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Sensitive Parts

Sensitive Parts is the fourth narrative feature film from unabashedly personal young auteur Brendan Prost, which reunites many of the collaborators from his previous feature Spaces and Reservations and his award-winning short film Getting There. Shot around Metro Vancouver during the spring of 2015, Sensitive Parts is wryly-observed and tightly-plotted feature about how the lingering consequences of people’s interpersonal history can sabotage even the most solid of relationships.

When an an insecure young woman, Dolore (Carolyn Yonge), introduces her new boyfriend (Sean Marshall Jr.) to her long-time best friend (Sinead) and discovers that they have a less-than-platonic personal history, her insecurity and interpersonal fears get kicked into hyperdrive and threaten to destroy both relationships. But, with a help from the imaginary manifestation of her pop star alter ego (Monice Peter), Dolore learns to combat her paranoia and anxiety before they consume her and the people she loves.

Bounding effortlessly between outlandish situational humour to resonant character drama—and back again—Sensitive Parts is ultimately a hopeful dramatic comedy about finding courage and self-love, the resilience of female friendship, and the possibility for self-transformation in the face of emotional crisis.

  • Brendan Prost
    Director
    Spaces and Reservations, Choch, Generation Why, Best Friends for Life
  • Brendan Prost
    Writer
    Spaces and Reservations, Choch, Generation Why, Getting There
  • Brendan Prost
    Producer
    Spaces and Reservations, Choch, Generation Why, Best Friends for Life
  • Carolyn Yonge
    Key Cast
    Getting There, Lily's Crossing
  • Jennifer Kobelt
    Key Cast
    Spaces and Reservations, the Veil
  • Monice Peter
    Key Cast
    Proof, Desperate, Bates Motel, Supernatural, the Flash
  • Sean Marshall Jr
    Key Cast
    Crusade, Getting There, Lifers
  • Drew Redman
    Music
    Spaces and Reservations
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Comedy, drama, dramedy, romantic comedy, romantic drama, lo-fi, low-budget, mumblecore, diy, friendship drama, buddy comedy, inspirational, millenial, micro-budget, feminist, independent, women on film, female friendship
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 9 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 21, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    5,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    HD Video - BlackMagic Cinema
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Brendan Prost

Brendan started his creative career as an actor when he was a child, transitioned to filmmaking in his teens, and has since become known principally as the unabashedly personal young auteur behind four feature films: Generation Why (Rising Star Award Winner at the Canada International Film Festival - 2010); Choch (“one of the intriguing and involving low-budget indies to cross my desk in 2011” – The Independent Critic); Spaces and Reservations (“a grounded and thought provoking look at modern love” - FilmPulse.net); and the recently completed Sensitive Parts.

Brendan’s directing credits also include a diverse set of short films on a variety of formats, including an improvised act of self-interrogation entitled Best Friends For Life (Official Selection - Montreal World Film Festival), and his SFU grad film Getting There (Official Selection - Calgary International Film Festival).

Originally from Calgary, Brendan relocated to Vancouver in 2009, where he graduated with distinction from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.

Brendan is currently a resident in the Directors’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto, where he is developing his fifth feature film.

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Director Statement

I conceived of Sensitive Parts as an aspirational journey of self-transformation. I wanted to create something that would inspire me to shake the shackles of my own personal fears and self-doubt, at a time in my life when I was beginning to sense how those insecurities might destroy me one day.

Dolore actually describes the direct inspiration for Sensitive Parts midway through the movie. Like her, I had a moment when I realized that I was fearful of someone I was falling in love with. Thinking about the power I was entrusting to this person as I came to care for them more and more, I began to panic when I imagined how they could use this power against me. This panic fueled my paranoia and mistrust, and my paranoia ultimately began to sabotage my ability to enjoy and appreciate my partner. And, as I thought about it more and more, I realized that I had similar apprehensions about all the peopled I cared about in my life, friends and collaborators alike.

Sensitive Parts is ultimately about a character who is forced to confront the potentially debilitating consequences of their insecurity and social anxiety, and discovers that the ability to overcome those fears is a matter of strength, will and self-love. The aspirational part of the story is that it’s about a character who experiences a revelation that I hope to.

But, Sensitive Parts isn’t just about one person dealing with the lingering consequences of their interpersonal history. When I begun to discuss the project with friends and peers during the writing process, I came to understand that Dolore’s insecurity (and mine) wasn’t so peculiar. When I started collaborating with the actors, it became even clearer that almost everyone carries scars with them into a new relationship. Although Dolore is an especially “sensitive” person, Sinead and Riun are also characters struggling with how their past informs their emotional needs and expectations in the present. The narrative of the film is a collision of these three individuals; an isolated snapshot of the intertwining of anxieties that takes place in all our relationships and social interactions.

We’ve all got our sensitive parts, and we’re all in search of someone to tell us that we’re memorable; that we’re worthy of redemption; or that we’re loveable. Sometimes that person is a boyfriend, sometimes it’s a best friend, and sometimes it’s a feminist pop icon (or other imaginary friend). But, hopefully, the person you can count on to whisper in your ear and tell you that you’re awesome… is you.

I set out to make a project that would help me combat some deep-seated emotional insecurities and fears, in the anticipation that the filmmaking process would be transformational in some way. I hope very much that the experience of watching the movie for people has the same potential to transform them, and remind them that they too can be “Fierce”.