The filmmakers behind comedy short Jane Austen's Period Drama share how to make the perfect parody and how they got accepted into SBIFF.
Jane Austen's Period Drama
In the opening moments of Jane Austen’s Period Drama, one might think they’ve landed in Pride and Prejudice or on the set of “Bridgerton“. There’s sweeping shots of rolling green hills, Regency dress, and wordy professions of love in British accents. However, the trope of a Jane Austen-style love story or a “Regency romance” is turned on its head when the short’s leading man, Mr. Dickley, gets on his knees to propose to his beloved Miss Estrogenia only to see blood, that the viewer realizes there’s something different about this period drama.
Jane Austen’s Period Drama is in fact a comedy, not a drama, but it is about periods. Specifically, what happens when the dashing Mr. Dickley (played by an earnest and endearing Lachlan Taimua Hannemann) mistakes Estrogenia’s (multi-hypenate comedienne Julia Aks) menstrual blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his very expensive education has most certainly missed a spot.
“It began with a silly idea: a period piece about periods. Wouldn’t it be, like, so funny if a Jane Austen heroine menstruated on her pretty dress? How would she react? What would the men say? In a world where so much goes unsaid?” Aks, and co-writer/co-director Steve Pinder, say in their director’s statement about the film. While the short definitely sends up the tropes that have become synonymous with these kinds of films, Aks and Pinder’s parody steers clear of malice.
When reflecting on how they balanced heart with humor in the Jane Austen’s Period Drama, Pinder said:
“It’s really easy to want to just write jokes…and I think for both of us as viewers of movies like we’ve found that we love comedy, but the things that resonate the deepest are the moments of heart and that that’s really what we’re looking for and engaging with when we go to the theater. So, as we get into those moments of joke after joke after joke, we have to slow ourselves down and remind ourselves that that’s not really the end goal. The goal is to find these moments of richness and and connection.”
It’s those moments of richness and connections that Aks and Pinder, along with producer Elli Legerski, are able to pack into the short that makes it relatable beyond the sub-genre it’s parodying. One doesn’t need to be a die-hard Austenite or ardent viewer of “Bridgerton” to enjoy the film.
“I think as long as you know that Jane Austen exists you’ll have a great time,” Aks remarks, who does triple-duty in the piece. She plays leading, bleeding Lady Estrogenia in Jane Austen’s Period Drama, but she also co-wrote and co-directed along with Pinder. No stranger to parody, it’s her commitment to creating the world of the film, and then subverting it, that allows the short to soar.
“We did also talk a lot about not writing something that was ‘man-hating’,” Aks continues when addressing the universality of the short’s matter, but also the discomfort that comes with talking about periods, “It was something that was very important to me since we first had the initial idea, and we had a lot of conversations about how to portray the men in the film with a lot of compassion, and also the women who were still overcoming their own stigma about their bodies. I mean, there is obviously a goal with this short to inspire people to be more open about menstruation, and that means everybody.”
The short will have its world premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival later this week. When asked about being accepted in such a prestigious festival that screens awards darlings and honors A-listers, Legerski gave this advice when submitting a film “Just do it. There are festivals like this one [SBIFF] that genuinely do care, and it’s not all you know, a jaded rig system. People are actually looking for good movies out there. So if you have to just keep submitting and it will go somewhere.”
Jane Austen’s Period Drama will screen on Friday, February 9 at 4:20 PM at Metropolitan Fiesta 5 Theater, Auditorium 4 and on Saturday, February 10 at 1:20 PM at at Metropolitan Fiesta 5 Theater, Auditorium 4 as part of the COMEDY SHORTS block at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. For tickets and more info, check out SBIFF’s WEBSITE.
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