EMMA ZUCK is a filmmaker and writer. She is wrapped up in the sentimental— unraveling themes of identity, home, queerness, and growing pains. Her thesis film Adagio premiered at Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, taking home the Air Canada Short Film Award. She has had the pleasure of working with CBC, Bell Media, PostMedia, and Angel Entertainment. As well as recent endeavors into programming, hosting Homegrown, a community screening featuring Saskatchewan filmmakers with proceeds going to local charities.
She sees poetry all around her, focusing on life’s subtleties in her work. Her favourite part of filmmaking is the many hands it takes, she hopes to nurture community both on set and in theaters. And to make every project a labor of love.
How did you go about writing for and directing something as visually technical as ballet?
I actually grew up doing ballet, so a lot of it was pulling from memory and choosing a choreographer we could lean on. But honestly, it was really scary and definitely the most daunting part of the film. So if any ballerinas watch this, go easy. Our lead, Selina, was a champ and did a lot of extra prep on her own time, and ultimately it was being very flexible with expectations and making sure first and foremost that Selina was safe and wouldn't injure herself.
Because dancing on point is no joke.
Still from Adagio
I found that sound (or lack thereof) seemed to be a very deliberate storytelling device for your film - can you speak more to that?
Silence became very deliberate in the desire to speak to the things left unsaid, or things that we cannot say, but also because breath was an important part of the film. I thought a lot about how tension is held in the body. In ballet, you're holding a certain posture, isolating different muscle groups. It's physically very difficult. And when you're coming into your queerness, I feel like your body is speaking to you and you're noticing.
When does my heart rate speed up? When do I relax? In both of these scenarios, you are uncomfortable. You're tense, but you have to hide it. And breath reveals a lot. So I wanted the audience to breathe with faith, to feel in their own body. And that requires a lot of silence.
Still from Adagio
What filmmakers have inspired you?
Some filmmakers that inspire me, Fawzia Mirza, Greg Araki, Isaac Chung, of course, Wong Kar wai, Celine Sciamma, Barry Jenkins, to name a few.
What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?
My advice to emerging filmmakers would just be to write all the time. It doesn't even need to be scripts. It could be short stories or poetry or stream of consciousness. But the more you stretch that muscle, the less daunting the practice becomes. And for me at least, the less fear you have of writing something bad because you've written so much. It's all just stuff. Some that you'll keep and use and some that needed to come out to further distill your idea.
Still from Leveled
What is next for you?
I'm currently home in Saskatoon working on a new film called stubble for an art exhibit, and that's an experimental documentary about gender that asks people, when do you wish to be soft? When do you long to be rough, and when are you both at the same time?
Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Asya Twahir
*This article has been edited for clarity