Category: Interview

All of the Interviews that we have conducted, in both audio, video and transcription.

WAMG Interview: Margarita Levieva – Star of INHERIT THE VIPER

INHERIT THE VIPER starring Josh Hartnett, Margarita Levieva, Owen Teague, and Bruce Dern opened in select theaters January 10th and is currently available on digital streaming platforms. INHERIT THE VIPER is a crime thriller about three siblings in Appalachia getting by as local opioid dealers, trying not to get caught in the spiral of violence that comes with the territory.

Margarita Levieva is an American actress. Born in Leningrad, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (now Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation), at age three she began the rigorous training program of a competitive rhythmic gymnast. Levieva continued to train for the next 13 years, winning competitions in Russia and eventually going on to compete in the United States after emigrating. When she was 11, Levieva’s mother moved her and her twin brother to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn in New York City. In 2005, New York Magazine featured her as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in New York.

Margarita Levieva took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about INHERIT THE VIPER

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman January 10th 2020

 Tom Stockman: Hello Margarita. I just watched your new film INHERIT THE VIPER. You played Josie in that and you were very good.

Margarita Levieva: Thank you. 

TS: Whenever I see you in something like The Deuce, you’re quite glamorous, but as Josie in INHERIT THE VIPER you really were de-glammed quite a bit. Almost unrecognizably so. 

ML: Yes. That’s something that’s really important to me, to always  honor the characters that I play. When I read the script I realized that Josie was not someone who would pay much attention to her physical appearance. Truthfully I love playing characters that don’t require much make up, where the focus is not so much on physical beauty and more on the character  and the soul of the person. The way I looked just fit the role.

TS: She’s also not a very sympathetic character. 

ML: No unfortunately not. And for me, those characters, like I’ve played in The Deuce and The Invisible, I’m drawn to because  they are complex and not necessarily sympathetic. I’m interested in the psychology of these types of characters and what’s inside them, and what drives them.  These characters are sympathetic to me if not necessarily to the audience. 

TS: Where did you film INHERIT THE VIPER? 

ML: Birmingham Alabama.  

TS: Did you do a lot of research on opiate addiction and the lives of drug dealers? 

ML: Absolutely. One of the reasons I was really drawn to the story is because I’ve been personally following the opiate addiction problems over the years. It’s really upsetting how rampant it is and how many lives it has taken. It’s a subject matter close to my heart, something important    

TS: Did you enjoy working with Josh Hartnet? 

ML: I did. I loved him. I love the whole cast but Josh was really extraordinary  it’s not pleasant playing characters that are so far away morally at this point in their lives and still struggling to maintain a connection.  But he’s incredibly wonderful and giving as an actor.

TS: What are the release plans for this film? Has it played at festivals? 

ML:  It did not play film festivals but it definitely was worthy. 

TS: Have you been to many film festivals?

ML: I have. I have been to Sundance five times and I have been to the Austin film Festival. INHERIT THE VIPER will be released today in theaters and across various digital platforms. 

TS: You’re from Russia and came to this country when you were 11.  What does the name Margarita mean in Russian? 

 ML: It means ‘pearl’ in Greek. Margarita is also the title of one of the biggest classics in Russia.

TS: When you were a little girl in Russia, did you watch a lot of movies and TV? 

ML: Not much. I grew up there during the communist era. We had two channels. One of them was news and the other was mostly cartoons. We had very limited access to television.  I did manage to see a few films growing up there, one was ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, which is probably my favorite movie just because of the nostalgic factor . But I was a dancer since the age of three, and was often performing at theaters. That was a big part of my upbringing.

TS: Who are some of your favorite actors that you have worked with? 

ML: I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some really brilliant actors.  Truly the cast in INHERIT THE VIPER, Josh and Owen Teague, I loved working with them. I loved working with some people on The Deuce. James Franco and Dominique Fishback were great. I worked with Tim Robbins a few years ago and really enjoyed working with him . I worked with Jesse Eisenberg who I loved as an actor. Kristen Stewart was great too. I enjoyed working with Ashton Kutcher and Dustin Hoffman for sure. 

TS: What did you act with Hoffman in? 

ML: I was signed on to do the second season of Luck which we were filming. Unfortunately, the series got canceled. But I was lucky to get to work with him. 

TS: What projects do you have coming up that you are excited about?

ML: I’m figuring out what I want to do next. I’m thinking about doing this series about a Russian spy which I am pretty excited about. 

TS: Well you’d be perfect. You were born to play that part!  Thank you for talking to me and good luck with INHERIT THE VIPER.

ML: Thank you.

WAMG Takes A Look At Henry Jackman’s Score For JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL And Talks With The Composer About His Approach To Combine Music And Film

https://www.facebook.com/henryjackmancomposer

Two-time BAFTA nominee Henry Jackman has won multiple American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) Awards for his work on top box office films like ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service,’ ‘Captain Phillips,’ ‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation,’ ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,’ and ‘X-Men: First Class,’ as well as animated features such as ‘Monster vs. Aliens,’ ‘Puss in Boots,’ and ‘Wreck-It-Ralph’ for which he also won an Annie Award. His other diverse credits include ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,’ ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ ‘Big Hero 6,’ ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet,’ and ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle,’ also recently composing for ‘Pokemon Detective Pikachu’ and The Russo Brothers’ produced action crime-drama ’21 Bridges.’

In theaters now, Henry returns to the magical board game-turned-video game adventure world of ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ and this summer, he is rejoining The Russo Brothers for their new drama feature ‘Cherry.’

Jumanji: The Next Level (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.

This past weekend ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ brought in an astounding $60.1 million at the box office.

As the film debuted to audiences worldwide, Henry and I spoke over the phone about the sequel as well as his score for last summer’s ‘Predator’,  his thoughts on working on franchises and the holistic approach on the melding of film and music.

WAMG: We’ve had two previous conversations, one being your work on ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2014/04/wamgs-interview-composer-henry-jackman-captain-america-winter-soldier/ as well as ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ and now you’ve scored for both “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle’ and ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’. I found there to be a few similarities with the cues on this second musical adventure.

Henry Jackman: I don’t often work on two movies of the same franchise. I took the “Jumanji” DNA and came up with new themes. I had great fun with the combinations of crazy fun and a stealthy vibe, while re-conceptualizing for a new adventure.

WAMG: One of the tracks “A Fond Farewell” is a lovely final piece of music after the frantic pace of the rest of the movie. It’s an adagio, quiet theme.

HJ: Most of the movie is full of excitement, with complex action sequences, and I had to come up with this final cue that calmed it all down at the end and let the audience breathe. It’s great for a composer because it’s fun doing music for an action movie but its nice to able to do the quiet and touching pieces of music.

WAMG: I have to go back when we first spoke in 2014 where we discussed the score for 1987’s ‘Predator’ film and how we both loved Alan Silvestri’s score. Jump to 2018 and it’s Henry Jackman composing the score for ‘The Predator’. I was truly excited to see your name as composer and while watching Shane Black’s film, you could hear the original theme cleverly running throughout the new movie.

HJ: You couldn’t make that up. I had a strictly classical education and I saw the original movie when I was about 14 or 15 and I heard this really cool score that made my ears pick up. I’m not claiming the movie was Shakespeare but the music was really sophisticated and I thought I’m going to remember that name, Alan Silvestri. And then jump 20 something years ahead and I’m composing for “The Predator’.

I jumped into this franchise and tried to resurrect various them from Silvestri’s original score. Tonally the two movies were very different. The original had the very patriotic type of theme, which fits with that movie. ‘The Predator’ is very different and I was on the phone to the producers telling them, “Alan Silvestri is a hero of mine, I have this musical obsession with the original movie and I’m going to come up with new cues that have similar language and sound and harmony where I can start weaving in the music so that they can be heard on top of each other.”

A deadly Predator escapes from a secret government compound in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE PREDATOR. Photo Credit: Kimberley French.

WAMG: You score was so exciting because you really went out of your way to include the original theme for the fans of the 1987 movie. You found a way to cleverly pay tribute to Silvestri’s music. It was thrilling to hear your score in the cinema last summer.

HJ: Funny thing is, he’s a genius and so humble. When I finished it I really felt that I had done something to pay tribute to him and that it sounded cool, so I called him up and wanted him to listen to my music. We got into this conversation and I told him, not to sound like a fanboy, “Alan your score is so original and what so cool about it is that up until 1987, I can’t think of any other score that uses that kind of harmony.”  I asked him what made him use those themes because its brilliant.

He was so funny. He said, “Ohhhh ‘Predator’ – I didn’t know what I was doing! The only thing I remember is that I was floundering around, I didn’t think I was film composer or an arranger.” I said, “hold on a minute, you wrote ‘Back To The Future’ by then!” He said, “Yeah but that was the first and it was orchestral, with ‘Predator’ I really didn’t know what I was doing.” I was like WOW… if that what happens when you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, then that’s some natural talent. It’s still so original.

WAMG: That’s a great story! But how do you go from a Predator movie to ‘Pokemon Detective Pikachu’ and ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’? How do you shift composing gears from sci-fi to two animated features?

