Sophie Mathisen and Jonathan Burtreaux in Drama.
First-time writer-director Sophie Mathisen looked to the Lena Dunham model when making her first film.
Dunham famously made her debut feature, Tiny Furniture, by setting most of it in her parents' New York loft.
Mathisen made hers in Paris, shooting in the three-storey apartment owned by the parents of her focus-puller. The space ended up doubling as two seperate apartments, plus a nightclub.
Mathisen, who also stars in the film, graduated from VCA as an actor, worked in theatre for a few years, then decamped to London for an MA in acting for screen at London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
While in London she became increasingly interested in scriptwriting, and ended up writing scripts for her fellow students.
"When it came time to do my thesis, I pitched that instead of making a short I'd make a feature instead", Mathisen told IF.
The result is Drama, the story of Anna, an actress in London down on her luck and still reeling from a break up.
Anna goes to stay with her best friend Jean (Jonathan Burtreaux) at the Paris apartment he shares with his partner, Philippe (François Vincentelli). Then Anna's ex turns up in the city of love, and things get really messy.
François Vincentelli and Jonathan Burtreaux in Drama.
Mathisen was interested in a specific type of relationship little explored in Australian cinema.
"My best friends are all gay, and I was interested in this dynamic between a single woman and a gay best friend, and I think that's a relationship that hasn't really been mined."
The intrepid nature of Australians is explored, too. The director points to Tony Krawitz's Dead Europe as "one of the most affecting films I've seen recently. Australians do tend to travel quite a bit, and I was interested in trying to broaden the scope of what Australian cinema is or could be."
Mathisen and her sister Dominique, who produced, shot in Paris over August, when many locals are on holiday. Actors and crew who flew in were put up in the home of the parents of Burtreaux (playing Jean).
The first-timer describes her first feature shoot as "crazy".
"We shot for 31 days straight. It was really stressful, just because we were trying to knock out so much material. The shooting script was 111 pages, so we were shooting quite a few pages every day. But the Australian work ethic and French work ethic is actually really similar. There was a nice camaraderie."
Sophie Mathisen in Drama.
With the film in the can, one imagines Mathisen's assessors are impressed. "The production values and the people we worked with are a little higher than what you'd usually expect for a student film".
The young filmmaker describes touring the film to festivals such as Portland and East End Film Festival as "eye-opening".
"I realised it's a very competitive time for independent film, and there's a lot of content and not a lot of opportunity."
In Portland, Mathisen met some American filmmakers self-distributing their film, and plans to do the same – "we had some lower-range offers, but there was no money on the table and obviously we want to recoup our costs as much as we can."
Pointing to Angus Sampson's The Mule as a model, the filmmakers are looking at a possible VOD launch on Bastille Day, July 14, and are exploring cinema-on-demand options.
When Mathisen spoke to IF she was packing her bags for Sydney from Melbourne, where most of the film's post was completed, and is buoyant about the steps taken by Screen NSW and Screen Australia to ensure gender equality.
"I think it's long overdue. From my perspective there are a lot of women like me who are making content, but it's what we do with that content that's really difficult to navigate. I think [Gender Matters] will not only encourage women to make films, but it'll make them think about the business side as well".