Danielle Easton knows the power a film can have

Filmmaker Danielle Easton goes old school with her film short Choices shot on actual film stock. It screens as part of The Coast is Queer at this year's Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

“While attending University, I was given a great opportunity to use 35mm reel film,” explains Easton. “We were to collaborate with the cinematographers and to develop a short film with 200 feet of film. I was given a great chance to write, direct, and edit a short film from this.”

That short became Choices, the story of Kay who, realizing she has fallen in love with someone else, tries to tell her current boyfriend that she needs to follow her heart, a heart that belongs to her androgynous lover Dee.

“While Kay tries to find her way, she's also coming to terms [with the fact] that love comes in many different forms,” says Easton.

Finding inspiration from her own life, Easton says that while the film is not about her it is where she found her central character.

“Dee's androgyny mostly comes from myself,” says Easton. “I'm an androgynous person and that definitely played a part when developing the character.  But the story isn't about me, or my direct experiences. I also found that casting this role was very difficult being that it was hard to find an androgynous person who can act but it worked out wonderfully with Carly.”

Easton’s sophomore film and her first to be screened at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Easton hopes that audiences will walk away with the same appreciation that she does for the art of filmmaking.

“I want to be a filmmaker that makes people question their beliefs, or feel deeply with the story after leaving the theatre,” says Easton. “With this film I hope that the audience walks away with happiness for the two characters that follow their hearts. “

Easton also knows the power a film can have on an audience and in this particular instance, her own family.

“I can accomplish so much with making films, and as a queer member of society this helps me help the community with understanding but it also helps myself. This is the first film my mother and sister will be seeing of mine, it means so much to me and this will show them a part of my film career I want to uphold and the wonderful queer life I live."

Choices

Screens as part of the 2012 Vancouver Queer Film Festival's Coast is Queer evening of short films by Vancouverites. Visit http://www.outonscreen.com for more information.