HJ: You have to be a bit of a shape-shifter. (laughs) I’m lucky enough to be able to compose for the different genres so it’s really a blessing instead of a curse. One of the great things about that is that I don’t compose for the same type of film year after year. I had to leave the Predator behind and wrap my head around ‘Detective Pikachu’. You have to leave the other film behind and muddle your way into the new characters. By the time you join a project you’re seeing a first cut of a movie – so you have to forget the previous film, forget it even existed. The funny thing is that sometimes you can go really quickly from one film to the next and it very noticeable. The first few cues of ‘Pickachu’ has a hangover from the orchestrations of ‘Predator’. I hadn’t quite taken off the ‘Predator’ clothes and you can hear it. It’s a natural process. Far from annoying it keeps everything interesting. After the ‘Jumanji’ movie I’ll be doing a movie with the Russo brothers called ‘Cherry’ which is wildly different.

WAMG: I also loved your score for ‘Kong: Skull Island’ and the recent ’21 Bridges’. That one was very edgy and intense.

HJ: I was on that one from the get go. ’21 Bridges’ was produced by the Russo brothers. I worked with Alex Belcher on that and we tried to go for an intimate theme, not a boring electronic one. We really enjoyed that one. https://open.spotify.com/album/0E5Q7isRCDwXmlZKAbVQfG

21 Bridges (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

WAMG: I was glad to see you working with the Russo Brothers again. Certain filmmakers tend to go with certain composers time and time again. Steven Spielberg and John Williams, James Cameron worked many times with the late James Horner. Do you find this to be true?

HJ: I think you’re right. When you’re a filmmaker you’re in a precarious, nerve-racking business to try and find the music. There is a bit of magic to it, but when you look at the history of filmmaking, the director and composer are music companions so it’s no surprise. Look at Cameron and Horner, their films together shows how the music is such a big part of the movies. Sometimes the score doesn’t work with a movie, so it’s no surprise that a director goes back to the same composer.

WAMG: How was the premiere for ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ – you were on the red carpet?

HJ: Oddly enough it was a blue carpet (laughs). It was great fun. When you compose music you spend so much of your time locked away in a room like a hermit but you know ultimately it will help the movie that will be seen by many. It is a very hermetic experience so when you go to a premiere you get to see all these people, the production crew and the actors but it’s a good way to remind yourself that while you were locked away like a madman in a laboratory ultimately it’s a shared experience and everyone did a great job on the film.

Listen to Jackman’s ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ on Apple Music HERE, Amazon HERE and on Spotify HERE.

Composer Joseph Trapanese Discusses His Score For Disney+ LADY AND THE TRAMP

https://www.facebook.com/joecomposer

Just in time for the holidays is Disney+ original new movie LADY AND THE TRAMP.

In Disney+’s “Lady and the Tramp,” life is good for Lady, an overachieving American Cocker Spaniel who resides in an upscale suburban neighborhood. Her owners, Jim Dear and Darling, spoil her daily and her neighbors, Jock, an outspoken Scottish Terrier and Trusty, a world-weary Bloodhound, are always within barking distance. But when a baby enters the picture, Lady is no longer the center of attention, and the arrival of cat-loving Aunt Sarah only complicates matters. Lady soon finds herself alone on the streets in an unwelcoming part of town. Fortunately, Tramp steps in, and the streetwise mongrel is quick to teach her the ways of the world. Before long, the prim and proper purebred and the fast-talking mutt are partaking in moonlight strolls in the park and romantic spaghetti dinners by candlelight. Tramp savors the independence of a world without leashes or fences alongside his roguish friends Peg and Bull, but Lady misses the comfort and safety of a family, and soon both must decide where – and with whom – they belong.

A heartwarming romantic adventure that seamlessly combines live action and photorealistic animation, “Lady and the Tramp” stars Tessa Thompson as the voice of Lady, Justin Theroux as the voice of Tramp, Kiersey Clemons as Darling, Thomas Mann as Jim Dear, Janelle Monáe as the voice of Peg, Yvette Nicole Brown as Aunt Sarah, and Sam Elliott as the voice of Trusty. The film is directed by Charlie Bean from a screenplay by Andrew Bujalski and Kari Granlund, and is produced by Brigham Taylor. “Lady and the Tramp” is available to stream on Disney + now.

The score was composed and executive produced by composer Joseph Trapanese.

Trapanese is best known for his sleek score work for blockbuster films like “Tron: Legacy,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Oblivion” and the “Raid” series. As a composer, arranger, and producer for film, television, theater, and video game music, he has collaborated with a number of mainstream musical acts such as Daft Punk, M83, Mike Shinoda, and Dr. Dre.

Solo work includes films such as “Lady and the Tramp,” “Stuber,” “Arctic,” “Robin Hood,” “Only The Brave,” “Earth to Echo,” and two installments of the “Divergent” series.

Born in Jersey City, Trapanese earned his BM in classical composition from the Manhattan School of Music. He went on to study at UCLA for his MA and taught electronic music composition at the school from 2008-2011. In 2016, he became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2013, alongside a tenacious group of composers, artists, and musicians, Trapanese founded The Echo Society. Aiming to inspire each other and the community around them, the group creates and performs new music showcasing the unique talents and environments of Los Angeles.

Recently I spoke with Trapanese where we had a lively conversation about his previous scores, his love of composing for films and how the filmmakers brought him onto the project to create an original score for the darling LADY AND THE TRAMP.

WAMG: I love film scores and it’s always the first thing I listen for when watching a film. Your new score is such a vibrant part of the movie.

Joseph Trapanese: We all worked very hard to give it a reason to exist. It’s so easy to look at a film like this and think, “oh, they’re just dipping into old ideas,“ but I think we really gave it a reason to exist in 2019. We got it to place where it feels relevant and both old and new. A lot of hard work went into it.

WAMG: Your score feels both nostalgic and contemporary at the same time. You truly captured the essence, especially with the vocals, of the classic Disney film.

JT: It was a true honor to be entrusted with the musical legacy of Disney’s LADY AND THE TRAMP. We wanted to capture the emotionality and the warmth of the original movie.

The music goes deeper into the time period and the beginning of jazz. Charlie Bean and I worked diligently to celebrate the original film by maintaining the spirit of the classic songs, while being unafraid to explore the benefits of modern production and scoring to create an updated musical identity for today.

WAMG: Much of the music has those jazzy type of cues.

JT: It’s like a time capsule of the 1950’s. Music of the time was very alive. The early 20th century American setting inspired us to incorporate traditional New Orleans music and Americana into the fabric of the film. Alongside the artistry of Janelle Monae, trumpet soloist Nicholas Payton, and our 125-piece Hollywood orchestra, band, and choir, we aimed to create a signature sound for this generation’s LADY AND THE TRAMP. We wanted it to have a real presence.

We recorded “He’s a Tramp” in New Orleans and it was so exciting to have that opportunity. We didn’t want to be limited by modern technology.

WAMG: There are some very endearing moments in the film where your score just adds to the moment, such as in the track “He Has A Home,” it’s very orchestral and lovely. You’ve worked on “Tron: Legacy,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Oblivion”. What’s your favorite kind of music to compose?

JT: I have a very diverse background. I grew up listening to Hip-Hop, I grew up listening to film scores. I played in jazz bands and learned about a wide range of music. I’m a fan of Duke Ellington’s saying. “There are two kinds of music… good music and bad music.” What’s cool about film scoring is when I get asked by a filmmaker to compose for their movie, we sit down and discuss the characters, the time period… I try to understand the DNA of the film so that the music has a unique integrity only for that film. I’m very passionate about the music being a part of the narrative of a film.

I’m a fan where the score has a seat at the table. As in STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON I loved being influenced by Hip-Hop. After it was announced that I was doing the film, my friends called me up saying, “this is so cool, you’re writing a Hip-Hop score!” I was like, are you kidding me!? I’m going to write a Hip-Hop score next to the music of Dr. Dre?! Those guys are like the Beethoven of Hip-Hop! What I tried to bring was the emotionality that was happening behind the studio scene and within their families. Hip- Hop is so full of bravado and energy and such powerful music and I was trying to provide the vulnerability and something new with the score.

The album features new versions of classics such as “Bella Notte” and “He’s a Tramp,” the latter performed by multi-talented actress, singer and songwriter Janelle Monáe. Monáe performs one of the animated film’s most iconic songs (written and originally performed by Peggy Lee), “He’s a Tramp.”

Another classic song from the film, “Bella Notte,” is performed this time around by F. Murray Abraham and Arturo Castro, as Tony and Joe, respectively.

WAMG: How much were you involved with these new versions?

JT: I had the great pleasure working directly with her. She’s amazing. Plus I worked on the new Cat Song “What A Shame.” That was written and performed by Nate “Rocket” Wonder, Roman GianArthur. They’re brothers and they also produced the song. It was very much a team effort. We all worked so closely together so the score and songs have this musical palette that really blends together. I helped them record some of the band music for the Cat Song and they would come to listen to score being recorded, so we would have conversations during the break on how both parts were influencing each other. It had a huge impact of the final product. It was huge collaborative effort.

WAMG: Speaking of the “Cat Song,” how did the conversation start with redoing the Siamese Cat Song and the racial overtones of the original song in the original movie?

JT: We came to the table saying we need new cats. The director Charlie Bean said the names of the cats are Devon and Rex (Nate Wonder, Roman GianArthur) and they’re really funny. It was basic… we asked ourselves how are we going to do a new song, whose going to sing it, who will write it. They turned in a demo and Charlie said, “they are the cats!” I don’t think they thought they were going to sing the song. By the end of the day, we felt we had a great new song.

