It would be impossible to accuse Quebec filmmaker Lea Pool of putting distance between her life and subject matter. Pool’s films are often highly personal, sometimes autobiographical, explorations of her inner self. This tendency was apparent onward from her first feature, La Femme de L’Hotel, the story of a Montreal filmmaker who meets a woman who reminds her of the fictional heroine of her film.

With her newest release, Emporte-moi (Set Me Free), Pool delves deep into her past and emerges with what is perhaps her most personal story yet. ‘This subject is very autobiographical. So I was a little bit afraid to make this project because it’s about my family. It was not an easy story,’ she says.

The story follows Hanna (Karine Vanasse), a 13-year-old girl in search of her cultural and sexual identity, who in 1963 becomes fascinated by similarities between one of her school teachers (Nancy Huston) and the character of Nana in the Jean-Luc Godard film Vivre Sa Vie.

Like the character of Hanna, Pool’s childhood was one complicated by a strained relationship with her parents. Her mother was overworked and away from home much of the time while her father was a failed and unhappy writer who stayed home with his children.

The parent-child dynamic of the story is one Pool has been touching on for years. But it was not until she began penning the screenplay for Emporte-moi that she allowed herself to develop the theme fully, she says.

Pool decided she was ready to tackle the subject in 1996 after she began the process of adopting her daughter Julia from a Chinese orphanage. ‘It was easier to speak about another mother because I was not only the child of a mother but I was also myself a mother,’ Pool says. ‘It gives me another point of view.’

Aside from its Toronto International Film Festival screening, the $3-million film has run at a number of international festivals this year and will show at the upcoming New York and Chicago film festivals. Recently, James Ivory (Merchant Ivory) expressed interest in coming on board as u.s. distributor, Pool says.

1991: Pool films Rispondetemi for Montreal Vu Par…, celebrating Montreal’s 350th anniversary. Her short film is a solemn chronicle of an ambulance ride during the last moments in the life of a car crash victim. In it, the protagonist relives her life in flashbacks. Many of the elements, particularly the reminiscence of childhood, are re-explored in her new feature, Pool says. ‘The project was very close to the subject of Emporte-moi, it was like a demo,’ she says.

April 1996: Pool sits down to begin her first draft. She prepares for this project by ‘letting her memory run free’ and assembling ‘souvenirs’ of her childhood.

July 1996: Pool calls producer Lorraine Richard, whom she has never met, to tell her about the script. Richard agrees to meet her for lunch and Pool tells Richard about the project. Richard agrees to read the treatment. After a second meeting Richard comes on board.

September 1996: Pool asks writer Nancy Huston to help with the second draft. Huston, Pool says, is the ideal writing partner on this project because she, like Pool, was estranged from her mother in childhood. Pool credits Huston with fleshing out the dialog and helping tie sequences together.

October 1996: Richard begins shopping the first draft around. Telefilm Canada agrees to chip in development funding.

December 1996: Pool flies to China to pick up her newly adopted daughter Julia and bring her back to Canada. Huston continues working on the screenplay in Pool’s absence.

February to July 1997: Pool stops work on Emporte-moi to shoot a documentary on Canadian author Gabrielle Roy.

Fall 1997: With a final draft in hand, Richard begins putting together the financing for the feature. Telefilm, unhappy with the completed script, drops out of the project. Swiss producer Alfi Sinniger of Catpics, which financed previous Pool projects, tentatively agrees on a coproduction deal worth $840,000. French producer Carole Scotta of Haut et Court agrees to sign on for $600,000, but this is also tentative.

January 1998: Pool and Richard begin the process of preproduction and of casting the film. At the top of their list is casting for the role of Hanna, the 13-year-old protagonist. This proves a challenge, Pool says, because there are few strong 13-year-old actors.

After three months, they cast Vanasse, a girl with no experience as an actor. Still, Pool is struck by how close Vanasse is in demeanor to the character she has been asked to play. It is as though she is not acting, Pool says. ‘I found her at the very beginning but she was so good, I said, it is not possible,’ she says.

March 1998: There are three sequences which take place in winter. Although financing is not yet in place, Pool and Richard decide to shoot while the snow is still on the ground. The first scene is particularly challenging, Pool says, because it is an emotionally charged exchange between Hanna and her mother, played by Pascale Bussieres.

‘The young girl and Pascale Bussieres had never met before the sequence. I think at the end of the film, now, it is the strongest sequence of the film,’ Pool says.

April 1998: Richard gets a firm commitment from the Swiss. Financing from France is still questionable. The balance of the shoot is set to begin in one month and the funds are still not in place.

May 1998: Pool is forced to cut the shoot by five days because funds are short. With only 25 days, she is left with very little room to manoeuvre. She decides to shoot only the necessary sequences from the script exactly as written.

June 1998: French funding comes through. Shooting is completed in just 25 days.

June-August 1998: Editor Michel Arcand begins editing even before shooting is complete. Once the filming is finished, half the movie is already edited. Pool and Arcand work for only five more weeks to complete editing.

October 1998: Pool flies to Switzerland to work with sound editor Francois Musy, who has worked as sound editor for Jean-Luc Godard for more than two decades. ‘It was nice because I put in my film a [reference to a] Godard film. So I had the opportunity to meet him and see how they work there,’ Pool says.

February 1999: Pool takes her finished film to Berlin for the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. Early responses are encouraging. Pool walks away with the Special Prize from the Ecumenical Jury.

July 1999: Emporte-moi wins the Silver Gryphon for best film at the 29th Giffoni Film Festival. ‘There was some money with it, so I was glad. I prefer money more than trophies,’ Pool says of the award.

September 1999: Emporte-moi screens at tiff as part of Perspective Canada.