Local Indie Spotlight: Lunar Sway Brings Cache Creek to the Big Screen

Fresh off its European premiere and heading toward a Vancouver theatrical run this November, the Telefilm-funded Canadian feature Lunar Sway is officially making its BC homecoming this month at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

Directed by Nick Butler, the film stars Noah Parker (Who By Fire, In Cold Light), Liza Weil (Gilmore Girls, How to Get Away with Murder), Douglas Smith (Big Little Lies), Grace Glowicki (Dead Lover), and Vancouver’s own Andy Yu (Alien: Earth, Fargo) and Kaden Connors (Heated Rivalry). Lunar Sway follows Cliff (Parker), a young queer man whose attempt to reconnect with his birth mother, Marg (Weil), spiraling into a chaotic journey marked by family secrets and unexpected misadventures.

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Below, writer-director Nick Butler sits down with cast member Kaden Connors to chat about shooting in remote Cache Creek, the magic of small-town locations, and the vital role of intimacy coordination on set.

NICK: We shot this movie in a very remote part of BC, mainly in Cache Creek. What was it like shooting in that town? 

KADEN: Like a dream. There’s something so special about setting a film in a small, remote town. As an actor, you feel this immersive experience, where reality and the story blend, and it suddenly takes a little less imagination to feel like you’re in the shoes of these characters. But my favorite aspect to shooting in a place like Cache Creek, is getting to actually meet and come to know the locals over the weeks you post up and shoot. Going into it, you don’t realize these strangers would one day be difficult to say goodbye to.

NICK: Did being on location help get you into character?

KADEN: Oh, absolutely. It’s always been like that for me. And I’m not alone or unique in this—a lot of actors better settle into their characters with tactile things like props or costume or being enraptured by a quirky little town like Cache Creek. I think back to my theatre days and how I’d ask the directors for my character’s shoes as early as possible. For me, what my character wears on their feet really grounds me in my process.

NICK: What's an on-set memory you still think about.

KADEN: I still think about the sunset falling behind the rolling hills, the town in the valley below us… In one scene, my character Jovi is walking along the cliffside with his painting supplies, the sunset behind him. I remember the journey up the hill to shoot that scene, hopping out of  the van, and suddenly being in this magical space thinking, “and we’re making a movie!” There were many moments in Cache Creek, that I, Kaden, would’ve loved to experience also outside of shooting a movie. So I count myself lucky that I got to experience it through my character, Jovi.

NICK: You worked closely with Noah Parker who plays your ex in the film. What was it like working with Noah?

KADEN: Noah is so charming, honestly. Professional and playful, the good mix an actor wants from a scene partner. Now, another reason I adore indie filmmaking is the opportunities to meet the actors along with their characters. Sometimes you’re just thrown in, you do your job, everything’s chill. But when you get to bond with fellow artists outside of the film, I find it elevates the chemistry between the characters on set. Running around town with the cast and crew brought a lot of unity. Noah made it so easy to discover our characters, their past relationship, and the current energies of each scene. I’d love to work with him again.

NICK: I’ve always said this is a film about intimacy. We worked with a great Vancouver-based intimacy coordinator named Aryn Mott who also worked on Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. What was it like working with Aryn and what do you think about the importance of having intimacy coordinators on set?

KADEN: Aryn is such a wonderful human being! So, this was actually my first time working with an intimacy coordinator on set, and all I thought was, “why weren’t we already doing this?” Intimacy coordination is a newer role on film sets. They play this wonderful liaison between the actors and the director. They bring clarity, communication and consent. Their job is to find the path that honors the director’s vision and respects the actor’s boundaries. And to be real with you, so often the social dynamic of an actor with a director is naturally that the actor wants to impress their director and basically always say “yes.” So an intimacy coordinator takes all that pressure off and communicates between both parties, taking it upon themselves to represent people with integrity. Funny enough, I brought Aryn on as my intimacy coordinator for my first short film, We the Cathedral.

NICK: Jovi is complicated man. In what ways do you think you are the most and least like Jovi?

KADEN: Hmm… I’d say, as an artist myself, I also find muses, similar to the way Jovi does. What I mean by that is that when something catches my interest, I can obsess over it, want to know all about it, and explore it deeply. And I’d say I’m least like Jovi in the way that I remember faces, haha. Obviously, he has an actual condition that causes him to forget faces, but in contrast, it’s names I usually struggle with. When meeting people, I always try to repeat their name like two or three times to help cement it into my mind, but it ain’t fool-proof, that’s for sure.

NICK: You've been very busy since the shoot. Tell me the updates on your short film projects you've been making. 

KADEN: I have! Yeah, so, we are finishing up post-production on We the Cathedral, my first short, and I’m about to head into production on my second short. This one I am co-producing and writer but I won’t be directing. Instead, I will be leading in it. We’ll be putting both projects through a festival run this coming year and the next and following that, we will have ways for you all to watch! We the Cathedral is about a born-again Christian stumbling upon a nudist colony in the wilderness where he must confront a past he is running from. And this next short film is a psychological drama about a young couple in their run-down trailer somewhere in the deep south fighting over their baby, their love for each other, and also their shared grief.