Film by Paula Sison ’15 selected to show at Malibu Teen Film Festival

On January 9th, the Malibu Youth Commission will host its inaugural Teen Film Festival; Marymount’s own Paula Sison directed one of the 20 movies that will be featured at the event. Paula’s film was chosen out of 130 entries submitted by aspiring young directors from across greater Los Angeles. 

Paula’s film, called "The Pressure of Freddie Bear and the Ballpoint Pen,” tells the story of a girl named Freddie who attempts to escape the pressures of her life by running away from home and becoming a bear. Asked what inspired the subject matter, Paula noted, “I was feeling really stressed and overwhelmed by all that I had to do between applying for college, keeping my grades up while still trying to maintain a social life. This story felt like an accurate representation of how I was feeling and how I eventually learned to deal with it all.”
 
Paula, who plans to major in Film and Television at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts next year, says that her favorite aspect of film making is the collaboration with other members of the production. Inspired by the work of Wes Anderson, Jean-Luc Goddard, Baz Luhrmann, and Sofia Coppola, she notes,  “I love taking a piece of what someone gives you, making it personal and interpreting it to tell a story … I also love the idea of going into a whole new world and communicating a story through my eyes using film and video.”

According to her teacher, Director Kate Hackett, “(Paula’s) film was excellently written at the screenplay level, and as a director she created a consistent and professional visual style, guided actors toward successful and believable comedic performances, and let her own particular brand of off-beat humor shine through.”
 
The festival will take place on Friday, January 9, at 7:00pm at the Malibu Civic Center.
 
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