WAMG: It works really well! It was another great and hilarious way to update the cats.

JT: You don’t want to change the original films. It’s like a time capsule of the good and the bad. You have to approach it head on so from the beginning we knew we had to come up with something new.

WAMG: How did your enthusiasm for writing music come about?

JT: My friends in high school started playing in the band and I thought it was so cool. I joined the band and went to summer music camps. I noticed STAR WARS and other film scores. I wanted to go to school for music education to learn how to arrange and compose. My parents also encouraged me and I knew I wanted to make a living from composing. I always wanted to make music and I went to Hollywood where film scoring is so much alive. You need to have a great understanding of how cinematic sound works and I developed a skill set. I played in a Latin jazz band so I have great understanding and appreciation for musicians. I feel very lucky to have composed for so many different films.

WAMG: What’s coming up next for you?

JT: I worked on the PBS kids series “Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum” over the summer. It’s something I’ve never done before and I had a great time working on that.

I’m doing a film called HAPPILY with BenDavid Grabinski. It’s unlike any movie I’ve ever seen. It’s insane. The score is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I’m also working on a film called SPONTANEOUS with Brian Duffield. Its super fun and goes hand in hand with what I was saying before where the music has a unique viewpoint. 

I’m having a great time right now going from all these different types of films. For me it’s about the collaboration and the art. I feel so very lucky. All these projects are so meaningful and it’s quite a journey I’m having.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3uyV8fsSaBo1DNmIO15gBR 

iTunes/Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/lady-and-the-tramp-original-soundtrack/1485600478 

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Sonya Winterberg – Director of MADE IN AUSCHWITZ: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLOCK 10

MADE IN AUSCHWITZ: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLOCK 10 Screens Sunday, Nov 17 at 3:00pm at The Plaza Frontenac Cinema (1701 South Lindbergh Boulevard # 210 PLAZA) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.Ticket information can be found HERE

“Made in Auschwitz” focuses needed attention on a little-known aspect of the Nazis’ ghastly experiments, detailing the efforts of gynecologist Carl Clauberg to find an efficient means of sterilizing women. Clauberg’s “research” in birth control and fertility are part of the medical canon to this day, and such major firms as Siemens and the pharmaceutical company Schering (later purchased by Bayer) both participated in and profited from his work. The documentary deftly deploys archival materials and interviews with experts and historians, but the primary focus is on the testimony of a half-dozen remarkable women who survived Clauberg’s experiments, including a few who, despite the inhumane, painful treatments to which they were subjected, managed to have children after the war. Viewers may think they are familiar with the horrors of Josef Mengele and his cohort of concentration-camp physicians, but Clauberg’s experiments deserve the scrutiny the film provides, especially given the contemporary use and commercial exploitation of his work.

Sonya Winterberg took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about MADE IN AUSCHWITZ: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLOCK 10

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 13th, 2019

Tom Stockman: I hear you’re coming to St. Louis this weekend with your film MADE IN AUSCHWITZ: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLOCK 10.

Sonya Winterberg: Yes, I just got back from Copenhagen and I’ll be in St. Louis on Saturday.

TS: Great. The screening for your film is Sunday the 17th.  I found your film fascinating. It’s basically the story of Professor Carl Clauberg. How did you become interested in the story of Professor Clauberg? 

SW: A German author wrote a book about him. That was in 2011 and that was the first time I had encountered his name.  Later on, I found a research paper  by two people from St. Louis, Rita Marika Csapo-Sweet and Fred Sweet. They were Professors of Medicine who had written in medical journals and found it fascinating that Professor Clauberg had conducted that type of research though his name would never come up in anything that had to do with endocrinology, the research of hormones. I started looking into this and I wanted to know if there was more than I could find out about him. We didn’t know if there were people alive who had actually met him.

TS: You referred to him in the documentary as ‘The father of the birth control pill’.

SW: Yes, but it’s not as though he invented the birth control pill, but he did a lot of the hormonal research  that was needed to be able to and find out about the menstrual cycle and subjects like that. Much of that came from research that professor Claubert had done in the 1920s and 1930s.

TS: Yes, your film shows his focus, studying women and their menstrual cycles. It seems that he became so obsessed with his own research and experiments that he eventually embraced evil by collaborating with the Nazi party.

SW: Absolutely, though I think there is a big difference between him and some of the other famous Nazi doctors. Many of them were sadists and just wanted to torture others. Professor Clauberg was not like that. He was obsessed with his research, obsessed with women’s reproductive organs and body parts, and the Holocaust became the way for him to continue that. He sort of had this Napoleon syndrome. He was a little guy who really wanted to be big and to be important. He thought this research with the Nazis was his way of getting there. 

TS: What was it like filming at Auschwitz? 

SW: Today it is a very solemn place. Part of it is open to visitors, so people can actually go there. It was eerie and it was hard. Before we went to Auschwitz, we had done the interviews with the women that had lived through this at Auschwitz and told us their stories, so to be in this actual place was something that moved us for quite some time. 

TS: So Auschwitz is open for tourists?

SW: Yes, it’s like a memorial. It’s a very big place. There are other Holocaust Museums in the US, one in New York and one in DC, that are very educational, but Auschwitz is the one where it actually happened, so there is an educational part to it and also a memorial part. 

TS: There’s a Holocaust Museum here in St. Louis. Have you had a chance to visit that one? 

SW: I have not been to that one yet. 

TS: How did you track down the women that you interviewed, the ones that had been victims of Professor Clauberg? 

SW: That was probably the hardest part. We wanted to talk with survivors and relatives of survivors in different countries. We wrote letters and scanned newspapers and radio shows and the Internet for help. We used every possible means we could think of to find these women, and that’s how we came up with the last six survivors of Professor Clauberg’s  Auschwitz experiments.  We also talk to professors who had worked on the issue. We went into senior citizen homes talk to people who had survived the Holocaust. We filmed this all over a period of 2 to 3 years. 

TS: To what countries did you have to travel to interview these women? 

SW: We found two of these women in the Netherlands, two in France, and two in the United States. We wanted to talk to some people who had survived Auschwitz but they were no longer alive. We talked to some of their relatives, but those interviews are no longer in the film. 

TS: Was there anyone who you wanted to talk to that refused to be interviewed for your film?

SW: No, everybody that we found, or had a connection, was willing to talk to us. Most of these surviving women had never talked about this subject before, certainly not in front of a camera. One woman commented that she had been alive for such a long, had outlived all the Nazis, and just felt pleased to that she was going to have the last word. The things she told us were quite poignant.

TS: Yes, there is a great quote in your film by Lynn Wallis, one of the surviving women, who says “I did not survive the death camps for nothing! “.

SW: Exactly. 

TS: Professor Clauberg had children. Did you make any attempt to interview surviving members of his family?

SW: Yes, we tried to track down his family members and we did find a couple of relatives, but they all tried to distance themselves, so we were unable to confirm their relationships.  We found the daughter of one of his brothers, but she was in an assisted living facility and had dementia, so there was nobody we could really talk to from Professor Clauberg’s family that could give us any information. 

TS: Tell me about some of the archival footage in your film. Was that difficult to obtain? 

SW: Yes and no. Medical footage is often hard to get, especially when it is concerning women. That was probably the hardest part. There is a lot of material from 1940 onward, but it’s harder to get archival footage from the 20s and 30s. We did find that footage, but it always takes time to research what you need.

TS: In 2010, hundreds of Professor Carl Clauberg’s gynecological instruments were unearthed. Where are those tools now? 

SW: They are still at Auschwitz which has the largest depository of Holocaust artifacts.They sometimes loan things out for other exhibits, but they are always returned to Auschwitz.

TS: What is your filmmaking background? 

SW: I’m a journalist. I write books, I make exhibits, and I make films. The subjects I approach are generally war and trauma and also I look at postwar effects, especially in terms of women and children, and how they lived through wars.

TS: Have you taken this film to a lot of film festivals already? 

SW: We took it to the Jewish Film Festival in San Francisco but the fest there in St. Louis will be just our second. In July we will be showing it at the Jewish Film festival in Miami.

TS: Do you consider yourself a movie buff?  

SW: No, I would not consider myself a movie buff.

TS: Well I am. You said a book was written about Professor Clauberg. There’s so much drama to the story. I’m just wondering if he as a character ever appeared in a film. I could almost see Peter Lorre playing him in the movies. 

SW: Yes, I could see that, but no there has never been any fictionalized version of him. I am so fascinated by the documentary form that I rarely even think about narrative work. 

TS: Where are you from, Sonya? 

SW: I am originally from Finland and had a German father so I lived in Germany for a while. I now live in Canada so I’ve been all over. 

TS: What are your distribution plans for this film? 

SW: Distribution is one of our goals. We have a production partner in Israel. They will be taking the film to festivals. We have distributed copies to Brazil and Belgium and are in the middle of getting deals for having the film shown in movie theaters and on television. 

TS: MADE IN AUSCHWITZ: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLOCK 10 is a terrific documentary and I wish you the best with it and all of your future projects.

SW: Thanks you. I’ll see you in St. Louis!

