Interviews

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โ€œโ€ฆ The Smallest Budget I Have Worked With, and Yet It Felt the Most Ampleโ€: Five Questions for Hilary Brougher About Her SXSW-Premieringย South Mountain

South Mountain byย Scott Macaulayย inย Directors,ย Interviews,ย SXSW,ย SXSW Features on Mar 11, 2019

A welcome sight on the SXSW feature list is a new film from Hilary Brougher, who has been making inventive, emotionally acute independent film across three decades now, always working in some degree of low to ultra-low budget. Her debut,ย Sticky Fingers of Time, was lo-fi sci-fi with a time-travel hook that might remind you ofย Looperย โ€” that is, if Brougher hadnโ€™t done it first and with a feminist slant.ย Stephanie Daley, starring Tilda Swinton and Amber Tamblyn, followed in 2006, a mystery both legal and existential about an unwanted pregnancy. And now thereโ€™sย South Mountain, which finds Brougher working with her smallest budget yet but with a production strategy and group of collaborators โ€” including star Talia Balsam โ€” that made this her most freeing directorial experience, she says. The film is an intimate character study of a woman in mid-life forced to redefine herself after the departure of her husband and illness of a friend. Below, I ask Brougher, who is also Film Chair at Columbia University Film School, about her connection to the material, her one-a-decade film output, and the role of time in her filmmaking process.

South Mountainย premieres today at SXSW.

Filmmaker:ย What prompted you to write and directย South Mountainย โ€” to explore these themes?

Brougher:ย South Mountainย began from a practical place. I wanted to make an โ€œsimpleโ€ film so I could enjoy more creative control and certainty around the timing of when it would be made. (I wanted to time it for my creative leave from teaching). I knew it was going to be shot at my motherโ€™s little house in the Catskills, where the light comes in from all directions, and that my husband, Ethan Mass, would shoot it. I knew that while it was not autobiographical, much of the mise-en-scene was going to come from a stash of real-life materials. I first thought I was going to write a thriller about an agoraphobic woman framed for murder. After a few drafts, the thriller part felt like nonsense, but still, I liked that woman that I had written and how she didnโ€™t know how to define herself without the people sheโ€™d built her life around taking care of. So I stuck with her. Then, for awhile, the script had a streak of tragedy to it. But then I realized that wasnโ€™t true to its nature either. This wasnโ€™t a weepy film about breaking up โ€” it was a sexy, emotional, hopeful story set at the stage of family life that is about dispersal. Eventually the story and its worldview emerged. It took a while.

Filmmaker:ย Youโ€™ve made three independent features now, all varying degrees of low budget, and each roughly a decade apart. Could you describe how those experiences have felt both similar and different, as each is affected by, obviously, the state of independent production at each time? And whatโ€™s it been like returning to this model as you get older?

Brougher:ย Regardless of budget, I like challenges and tend to swim toward the deep end right after lunch. So if it works, itโ€™s because some good people have helped me or I get lucky. Inย South Mountainย both things happened, but we designed a project with the smallest simplest production footprint we could in the most self-sufficient way possible. Affordable camera and post-production technology has made this homespun approach possible in a way that just has not been ever before. As a result, this is the most โ€œindependentโ€ film Iโ€™ve made.

Other commonalities โ€” I always wish more time than I can get to rehearse/workshop with actors to refine the script. I tend to work with fantastic actors and they make it look like I really know what Iโ€™m doing.

As to the decades between. I didnโ€™t mean it to be like that. Even with great producers working very hard,ย The Sticky Fingers of Timeย andย Stephanie Daley, took time to cast and finance โ€” as is the norm. Also I had kids (now teens), and Iโ€™ve done a lot of teaching. I should probably mention betweenย Stephanie Daleyย andย South Mountainย there was another film that occupied some of those years too. It was at a higher budget โ€œfor hireโ€ gig with some fantastic people involved, that still went very, very wrong. It took me down as a creative person, and probably damaged others too. Realizing that I let this happen is part of what compelled me to make this film (South Mountain) on my own terms. Hard as that other experience was โ€” it set me free for this film.

And at this pointโ€ฆ no more waiting for decades. Iโ€™d like to leave a body of work. I want to make a film every three years and to do this Iโ€™m going to have to be a lot more proactive and accountable. Thatโ€™s a very big turning point for me.

Jean-Christophe Castelli, Susan A.Stover โ€” both producers on my first feature,ย The Sticky Fingers of Timeย (โ€™97), came back forย South Mountain. As did my husband, Ethan Mass who shot both of those films. Itโ€™s really interesting to return to a collaboration two decades laterโ€ฆ Thereโ€™s history and trust. But also it lets you see that, yes, youโ€™ve changed. The age lines and differences are gorgeous too.

The funny thing is thatย South Mountainย is the smallest budget Iโ€™ve worked with, and yet it felt the most ample. I think this is because I finally learned to write for specific resources and budget. The form/cost/shape of this production was utterly organic to the story, themes, and my interests. I wasnโ€™t trying to fit into a production model I couldnโ€™t quite reach. We edited over a longer span than a traditional project, so there was time to let things germinate. The gratitude factor helped too. It has let me enjoy this one completely.

Filmmaker:ย What were the very specific challenges to making this film on the budget you had?

