Louise Bak is multitalented, to say the least. While the average person might reach one or two goals in his or her lifetime, Louise Bak has managed to become a successful writer, editor, broadcaster, actor and sexuality counsellor. Since the release of her first poetry book, Emeighty, Louise Bak has published Tulpa and Gingko Kitchen, and co-hosts Sex City, a sexuality and culture show that airs on Toronto’s CIUT-FM 89.5. As a performance artist, Louise Bak has appeared in independent films like Cheese, Amidst Us, and The Wall. Recently, I talked to Louise Bak about her upcoming film, The Ache, featured in this year’s Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival...

For your fans across the world, can you give us a quick synopsis of your featured film, The Ache?

The Ache follows Sheri, a young Chinese Canadian girl who thinks her family may be haunted by paranormal forces. While working as a dominatrix in a fetish dungeon, she comes to the realization that she’s up against a modern day sorceress of sorts and she confronts this entity.

Does the film represent or relate to a certain time in your personal life?

The film was informed by fictionalizing some aspects of my past. When I was nine years old, my mother came home from the corner store and locked herself in the washroom for several days. She emerged with an extreme, compulsive cleaning disorder, which developed alongside a series of recurrent infestations: scabies, pigeons, slugs, etc. There was a disturbing erotic side to it that involved certain ritual abuse. Moving to Toronto to start university was also an attempt to escape a perturbing social pattern.

What inspired you to make this film?

I was writing poetry when I came to Toronto, while also working in a fetish dungeon. One day, I met a man named Keith who asked if I had any interesting stories. We started communicating, and I relayed a long familiar tale which involved my father, who was a restaurant owner and who had an illicit affair with a Chinese woman who claimed she practiced magic. Over the course of about 10 years, my father’s business flourished, perhaps with the woman’s assistance. This woman was disturbed and we eventually realized her obsessive pattern was not only centred on him, but also on my mother and me. As I’ve long been interested in writing and film, I thought it would be interesting to collaborate on a project that would consider this strange tale in some way. During the course of writing, I thought of the psychology, eroticism uncanniness, abusiveness of this period. Keith became aware of the concept of the “fox spirit,” which is prevalent in Chinese and Japanese folklore. He thought it could be linked to the narrative, especially due to its qualities of illicit, marginal sexuality.

What would you say is the source of your passion for filmmaking and storytelling?

When I was younger, I developed an interest in going to the library and film house, especially when things were domestically difficult. The interest eventually spread to the academic and other areas of my life. I found some sanctuary and perhaps some identification when I saw films, from directors like Roman Polanski, Werner Fassbinder and Jean Luc Godard. A film like Repulsion seemed to have direct echoes to what I was experiencing. I was drawn to writing poetry when I was very young so I welcomed this chance to work on a film that would relate in some ways to my early turmoil. I’m continuing to work with poetry that involves eros, aspects of clothing, ritual and ceremony. And I’m hoping that I may work with film again.

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen on set while shooting this film?

Some noticeable things that happened during the filming involved interesting kindness and generosity. It was so cold during the wintry shoot and the generator on our bus was making dysfunctional sounds. A woman who lived nearby offered her space to everyone to warm up. I’m grateful to the crew for staying for the full length of the shoot, even when some were offered other jobs that would have paid more standardly. I’m thankful to the corset designer Andrea Johnson who created a one-of-a-kind bridal dress for the project, after swearing off doing any bridal.

By Christina Jung for Schema Magazine.

The Ache is screening on Sunday November 15, 2009, 5:30 PM at Innis Town Hall

Filmmaker Profiles are done in partnership with Schema Magazine.