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Tara Johnson-Medinger – Writer/Director of MY SUMMER AS A GOTH

MY SUMMER AS A GOTH will be screening at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) on Sunday, Nov 17 at 3:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Writer/director Tara Johnson-Medinger will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

MY SUMMER AS A GOTH tells a delightful coming-of-age story about the sometimes painful but often comic search for identity and love in adolescence. After the sudden death of her father, 16-year-old Joey (Natalie Shershow) is sent to stay with her eccentric grandparents while her author mother promotes her latest novel. Joey promptly falls for Victor (Jack Levis), the beguiling Goth boy next door, and is soon transformed, joining his merry band of misfits in black. Set in present-day Portland, “My Summer As a Goth” navigates Joey’s relationships with her new friends, her family, and her own conflicted feelings. The film is sure to resonate with anyone who survived teenage social alienation and that first summer heartbreak — and isn’t that all of us? The San Antonio Current writes: “By making the outcasts the ‘in-crowd,’ this quirky comedy puts a spin on the typical teen story of fitting in, with the added bonus of getting to watch actors flounce across the screen in darkly Victorian costumes and stylized makeup.”

Tara Johnson-Medinger took the time to speak with We Are Movie Geeks about her  film MY SUMMER AS A GOTH

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 30, 2019

Tom Stockman: Congratulations on your film MY SUMMER AS A GOTH which will be screening at The St. Louis International Film Festival November 17th.

 Tara Johnson-Medinger: I’m looking forward to the St. Louis Film Festival. I have so many friends that have had films in that fest before and I’ve heard great things about it. It will be my last film festival for a while. I have been on the film fest circuit for a year and this will be a nice way to close that out. 

TS: So you’re a Portland-based filmmaker, and you run the POW Film Festival there. Tell me about that.

TJ-M: POW stands for power of women. We’ve been running this festival for 13 years now and it is a festival that prioritizes women and non-binary directors and we feature films from all over the world. It’s a good way to celebrate women filmmakers and also give space to up-and-coming filmmakers  as well as established filmmakers . It’s been amazing. We have shown over one thousand films over the past 13 years.

TS: So your film festival sounds like it’s growing.  

TJ-M: We’re definitely in our prime, 13 year strong.  We do workshops and we have a guest of honor every year and we’ve had very well-known women directors as guest such as Katherine Bigelow and Catherine Hardwicke. Go to our website. About five years ago, we launched a youth program called ‘POW Girls’ . That is for a high school-aged youth. We do workshops with that program where a film has to be created within a week.  We work with our community television station here in Portland and our participants are able to use that facility. 

TS: That sounds like a great project. Let’s talk about MY SUMMER AS A GOTH.  I understand this is your first feature directing and writing.

TJ-M: It’s my first feature as a director. I have  been in this business for over 25 years  and for the last 20 I have been producing  primarily, so this is the first time I have stepped into the director’s chair.   I co-wrote it with my best friend from high school. MY SUMMER AS A GOTH really shares our experiences when we were young growing up in Salem Oregon   We came of age in the 80s  so it’s kind of a throwback to those John Hughes-era  stories that we all love so much.  But we wanted to freshen it up for today’s audiences because it’s a different world now.  We wanted to make it authentic. We worked with teenagers going through their own journeys and experiences.  We also wanted to be very authentic to the goth subculture so we made sure to work with goth consultants to make sure we were honoring that community and not making fun of it.  It’s really about celebrating otherness. 

TS: That’s a fine line. When you were growing up, did you know people like Joey and her Goth friends or were you one of those outcasts? 

TJ-M: Oh yes, I considered myself a goth, punk , hippie, weirdo  chick.  There’s a line in the film “we freaks have to stick together“.   All the oddballs really seem to find each other in various communities and in Salem, we all found each other.  We all wore black and hung out in the coffee shops and were the mall rats downtown in Salem.  There is something about finding that community, so in our film we are normalizing otherness. It’s about honoring the subculture and being faithful to it, but there’s also a playfulness to it  Some of my local Goth friends are some of the happiest people I know. There’s this misconception that it’s all doom and gloom but it’s really about celebrating inner beauty, The aesthetic, the music, the books.  I feel like we have that ability to portray that on screen.  The story centers around teenagers, so there is that kind of misfit fish-out-of-water angle.

TS: Were all of the actors in your film Portland-based? 

TJ-M: Yes, but now they’re all scattered across the United States because they were all high school age when we need the film.  Natalie Shershow, who is the lead in the film, is now working in New York. 

TS: I thought the casting was particularly well done. I thought Joey really looked like the actress who played her mother and in turn, that actress looked a lot like the woman who played the grandmother  

TJ-M: Yes, it all came through in our casting session   We had cast Natalie first so she was part of the subsequent casting sessions.   We made sure to do plenty of chemistry reads.  Everything just fell into place. That particular set of actors really fell into a maternal familiarity, They all worked together in so many ways. 

TS: Did your actors stick to the script, or was there some improvisation involved? 

TJ-M: We were pretty much on book, but there was definitely some improv as well   There are so many ways a movie unfolds. You write your movie, then you cast it, which brings it to life.  Then you get it into production, and due to the circumstance, you may have to adjust things at that point.  I worked with the actors to make it feel right so there were some adjustments on lines that we had to make.  Sometimes things sound good in the written word, then that so much when they are said.  Then in post-production, things change a lot as well. You figure out which scenes work and which scenes don’t.  Some scenes are lost just because they don’t matter anymore, So you really make your movie in so many ways during the whole process.  We made sure, in the editing process to have screenings in front of professionals to make sure that we were hitting it.  At that time, the whole ‘Me Too’ movement was happening, and that helped take the temperature of what was working and what was not working. 

TS: What were some of the unexpected challenges making your first feature film? 

TJ-M: Oh gosh, you always need more money and more time. Those are very typical. We filmed this movie over 2 years.  We filmed one week in 2016,  then quickly realized we weren’t really set up properly for the type of movie we were hoping to make  so we need to put a pause on it. That was hard to do but I was determined to raise more money and properly schedule things.  It was about one year to the day when we started up production again in 2017 and we filmed for two more weeks.  We were able to bring all of the cast back, and most of the crew, and that just shows how much people believed in our film.  Now here we are. We’ve played in 15 film festivals where I have picked up several awards.  People are really loving the film. The core audience for the film may be teenagers, but i’m 48 and it really speaks to me as well. Carissa‘s journey is similar to my journey.  The grandparent’s story is very relevant.  Mimi, who played grandma, was just happy to play a character who wasn’t sitting in a rocking chair knitting. Grandparents are lively, and they have lives and interests.  So there were a lot of challenges in making this movie, but believing in the story got us through.  There were many moments where it was so hard. I think the biggest lesson that I learned through this whole process was patience  with it.  Not rushing too much into decisions, finding the right people to help lift up the story.  The animation in the film was done in post production, and all that points back to Joeys sketchbook. Those were the types of things that were nice to think about and think through to create this whole world  and that took a lot of patience. 

TS: Good luck with your film. I know it’s a lot of work making a feature film and I am glad that it’s doing so well. 

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Max Carlson – Director and Writer of PRINCESS OF THE ROW

PRINCESS OF THE ROW will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd) Saturday, Nov 16 at 2:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Writer/Director Max Carlson will be in attendance and will host a post-screening Q&A. Ticket information can be found HERE

PRINCESS OF THE ROW tells a heart-wrenching tale about the powerful bond between a father and daughter. Alicia Willis (Tayler Buck) — a 12-year-old who’s bounced around the foster-care system for most of her life — longs to live with her father, Sgt. Beaumont “Bo” Willis (Edi Gathegi), a homeless veteran on the streets of LA’s Skid Row. Bo, who suffered a battle-induced brain injury during the Iraq War, is unable to recognize his own daughter most of the time, but she remembers the father he used to be: a caring man with a love of storytelling. Alicia, who has inherited her father’s creativity, wants to be a writer and crafts fantasy tales about a princess on a quest. A family-services social worker (Ana Ortiz) recognizes Alicia’s gift and places her with an award-winning author (Martin Sheen) and his wife (Jenny Gago), who live in a beautiful farm on the coast. Unfortunately, their home is 10 hours away from LA. Fearful of never seeing her father again, Alicia decides to escape the city with her father. Now on the run, she must cope with her father’s severe PTSD breakdowns, outwit the pursuing social-service workers and authorities, and overcome the worst kind of thugs that the streets of LA offers.

Max Carlson too the time to talk with We Are Movie Geeks about his film PRINCESS OF THE ROWS.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 1st, 2019

Tom Stockman: Your film PRINCESS OF THE ROW is playing Nov 16 at the film festival at 2:30.  Have you ever been to St. Louis before?

Max Carlson: Never. I don’t know what to expect.    

TS: Let’s talk about your movie PRINCESS OF THE ROW. I watched it and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Are you from LA? 

MC: Yes, I was born here in LA. I was raised in the Los Feliz area. That’s why I wanted to make a film set on a Skid Row. I’ve always known about Skid Row growing up, It’s kind of a thing that’s always been there but nobody really addresses. If you step foot there, it feels like a totally different city, and if you walk just blocks away, you’ll be in the richest areas of downtown LA.  There’s a really big divide there. 

 TS: I noticed at the beginning of the film there are these striking birds-eye view shots of the homeless camps and tents.  I assume those were the real homeless camps.

