We spoke to Jess Berry about her narrative short, Fairground. In our interview for the 11th Femme Filmmakers Festival, Jess Berry discusses the film influences behind Fairground, the filming process, her personal connection to Maggie’s story, and much more. Read our interview with Jess Berry below.
Jess, you have a background in directing commercials and documentary filmmaking. What made you transition to the narrative short form?
My background is in advertising. It’s what I studied for my BFA, and it’s where a lot of my filmmaking skill set originated. But I learned pretty quickly that telling brand stories wasn’t nearly as compelling to me as telling human stories.
I was also fortunate enough to work for an award-winning documentary filmmaker who really helped me cultivate a curiosity around character and perspective. That experience also taught me how to work within real environments and live locations, and how to bring some of those documentary techniques into a scripted narrative.
So, evolving into narrative short form felt like a natural progression. These are the stories I find most compelling, the ones that help us feel seen and a little less alone. And ultimately, my goal with narrative storytelling has always been to move toward features. Fairground was an important step in that direction.
Fairground takes us back to the nostalgia of the ‘90s. Do you have a personal connection to the summer of 1999?
I grew up in the ’90s, and in my opinion, it was the ideal time to come of age. Cell phones weren’t really in the mix yet. AIM and instant messenger were just starting to get traction, and for the most part, we were screen-free. To me, that’s what an ideal childhood looks like.
The ’90s were full of heartache, adventure, friendship, and really hot summers where you were simply able to be a kid. I’m drawn to that time period because it still feels so visceral to me. I remember so clearly what it felt like to be a young woman at that particular moment in life, when everything felt enormous and immediate and you had to experience it in real time.
Jess Berry, your short film is a family drama set in the summertime. Did you have a list of family dramas which inspired this story – whether that be through the writing or the direction?
There were definitely a few films that helped set the tone for Fairground. I love Dirty Dancing (1978), which is also a family drama set during the summer, and Call Me by Your Name (2017) was another big inspiration for me. Minari (2020) was also influential, particularly in the way it observes family, place, and the tensions that can exist inside a family without ever losing tenderness.
I think there’s something inherently cinematic about summer. There’s an optimism to a world drenched in sunlight, but there’s also this underlying awareness that it’s temporary. As summer starts to come to a close, everything feels a little more heightened. There’s a sense of presence and urgency, almost like you know the experience is slipping away while you’re still inside of it. That feeling was really important to Fairground.
You write, direct, and produce Fairground. Is there an area of film that you felt like you belonged to whilst filming Fairground and wish to explore more?
As an independent filmmaker, especially in the short-form world, you really do have to wear a lot of hats. I think there’s something valuable about being that integrated into the process because each role starts to inform the others and, ideally, makes the film stronger.
At the same time, hindsight makes your mistakes very clear. With Fairground, I wish I had spent more time with the script. At the time, I felt like it was ready, but now I can see places where I would have pushed it further. The same is true of directing. I like to be extremely prepared while still leaving room for spontaneity, especially with actors working in a live environment.
One of my biggest lessons was around camera language. We were inspired by films like Dirty Dancing (1978) and Stand by Me (1986), so we approached a lot of the film with very composed, locked-off frames. But shooting on 16mm in a functioning county fair is a completely different animal. Looking back, I think using handheld for more of the film would have given us greater flexibility, preserved time, and allowed us to respond more fluidly to what was happening around us.
Of all the different aspects of filmmaking, I’m drawn to directing the most. I think it suits my skill set best, and I love shepherding the creative ship. Working with actors is so magical. Being able to bring all the pieces together, collaborate with different heads of department, and create something cohesive that feels rooted in your own mind and voice is really special. Then getting to see that world come to life on screen is the best part.
Lauren Viteri perfectly portrays the lead. How does Maggie represent the young teenage female coming-of-age experience of ‘90s Midwest America through her identity, culture, and relationships?
Lauren is such a brilliant actress. The first time I saw her tape, I knew almost immediately that she understood Maggie. She has this natural vulnerability and access to her own youthfulness that made the character feel very alive.
Maggie represents a kind of teenage experience that I think was particularly true of the Midwest in the ’90s. Her world is fairly small and somewhat sheltered. She’s surrounded by agriculture, family legacy, tradition, and very specific ideas of what her role is supposed to be. There isn’t the same access to an outside world that young people have today, so much of her understanding of herself comes from observing the people directly around her.
I wanted her to be deeply curious about femininity and about the different ways a young woman can move through the world. She idolizes the fair queens. She watches romantic relationships from the outside, whether that’s her parents or other teenagers at the fair, and she’s trying to understand what all of it means for her.
At the same time, Maggie takes real pride in where she comes from. She wants to represent her family well at the hog show, and she understands the value of hard work and the culture she’s inherited. But she’s also beginning to ask whether that inheritance has to define her completely.
That’s part of what Shane represents. He’s one of the first people who asks Maggie what she wants, rather than telling her what she should want. Meeting him gives her permission to try on a different version of herself, maybe one she didn’t even know was there yet. For me, that’s really the heart of her coming of age. She isn’t rejecting where she comes from. She’s beginning to figure out who she is within it.
