The heroine dreams of her high school prom. Her dream takes the form of a fantasy: the sublimated encounter with the beloved. This need for love and recognition finds its images and its language here. Dancefloor Crying is inspired by the fable: the kitsch of the prologue announces it, the happy ending confirms it; from Katy’s diary to the final kiss, the heroine’s fantasy is a dream of adolescent romance.
The clip takes place in a high school. The prom night evokes the American teen movie genre. While it has, as queer filmmakers, rarely offered us the representation we were looking for (overly coded forms referring to a normative imaginary – heterosexual, cisgender and white); the desire to narrate our high school experiences has led us to invest this imaginary with a parodic
diversion.
In Katy’s dream, marginal characters reappropriate the images of a normalised happiness and a form of dazzling success, they take on the appearance of monsters. The figure of the monster allows us to question the norm: What is truly monstrous? What is normal or abnormal? Questions that echo Katy’s doubts about her own identity. These characters reassure her. The ball thus becomes an expression of freedom from norms. By filming Katy’s fantasy, we want above all to translate her psychic universe through an anti-naturalist staging.
The artistic direction of the clip underlines this imaginary dimension. Even if the settings are realistic – the high school and its prom – they are filled with the strange and the fantastic. The work of dreams distorts reality and upsets our reference points. This is our ambition with our head designer Margaux Remaury (Jessica Forever by Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi, Gannet by Yann Gonzalez…).
The use of FX prostheses and the work with our team of make-up artists, notably Lola Cadet (make-up artist for Joanna, Oklou…), allows us to transform our students into monsters. The costumes mix archetypal teen movie outfits (the cheerleaders, the strict director, the football players…) and flamboyant clothes, imagined with our stylist Harmony Coryn, (founder of Black New Black, styling at Adidas…), where evening wear rubs shoulders with pieces from underground cultures (punk or rave…). The whole clip takes place at night and the ball will be lit by artificial lights. Jordane Chouzenoux is the director of photography (Si c’était de l’amour by Patric Chiha, Snow Canon by Mati Diop…).
By placing a lesbian love story at the centre of our narrative, we intend to free ourselves from the traces of the violence experienced and too often internalized, linking adolescent mores to heterosexuality.
MORE ABOUT SUGAR PILLS
Sugar Pills is a young queer pop-rock band, composed of Camila on vocals and guitar, Thomasine on guitar, and Jefferson on bass. Live, they bring in Pier Paolo to join them on drums. The band released their debut EP Pools in 2018, evoking their teenage years in a melancholic tone, through sounds mixing shoegaze and new wave influences. The first single from the EP, Baby Love, is accompanied by its video, released exclusively on Têtu Magazine. In 2020, the band released a double single, VHS/Italian Porno
(When I’m Asleep I See You Dance), and the video for VHS was spotted by the TEMA Festival. Eager to continue this link with cinema, Sugar Pills participated in the composition of numerous soundtracks for various projects – notably for Alexis Langlois’ Les Démons de Dorothy (Silver Leopard and Grand Prix du Jury Jeune – International Competition – Locarno Festival).
The group, mixed, with female leaders, and singing queer love songs, represents a crucial figure in the pop- rock music industry, which is too often exclusively open to male artists. Through their constitution, music, and videos, Sugar Pills are helping to diversify the industry. Their next release is the single and video for Dancefloor Crying for the end of June 2022, announcing the
release of an EP next autumn. With this track, the band brings a more pop and electronic energy to their discography. The accompanying universe is colourful and flamboyant, while retaining the melancholy and sensuality that characterise Sugar Pills.
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My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago and married my childhood sweetheart and life is good.