MC: Totally. We filmed there. We had some people that were experiencing homelessness performing as extras. We were filming right on Skid Row, so a lot of those tents, even in the background of our shots with the main characters, are the real thing. 

TS: I assume you had a set director create a tent that your main characters lived in. 

MC: Yes, Sonya Kroop, our art director, created the main three tents right there in the immediate section, but everything surrounding that were homes for people that had fallen on really hard times. 

TS: Did you have any problems or challenges filming there so close to the homeless camps? 

MC: Not really. Filming on Skid Row was easier than filming on in Malibu or other areas in LA.  The people that lived there on Skid Row were very receptive to our project and there were no problems. There were people coming up and asking to be in a scene and I would put them in one. That was a nice added feeling of acceptance in that area. One reason that I think it was easy was that we met a homeless veteran  during pre-production, His name is Gerald Hall, who is in the film. He served in Iraq and is now homeless, so we hired him not only as an actor, but as a liaison to be with us during the filming and even be with us prior to filming.  When we brought in the lead actor Edi Gathegi, we all went down to Skid Row with Gerald to walk us around and meet different people and observe the area.  There was one challenge.  The day that we were supposed to start shooting, we didn’t realize that LA had this program where they, once a week, force everyone to dismantle their tents and they hose down the entire streets. Even though we notified LA that we were filming in this section, they told us we had to take our set down. We’d spent hours the previous night assembling our little area, so luckily, they spared us from having to take it down since we had the proper permits. 

TS: Did you consider incorporating that hose-down procedure into your film? 

MC: Yes I wanted to, make it sort of an ambiance visual, but we weren’t ready with the cameras and never got the chance. 

TS: Where did you get the idea for this story? 

MC: It was a combination of things. First my interest in wanting to do something on a Skid Row just came from me living in LA and seeing homelessness rise and wanting to and telling a story on Skid Row that people had never really seen. Aside from a film made called THE SOLOIST, I can’t remember any other films set there. My grandfather, who was a veteran, had dementia. I wanted a main character who was a veteran who is going through that. I partnered with my co-writer Shawn Austin, researched the story, and talked to several homeless groups where social workers would tell us stories. We stumbled upon this idea based on kids, homeless kids and foster kids who do have parents on Skid Row. They will run away and go to be with their parents, because those are their real parents, But unfortunately they can’t take care of their kids because they don’t have the mental capacity to do so, or financial capacity, but that doesn’t stop the kids from loving their parents. I felt that storyline was so heartbreaking and a beautiful and layered and I fell in love with that idea.

TS: Your film is book-ended with these fantasy moments, in this forest with a unicorn. Talk about that. 

MC: The idea there is that this young girl has this father played by Edi Gathegi. His name is Sergeant Beaumont Willis. He served in Iraq and sustained a brain injury that was quite traumatic.  He no longer became the father that he once was. Before he sustained that injury, he was a father who had a lot of creativity and would tell his daughter bedtime stories, making up these fantasies about kings and princesses in fantasy worlds.  After his brain injury, he’s incapable of taking care of his daughter and he’s living on the streets.  She has inherited those creative qualities and she wants to be a writer and has come up with stories inspired by her father.  This is a way for her to have a connection with that part of her father that she lost but still wants back.  It’s an escape and a way to deal with and contextualize the surroundings she’s forced to live in and her lot in life.  It’s a way to see things through a lens that’s a little naïve but still a beautiful way to look at something. 

TS: I want to talk about another scene that I liked. You have this montage set to music where Alicia and her father are trying on clothes while a song is playing. That is such a cliché. You see that in romantic comedies, but you sort of turn that cliché on its head and I really liked it.  Talk about how her you were trying to do something different with that scene. 

MC: It was something that I’m aware that I’ve seen many times, but I didn’t necessarily set out to make something different.  In that section of the film, things are working out bit better and it’s sort of an uplifting part. She thinks this fantasy of living with her dad is going to work out and she wants to buy him some new clothes. 

TS: Yes, it moves the story forward where a lot of times, in other movies, that scene would just be filler.  Let’s talk about the character of Alicia. I’m I assume you had a lot of screen test for young actresses for that part.  What about Tayler Buck’s audition made you want to cast her? 

MC: We had auditioned a variety of girls but it’s a complex story for a young actress. 

TS: Yes, it appeared to be a challenging role. 

MC: Yes, there is so much emotion and so much going on for a 12-year-old. When Tayler came in, we read a couple of scenes, and immediately I felt that she had an emotional depth and wisdom beyond her years.  I immediately responded to her. As an actress, she has an amazing ability to be in touch with her emotions. That was amazing to see. She could cry right in front of us in some of the scenes we had her read.  I had her headshot, flipped it over, and wrote on the back “she’s the one!“.  We did some screen tests after that to really make sure, but she did an incredible job. 

TS: Let me ask you about the participation of Martin Sheen in your film. He’s known for  political activism. What did he bring to the project? 

MC: He brought a lot to the project. This was an incredibly low budget film.  SAG has different tiers of how their budget ranges are. The lowest is ultra-low budget,  and ours was ultra-low budget.  We weren’t sure how we were going to cast of this film, so I thought of who I actually knew.  I knew Martin Sheen. I had made a documentary about the Bohpal gas industrial disaster and the same year Martin Sheen had worked on a different film about the same subject.  We had that shared interest and we met back then.  That was in 2011 and I’ve known him since. We wrote the part and we just asked Martin if he would play it. Martin graciously read it and said yes.  You asked how he contributed. In a way, he got the ball rolling. He was the first actor to say yes to the project and I think because of his validity and the fact that he is an American icon, so many other people were willing to listen and read the script and say yes to the project.  I think he really unlocked a lot of doors by just responding to the material and wanting to help.  The social activism part of his life is admirable. He’s been arrested more than 100 times for his political activism at rallies and marches.  I think that’s great because our film has a social message within it.

TS: And he’s a Hollywood legend. I’ll bet he had a lot of stories to tell. 

MC: There were different bits of synergy, He spoke about APOCALYPSE NOW when he was on the set  and the first film that I can remember seeing as a child, was HEARTS OF DARKNESS, the film about the making of APOCALYPSE NOW. 

TS: Let’s talk about you. Did you grow up as a movie buff? 

MC: Yes. I’ve always loved movies. My parents met at a news station. My mom was editor at the news station and my dad was a cameraman, so growing up I had access to a camera. As early as elementary school, I was making little movies with my family and friends.  Movies that started to sink in and stand out when I got a little older are ones that I saw in high school.  The first movies I can remember loving were Paul Thomas Anderson’s MAGNOLIA  or maybe DANCES WITH WOLVES, these really cinematic epic movies. 

TS: Do you have a favorite directors that you have found influential? 

MC: There’s Paul Thomas Anderson. I love Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg and also Martin Scorsese.

TS: One more thing about PRINCESS OF THE ROW I want to mention. You have to be happy with the musical score for your film. It is so evocative  

MC: Yes, I think it’s beautiful and there are layers to it that are singers from Skid Row itself.  We heard singers from a group called The Urban Voices Project, a nonprofit group that’s like a choir which anybody who is homeless can be part of.  Also interwoven is vocals from people from Skid Row . Julian Scherle, who is our amazing composer, is a music geek.  Conceptually, he wanted sounds to sound like they are from the street so he did something very unique. He got shopping carts from skid row.  He actually bowed the shopping cart with a violin bow and those are some of the sounds that you hear. Some of the hits and stomps and claps are actually being made by some of the people from Skid Row.

TS: Those are awesome little pieces of trivia and that’s why I like doing these interviews. Good luck with PRINCESS OF THE ROW and we’ll see you at The St. Louis International Film Festival.

MC: Looking forward to it.

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Brian Rose – Director of WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE

WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE screens Saturday, Nov 16 at 1:00pm at The Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Blvd) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Director Brian Rose will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. This is a FREE event.

In November 2006, student Jesse Ross traveled to Chicago to participate in an academic conference. While attending a meeting, he rose from his chair and walked out of the room. He has not been seen or heard from since. The haunting “When I Last Saw Jesse” — directed by SIU-Carbondale graduate and Kansas City resident Brian Rose — tells the story of what happened in Chicago that night, exploring the impact of Jesse’s sudden and mysterious absence on his family and friends. Using audio interviews with friends, family, and students on the trip and evocative black-and-white 16mm footage of the places Jesse visited and lived in, the film draws viewers inexorably into the mystery. With its voice-over interviews and narration and its scenes of locales almost entirely devoid of any human figures, “When I Last Saw Jesse” becomes ever more disquieting as it unfolds. Jesse himself proves an elusive figure, almost a cipher, even before he disappears. The opaqueness of his portrayal only adds to the film’s overall feeling of dread, and the narrow focus on the events of that weekend in Chicago creates an appropriately overwhelming sense of claustrophobia.

Director Brian Rose took the time to speak with We Are Movie Geeks about WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE and about the mysterious disappearance of Jesse Ross

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 5th, 2019

Tom Stockman: I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your new film WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE. Have you ever been to the St. Louis Film Festival before?

Brian Rose: No I have not. This will be my first time. 

TS: How did you become interested in this a true story about the disappearance of Jesse Ross? 

