🎬 Spotlight: Meet the Filmmakers

GIRL TALK

Q: What was your inspiration behind this film? 

A:I wrote the first draft of Girl Talk in early 2016, never thinking it was going to be produced. Part of that thought pattern stemmed from insecurity – before Girl Talk I had never made an acutely personal film. I had been living as an out gay woman for quite some time but making such a public and artistic declaration of my queerness felt insurmountable. Yet, for some reason the story kept lingering and I knew that in order to advance as an artist, I had to tackle uncomfortable and painful moments from my own experiences. I wanted to showcase a queer character who existed outside of the false dichotomy we often find LGBTQIA characters. They are either depicted as “coming out” or in a secretive relationship. In Girl Talk, we follow Mia as she explores the disparity between emotional and physical intimacy, coming to a head when she meets an intriguing couple. She’s navigating these issues as an out person, without any need to hide. 

In the early drafts of the script, the story was so close to my true-life experiences that it wasn’t palatable to a cohesive narrative. It was also far more graphic, which just wasn’t necessary. Chelsea Moore, my producer, worked with me on the script to focus on the emotional beats of the story. Who is Mia? What does she want? What does she need? What does she lose and gain throughout the narrative? Once we nailed down those questions, we were able to launch into production mode.

So much of female sexuality has been at the hands of cis-het-male creators. This has perpetuated so much mythology and misinformation about female sexuality, especially queer femme sexuality. I’ve seen representations of queer femme sex on camera that’s either delicate, revelatory or novel. It’s by and for male viewers. Look at Blue is the Warmest Color, The Handmaiden, and Disobedience. All of those films have capitalized on lesbian sex, yet all fail in really examining the inner life of the character.

The fact is those representations simply don’t portray the complexity and diversity of how our community has sex. Like gay men or heterosexual sex, sex between two women can be messy, vulnerable, ‘dripping’ with erotic passion, silly, or just sort of boring. Writing Girl Talk didn’t feel like a radical act, rather a truthful one. Yet, through multiple screenings over the years it’s become clear that speaking honestly about queer femme sex is both a radical and necessary act.

Q: What is your favorite movie?

A: I can’t just choose one! Top five: All About My Mother, Talk To Her, Mulholland Drive, Best in Show, Eat Drink Man Woman

The Traveler

Q: What was your inspiration behind this film? 

A: I’ve long been fascinated with paleoanthropology, and specifically how our ancient ancestors created art to tell stories across time. This film explores themes of time, the invisible mysteries of the universe, and one human being’s ability to weather the storm and ultimately influence the world around them. During the process of researching this time period, and writing the script, I set out to answer a few questions... what sorts of problems did early humans face? Did prehistoric people have the same emotional capacity as modern humans? What would happen if we came face-to-face with the ancient version ourselves? What could we learn from each other?

I was attracted to the challenge of telling such a primitive yet universal story for my next project; a short film with ostensibly no dialogue, designed for an audience with an ever-shrinking attention span. I knew that it would take a special kind of actor to embody that role and breathe life into every silent moment on screen, and that’s why I wrote the role for Herman Gambhir. His on-screen gravitas mixed with his almost childlike curiosity proved to be perfect for the role.

We are a species that need stories as much as we need food, water or oxygen. It’s our most primitive artform and way of connecting with one another. This story is about survival, passion, gratitude, the wonders of nature, and timeless love. It’s my hope that this film will contain many things for many people that watch it, and just like the time capsules of the ancient cave art, it will continue to move and connect with audiences generations from now.

Q: What is your favorite movie?

A: As a person that has appreciated films since I was a young child and I first watched The Wizard of Oz, this is an impossible question to answer, and one that changes almost weekly. What I can do is list some of my favorite films that influenced The Traveler, and explain how they did so…
Apocalypto  - The way this film portrays the ancient culture of the Mayan people through such an engaging, entertaining and historically accurate cinematic depiction has to be one of the best examples and biggest influences to this film.
Cast Away - A film about utter isolation and what a person will do to survive, and the lengths they will go to find companionship and community despite the most severe obstacles. These are only a handful of the reasons why this film was so influential to The Traveler.
The Revenant - Another film about isolation in remote nature. I also love the spiritual, almost magical themes that this film has running through it. A great example of how an actor and good writing can carry a story on screen for long sequences without any use of dialogue.

Check out The Traveler and Girl Talk streaming June 13th!

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