Movies

“Sensitivity Training” is a quirky comedy featuring queer women scientists

Melissa Finell‘s feature film debut, Sensitivity Training, passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. Blunt and seemingly unfeeling microbiologist Serena (Anna Lise Phillips) is serious, single and without a friend. Her co-workers are intimidated by her presence, and when she berates one of them the same day as she offs herself, Serena is forced into sensitivity training, delivered through her coach, Caroline (Jill E. Alexander). Caroline is Serena’s exact opposite—a bubbly, smiley, wife and mother. (Bonus: She’s married to a woman!) Needless to say, she’s a thorn in Serena’s side at first, but their conversations about their lives and things like feelings help to soften Serena’s demeanor as she eventually comes to question Caroline’s role in her life outside of work. Is it friendship, or something more?

Co-starring Girl Code‘s Quinn Marcus and with a brief appearance from Amy Madigan as Serena’s distant mother, Sensitivity Training is a largely female cast with queer themes intricately woven in and treated with effective normalcy. Serena’s questioning her relationship with Caroline doesn’t send her into a spiral of self-doubt or worry, but instead, a nervous energy around her friend and some fun Google searches about lesbian sex, including some toys she ponders adding to her toolbox.

One of the most interesting aspects of production is that it was partly funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which awards filmmakers looking “to tackle science and technology themes and characters, to increase visibility for feature films that depict this subject matter and to produce new films about science and technology and about scientists, engineers and mathematicians.”

“I previously had the idea of this general film idea about this woman who has all these interpersonal conflicts at work and gets forced into sensitivity training with a very happy bubbly coach,” Melissa said. “I had the core concept about what I wanted to write. And then when I learned about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the grant, it sort of got me thinking, and I thought about my character and how it actually made sense for her to be a scientist; that she just has this very precise sort of anti-emotional kind of mind.”

After becoming a finalist, the foundation helped to pair Melissa with a scientist to do the research she needed for the film’s more science-themed scenes. She also took the cast to a lab at UCLA so they could get the feel for what it would be like to be spending large chunks of time in lab coats.

“It’s definitely accurate in spirit,” Melissa said. “Aside from the actual science of the bacteria she discovers, I tried to be very accurate to even just the social politics of working at a university lab, like the hierarchy and all of that.”

And sensitivity training is a very real thing, Melissa said. “I would say I took more liberty with sensitivity training than I did microbiology, in that sensitivity training, in my research, is more connected to an HR department at different organizations and universities, and is often part of the hiring process for new employees,” Melissa said. “Usually in the form of a seminar where you learn how to not be insensitive to people about gender or race or whatever. It’s basically something companies do to not get sued, which is kind of amusing.”

So real life Serenas wouldn’t get a new best friend to follow her everywhere?

“Unfortunately not,” Melissa said. “I think people could benefit from that.”

Despite the fact that Melissa is out as is the character of Caroline, it was a surprise when Serena herself began to question her same-sex feelings in Sensitivity Training. Without spoiling anything, suffice to say that there are no hurt feelings by the film’s end.

“It was always part of the idea. A lot of my friends are straight women, and I find that to be interesting, and I think I really wanted to show women with different backgrounds coming together and kind of explore-especially because Serena has never had a friend before. You’re watching this adult woman make her very first real friend. And I Just wanted to sort of portray all the overwhelming emotions that come from being friends with someone, from developing that new friendship and if you never felt that before, I think it can be overwhelming and mixed feelings and conflicting feelings. I think there’s a lot of gray area in friendships among women. And also with my work, I always try to portray gay women as much as possible and in many different ways as possible. I try for that to be as inherent to the story and the character other than it kind of like an issue film or a coming out film.”

Melissa said she “went back and forth quite a bit” about whether she wanted Serena and Caroline to end up together (again, no spoilers!) but her ultimate decision was based on the thematical goal of the film which she says is “What is the influence two people can have on each other and how profound and transformative that can be, potentially.”

“I thought about what does Serena need in ending this chapter of her life and starting a new onek,” Melissa said. “What she really needs is to understand how to care for someone. We learn that from friendships and families, and Serena didn’t really have that growing up. She didn’t have a family that taught her how to love or what it meant to be giving and as a result, she became a very guarded person and she didn’t have a friendship probably as a result of that, so she’s having that real first love experience whether it’s romantic or not. I think she’s sort of still learning in a lot of ways.”

The film was shot over 21 days in Los Angeles, with very LA-specific things happening in the script, like Serena’s inability to deal with the horrendous daily traffic, which is why they premiered the film this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival instead of an LGBT-focused fest. But Melissa said she has plans for Sensitivity Training to also play those festivals as well, especially because she has had a lot of success with short films there in the past, including her 2013 short Disaster Preparedness, starring Breeda Wool and Amy Vorpahl.

It was at Outfest where Melissa first met out performer/writer Quinn Marcus, who stars as Serena’s ambitious but discouraged subordinate in the film that also plays on a Quidditch team. Both the scientific jargon and being thrown into a real Quidditch match posed some interesting challenges for Quinn on set.

“I have no idea what I’m talking about,” Quinn said. “I remember one of my lines, we shot it a while ago, but one of my lines I still remember ’26 percent relative abundance.’ And I remember Mel being like, ‘Now I don’t think you’re thrilled,’ and I was like ‘OK!’ I never knew exactly how to [say it]. I still don’t get it right.”

As for the Quidditch: “I’m a Harry Potter fan, but I’m not a big athlete,” Quinn said. “They have an actual Quidditch team and they kind of just threw me in! I was just out there, and they started filming in so we’d be huddled up, and I’d be like ‘Guys, I don’t know what I’m doing!’ And they’d pass it to me.”

But as for working with Melissa, Quinn said she was “super great to work with.”

“It was a very good learning experience; a great first feature to be on,” Quinn said. “Since she was the writer and director, she knew exactly what she wanted so it was very easy to be on that set and she’s a great friend, too, so it was great to work with her.”

Sensitivity Training‘s producer Megha Kohli, also Melissa’s partner, says one of the things she’s most proud of with the film is that it centers on strong women characters.

“I think there’s a lot made of female leads, especially comedies right now; there’s a lot happening with that,” Megha said. “It’s not a gimmick; it’s not anything like that. It’s just their stories. Their stories need to be told; they’re important. They’re not niche; they’re just these universal human stories.”

“I just really want to write interesting women,” Melissa said. “Maybe they happen to be gay, but it’s really about their character flaws and growth and their jobs-things like that that I think about on a daily basis as a person.”

Follow Sensitivity Training on Facebook to find out about future screenings.

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