Eileen is a Spy
Minneapolis based writer/director Sayer Frey draws inspiration for her debut feature from the novels ‘Harriet the Spy’. This is the story of an eccentric and painfully shy loner (Tami Hinz) who prefers to scrutinise the lives of others rather than pursue her own (sexual) desires. Like Harriet, the pre-teen heroine of Louise Fitzbugh's children's books, the thirty-something Eileen peers through binoculars and scribbles notes as if gathering information about a world she is not yet part of. Frey explores female friendships and same-sex attraction as Eileen meets Jayne, a hitchhiking free spirit who helps our anti-heroine overcome her disabling isolation. Frey combines the quirky details of Eileen's story with surrealistic digressions, snippets of home movies and audiotaped interviews. The result is an exquisite fusion of documentary, audio and dramatic fiction that flows gracefully from scene to scene.
Description source: publicity materials