Victoria writer-director Ana de Lara was a confident athlete back in her day, one who excelled in a variety of sports.
Basketball was always one of her favourites, and she dreamed of being the first woman to play in the NBA. She was short, by her own admission, but she was quick, and was a good ball handler.
鈥淲hen I was growing up, we had a basketball court across from our house, and there would be nightly games,鈥� said de Lara, adding she never really played until she went to Northridge Elementary school in the Colquitz area. 鈥淚 was probably in Grade 5. At some point, I just figured out I could play. And from that point on, my dream was to be the first girl in the NBA.鈥�
Her mother, who was born and raised in the Philippines, cared little for what de Lara could do on the court, and tried to dissuade her daughter from pursuing athletics. 鈥淲omen are not supposed to play sports [in Filipino culture]. It is very traditional.鈥�
De Lara rebelled, and continued to play sports year-round, which made her mother resort to scare tactics to curb such activities once and for all. She told de Lara that if she continued playing sports, she was going to turn into a boy. 鈥淚 honestly thought I was going to grow a penis,鈥� said de Lara, laughing at the memory.
At the time, de Lara was a grade-schooler who was prone to taking her mother鈥檚 word as gospel. But when the penis didn鈥檛 materialize, she knew her mother was lying. But why did she feel the need to lie?
That was a question de Lara, 54, attempted to answer with her new short film, Good Girls Don鈥檛, which premi猫res at 11:30 tonight on CBC鈥檚 91原创 Reflections program.
The penis story, much like de Lara鈥檚 desire to play basketball professionally, are key aspects of de Lara鈥檚 semi-fictional film about a Filipina-91原创 hardwood hopeful 鈥� 10-year-old Marilou, played to perfection by 91原创 actor Evryle Ebora. Jesus also makes a cameo, which adds a surreal touch, but the overall tone of the 13-minute Good Girls Don鈥檛 is more heartfelt than humorous.
De Lara entered the performing arts after her NBA dream fizzled out. She started out as an actor, and had NBA-like aspirations for her stage and screen career. 鈥淭hat was sort of my dream, but when I came out of theatre school in the late 鈥�80s, I discovered that there weren鈥檛 really a lot of opportunities for people of colour.鈥�
She landed a variety of small acting jobs in Canada and the U.S. before hitting a wall around the mid-1990s. Her r茅sum茅 has a gap of about 10 years when she didn鈥檛 do much on the acting front.
De Lara battled an aggressive form of lupus when she was 25, and stepped out of the limelight to raise her daughter around the same time, before things began looking up. After moving back to Victoria from Los Angeles in 2011, she took a job teaching improv. De Lara eventually turned to directing at 40.
鈥淭he first films that I made ended up winning some awards, I think that sort of encouraged me to sort of say: 鈥楬ey, people like what you鈥檙e doing.鈥� But it鈥檚 one of those things. The arts is kind of funny, because it鈥檚 not like a regular job, where you can actually make a living at it.鈥�
She moved into her current role as a writer-director-producer after winning a pitch competition at the Whistler Film Festival in 2016. She competed before a live audience against four other filmmaking hopefuls, eventually securing in-kind funding for what would go on to become Good Girls Don鈥檛. 鈥淭he award gave me a bit of cash, but the most valuable thing was in-kind services. With the prestige of the [MPPIA Short Film Award], people wanted to work on the film. My production designer, for example, worked with the art director on Deadpool, so I had a crew of people who worked at a higher level.鈥�
An in-progress cut was screened to strong reviews at the Whistler Film Festival in 2017, but de Lara (whose father, Godofredo Bartulabac, was dying of cancer at the time) wasn鈥檛 satisfied with it. She continued to tweak it, before considering it complete in 2018.
The film went on to compete at festivals in Britain and the United States as an independent film. CBC has since purchased it, and will air the film tonight for the first time, after which it will be available for viewing on the CBC Gem platform.
The film has played to thousands of people at this point, but de Lara has given up trying to pinpoint its core audience.
鈥淲e thought our audience would be female, a girl-power kind of thing. But then I went to some of the festivals and it was the guys that were coming up to me saying: 鈥楾hat was hilarious.鈥� Women would come up to me and they could relate to it, but the men were like: 鈥極h my god, that was hilarious.鈥� That surprised me.鈥�
ON SCREEN
What: Good Girls Don鈥檛
Where: CBC TV
When: Tonight, 11:30 p.m.
