The Dress — a Q&A with Lynn Panting
In this lyrical short, a dress becomes a vessel for memory, desire, and a romance that never quite arrives. Lynn Panting directs this story about the beauty of near connections, ships passing in the night, and the joy that can live in the unfulfilled.
The Dress screens in A Little Tenderness on Wednesday, June 24 at 7:00pm at LSPU Hall.
How did your film come together?
This project grew out of long-term creative relationships with collaborators I trust deeply. I had been dipping into digital dance work and felt ready to explore something more narrative-driven. The starting point was quite simple: I love dresses. There’s something universally compelling about them, how they move, how they hold memory, how they can shift the way we feel in our bodies. I was interested in that shared fascination, in the idea that dresses carry both personal and collective meaning. Alongside that, I was thinking a lot about crushes: the softness, the awkwardness, the intensity of them. The film became a space to explore those feelings through movement, image, and texture.
Did anything unexpected happen as you were making this film?
I come from a theatre background, so the material itself was well rehearsed. But filming brought a different kind of pressure. We had a total window of five hours, including hair and makeup and moving between locations. What surprised me was how quickly we had to adapt. There wasn’t much room for overthinking or doing lots of takes. We had to respond in real time to the conditions we were working in and really trust the preparation. In a way, that constraint shaped the final piece. It gave the film a sense of immediacy.
What’s the best filmmaking advice you’ve ever received?
Do it!
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’m a values-driven artist, so working with people who share a similar approach to process really matters to me. When there’s alignment, you build a kind of shorthand with your collaborators that makes everything feel more fluid, even when you’re doing something completely new. I also want to highlight the music. Kyle McDavid created a score that’s incredibly intricate, and Adam Foran performed every instrument on it. It’s an amazing feat, and he really rose to the challenge. I love what they built together, and it’s such a vital part of the film.
