“I spent so many nights there, not sleeping, just editing the night away,” she recalls. “It taught me a lot about artistic process and storytelling. It taught me to think precisely about the sequence of events, images and sounds.”
Shots were cut and pasted together with Scotch tape. It was an additive process, Chica observes, in stark contrast to how films are typically made now in the digital era.
From casting to shooting internationally
As an undergraduate, Chica unintentionally embarked on her first career after meeting a director needing assistance. Having “no clue how to cast,” she hit the streets, talked to agents and learned the craft.
“My parents’ basement was filled with books of headshots and resumés,” she says of her stint as a casting director.
After more than 2,000 auditions over the span of eight years, Chica realized her true passion lay elsewhere in filmmaking. She had her own agency with five employees and, at the age of 24, quit casting to direct full-time.
Armed with her production background at Concordia, Chica soon got hired to work with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. She estimates that she has directed, produced or edited more than 60 hours of programming for the international film and television markets.
Chica’s subsequent work has explored the sensual and the flirty. Characters like to take risks and get into trouble. Sexuality is fluid.
“I love showing positive sexuality on screen, especially for female and queer characters,” she explains. “To show that they are in control of their own narratives. Not letting anyone decide or choose for them or tell them what to think about who they are.”
For Montréal Girls, she trained the actors in chi energy work for a year before shooting started. She also worked with the crew on set to have everyone in alignment spiritually.
“As an energy educator, I’m aligning the body, the physical, with the mind, the intellectual and the higher consciousness in the movie experience,” she says.
Chica is now working on the script for her next film, called Bougainvillea, named for the pink flowers native to South America. It’s about a girl who grows up in a conventional Salvadoran family and discovers she’s queer. Shooting is set to begin next year or in 2025.
Director and Concordia graduate Patricia Chica | Photo: Bernard Brault
Montréal Girls by Patricia Chica
Patricia Chica (foreground) on the set of Montréal Girls | Credit: Sophia Benalouane