Lena Dunham has reportedly wrapped shooting on a film she was shooting in secret, titled Sharp Stick. Shot in Los Angeles, this will mark Dunham’s first feature film in over a decade.
Plot details are naturally under wraps, but Dunham is reportedly starring herself alongside Kristine Froseth (The Assistant) and Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), as well as supporting roles from Jon Bernthal, Scott Speedman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Dunham reportedly put women in charge of nearly every department on what was a modest indie production. She produced the project under her Good Thing Going Banner, while FilmNation financed it. The film will now screen for potential buyers at the Berlin International Film Festival, where the European Film Market is currently underway.
“I made my last feature film 11 years ago in my family home with just a few close friends. It’s a testament to FilmNation and my incredible producers, cast, crew and – especially – my COVID-19 compliance team that this experience felt just as intimate and creatively free”, Dunham told Variety, who broke the news on Tuesday.
“This story is incredibly personal to me and a continuation of my career-long mission to create a free dialogue around the complexities of female sexuality and to turn the idea of the ‘likable’ female protagonist on its head — and you can’t do that in this business on any scale larger than your mother’s living room without forward-thinking partners. I feel very lucky”.
Dunham created and starred in HBO’s Girls, which ran from 2012 to 2017, but this will be her first film since 2010’s Tiny Furniture. That film revolved around a woman’s aimlessness in her post-college life and being forced to move back in with her mother. It was a hit for those that like those kind of quasi-mumblecore American indies.
Sharp Stick may be something similar considering it’s been shot in secret on a modest budget. We’ll wait for plot details to emerge. Whatever it ends up being, it will likely be heavily discussed, as much of Dunham’s work is.
Despite this being her first film in over a decade, Dunham actually already has another cinematic project lined up. She’s agreed to direct Catherine Called Birdy, a medieval coming-of-age comedy which is being produced by Working Title.
#Peace.Love.SharpStick
