Ana De Lara wasn鈥檛 a bad girl, but by her parents鈥� estimation, she wasn鈥檛 exactly obedient, either.
She liked to play sports, something that vexed and perplexed her mom and dad, who immigrated to 麻豆传媒映画from the Philippines and considered athletics to be unladylike.
And so De Lara鈥檚 mom, in a fit of frustration, told her young daughter that playing sports would result in 鈥� well, a significant change to her genitals.
鈥淚t was one of those things where she had said no to playing sports because it was unladylike, and I still wanted to do it, and so she countered with, 鈥榃ell, if you keep doing it, you鈥檒l turn into a boy,鈥欌�� says De Lara in a recent phone interview. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 that she believed it or it鈥檚 a Filipino belief. It was just a parent using a scare tactic to get you to obey when you鈥檙e not.鈥�
But De Lara didn鈥檛 obey her parents. She played softball and basketball and dreamed of being the first woman to play in the NBA. But there was a small part of her that believed her mom鈥檚 dire warning.
鈥淚 would look between my legs to see if a penis was growing there,鈥� she says, laughing. 鈥淏ut I still kept playing sports. I did things that weren鈥檛 ladylike.鈥�
Alas, De Lara didn鈥檛 ever make it to the NBA.
鈥淲hat crushed my dream was an article in Seventeen Magazine about being realistic about your dreams, and the example they used was if you鈥檙e 5鈥�2鈥� and you want to play basketball professionally, rethink it,鈥� she said. 聽
Instead, the actor and filmmaker mined this formative childhood experience for Good Girls Don鈥檛, the short film she wrote and directed that screens next/this week as part of the 2019 Reel 2 Real Film Festival for Youth.
Good Girls Don鈥檛 tells the story of 10-year-old Marilou (played by Evryle Ebora), who loves basketball despite her mother鈥檚 claims that she鈥檒l grow muscles and 鈥渁 pee pee, like a boy鈥� if she plays sports. In order to play, she has to convince her hyper-religious parents to sign a school permission form. And so Marilou turns to the one person she thinks can get through to her parents: the VIP MVP Himself, Jesus Christ. 聽She seems on track to do just that, until she feels something going on 鈥渄own there.鈥�
The film also stars Lorne Cardinal (Corner Gas), Jane McLean, John Emmet Tracy, Carolyne Maraghi, and Shaughnessy Redden as Jesus.
鈥淚 believe in the saying that you should write from a place that you know,鈥� says De Lara, adding she knows how hard it can be for Filipino-Canadian actors to get cast in film and television projects.聽 鈥淲hen I came out of theatre school, there were no roles for Filipinos. Just none. I think if there were any roles I was auditioning for, they鈥檇 be for other ethnicities or it would just say 鈥榦pen ethnicity.鈥� I got discouraged. The roles you do get, they don鈥檛 challenge you. They鈥檙e so small. You can鈥檛 develop your skills. So one of the things that I wanted to do with this film was give opportunities to Filipinos so that they could have the opportunities that I didn鈥檛 have.鈥�
De Lara also wanted to tell a story that isn鈥檛 usually told on screen: that of a Filipino Canadian family.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 often see the Filipino Canadian family on the Canadian screen,鈥� says De Lara, who won an award from the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C. (MPPIA) to make the film. 鈥淵ou see other ethnicities. You see South Asian, Chinese, Japanese, but not Filipino. It鈥檚 exciting for me to do that. They鈥檙e underrepresented for sure.鈥�
Speaking of Filipino Canadian families, what does De Lara鈥檚 think of the film?
鈥淢y family loves it,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y mom is very proud of it. She鈥檚 very supportive.鈥�
Good Girls Don鈥檛 screens April 7 and 8 as part of the 2019 Reel 2 Real Film Festival for Youth. The festival is programmed with kids and young people in mind, and includes screenings of feature-length and short films as well as workshops and a youth media conference. Other local films in the fest include Beauty, a National Film Board of Canada documentary by Christina Willings about five gender-creative kids, and Amanda Cole鈥檚 Biddaaban (The Dawn Comes), which won Best Short at VIFF.
Tickets and full schedule at
