Meet Sophie Jarvis, the Vancouver filmmaker gaining global success with 'Until Branches Bend'

Sophie Jarvis, a Vancouver-based writer-director, is picture on the set of "Until Branches Bend," the 32-year-old's award-winning feature debut. The movie is set to premiere in theatres across B.C. starting March 20. (Credit: Tyler Hagan)

A Vancouver filmmaker’s award-winning feature debut is set to premiere in theatres across B.C. starting Monday.

Sophie Jarvis spoke to CTV News on Thursday after returning from Austin, Texas, where her movie Until Branches Bend made its U.S. debut at the festival South by Southwest on March 13.

The psychological drama was filmed in the Okanagan during one of B.C.’s worst wildfire seasons on record in July 2021 and tells the whistleblower story of a cannery worker whose discovery of an invasive insect rocks her fictional community.

BRINGING FRUIT FICTION TO FRUITION

Jarvis says the movie’s setting was inspired by her mother’s hometown of Penticton, where the filmmaker will be on Monday for a special screening.

“I’ve always just been really taken with that place,” said Jarvis, listing the world-renowned fruit as one reason—and the study of insects at the nearby Summerland Research and Development Centre as another.

“I just always though there was something interesting about the idea of something as small as a bug having such a huge impact when it gets out of control, so that’s kind of where the idea started. What can go wrong in a place that looks as idyllic as this?” Jarvis explained.

Since the movie made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it’s earned awards at the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Solothurn Festival in Switzerland and from the Canadian Media Producers Association.

Until Branches Bend has been nominated for several more prizes—including two Canadian Screen Awards—and Jarvis is nominated for the SXSW Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award, the winner of which will be announced later this month.

THERE’S NO ‘I’ IN FEATURE

Jarvis began writing the script for Until Branches Bend in 2016, and credits her movie’s success to the team that helped her bring it to fruition.

“If someone had told me it was going to take seven years to make the film, I don’t think I would have given up…but I don’t think I would have been happy about it,” Jarvis said.

“So I think it’s this idea of ‘You just keep on working towards it, it will eventually happen.’ But it’s all about the people you’re working with, right? It’s not just one person who can get something off the ground—you need to have a really good team, and also be really true to your vision and what it is you want to be doing.”

She says the biggest challenges her team faced were psychical—a consequence of filming in Okanagan in July 2021.

“We were really close to the fires, so that combined with the pandemic—we were in a new wave and the epicentre was sort of in the Okanagan—you couldn’t be outside and you couldn’t be inside.”

She says those circumstances forced her small team to look out for one another, and was “a big wake up call” in terms of what was going on in the world around them.

WHERE TO WATCH IN VANCOUVER

Until Branches Bend will begin playing across theatres in B.C. on March 20, with screenings scheduled throughout Canada until the end of April.

Theatregoers in Vancouver can catch the movie at the VIFF Centre from March 24 to 30, and Jarvis is set to be in attendance for a Q&A following the cinema’s March 25 screening.

Once all the excitement with her feature debut starts to settle, Jarvis hopes to start writing her next one.

“I want to make something new! I’ve been doing this one for a long time, and it’s about time to start getting some other stuff off the ground.”