living the dream life of a successful single young professional. Money? Hes got it. Relationships? Who needs them when its easy to just have sex?
But then his doctor (Jay Brazeau) tells Adam that he has an STD and its time to get re-acquainted with his recent liaisons. (If gonorrhea was on Facebook, the doctor says, trying to cheer Adam up, it would have 450 million friends.)
Adam only knows how to physically connect with women, James says of his lead character. But as soon as he doesnt sleep with them and gets to know them [while telling them about his STD], he finds out theyre interesting.
Love comes, not easily, in the form of Liv (Ingrid Haas), a tough legal aid worker who happens to be fighting his ex-employer over a planned condo development.
The film is highly polished for a young director who, as one of the producers, scrambled for financing. The experience of filming on a budget, however, turned out to be a liberating one. There were no line-ups of trailers parked on Vancouver streets for the filming of a one-minute scene. No made-to-measure film sets. Instead, there were creative ways to save money that ended up making the film better, James says.
As the film became smaller and smaller, it became truer and truer, he says. For instance, instead of building a set for a café, he found the perfect one (the Wilder Snail in Strathcona). When the script called for a scene at a basketball game, which would have required lots of extras, James switched it to a fencing match, which made it funnier. Brazeaus three scenes were shot in a day (not difficult to do when working with such a pro.)
It was letting these guys find the material and giving them room to play with it, James says. In the search for authenticity, you become creative in your limitations.
That Burning Feeling is part of the Vancouver International Film Festival and will first be released in six cities in 2014. Its also been picked up by the Movie Network and Movie Central. James current project is producing Mountain Man, a dysfunctional family comedy that turns into a survival film. Its shooting this winter.
That Burning Feeling screens Sept. 29 at 6:30pm and Oct. 11 at 3:30pm at the Rio Theatre and Oct. 5 at 4pm at SFU Woodwards. Tickets at VIFF.org. Jason James will participate in VIFFs Film and Television Forum panel Canuck First-Time Feature Film Directors on Oct. 5 at 11am. Tickets here.
