From left: Madeline Brewer and Lucy Fry in 'I Live Here Now.' Courtesy of Utopia Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Lucy Fry's Rose, a woman haunted by trauma, ends up checking herself into an inn where reality seems to unravel, blurring the lines between past and present, and waking life and dreams. That's the set-up for I Live Here Now, writer-director Julie Pacino's feature directorial debut, which world premieres on Thursday at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal before screening at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in the out-of-competition lineup and then traveling to the Edinburgh International Film Festival for its Midnight Madness program. "The film pulses with competing anxieties: the pursuit of perfection, the weight of generational trauma, and the invisible fist of capitalism tightening its grip around the necks of its characters," the Fantasia synopsis reads. "Pacino plunges us into a vibrant and nightmarish psychodrama that reverberates with echoes of David Lynch, Dario Argento and the Coen brothers." Related Stories News Just For Laughs: Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, Mae Martin to Receive Best Podcast Award Movies Venice Strikes Back: Alberto Barbera on His Powerhouse 2025 Festival Lineup Shot on 35 millimeter film, the film takes viewers on a surreal, unsettling trip, with an ensemble cast that includes Fry (Godfather of Harlem, Night Teeth), Madeline Brewer (The Handmaid's Tale), Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), Matt Rife, Sarah Rich and Lara Clear. Ahead of the movie's world premiere, Pacino talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the inspirations behind I Live Here Now, the creative input from its cast members, family reactions to the movie and the impact of Lynch on her and the industry. This film is such a roller coaster ride. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration for I Live Here Now? I'm trying to trace it back. I feel like it starts in my childhood. And it was just time for me to start thinking about making my first feature. In about 2020, during the pandemic, I wrote a short film called I Live Here Now. At that point, it was really about me reconciling the fact that I was stuck. And as I started peeling the layers back and getting to the core of who I am, or who I was, this new allegorical concept emerged about what it means to be a woman with a body in today's world and [looking] into yourself and reconciling various aspects. I feel the pandemic was a really internal time for me and a lot of people, and I spent a lot of time self-reflecting and unearthing some of my trauma, which was dark and scary, but also funny and crazy. And so, yeah, that's where the initial seed came from. From the short film in 2020, the thing just came alive. Worries about women and their rights still feel timely in many parts of the world... Yeah, I always worry about women in the world. A lot is about having to deal with certain pressures that women deal with, especially in this business. That's what Rose is also going through: getting older, having to worry about her weight and these things putting pressure on her. Women fighting for autonomy is a tale as old as time. The movie is, really, about a lot of things, but with Rose, it's about her reclaiming ownership of her own body. And a surprise [development] is really a catalyst for her to be able to access parts of herself that she had shut herself off from. It's this sort of revelation: "I didn't know my body could do this." I feel like a lot of times women are, at least in my experience, not understanding their body and thinking that outside sources define us and how we should feel about our bodies. So that's obviously a really heavy theme in the film. That's ultimately Rose's journey. I Live Here Now with Lucy Fry and Matt Rife. Courtesy of Utopia You mix funny and hopeful elements into all the heavy, scary and creepy stuff. How key is that for you? You definitely have to have some hope and some humor when you're working with dark material. At least, that's the kind of stuff that I like to watch. I like running the gamut of emotions. Can you explain what went into the vibrant color palette of the film and why you chose that? We shot on 35 millimeter film, which was so amazing and such a dream come true. I work closely with my DP, Aron Meinhardt. I'm also a photographer, and Aron lights a lot of my photo shoots. So, we have a really comfortable shorthand about color and how I like to use color. So when we were talking about how we wanted to approach this movie, definitely shooting on film was a thing from the beginning that we felt we really had to do because of the vibrancy of the colors and the light. That's always reflecting on Rose. We were concerned about how a digital sensor would handle that when we show colorful spaces. And film