Experiencing Interruptions?

No. 3: In the Absence of Angels

In the brutal aftermath of being raped in broad daylight, Crystal, a streetwise community mentor, is forced to make an irreparable decision that will shape the person she’s about to become.

Premiered at Slamdance 2019 for the first Episodes program where it was the only Canadian film in the program. Special Jury Award at the Canadian Film Festival and Best First Time Filmmaker at the Women's Film Festival. Please visit herstoryinthreeparts.com for a full list of screenings and awards.

  • Camille Hollett-French
    Director
  • Camille Hollett-French
    Writer
  • Camille Hollett-French
    Producer
  • Paul Benallick
    Producer
  • Robert Colbourne
    Producer
    Walk
  • Camille Hollett-French
    Key Cast
    "Crystal"
    Valley of the Boom, The 100
  • Abanoub Andraous
    Key Cast
    "Ricky"
    Designated Survivor, X-Men: Apocalypse, Damien
  • Juno Rinaldi
    Key Cast
    "Eliane"
    Workin' Moms
  • Brett Donahue
    Key Cast
    "Derek"
    Shadowhunters, Bad Blood, The Other Kingdom
  • Leevia Elliott Robinson
    Key Cast
    "Destiny"
    I Have Your Children
  • Christopher de Courcy-Ireland
    Key Cast
    "Man"
    The Bold Type, Broken Trust
  • Olivier Ross-Parent
    Key Cast
    "Etienne"
  • Shadi Janho
    Key Cast
    "Nadim"
  • Sean Colby
    Key Cast
    "Matty"
    eHero, 21 Thunder
  • Amelie Douville
    Director of Photography
    Past and Future Kings, Punisher: War Zone, Mr. Nobody
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    No. 3: Dans l'attente d'un ange
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Drama, Anthology
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    July 1, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English, French
  • Shooting Format:
    Sony F55
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No

  • Canada
Director Biography - Camille Hollett-French

A Slamdance alum and current programmer for Narrative Features, Camille is a Trinidadian-Canadian actor, writer and director from Toronto and Montreal, now residing in Vancouver. She’s made appearances on shows Man In the High Castle, The 100 and National Geographic's Valley of the Boom playing the real-life person Tara Hernandez, a manager at Silicon Valley's 90s tech company Netscape, the famed startup responsible for Mozilla Firefox. Her latest roles are on The Twilight Zone, Nancy Drew and Motherland.

One of Camille's latest films FREYA won five of the nine Leos it was nominated. So far it's has been nominated for a total of 15 awards and has won 19 including Audience Choice for Best Narrative Short at Newport Beach Film Festival, Audience Choice for Best Canadian Short at Fantasia and Best Live Action Short at the Calgary International Film Festival.

Her latest project was a short doc-meets-mock about the debilitating "women's" disease endometriosis and it premiered at Slamdance as part of the first Unstoppable program, for filmmakers with visible and non-visible disabilities.

Her Story (In Three Parts), which she wrote, directed, produced and starred in, was her first film project. It's a collection exploring the shame associated with different elements of sex, sexuality and sexual assault and how they relate to us no matter our levels of involvement, all told from the female perspective. The cross-country series has gained international traction as a finalist for the Cayle Chernin Awards 2017 in Toronto and a competition winner of Live Read LA (for Hush Little Baby) with Mickey Fisher, the creator of Extant and Reverie. No. 3: In the Absence of Angels, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival this year, has won several awards including a Special Jury award at the Awareness Festival in LA and the Canadian Film Fest in Toronto and No. 2: Hush Little Baby has also brought home several, including Best Debut then The Craghoppers Film Prize of 20,000£, the world's largest cash prize for an international short film, from the Discover Film Awards in London. The film was competing against films starring Whoopi Goldberg and Marissa Tomei and Minnie Driver.

Camille has trained extensively in Toronto, Vancouver and LA. For two years during the production of the series, she lived mostly in the West Coast in a decommissioned shortbus with her chef partner and their cat-son.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

No. 3: In the Absence of Angels is the third instalment of 'Her Story (In Three Parts)', an anthology series shot in one year across Canada in the country's film and TV hubs, Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal. Cast of the series includes Juno Rinaldi (Workin' Moms), Shannon Kook (Dark Places) and me, Camille Hollett-French (Valley of the Boom).

The series brings us the narrative accounts of three separate women (all played by me, also the writer and first-time director of the collection) as they navigate through the messy terrain of life in relation to the shame associated with sex, sexuality and assault.

The series strives to ask more questions than it answers: What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a man? Are we born the way we are or are we just products of our environment? What do we owe one another, if anything at all, as people living together in a society? Why do we hate? Why do we love?

Although presentable as a series, each story is also a standalone short film. The project was written in the Fall of 2016 and production started in Spring 2017, but from principal photography to now, it's been less than a year.

A very important aspect of the project was to travel to and discover three different cities from coast to (almost) coast. It was the goal of mine and my other executive producer Paul Benallick's to create opportunities across the country by going out to find the artists, the professionals of each city. It was a means to build bridges to remind us that we are far more alike than different, and that our collective heart for the 'story' is what prepares us to perform and compete on an international stage.