After a conversation about childhood ambitions with her friends,
fourth-year graduate directing student Abigail Severance realized
she’s not anywhere near what her twenty-year-old self
imagined she would be. Not that she’s complaining.
Her 17-minute short film is screening in competition at the
Sundance Film Festival, which starts Thursday. Severance’s
trek to Park City, Utah is a validation of a work which has largely
been rooted in non-profit activism.
“I definitely come from a school of thought where anything
you do has political content because of the choices that
you’re making,” Severance said. “I think (my
films) have political content, but it’s that kind that comes
from human experience.”
Severance’s undergraduate career took place during the
first Bush administration, when she found herself in anti-war
organizations. She even went so far as to major in Latin American
studies, a decision influenced by her passion against the American
activity in Central America.
“I don’t think I had any idea as an undergrad what
one might do with a social science type of degree,” Severance
said. “I think I wanted to work at a non-profit
(organization) and be an activist.”
Severance continues her activism through film, although
she’s more interested in making good films than political
films. Her films often deal with female characters and their
sexuality.
That’s why the work screening at Sundance, “Come
Nightfall,” is a bit of a departure. All of the characters
are white males in rural America (she shot it in a remote part of
Thousand Oaks). Written and directed by Severance, the film shows a
young man coming to terms with questions of his sexuality through a
meeting with a former Rodeo rider.
“Whether (the main character) is gay or not, he’s an
outsider,” Severance said. “Here is this white male,
you think should be an insider.”
“We live in a masculine world and the way we move through
the world has to do with the way mostly men have set up that world.
It’s the whole experience of living in a world that is set up
in a way that it isn’t about you, but you live there
anyway,” Severance added.
Severance grew up in rural Connecticut and later studied in
Massachusetts and San Francisco. Her interest in photography is
what led her into film, what she considers a more serious medium.
Now she’s working on her thesis film, a modern gay take on
the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
“There’s only a few big themes in the world,”
Severance said. “There’s family, love, death, war. I
like taking these classic things and putting them in the context
where you’re questioning, “˜Where do I fit into all of
this?'”
Severance went to Sundance last year when another short film was
included in what she called a Sundance “sidebar”
program of experimental films. While she likes experimental films,
a genre of filmmaking involving almost complete lack of narrative
story, Severance wants to pursue narrative as well. This is what
led her to UCLA.
“What was interesting was the hybrid,” Severance
said. “I felt I could straddle experimental and narrative at
UCLA. I didn’t want to get pigeon-holed, but I did want to be
in an environment that did value story.”
“For me, there’s a pretty blurry line between
experimental and narrative,” Severance added. “Even if
you have a snapshot or two lines on a page, there’s a story
in it.”
Severance looks forward to returning to the not-so-glamourous
Sundance, talking to potential producers, and even plans to
ski.
“There’s no red carpets ’cause it snows and
it’s sloshy,” Severance said. “It’s like
L.A. goes to the mountains. You see everyone bundled up because
they’re cold.”