Interview: Dee Rees, Writer and Director of 'Pariah'

 Perhaps the most outstanding debut film of the year, Pariah, written and directed by Dee Rees, hits theaters December 28.

Though the film looks effortless, Rees has been working on it steadily since 2005.

The 33 year-old, Tennessee-born filmmaker wrote the script as a film student at NYU, taking advantage of access to her teacher, filmmaker Spike Lee, for advice.

Then, needing to make a short film to graduate from NYU film school, she filmed only the first act of her screenplay. The short film became a hit on the festival circuit in 2007. This led to an invitation to the Sundance labs to develop the feature.

By the time cameras rolled, Rees had planned everything, all the way down to the lights and camera movements. For example, the main character is seen in silhouette when she's not being truthful, and more frontally as the story goes on.

The color palette uses "the colors in-between the colors, not red, blue, and green, but turquoise and magenta. She's painted by the light around her," says Rees, who recently visited San Francisco to discuss the film.

"We wanted it to be very lyrical and expressive, not tied to the way things are but the way things feel. It works when you have five years to think about it," she says.

All this was nothing, however, compared to writing a semi-autobiographical story of coming out as a black lesbian.

"The hardest part was being honest about the characters," she says. "The instinct is to protect your characters in certain ways."

Rees' own story isn't as dramatic as that of her lead character, Alike (wonderfully played by Adepero Oduye). "I didn't come out until late in life," Rees says. "My parents had an intervention and tried to troubleshoot the situation. But I didn't experience any physical violence."

Rather than coming out, Alike's biggest problem is finding her identity. A friend wants her to be more "butch," while her mother wants her to wear pretty dresses. "Really her struggle is to be who she is, and not check a box," Rees says.

This kind of confidence runs all through Pariah. It's clearly a film that trusts its audience to find the universal qualities in its characters.

Only the film's poster takes a moment to pander, providing the dictionary definition of "pariah" just below the title.

"Yes," Rees smiles at the addition. "It's not a film about a carnivorous fish."

October 11, 2011