ÉCU FILM FESTIVAL, 2025
Kalyani Persaud
river oaks
Festival Screening
7 Parnassiens – Grande Salle
10, May 2025
Session 3 - 15:59
April, 23, 2025
As a young gymnast prepares for competition, a sinister truth is revealed about her coach.
Hi Kalyani, thank you for talking with The New Current. Are you looking forward having your your film River Oaks at ÉCU this May?
I’m honoured to have the opportunity to share this story. Super thankful to the team at ÉCU for connecting us!
What does it mean to you to have River Oaks in the non-European Dramatic Short Category?
It’s not easy - especially in short form storytelling - building worlds with entertaining stories that reveal hard truths, especially about harassment and assault. To me it means that my team and I walked that tightrope well, and to be honoured by such a unique and innovative festival is awesome.
How important are festivals like ÉCU in champion and supporting independent films and filmmakers?
It’s such a rare experience to be able to connect with filmmakers across the globe. I attended the launch party in Paris and was able to meet a few of the officially selected filmmakers, producers and writers. There’s a certain inspiration in festivals like ÉCU - it expands the world and creative possibilities you could dream up. Beyond the fantastic networking opportunities and wonderful conversations, the realisation that art can mean something across various countries affirms that deep human magic of all these wonderful filmmakers.
Can you tell me a little bit about how River Oaks came about, what inspired your screenplay?
The original idea and story was entirely different - set in a dystopian anti-feminist world, with a killer female protagonist that gets revenge on a bad guy. The passion for telling this story came from outrage, and a wish for justice as I learned a previous friend and famous humanitarian journalist I worked for had assaulted 9 women. He is still famous and widely admired for his work today, which fuelled my fire. I came across an article that discussed the infamous Larry Nassar and read more about those women’s stories, and saw the similarities in my own story. As much as I love absurdism, and dystopian fiction, I realised how much more grounded the story had to become - the truth about silence as survival, and not always getting the gratification of justice. I wrote the treatment, and from there the incredible Tatiana Paris created the script.
Due to the publicity surrounding US Athletics did you have any apprehensions about making a film that highlights this abuse in the industry?
No. I don’t have fear standing up for this issue.
How essential is the creative collaboration between you and your team once you start shooting?
I can’t begin to describe how heaven sent and diligent my entire team was. A few were hired through a new platform for creatives - Nova - but several people were long time friends and peers that I’ve collaborated with before. Once we started shooting, everyone gave 1000 percent to their role. I am especially thankful to my AD, Aayushi Shah, who kept me on track when every potential shot started to look like a good opportunity; we were so tight on time and shot the entirety of the film in 4 days. I also want to thank Luc Ung, who’s preparedness and talent is nothing short of a miracle. My set design team Madeline Henderson, Lola Verhulst, Ella Murray, and Lana Stepanova worked through all challenges with efficiency and brought so much taste and realness to the world building. Lilli Lemberger, head of my costuming team flew all the way from Texas and worked with countless others to source and create gorgeous competition outfits, world building in the most stunning ways. They all saw the potential in this story and truly came to set 5 am every day ready to create. We truly became a little family for a few days.
Do you allow yourself or your cast much flexibility with screenplay once you start working on like River Oaks?
Absolutely. If you get to set and something written isn’t working, I have to trust the foundation built with my actor to understand their character and discuss with both them, and internally, how we could change it. I think one of the respected rules of being on set is that there will be moving parts. There’s no problem changing things - it’s better than pushing what’s on paper and it coming out unnatural. As long as the story remains, and the energy remains, I think it’s important to have fun on set and try things in different ways. Before moving onto a next shot after calling cut, I would check in with the DP, AC, and actor before moving on because maybe they have something better in them! We even cut an entire B story in post production!
What was the biggest challenges you faced realising River Oaks?
I don’t mean to sound selfish saying this but the biggest challenge was taking a stance against abusers, and specifically, supporters of my own abuser. EJ Dickinson from Rolling Stones wrote an article confronting the mounting allegations of rape and assault of this specific journalist. Reddit accounts were created to discuss whether people believe we were lying or not. Whether we deserved it or not. Whether we were exaggerating for clout or fame. While creating River Oaks, these comments came back to haunt me. It was difficult, but it was why making this film was so important in the first place.
Looking back now is there anything you would have done differently on River Oaks?
I’ve sort of come to accept the fact that as soon as I’m finished creating something and sharing it with the world there will always be something I wish I did differently.
Have you always had a passion for filmmaking?
When I was 9 I watched Kill Bill and I knew I wanted to make films. I’ve made a few music videos, and mostly everything else just for myself. I would say this film is the first film where I’m attempting to tell a story that isn’t entirely in my aesthetic interest, but in the interest of my soul. The realness matters here. I know I want to tell women narrative led stories, and my next project I hope to embrace some aesthetics that I’m aligned to that go deeper into the absurd and surreal.
What is it about film as a medium that interests you so much and who are the filmmakers that have inspired you?
Storytelling is everything to me, whether that be through books, music or films. I value filmmaking because of the play that can be had that books or music are limited to giving. I’m extremely inspired by Charlie Kaufman for his surrealism, Quentin Tarantino for his world building, and Jordan Peele who seemed to master walking the tightrope of entertaining us and pointing a mirror back to us.
"Checking in with my peers and making sure everyone feels confident, prepared, and happy to be telling the story we came to tell is an element I will always curate on my sets."
What has been the most valuable lessons you have taken from making River Oaks and how will these help you with future projects?
A happy team is the set dream! We are all working crazy hours, with little to no sleep for, in this case, 4 days. Checking in with my peers and making sure everyone feels confident, prepared, and happy to be telling the story we came to tell is an element I will always curate on my sets.
What does your work say about you and the way you see the world?
I don’t know if I ever interpret one piece of work as a whole of myself, or how I see the world. Surely though, I can say my work reflects just how much I value and prioritise female narratives.
What has been the best advice you’ve been given by a fellow filmmaker and is there any advice you would offer a new filmmaker?
Bill Haney once told me to just keep making films, no matter if they’re messy, misunderstood, or made goofing around with friends. I’m always writing and am actually ready to make my next short film this summer.
And finally, what is the message you would like your audiences to take from River Oaks?
Sexual abuse and sexual coercion goes unnoticed by sometimes even the victim themselves. I think when a victim really begins to understand what has happened to them, there is so much guilt, shame and confusion. Our protagonist lies to her loving aunt about what she was subjected to. Assault is a very confusing thing to carry guilt about, as well as the feeling that it was somehow the victims fault. I just want all survivors to know I see them, they are hard and they are understood.