Mystical kisses from the sun or an embarrassing pigmentation? Filmmaker Lisa Rovner’s short Constellations takes a close look at what it means to be a female with freckles from the point of view of five young women who have them: Anna Tatton, a model and aspiring writer; television presenter and fashion stylist Angela Scanlon; costume designer Amy Pollitt; Adwoa Aboah, who just finished her degree in art; and model and Chanel ambassador Poppy Delevingne. Shot in London after a challenging casting search, Rovner’s film pays homage to the late American cult director Les Blank’s whimsical 1987 short Gap-Toothed Women. Blank explored social attitudes and self-esteem issues by interviewing over a hundred women and Rovner’s love letter to freckles similarly unpacks a genetic quirk from a playful perspective. “In the age of airbrushed everything, the prototype of a beautiful woman seems almost unattainable by natural means,” says the director. “Are the so-called ‘flaws’ that are driving women to do almost anything to change their looks really flaws? I wanted to make a film to investigate that question.”

Where did you find your freckled muses? 
Lisa Rovner: Believe it or not, casting women with freckles in London was hard. I tried everything: Facebook, casting directors, art schools, Oxford Street. I ended up finding these incredible freckled faces with a little help from my friends.

What’s the connection between the girls, the freckles and the novels they are carrying?
LR: I asked the girls to bring the books they were reading with them on the day I interviewed them. It was my way of asking, “Who are you?”.
 
Was there a common trait among these freckled women?
LR: The film reveals more about their differences than their similarities. In a way, the film becomes a kind of celebration of difference.
 
Who do you think of when you think of freckles?
LR: I think of constellations. As the saying goes: “A face without freckles is like a sky without stars.”