BR: I had followed it from the news from the beginning. I had gone to school in Illinois and I had been to Chicago on a trip to visit some friends just a few days before the events with Jesse took place, so I was struck by the timing. When the news broke, I followed it is a casual observer. When I came back to the Kansas City area, I came to discover that a professional colleague had been friends with Jesse. We talked a bit about the case, he put me in touch with the family, and things went from there. 

TS: It’s an unusual documentary. It’s like a talking heads documentary without the heads.  You shot your film in 16mm black and white. 

BR: Yes it was all shot on film.

TS: Was it hard to find a lab to process 16mm black and white film?

BR: There are still some labs open that do that, but yes, the number of them has dwindled. I used a lab called Cinelab  that has been around for years in Massachusetts. 

TS: The black-and-white grainy presentation gives WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE  a very unique and haunting quality.  Why did you make the decision to film it in this format? 

BR: There were a number of reasons but the main reason was one of practicality . When I started working on the film in earnest in 2013 and 2014, there was a fair amount of change still going on in camera technology.  There was a lot of shooting still done in 1080, but there was a lot of talk about shooting in the 4K format,  which is now largely standard in production.  I looked at all the options and was concerned about choosing a format  that was still going to be current when the film was completed.  I started looking at costs of various camera technologies and crunching the numbers.  I have the film gear in hand from past work  I realized if I stuck to my plan and was judicious about my shooting,  I could actually shoot on film and it gave me the freedom I wanted.  When the time came, I could choose what resolution to scan the film and had it scanned t 4k resolution.  There were other factors as well.  There was certainly an artistic component to my choice   I find with documentaries, they all tend to look the same, partially because  a lot of people use that same cameras, the same software programs, same color schemes.  I have a background as a photographer and like to have control of the image and used various lab processes to get a different look out of the film. Sadly, Jesse’s story is not a unique one, and I decided to use a visual style that would be indelible. 

TS: When you interviewed subjects such as Jessie‘s father and his friend Ralph Parker, did you just record audio or did you film them as well? 

BR: I just recorded audio. There is a technique in documentary that’s not done so often anymore but used to be more standard, called pre-interviewing where you go in and interview people to kind of get a sense of how they will sound and what information they have. You can start to shape the story from that, then go back and interview them and ask the specific questions  you want them to answer. That way you only end up shooting maybe an hour or so  of interview material instead of four or five.  I started off with that in mind.  As things progressed, I started wondering whether or not I really needed to see these people on camera. There were some people that I interviewed that, for some reason, could not be on camera.

TS: I wanted to ask you about that.  You filter a couple of voices to disguise their voice and claim they wanted their identification protected.  Protected from whom exactly? 

BR: More often than not, a lot of the people involved in this group activity, the model UN, are very intelligent and driven students.  The Model UN attracts chronic overachievers.  Of the dozen or so people that were on this trip, several of them are medical doctors, and several are attorneys.  A lot of them have prestigious careers.  I decided early on not to judge the reason a person might want to remain anonymous for a project like this.  It was a traumatic experience for all involved and I decided to respect their wishes.  A lot of people chose not to speak with me at all.

TS: Yes, that was my next question. So there were people that you reached out to the did not want to get involved? 

BR: Yes, there were a number of people who simply didn’t respond or they declined to participate in the interviews for reasons that I chose to respect.  I also feel that some of them figure that they have already cooperated with the police, made their statements, and have the right to move on  with their lives. 

TS: Would you have had liked to have had more interviews with the detectives that worked on the case?  There’s very little of that. 

BR: I would very much have liked to have had some of the Chicago police speak with me on the record.  I did speak with one detective who agreed to go on the record  because he is retired now. He also felt a sense of responsibility and a duty to the family.  No one who is currently working on the case would speak to me which was a disappointment.  The Chicago Police Department obviously have a lot to deal with.  It’s one of the frustrations I have with documentary filmmakers.  So many documentarians, the Michael Moore-types, go into an interview with a kind of adversarial mindset,  trying to inject conflict and criticism. It makes a lot of people inherently suspicious of the motives of documentarians.  I think that’s why the Chicago PD was a bit suspicious of my motives. 

TS: I agree that so many documentaries are agenda-driven and that you’re often wondering if you’re getting the full story. I am often drawn to these true crime docs because there seems to be a bit less of that.  Have there been any developments in the Jesse Ross case since you made your film? 

BR: Of course I keep in touch with the Ross family  but there hasn’t been anything promising. Periodically they may had a situation where  some human remains are discovered, washed up along the riverbank,  or in a tributary somewhere, so that will reignite some speculation that maybe it is Jesse.  Thus far however, there has been no identification of his remains, so the case has largely been the same as since I started working on this project. 

TS: It’s a strange case, especially the fact that there is no body. Has the Ross family seen your film? 

BR: Yes, and to their great credit, since this is at a film they likely don’t enjoy watching, they have attended several screenings. In some cases they have traveled significant distances to do so.  I’m very fortunate that they have helped support this. 

TS: Have they been involved in the post-screening Q&A‘s? 

BR: Yes, but they will not be at the St. Louis screening at SLIFF. 

TS: What was your filmmaking a background before you made WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE ? 

BR: I initially studied history, but I’ve always nursed an interest in film  and decided to pursue it further as a grad student after which I  started my job at a production company here in Kansas City, where I have worked ever since. I do work for them as a researcher and writer and editor.  I’ve done a lot of work for them on PBS documentaries and Museum films, and also some labor union advocacy. These are projects for really good causes.  WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE is one of my independent productions that I do in my spare time.  I like to say that I work as a filmmaker during the day and then I work as a filmmaker when I go home at night. 

TS: When you show this film at film festivals, what is the most common question and that you get during the Q&A‘s? 

BR: Certainly asking about how I got involved in the case and also about the stylistic choices I have made,  such is my decision to not have the interviews on camera. It definitely stands out as a very different kind of documentary  in that regard. 

TS: Are you often ask what you honestly think happened to Jesse? 

BR: People do ask me that and  I always have to be a little careful  going on the record.   It’s hard because I think there were some mistakes made in this case . Investigators arrived at conclusions a little too rapidly and the exclusion of eliminating other thoroughly possible  explanations.  My goal with this film was not so much to throw speculation at the audience, which is what I think a lot of true crime documentaries do, just to gin up the water-cooler talk.   Rather I wanted to clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding the case and tell a story fairly straightforward  that would allow viewers to arrive at their own opinion based on the available evidence. 

TS: What are your plans for a future distribution of this documentary? 

BR: I’ve been writing to a lot of distributors and sending out inquiries.  I’ve written to a lot of agents and critics to try to help promote the film.  Ultimately if something like that  does not pan out, I intend to distribute the film myself online through various streaming platforms like iTunes and Google Play and Amazon and put it out there  sooner rather than later. 

TS: Best of luck with WHEN I LAST SAW JESSE and we will see you at the film fest here in St. Louis.

BR: Thanks you. I look forward to it.

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Lara Gallagher – Director and Writer of CLEMENTINE

CLEMENTINE will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) Saturday, Nov 16 at 5:00pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Writer/Director Lara Gallagher will be in attendance. Ticket information can be found HERE

In a desperate plea for attention, unhinged and heartbroken Karen — who’s unable to let go of her failing relationship with an older and more successful woman — steals away to her estranged lover’s lakehouse in a remote and beautiful Pacific Northwest forest. While there, she becomes entangled with Lana, a provocative young girl hell-bent on moving to California and cultivating an identity that lives up to her expectations of the world outside of her small town. As Karen grapples with her difficulties in the past and expectations for the future, her relationship with Lana oscillates wildly. Is Karen serving as a surrogate mother to Lana? Is she the watcher or the watched? Are they friends, sisters, or lovers? Equal parts psychological drama and sexual coming-of-age story, CLEMENTINE is a tense rumination on who to love and how to let go.

Writer/Director Lara Gallagher took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about her film CLEMENTINE.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman November 8th, 2019

Tom Stockman: Your movie CLEMENTINE plays at the St. Louis International Film Festival next Saturday night. Will you be here for the screening?

Lara Gallagher: Yes, I’m excited.

TS: Have you ever been to St. Louis before? 

LG: I was there many years ago on a family cross-country road trip, but not since. I’m looking forward to it. 

TS: I enjoyed CLEMENTINE quite a bit. Tell me, was this a personal story? 

LG: Yes, it’s something I wrote as well as directed, and it was inspired by feelings that I had coming out of my own really rough break-up with an older and more successful woman. 

TS: That’s kind of the film’s theme, the crazy things that can happen in the heat of a break-up.

LG: Yes, I haven’t seen a lot of movies that are about that point after a break-up when your friends are tired of hearing about it but you are still not over it. You can see yourself going in multiple ways in that situation. Do you let it take over to your life? Do you do something drastic or crazy?  Or are you going to somehow get over it?  That was the kind of moment I wanted to tap into, when you have to decide how to move on. 

TS: I found the film relatable. I think everyone’s had their heart broken. 

LG: Yes it’s part of adulthood and setting yourself up for better relationships.

TS: Where was CLEMENTINE filmed?

LG: It was all shot in Oregon.  Primarily all in a town called Florence, Oregon, about three hours south of Portland. 

TS: I found your film quite suspenseful.  You direct suspense well. You introduce a gun early, and there are threats, and veiled talk about harm and suicide. You don’t know where it’s going to go and I was on the edge of my seat. I think the music helped in that aspect as well. 

