Uncertain Terms, a new film from director Nathan Silver, had its world premiere at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, where it screened in the narrative competition. After the screening, hosted by Filmmakers Alliance, Silver and a few members of the cast did a Q&A about the film, a drama about a young man who needs a break from life in the city and goes to stay with his aunt for a few weeks. She runs a home for unwed mothers, and the arrival of a new guy in the household does not go unnoticed by the teenage girls. He develops a friendship with one of them, much to the chagrin of some others, and becomes part of a love triangle between her and her rather awful boyfriend.

When asked about the script (Silver co-wrote with Chloe Domont and Cody Stokes), much of which appeared to be improvised, Silver explained, “we wrote an outline, basically detailing all the actions, and then each day we’d all sit down and discuss lines for each scene. We’d feed some lines to the actors, and then allow them to improvise, and take it from there.” Lead actress India Menuez appreciated this approach: “it was my first experience working on a film [like this]—I never saw the full ‘script,’ quote unquote,” she admitted, “a lot of people were asking me, ‘oh, are you scared?’ But, to me, it was actually so much more exciting because there was so much more freedom in letting it be a collaborative process between everyone on set.”

Silver explained that his inspiration was his mother, Cindy, who had his brother when she was 16 and lived in a home for unwed mothers. Cindy Silver played the main character’s aunt who runs the home in the film. “I actually never saw anyone again from the home I was in…and I’ve never been able to share my experience with anybody,” said Cindy, “but I was very touched and moved that Nathan wanted to sort of honor me.” One member of the audience told her she gave a great performance, and asked whether she’d had a lot of acting experience. “No, but I’m in Nathan’s movies,” she replied. Then, after a pause, “Reluctantly.”

Mary Sollosi / Festival Blogger