Maggie has high familial expectations weighing down on her shoulders. She must win the Grand Champion title in pig breeding with Penny. And as her father says, she must take it seriously not like a hobby. How do you think the lack of parental support for Maggie built her into who she is today?
That’s an interesting question because I actually think Maggie’s parents are very supportive, but they express that support in ways a young person may not always understand.
That’s one of the things I find so compelling about family dramas. A parent can love their child deeply and still completely miss them in the way that love is communicated. Maggie’s dad shows love through high standards, expectation, discipline, and a tough-love approach to the hog competition. From his perspective, pushing her is an investment in her. But Maggie often receives that same behavior as criticism.
I think that does two things to her. It pushes her to work harder and become an excellent showman, but it also makes her question herself. Is she good enough? Is she making him proud? And underneath that, does she deserve his love if she doesn’t succeed?
When you’re young, criticism and love can become tangled together very easily. What a parent intends as “I believe you’re capable of more” can be internalized as “I’m not enough.” I think that tension has a real influence on Maggie and on the way, she begins to look for validation, belonging, and a sense of who she is outside of her family’s expectations.
Fairground covers multiple emotions and genres; from Maggie’s disappointment with the pig breeding championship to being lovesick over boys – mixing drama and romance. What was the main message you wished to portray in Maggie’s story?
I think what I’ve alluded to in some of the other questions is that the power of coming-of-age, especially when it intersects with romance and family drama, is really the search for identity.
That’s what draws me to these stories so much. There’s something beautiful about trying on different versions of yourself and asking, does this fit me? Is this who I am? Is this who I want to become? That process of becoming a more fully expressed version of yourself is really at the heart of Maggie’s story.
She moves between all of those things in the short film. Family expectation, first love, disappointment, pride, curiosity, all of it is helping her figure out who she is. And ultimately, the goal is to expand Fairground into a feature where we can explore that much more fully.
Her first love with Shane is a big part of that because he gives her space to express herself in a way she wants to be seen. He isn’t necessarily the answer for her, but he becomes a catalyst. Through that relationship, she starts to discover parts of herself that were already there.
Jess Berry, throughout the filming process of Fairground, what would you say was the biggest learning curve and why?
I learned so much making Fairground, but I think the biggest learning curve was shooting on 16mm film and understanding everything that process requires, from pre-production planning to the experience on set and eventually the edit.
There are so many implications to shooting on film, whether that’s budget, schedule, lighting, or actor performance. It creates a real sense of presence on set because everyone knows the takes are limited. There’s less room to casually roll and find the scene later. You have to make choices, prepare well, and really be present when the camera starts running.
There’s a preciousness to shooting on film that I don’t think digital carries in quite the same way, and everyone feels it. The actors feel it. The crew feels it. I think it creates a certain focus and energy around the work.
That was probably my biggest education on Fairground, learning what it actually means to shoot on film. And I can say this: I loved it. I absolutely hope and plan to keep shooting on film in the future, budget willing.
Maggie’s romance during the summer ends on a cliffhanger. She feels trapped in a love triangle. If Fairground had been extended into a feature film, who do you think Maggie would choose between Nic Dantes’ character and Carter Shimp’s character? Even though she let Nic’s character walk away she still valued him. How would this love story develop among Maggie’s strict upbringing?
Such a great question, and I think I’m going to leave this one unanswered for now.
We’re currently developing Fairground as a feature and beginning the process of taking the script out, with the hope of shooting in 2027. So rather than give away where Maggie ultimately lands, I’d rather let the feature answer that question for you.
I’ll just say that Maggie’s life becomes more complicated as friendships and romance collide 🙂
Jess Berry, I personally think the closing scene captures the most beautiful shot of the film. With Maggie centred in the frame and the lights from the Ferris wheel beam at her in the background. I loved the whimsical nostalgic feeling behind Fairground. Did you encounter any challenges while filming exclusively on exterior locations?
Thank you so much for those kind words about the visual language of the film. The midway, the Ferris wheel, and all of those lights are some of my favorite images in Fairground. We were incredibly fortunate that evening. We got this beautiful sunset and perfect light, and there were moments where it felt like all we had to do was point the camera and let the environment give us these incredible images.
Some of the harder challenges came when we were shooting in the heat of the middle of the day. On a short film, you don’t always have the luxury of waiting for ideal conditions. Of course, you’d prefer not to shoot at noon in the middle of summer with no cloud cover, but sometimes that’s the schedule. We had an incredible crew who was able to diffuse and shape the light in a way that still served the characters and the scenes. I actually don’t think you can tell where some of those difficulties were, which is a testament to how good the crew was.
There are also challenges that come with shooting in a real, functioning county fair. Fairground is set in the ’90s, but we were surrounded by people living in the present day, so sometimes that meant politely asking someone to put their cell phone away before a take.
But the challenge of shooting in a live environment is also where so much of the spontaneity and magic came from. We had real people, real activity, real animals, and a fair actually happening around us. There was an authenticity we never could have fully manufactured. So, I think with live exterior locations, you really do have to take the good with the bad. You give up some control, but sometimes what you get in return is much better.
Thanks Jess! Fairground by Jess Berry is part of Filmotomy’s coverage on the Femme Filmmakers Festival 2026.
You can read our review of Fairground by Jess Berry here.