Stephanie Joline finds herself a ‘full-time’ filmmaker with Night Blooms

Set in a small Nova Scotia town, Stephanie Joline’s new film Night Blooms paints a pretty accurate portrait of a rebellious teen living in the 1990s.

So much so, one could be forgiven for assuming it is based on her own upbringing.

“That’s a question that’s been asked a lot and I think everybody’s a little nervous when they ask it,” laughs the Halifax-based filmmaker about the real-life inspiration behind the movie's troubled protagonist. “I’m not proud but I have also accepted who I was — I’ll put it that way — (but) me and my friends (were always) just getting into trouble.”

Although the behaviour of Carly, the main character in the film, may mirror Joline’s own high school years in several ways, she insists the movie is definitely not an autobiography — and that’s probably a good thing.

After all, in Night Blooms, Carly (played by Pure actor Jessica Clement) not only daydreams about starting a grunge band while skipping classes to dabble in experimental drugs, she also engages in a toxic, romantic relationship with her best friend’s father (portrayed by Nick Stahl of Sin City and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines fame).

“I was very much like that grunge kid — obsessed with Nirvana, ripped jeans — that’s who I was in the 90s,” admits Joline, adding that although the character isn’t directly drawn from herself, it was important to borrow some aspects of authenticity.

“Surprisingly, if you make it more realistic to your own life, more people can relate,” continues Joline. “Some of the feedback I have gotten has been from a lot of women around my age, (saying) ‘oh yeah, that was me in high school.’”

Hot on the heels of #MeToo, Joline actually had the social movement targeting sexual harassment and assault in the back of her mind when she began writing the script for Night Blooms.

“I’m a feminist and I very much believe that women should be believed and listened to, and there are a lot of predators doing bad things and should be held accountable,” she says.

“(But) when I was a teenager, I was dating guys a lot older than me and in consensual relationships with them, so I was kind of trying to figure out where the new woke Steph lies with the teenaged Steph, (and) kind of trying to reconcile the differences there of being a feminist in this day-and-age and what that means about your past and things you might be ashamed of.”

Joline learned early in her career that tackling personal issues head-on through filmmaking could be very empowering when it came to such shame. With Ednos, her first short film, Joline confronted an eating disorder she had struggled with, and found the filmmaking process could diminish the shame she felt about her secret.

“Suddenly the power of the shame of it is gone because you just kind of owned it,” notes Joline, who took a similar approach with some of the issues addressed in Night Blooms. “Instead of being embarrassed about it, I (thought) I’m just going to write about it.”

It’s been a long road of self-discovery for Joline to realize her talent as a filmmaker as well. As a teenager, she admits she had little ambition herself except to become a rock star.  Eventually, she did find her way into music as a drummer and even had a moderate amount of success touring as part of the band The Superfantastics.

It was while making music videos for that act that she stumbled into a part-time film career.

“I just accidentally became a director,” laughs Joline, who has since directed several TV and streaming projects as well as her 2016 music documentary Play Your Gender — all while working as a part-time news videographer for CBC.

Now with Night Blooms making its theatrical premiere at Park Lane Cineplex Cinemas on April 8, Joline has at last become not only a well-established film director in her own right, but she has also formed her own production company with several projects currently in production. 

Indeed, it would seem Joline has definitely found herself a full-time career in cinema along with earning the respect of her peers. In fact, she has even recently earned the Irving Avrich Award from TIFF recognizing rising Canadian talent — even though, admittedly, she can’t quite explain why she got it.

“It was such a weird thing,” laughs Joline, adding she simply received an email acknowledging she had won the prize. “It was a very random, weird exchange but I did make sure it was 100 percent (and asked), ‘is this really considered an award?’ and they said, ‘yes’ so I was like, ‘okay, I’m putting it in my bio.’”

Night Blooms premieres at Park Lane Cineplex Cinemas on April 8.

People are invited to a special free after-party featuring live 90s music at the Seahorse Tavern at 9:30 p.m. on April 10.