LG: That was definitely my intention. I wanted to dip my toe into the thriller genre. The main character could really do all of those things. I think when your life becomes dismantled, you have to recognize that you do have choices and those choices can be definitely the wrong choices. Burning the house down is an option but you have to make those decisions for yourself, because you’re the only one that can do it. That was the inspiration, to try and get in her head and make it as psychological as possible. 

TS: The main character’s name is Karen and she is played by Otmara Marrero.  Did you audition a lot of actresses for that role, and what was it about Ms. Marrero’s audition that spoke to you and made you want to cast her? 

LG: Yes, we looked at quite a few women for that role. Otmara had a quality that I didn’t know that I was looking for, but when I saw her tape, it just kind of clicked.  She’s very casual and she’s very calm.  She was OK with silences, she wasn’t rushing to do something. I felt a very compelling stillness with her in her audition, which I think is a really hard thing for actors. They are usually trying to get the part and wanting to show their excitement. Otmara just came with this kind of stillness and wait that was really important for this character of Karen.  On the other hand, when I watched her previous work in a show on Crackle called a Start Up, where she’s basically an action star, I’m so glad for the different skills that she brought to CLEMENTINE. It’s my first film. You can write things like somebody jumping through a window or rowing a boat, that you think that somebody will just do, but Otmara was just incredibly tough.  We had padded her stomach for the scene where she climbs through the broken window and were being conscientious about her safety, but she just flew through that window like it was no big deal.  Her being able to do that physical stuff was something I was so thankful for. 

TS: Also Sydney Sweeney was good as Lana. She was also one of the Manson girls in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.  Did she act in your film before or after the Tarantino film? 

LG: Before. She’s had a really big a couple of years. We finished filming CLEMENTINE in the fall of 2017, just exactly two years ago, and since then she has gone on to do The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. And she’s in Euphoria, which has been one of the big hits of the summer. We were lucky to catch her on the upswing. It’s really been awesome to see what she’s been able to do and that people are recognizing her incredible talent. She really brought it, and she really brought Lana alive and always gave us something extra, an extra look, and a real depth and understanding of that character.

TS: What were some of the unexpected challenges in making your first feature film? 

LG: The time certainly. We were shooting six day weeks, which meant no breaks and always feeling behind. I’m a real planner but having a never done a shoot for this duration, so it was kind of hard to know from the get go exactly what you need to do and always feeling behind, always feeling that clock and that pressure. Knowing that this was our one chance to do this, I think was the greatest challenge.

TS: Did the cast stick to your script closely or was there some improvisation that went on? 

LG: They pretty much kept to the script.  My favorite scene though was the scene with the pot-smoking, their first kind of real coming-together moment and that was an improvised scene, Karen teaching Lana how to smoke. That kind of casual ease with them getting to know each other  was improvised and it had a lot to do with them really liking each other and becoming friends during  the course of the shoot. 

TS: There are some interesting songs in your film. Tell me about choosing those songs? 

  LG: Lightning Dust is a band that I have loved for years and years. They are from Vancouver. That album was one that I was listening to a lot during my break-up, so it was something that I really went back to when I was writing the script. It helped me to remember those feelings. Music can be a powerful way to transport yourself to other times and moments in your past. That band was always written into the script and we got their permission to use their music. It’s actually the album that she puts on and the first song that plays is the first song on the album. Later in the hair-braiding scene, it’s another song from that same album. For me, it was nice to think that this was music that was important to the character of Karen seducing Lana too. Music is important to relationships, especially when you’re dating somebody older. 

TS: Did you grow up as a movie buff? 

LG: Yes, I’d say so, but I would say even more television than the movies. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. There were not a lot of movie theaters around but we did have a video store that I frequented often. I was constantly watching television and reading. I was always a real lover of stories. 

TS: Have you taken CLEMENTINE to a lot of film festivals? 

LG: We premiered at Tribeca in April where it was really exciting to be on such a big stage in New York. Since then we’ve been traveling all around the country and have been to some interesting places. Recently, in the same weekend, we screened in La Grande Oregon at the Eastern Oregon Film Festival and at the LA Downtown Film Festival. That was very exciting. We have been to Wichita,  Bend Oregon, kind of all over. 

Lara Gallagher with stars Otmara Marrero and Sydney Sweeney

TS: Have either of your lead actresses been able to attend any of these fests with you? 

LG: Yes they both came to Tribeca  and we did some press together and some photo shoots. It was really fun and kind of glamorous.  Otmara was able to come to the LA Downtown Film Festival where she won a Breakthrough Performance award which was really exciting.

TS: She deserved it. What are your distribution plans for CLEMENTINE? 

LG: We just secured domestic distribution, so it will be coming to theaters in 2020, which we are just thrilled about. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and figure out an international festival strategy and international distribution as well. 

TS: What is your next project? Do you have something in the works? 

LG: I’m working on a script right now. It’s another coming of age story about a girl who gets her period for the first time while she is traveling with her dad at a remote Oregon convention center. There, she comes to discover there is a coven of maids who are harvesting her virgin blood.  It will be my first foray into the horror genre. I’m excited to strip back my personal stories that have driven my work up to this point and do something different.

TS: Oh, that sounds terrific! Keep me updated on that project.  I raised two daughters so I can relate to part of that, but not the part about the coven! Best of luck with CLEMENTINE and all of your future projects.

LG: Thank you. See you in St. Louis!

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Sean Mullen – Director of KINGS OF BEER

KINGS OF BEER screens at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) Saturday, Nov 16 at 3:30pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Director Sean Mullen will be in attendance and will host a post-screening Q&A. Ticket information can be found HERE

In KINGS OF BEER — directed by Sean Mullin (“Amira & Sam,” the winner of SLIFF’s 2014 New Filmmakers Forum) — a diverse group of elite brewmasters from 65 breweries and 23 countries battle it out in an intense competition to brew the world’s most iconic American lager: Budweiser. The brewmaster who can brew the best, most consistent Budweiser over a 12-month period will bring home the Global Brewmaster Cup. Judged by an illustrious group of experts who are sequestered deep within the historic walls of the most renowned room in the brewing world — Room 220 —  most of these “key tasters” have decades of experience, which has trained their palates to pick up the most minute of flavor flaws. The tasters in this fabled room are responsible for ensuring the standard of more than one-quarter of the world’s beer, with Budweiser the gold standard of consistency by which all the other beers are judged. In a competition usually decided by no more than a hundredth of a point, even the slightest misstep can cost a brewmaster the coveted Cup. Despite the hardship and uncertainty, one thing is clear: Kings aren’t born, they’re brewed.

Sean Mullen took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about his film and the contest at the center of it.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 30th, 2019

Tom Stockman: So you’ve been to the St. Louis international film Festival before.

Sean Mullen: Yes, for my 2014 film AMIRA AND SAM,  which I wrote and directed. It won an  Emerging Filmmaker’s award there.  It was a great experience.

TS: Congrats.  Now you’ve made your second feature, KINGS OF BEER. Why did you make a documentary as your second feature?

SM: It came to me pretty organically. The idea came through my agent from a company that was wanting to make a documentary about beer and had this idea, so I went in and met with them. They had some connections with Anheuser Busch and the beer industry there in St. Louis. I found out about this contest, this incredible internal brewmaster competition, which I was unaware of. Essentially, there are 65 breweries worldwide that brew Budweiser. Every month they send a batch to St. Louis for a blind taste test.  The results of that are recorded immediately and the results are sent back to the brewmasters. They all compete to see who can make the best Budweiser. I thought that was fascinating.

TS: Has beer always been one of your interests?  

SM: Yes. For quite a while.

TS: Me too.  What is the goal of this contest that this film is about?

SM: They are brewing Budweiser and the contest is to see who can brew the most consistently high quality of Budweiser beer  around the world. 

TS: Who are the judges for this contest?

SM: There are a group of key tasters . They are all experts on tasting beer that are there in the St. Louis area . The film focuses on three of these tasters.   Twin brothers Pete and Mike Cramer who are considered top brewmasters among tasters.  The other is Jane Killebrew. They’ve been with the company for decades and the three of them lead this panel of tasters. 

TS: Who are the contestants in this contest? 

SM: They are the Budweiser brewmasters, from all  65 breweries around the world that make Budweiser. We focused on the top five in this documentary. What drew me to these five that we started to focus on, about halfway through the year-long contest, was what a diverse group they were.  One was a man from China who spoke no English.  It was fascinating to watch him brew beer over there. We also follow a woman from Columbus Ohio, an Army veteran who lives in Colorado, a woman in New Hampshire, another guy down in Houston, and a professor up in Canada. We followed these people around for a year to take a look at their process. I think what might challenge perceptions is that  while people are so enamored these days with these hoppy IPA beers,  it’s really the lagers that are much more difficult to brew. It’s a longer process. It’s a much more fickle process, and the fact that it’s much more difficult to brew and that makes the subjects more interesting. ‘

TS: How involved was the Anheuser Busch brewery in the making of your documentary? 

SM: Very much. The financing for the film came through some channel of the brewery organization but they did allow us total creative control. The film shows, warts and all, what it takes  with this difficult process. 

TS: Were there any secrets that the Anheuser Busch people did not want to do the disclose in your documentary?

