Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Veerle Baetens, the Filmmaker Behind When It Melts

One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival through the art that these storytellers share with us, there's always more we can learn about them as people. This year, we decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our Backstory questionnaire!Belgian actress and singer Veerle Baetens is a self-proclaimed open book. But for her film directorial debut, she chose a story about someone who had closed themselves off from the world. I wanted to put a spotlight on someone's loneliness and a microphone in front of this person's silence. I met people who have been silenced after having experienced certain events in life that have caused them pain and later on silence themselves as a sort of mechanism of defense. This mechanism is sometimes very difficult to understand for outsiders, also for me, she explains.

An adaptation of Lize Spit's novel The Melting, Baetens' film When It Melts toggles back and forth between adult Eva (Charlotte De Bruyne) in the present day and one scorching summer years ago - the summer during which the vulnerable 13-year-old Eva (Rosa Marchant, winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Best Performance at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival) agreed to play a riddle game with her friends that got out of control. By making this movie, I wanted to get closer to understanding people who have buried their pain deep inside of them where no one can see it and where it silently hollows them out, says Baetens.

Below, discover Baetens' journey from acting to directing, her memories from the casting process, and why stories about quiet people need to be told now.

LINK:	https://www.sundance.org/blogs/give-me-the-backstory-get-to-know-veerl...
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