“Earth is a Paradise” is a push-pull chamber drama about two strangers who meet after a car accident and spend the night drinking together. We asked co-directors Fabianne Gstöttenmayr and Jessica Garrison how the project began, maintaining thematic complexity, and how they embedded shifts of power and control into their film…

1) Can you talk a bit about your backgrounds, and how you first got interested in movies?

Jessica: I started as a fiction writer, and then a playwright, and when I started to get into screenwriting, the directing and filmmaking came out of pure necessity to get the story told.

Fabianne: I don’t think I can remember a time that I wasn’t deeply interested and obsessed with movies. I’ve been acting in film and theater for the past eight years or so, and have had the growing desire to create stories from my own perspective. 

2) With this project, how did it start? What was the original seed, and how did it get rolling?

It started with a few glasses of wine and a spit handshake swearing that we would write something together.  A couple weeks later we got a cabin in the woods and started with a character we could both relate to. A messy woman “in transition” who tries her best, but falls short. 

3) Can you discuss some general themes you were interested in exploring with regard to the dynamics between men and women, and the roles we take on with one another?

The movie started off with a kind of classic damsel in distress meets good samaritan storyline, but quickly moved into more complex themes. We thought a lot about the sort of unconscious role play between strangers that occurs based on what society expects, and compared this to the reality of what those people actually want and do.  Ultimately Alan (our male) wanted some gratitude, and he did all the good deeds to deserve it. And Jess (our female) wanted attention, and used all her old tricks that usually work, but this time don’t quite go as planned. We wanted to explore the residual voids and expectations that people can accumulate, leftover from past experiences, and how absurd they can feel when aimed at a new, and unsuspecting target. 

4) There’s an unpredictable back and forth between your two lead characters. How did you develop this push and pull? I’m curious to hear your take on the shifts that happen, like after the story robbery game, or after she finds the video on his phone.

The push and pull came from not wanting one of them to be the good guy, while the other is the bad. We wanted to show that they’re both attempting their best, but their flaws and deficits come out in spite of themselves. They’re inherently selfish characters who would probably both view themselves the victim of this very bizarre night together. We wanted our major shifts of power to be unexpected and more personal than the ways people normally “play the game.”

5) Fabianne, you give a really interesting performance — I found it unexpected and nuanced. Can you talk a bit about how you prepared for this role and how you juggled acting and directing?

Jessica and I worked on developing “Jess” for quite awhile and pulled so much from our own experiences, which were eerily similar at the time. I was working through a lot bad behavior and writing this character felt like extracting a tooth that you didn’t realize is actually connected to your guts. By the time we got to shooting we were so clear on how we wanted to direct it and I had been thinking through Jess’s lens for so long it was pretty easy to let it just happen. 

Bonus Question: What’s next for you both?

Jessica - I have a new short coming out this year called DIME, which I adapted from a play I wrote. And I’m currently working on the feature version of the script. 

Fabianne - I also have a new short that I’m currently wrapping up called ‘A Little Dream of Me’. Besides that I’m editing a music video I made for a song I co-wrote with a Greek musician named Epameinondas Pappas (what a name!) over the Summer. I’m prepping for a feature I’m going to act in soon as well. Exciting!

Contact Info:

Fabianne Gstottenmayr: IG @ladyintofox. Twitter: @fabiannetherse. Facebook: Fabianne Gstottenmayr.
Jessica Garrison: IG: @figggy. Twitter: @garrisonjessica. Facebook: Jessica Garrison .