Couple’s experiences growing up in Mill Valley inspire coming-of-age film

In the 81-minute film, a teenager named Abby "straddles the line between childhood and adulthood when she is forced to move in with her father and his younger girlfriend after her mother’s death."

Sophia Sabella and Pablo Feldman have nothing but fond memories of Mill Valley’s Sequoia movie theater. It’s the place where their love story began several years ago, when they went on their first date to watch “Manchester by the Sea,” a solemn film about grief and family that they joke is the “darkest first movie date ever.”

In a full circle moment, the award-winning writer-director duo, who grew up in Mill Valley, will return to the area to screen their debut feature film “Edge of Everything,” a coming-of-age story inspired by their teenage years in Marin, at 7 p.m. May 31 at Mill Valley’s Sequoia Cinema, which reopened this week under new management. The event will also feature a Q&A session with them as well as two of the film’s stars: Sierra McCormick and Ryan Simpkins, who play Abby and Caroline, respectively. Admission is $8.50 to $14. Get more information and tickets at sequoiafilm.org/edge-of-everything.

“We are thrilled to announce the reopening of the Sequoia Cinema under the CAFILM umbrella,” said Mark Fishkin, executive director and founder of the California Film Institute, in a press release. “The Sequoia holds a special place in the hearts of many, and we are excited to welcome patrons back for the movie-watching experience. While a full renovation is planned for the future, our current priority is on providing a welcoming environment for our community to enjoy fantastic films. We’re eager to reconnect with our loyal patrons and share the magic of the big screen with them.”

“Edge of Everything” had its United States premiere earlier this year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it won the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema.

In the 81-minute film, a teenager named Abby “straddles the line between childhood and adulthood when she is forced to move in with her father and his younger girlfriend after her mother’s death.”

“After filming in Mill Valley and having grown up there and both of us seeing movies at the Sequoia, it means so much to play there,” Feldman says. “It truly is everything for us.”

While the film has universal themes about growing up that they hope will strike a chord with many people, when they wrote the film, they couldn’t imagine filming anywhere else than Mill Valley. Even their former drama teacher at Tamalpais High School, Ben Cleaveland, makes an appearance in the film.

While the Los Angeles pair initially imagined themselves going into acting, after making a short film together in New York City a few years ago, they realized that they resonated more with the “creative freedom” they experienced behind the lens.

Q How did this idea begin?

Feldman: We’re so nostalgic, and we’re always talking about our teenage years and reliving it, and we really wanted to give an experience uniquely to where we’re from and what we went through and what our friends went through. It was really taking all of those experiences and combining them to make this film and all the different parts of grief, something that we were seeing people experience in their own personal ways in the pandemic. And that was something we wanted to explore. And then, as well as being a teenager, where everything feels so big, we really wanted to convey that. We remembered going through everything, and wanted to portray that accurately to something that felt personal to us.

Q How would you describe your time growing up in Marin?

Feldman: I loved growing up in Marin, playing Little League. It’s the most beautiful place in the world, I think.

Sabella: You went to a different school until high school, and you came in not knowing anyone. And especially at Tam High, most kids went through elementary school, middle school together. Everyone already had their friends, and that was a hard experience.

Feldman: Yeah, that was hard. It relates to somebody like Caroline (in the film) who doesn’t have any friends actually, and floats from person to person. It was difficult for me to come into a new high school and everybody else knew each other, whereas Sophia had those people her whole life.

Sabella: Yeah, I went to Tam Valley Elementary, Mill Valley Middle School and then I went to Tam High. I had my friends all the way through, which was special, but I definitely remember feeling like this need for assimilation. I remember feeling just the pressures of wanting to classically “fit in.” But I also remember there were certain people, like Caroline, that now as an adult, when you look back, you see this is a kid that is struggling and doesn’t have very much structure, but is craving structure. But as a teenager, I’m like, she’s so cool. She doesn’t have any supervision and she can do whatever she wants. And it’s weird remember that feeling, of just wanting to be like that.

Q Where did you film in Marin in 2021?

Sabella: All the locations in the film were real places that we would go as teenagers, like under the bridge or the beach.

Feldman: And the house where we shot is Sophia’s childhood home. The drama teacher in the film was our high school drama teacher. And that was our drama building at Tam. It was really special to relive these moments. We wanted our first feature film to be something that represented both of us and where we’re from.

Sabella: So many people involved are from Mill Valley, even as extras. We had our friends’ dads, and we had Pablo’s baseball coach from high school.

Feldman: And some of your friends were on the crew and acted in it. It was personal and meaningful to shoot in Mill Valley, and it really was this cathartic process of reliving and rehashing out our teenage years. It’s an incredibly special first film for us.

Q You guys met at the Conservatory Theater Ensemble at Tam?

Sabella: Yeah, we actually grew up down the street from each other, but didn’t know each other as children. Pablo was one year above me. We first met in theater, and we really connected later in college. Working and writing together, we really grew together because neither of us had ever done writing or directing before meeting.

Feldman: I also think we have different perspectives in life, which I think is something that we both use.

Sabella: And it brings an interesting take to a story. It’s not just one perspective, it’s two.

Feldman: And there’s been really stressful times in the filmmaking process, and I’ve always felt like Sophia is always there for me through it.

Sabella: I always feel the same.

Q How does it feel to come back for this screening?

Sabella: It’s amazing coming back to the Sequoia. Growing up, I saw some of my first more art films, which was exciting and led me into being interested in film in general. It’s our last screening of the film in theaters, and it’s really nice to end at the Sequoia with a Mill Valley audience. It just feels very full circle.