Jordan Canning fell in-love with directing and has directed more than a dozen short films that have been featured in festivals including Tribeca, the Toronto International Film Festival and Interfilm Berlin. She talks to Defective Geeks about her journey into becoming a director and her inspiration.

What kind of journey led you to becoming a director? When did you know it was something you wanted to pursue as a career? 

As a kid I was always watching movies. That was usually what me and my parents did every night after dinner– that, or watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. When I was alone, I would make up stories and little scenes and play them out in my room (did I mention I was an only child?). I went to university in Montreal for creative writing, working mainly in short fiction. After I graduated I moved back to St. John’s and started working at a production company, writing for a docu-drama series about ghost stories and shipwrecks. (Think Creepy Canada, but on the East Coast.) I started conducting the on-camera interviews, and eventually I began directing the dramatic reenactments.

Suck It Up is written by Julia Hoff and directed by Jordan Canning, explores the story of two best friends who go on an adventure in hopes of getting over the death of a loved one. Erin Carter plays Faye, and with Ronnie (played by Grace Glowicki), the two women deal with their grief together during a summer getaway. The movie is set to make its festival rounds starting at the 2017 Atlantic Film Festival on September 17.

Carter is an accomplished actress and filmmaker, an alumni of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s prestigious Actors Conservatory. In this interview, she discusses her role in Suck It Up and what inspired her to pursue acting.

Hi Erin, thank you so much for doing this interview with us. Suck It Up looks like an amazing movie about women for women. Can you tell us more about it? 

Oh my goodness, that is quite the way to put it! I am very proud to call this a female driven project, so many of our cast and crew were female, and the project was conceived by women, but, I think the beauty of the film is that it’s not just for women, it’s definitely a story for everyone. It’s a movie about two young women who suffer a mutual loss. Faye’s love of her life, Garrett, happens to also be her best friend Ronnie’s brother, and when Garrett passes away of cancer it forces the two of them to redefine their lives without him. Which for Ronnie means an epic drinking spree, but for my character, Faye, it means taking care of her best friend Ronnie. The two end up in the quaint town of Invermere, BC, due to a rash decision on Faye’s part, and they’re then forced to face their grief at Ronnie’s childhood cabin.

Continue reading