SM: No not really. I was surprised how open they were with me, this independent filmmaker that came along. Really the focus was on the challenges of these 65 breweries worldwide. They have different  air quality factors and and different water, things like that to work with and it’s such an extremely difficult process and so fascinating to watch these brewmasters juggle these different variables. we also followed the tasters during these contest, where they judge everything from a scale of one to ten. Once a bottle of beer is open, it automatically drops to a nine.  The tasters are shown tasting not just Budweiser, but a variety of beers,  so the film shows how decisions made in one room affect the quality of 1/3 of the beer being consumed worldwide. 

TS: What were some of the challenges of making this film?

SM: Really the big challenge was just narrowing it down from all of the brewmasters that we followed and filmed.  They were all such incredible people and there were some tough choices we had to make. We shot over 500 hours of footage which we had to edit down into our 82 minute-long film. We filmed this whole sequence in Moscow with a  woman brewmaster there, but we had to edit that out. In Russia, brewing beer is more of a female-dominated industry.  Of the 35 brewmasters we met in Russia, 30 of them were women, which I find pretty fascinating.  I think the more knowledge people have about the process of brewing beer, the better. I think that’s what is nice about KINGS OF BEER. I think in an educational way we sneak in some morsels for the audience to take away  about brewing beer, and our angle is how lagers are a much more difficult beer to brew, much more difficult than people may give it credit for.

SLIFF 2019 Interview: Karen Maine – Writer and Director of YES, GOD, YES

YES, GOD, YES will screen at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar) Friday, Nov 15 at 7:00pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival.Ticket information can be found HERE. Writer/Director Karen Maine will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

Growing up in the Midwest in the early aughts, 16-year-old Alice (Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy Wheeler in “Stranger Things”) has always been a good Catholic. But when an innocent AOL chat turns racy, she discovers masturbation and is overwhelmed with guilt. Seeking redemption, she attends a mysterious religious retreat to try and suppress her urges, but it isn’t easy, especially after a cute upperclassman starts flirting with her. Alice’s sense of shame is spiraling when she uncovers a shocking truth about the retreat’s most devout. Desperate and confused, she flees and meets an unlikely ally, who offers an alternative view of what it means to be a good person. For the first time, Alice realizes she can decide for herself what to believe and finally gets the blessed release she needs. Variety named “Yes, God, Yes” one of the 11 best films at SXSW, where the film debuted, and the Hollywood Reporter upped the ante by citing it among the 10 best. Karen Maine’s feature is an expansion of her short, which played SLIFF 2017 and won the Best of Fest award.

Writer/Director Karen Maine took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about YES, GOD, YES.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman October 29th, 2019

Tom Stockman: Congratulations on your film YES, GOD, YES. I really enjoyed it. appreciated that it was and short. That’s good for a comedy.

Karen Maine: Thanks! I was pretty nervous at first with how short our final cut turned out to be, but my editor Jennifer Lee and I realized adding anything back in would just slow it down. We had the perfect cut and we didn’t want to make it longer just to make it longer. 

TS: What filmmakers do you do you admire?

KM: I’m a big fan of Nora Ephron. I also really like Deniz Gamze Ergüven. She did a film in 2015 called MUSTANG, a coming-of-age film that was really good. 

TS: YES, GOD, YES is your first feature film, correct?

KM: It is the first feature film that I directed and wrote. I did co-write the film OBVIOUS CHILD in 2014 that was based on a short film that I also co-wrote.

TS: Was OBVIOUS CHILD autobiographical?

KM: It was written by a group of four girls over a long length of time, and it wasn’t autobiographical to any one of us in particular, but it was influenced by women we each knew. We’d watched movies like KNOCKED UP and JUNO, and didn’t see the women we knew depicted in these films. It felt like the pregnancies were being used for plot devices. So we decided to make a film where a woman chooses to have an abortion but the film still has all the makings of an entertaining romantic comedy.

TS: OBVIOUS CHILD played here, but I didn’t see it. Did it get blowback from pro-life groups? 

KM: I’m sure it did, but because it’s an indie film, I don’t think it reached too many pro-life groups. There were a few negative articles, for sure, but overall the response was largely very positive

TS: And then you made the short called YES, GOD, YES.

KM: Correct, I had actually written the screenplay for the feature of YES, GOD, YES before we made the short.  I initially wanted to find someone else to direct it, because I never saw myself as a director. I had a filmmaker friend who I sent the script to, and she told me that I should direct it since it was based on my own life (YES, GOD, YES is much more autobiographical.) So we decided to first make it as a short and see how it turned out and it went really well.

TS: So then the short became a tool for getting funding for the future?

KM: Yes, and also to prove that I was capable of directing. 

TS: Had Natalia Dyer just come off of Stranger Things?

KM: Yes, the show’s first season had premiered just a week or so before we shot the short and was just becoming a hit as we were shooting the film. I have been a fan of hers for a long time, since I had seen her in I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS. One of our producers had her email address, and sent her a cold email, and we cast her two days before we started shooting.

TS: I imagine her fame will help you in marketing your film. Everybody watches that show.  Exactly how autobiographical is YES, GOD, YES?

KM: Well not 100% but I did base it mostly on my life growing up in Iowa and going to Catholic school  for 15 years. We were taught the same curriculum as Alice is taught in the film. We were told not to have sex before marriage. Our sex education consisted mostly of graphic slides of STDs and a graphic partial birth abortion video, but we had no actual useful sex education. When you are a teenager, you’re discovering your body and I wanted to approach that from a young woman’s perspective. The focus is not the classic coming-of-age story. It’s not about losing your virginity, but about discovering yourself long before those partnered experiences. The religious retreat that she goes on is a very real retreat, but I changed the name. Although anyone who’s been on it will recognize it right away.

TS: I can remember a couple going to a couple of those religious camps in the mid-70s. There was some “Jesus time“ but I recall playing sports and riding horses and being outdoors. It was a very pleasant experience as I remember.  The dialogue is real and clever in your film. I liked the story about the young woman discovering her sexuality by rewinding the sex scene from TITANIC over and over. Where did that dialogue come from? 

KM: That’s all from my childhood growing up in Des Moines in the late 90s. The Internet was a thing then, but nothing like it is now. I had such a sheltered upbringing that the only things I could piece together about sex were from family-friendly films like TITANIC and AOL chat rooms,  so to me, watching the sex scene in TITANIC seemed very scandalous. When you’re that age you’re intrigued and you want to see more but there wasn’t as much easily accessible information. 

TS: My daughter attends Drake University in Des Moines and on the drive up there from St. Louis you see billboard after billboard promoting the pro-life position. It’s makes for a boring drive. 

KM: Yes and there has been much legislation just over the last few years in Iowa that has shut down most of the abortion clinics, which is awful and such. But I remember seeing those billboards all over the state growing up. There’s even the occasional one in Brooklyn, where I live now.

TS: So describe your journey with faith and religious guilt? 

KM: Growing up, everyone I knew was Christian or Catholic and conservative so it was hard to understand that there were other perspectives out there. Even when I was 18, I had a class with a teacher who told us that if we were gay we were going to hell. Fortunately I had friends who stood up to that teacher. That was the first time I realized that you could challenge someone’s teachings.  From that point on I became less of a rule-follower. After I graduated from high school, I moved to Chicago, and then New York. I’ve been an atheist, probably just as a response to the intensity of my own upbringing. I am more open-minded now. My husband is Jewish  and we celebrate Jewish holidays together. I like aspects of Judaism because they are so open to debate and it seems much more scholarly which is much more appealing to me .

TS: Did you study filmmaking or writing in college?

KM: I went to The New School in New York where I studied creative nonfiction writing. I wrote an essay about the religious retreat that is depicted in the film and that essay is what got me thinking about making the film in the first place. I did take a screenwriting course, but that was about the extent of my filmmaking studies. I’ve learned a lot about filmmaking from listening to interviews with directors like Yorgos Lanthimos and Greta Gerwig on podcasts like ScriptNotes and Fresh Air.


TS: Have you taken YES, GOD, YES to other film festivals? 

KM: Yes I’ve taken it to a few.

TS: How has it been received? 

KM: Good. I think the most interesting thing is that I find other people at these festivals that have been on religious retreats like this. That’s less common in New York, but when we show it in places like Texas and Georgia, I meet a lot of people who went on similar retreats and have similar memories about feeling guilty about their sexuality during their teen years .

TS: Where was YES, GOD, YES filmed?

KM: We filmed it right outside of Atlanta in a few different small rural areas.

TS: Were there any unexpected challenges in making a feature, after having just made shorts? 

KM: Yes, it’s much more like a marathon, where a short is more like a sprint.  We shot in 16 days with a low budget, which is not much time but we had a terrific cast and crew and we got everything we needed. It went smoothly. No big bumps, just smaller ones that might come up during any project. 

TS: Was the dialogue totally scripted or did you let your actors improvise a bit? 

KM: We mostly stuck to the script. We changed things a couple of times when we needed to. Tim Simons, who plays the priest, haw a comedy background  so he was improvising a bit but most of the actors closely followed the script  

TS: What’s your next project? 

KM: I shot a pilot in London last year that’s being produced by the BBC . It’s called Starstruck and stars a New Zealander comedian. I’m going to go back next year and direct more of that series. I’m working on a few other things but they’re all in the early stages now.

TS: Best of luck with YES, GOD, YES.

KM: Thank you.