Who Finds the Places Where Movies Happen?
Most of us watch a film without ever thinking about the person who found the apartment, the storefront, the bar, or the street where the story takes place.
But for a location scout, finding those places means knocking on strangers’ doors — and being invited, however briefly, into their lives.
That wonderfully peculiar job is at the center of THE SCOUT, the acclaimed feature debut from writer-director Paula González-Nasser.
The film follows Sofia, played by Mimi Davila, as she crisscrosses New York City searching for locations. She photographs apartments and neighborhoods while trying to satisfy an increasingly demanding production team.
But the real story is what happens in between.
As Sofia steps into one stranger’s world after another, these seemingly transactional encounters become unexpectedly intimate. She catches glimpses of other people’s loneliness, frustrations, and private lives — all while trying to figure out where she belongs in her own.
Named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, THE SCOUT was praised as “a work of fine-grained realism” and “an evocative study of the struggle to live intentionally in New York.”
Join us for a conversation with Paula González-Nasser, as she talk about the strange intimacy of location scouting, finding poetry in everyday New York, the realities of surviving as a young creative, and making her remarkable first feature on INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE, starting now.
