The micro-budget queer indie film “Driving Not Knowing,” partly set and shot in Philadelphia, will premiere locally at PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., at 7 p.m. Dec. 6.
The semi-improvised drama — about the unrequited feelings between Will, a poet (Dane Mainella), and Lee (Jay Jadick), a musician — was co-directed by the actors with Benjamin R. Davis and Dylan Hansen-Fliedner. At the time of the production, the four filmmakers were all students at the University of Pennsylvania, except Davis, who attended Temple University. Early scenes in the film are set at the Kelly Writers House and the Institute of Contemporary Art on UPenn’s campus, as well as outside PhilaMOCA.
Mainella, who is straight, chatted with PGN about making “Driving Not Knowing.” The actor/writer/director said that the semi-autobiographical story was “a natural derivation” of his and Jadick’s lives.
“We drew on our own personalities and interests. We were both very interested in music, poetry and the arts, so it was natural for the characters to be artists,” he said. “As far as their romantic relationship, or their conflicted relationship, we drew on our own relationships — not with each other — but with other people in college.”
The two actors were freshman-year roommates at Penn. Jadick (along with Hansen-Fliedner) had joined an alternative fraternity, Pilam, and Mainella was in a traditional male fraternity. Mainella eventually reconnected with Jadick after they had a falling out.
The film creates sexual and dramatic tension when Jay becomes frustrated with Will and life in Philly, and returns to the Northeastern Pennsylvania town of Tunkhannock. Lee invites Will and his roommate Jo (Emily Rea) to come out for a visit. While in the country, the two men re-examine their lives and relationship.
“Driving Not Knowing” unfolds organically, and it was made in an organic style as well. According to Mainella, much of the film was written as they were in production.
“It was a movie we wanted to make for ourselves from the onset,” he said. “At the beginning, we tried not to worry about the idea of directors. Jay and I will act and direct ourselves, and Ben and Dylan would be behind the camera.”
The filmmakers shared the directing credit because they all did the same amount of work. Mainella explained, “All four of us also edited the film. That put the most strain on things, because it’s hard to make a group cut. It was a good experiment to find our strengths and figure out what we’ll do in the future. It’s like the nature of the film itself — the roles aren’t defined, and the nature of the characters’ sexuality or artistic endeavors are not fully mapped out.”
He added, after a beat, “But that wasn’t conscious. Everything was fluid, and unlabeled, and that is what attracted me to this group.”
“Driving Not Knowing” involves the characters mostly hanging out and talking (or not talking) about their emotions. A beautiful scene around a campfire in Tunkhannock captures the lazy rhythm in the characters’ lives as they grapple with their uncertain future. Poetry is read and conversations bleed into one other, creating a hazy experience. Mainella likens it to “getting drunk in a new place.”
Likewise, an exchange between Will and Lee at a waterfall creates meaning through the use of silence; the filmmaker said he wanted to capture “the tiredness of going on a hike with your best friend and just thinking about things.”
The country scenes have “a mystical quality” to them, Mainella observes, indicating the inspiring natural beauty of the rivers and mountains, and the nostalgia the place has for Jadick and several cast and crew members who are from Tuckhannock.
That said, Philadelphia was also very important to the filmmakers, and Mainella himself spent considerable time at the Kelly Writers House, which he called “a haven for writers and poets,” and at the Institute of Contemporary Art, where he worked for two years.
Ultimately, Mainella described the feeling he was looking to replicate in the film as “that floating period in a lot of young American lives when college is coming to an end, and they are not really sure what they are passionate about or what they want to do. Will they fall into the temptation of conflicted relationship after conflicted relationship, or direct that energy and conflict in themselves to a more productive lifestyle?”
Will and Lee may be unsure if they are in love, and the film deliberately does not provide an answer, asking audiences to fill in the blanks.
Mainella said this was precisely the film’s intent.
He is “not as concerned with making an overtly political statement as he is in presenting an issue in a manner that is more concerned with aesthetics, and the reality of the situation, and these characters’ lives.”
After the PhilaMOCA screening, there will be a Q&A with all four filmmakers, followed by a live performance by the film’s composer, Charley Ruddell, under the name ScooterJinx x Fouwam. For more information, visit www.philamoca.org or call 267-519-9651.