Brougher:ย On a modest budget you canโ€™t buy your way out of a problem. And, in general, there are less options and choices to solve problems. And since thereโ€™s not a lot of outside pressure or drama around making choices, so you just chooseโ€ฆ Itโ€™s liberating.

The hardest part was wondering if weโ€™d really get it done on budget, and would it be worth peopleโ€™s time and faith in the project. Also, the DIY parts were slow and exhausting. A film ofย anyย budget is an accrual of a zillion hours of detail (accounting! exports!) and even when you have incredibly generous collaborators, if you canโ€™t pay people to fully attend to all the details, at some point you end up awake in the wee hours of the night trying to mop up and hoping youโ€™re not mucking it up. That gets harrowing.

Filmmaker:ย How did you cast and then collaborate with Talia Balsam for this role?

Brougher:ย I met Talia through casting agent Paul Schnee. It was a small film, and I think it was a leap of faith for her to take it on with just a few weeks to prep. She went through the script with incredible precision. Iโ€™m a messy and intuitive type of person so I found her process fascinating. It was like the script was a charming but out-of-tune piano and she tuned it up perfectly. Everything was in the right key with no false notes and all this subtle poetry. Once I accepted that I had indeed gotten that lucky, my role was to take in and support what she was doing, access it with the camera, while jettisoning any of the vestigial script stuff we didnโ€™t need. Sometimes on set we played with options for the edit room. Our editor Maria Rosenblum (also a close family friend and one of the producers on the film) edited it for a year with me in the odd hours of our lives. We got to keep collaborating with Talia as we cut. I actually think post is where a director is theย mostย useful to an actor.

Filmmaker:ย Youโ€™re now the chair of Columbia Film School. How is that position causing you to reflect on independent film production in 2019 and the needs of the next generation of makers?

Brougher:ย Teaching has been a lifeline โ€” both as a home base from which to pay my bills; and creatively too. Despite all the fabulous collaborative moments, filmmaking involves vast stretches of isolation, and moments of real loneliness (at least for me). Iโ€™m not a great extrovert without work to start a conversation, so I love working with new filmmakers. It feels like directing โ€” when Iโ€™m doing it right.

I only recently transitioned into the Film Chair role at CU and it has been interesting to see the journey of our alum filmmakers more holistically.

Happily, thereโ€™s a lot more โ€œpaying workโ€ for new filmmakers than there was 10 years ago when the presumption was you just would starve for your art. Thatโ€™s a very, very good thing. I donโ€™t worry about the size, shape, or location of screens (all screens are beautiful in my book). But I worry about algorithm-driven development and acquisition and where it will take us as makers and viewers. So much of my Netflix feed is really brilliant, clever, and inventive. And yet I feel a targeted sameness to it โ€” and I sense thatโ€™s a corporate algorithm at work. I wonder if the current rush of excitement of streaming and episodic-long form will boil down into thinly veiled Monsanto-like cinema monoculture which is not just bad for artists, but for the future health of the entertainment industry. I donโ€™t think corporate interests are the best stewards of our cultural vitality or spirit. which is whatโ€™s also at stake here. So I hope the big streamers who are buying the big sure-fire festival hits, will buy small too and let part of the garden go a bit wild and seedy.

I also worry about the shrinking prep periods for films and pre-production happening increasingly via email. Filmmaking thrives when people are physically present for periods of time. I actually think thatโ€™s part of why episodic/series work is so inventive right now. Very creative people are getting to spend real sustained time together. Iโ€™d like to see filmmakers working on stand-alone features finding ways to put more face time into rehearsal/prep and post. This is where synergy happens.

 

 

SXSW 2019 Women Directors: Meet Hilary Brougher โ€“ โ€œSouth Mountainโ€ March 11, 2019

https://womenandhollywood.com/sxsw-2019-women-directors-meet-hilary-brougher-south-mountain/

By Sophia Stewart

Brougher is a writer and director. Her credits include โ€œThe Sticky Fingers of Timeโ€ and โ€œStephanie Daley.โ€ The latter won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance and Best Director at Milan. Brougher is a member of faculty in the MFA Film Program at Columbia University School of the Artsย and is also the current Film Division Chair.

โ€œSouth Mountainโ€ will premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival on March 11.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.ย ย 

HB: A love story about building back from a breakup.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

HB: Love is only sometimes about acquiring. Itโ€™s as often about letting go. That part can be beautiful, tooโ€”and reveal recognition and truth. So itโ€™s an inverse love story.

I also wanted to explore working on a tiny budget and fusing real life materials with fiction.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

HB: I want people to value the textures and nuances of their own livesโ€”both the successes and failures.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

HB: From a storytelling level, it was balancing the internal life of our protagonist with the family ensemble.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

HB: We raised private equity for the cash portion of the budget. But it wouldnโ€™t have been possible without the crew who worked for deferment. They are the investors too! We were a small production working primarily with natural light in a location that I know well and wrote for.

My husband shot the film. Our crew was an interesting mix of indie veterans and recent alums from the Columbia grad program where I teach. Essentially, the film was developed around the resources I knew I could muster.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

HB: I was interested in the connection that happens among audience members via a shared screen, and the collaboration that happens in making films. That was three decades ago. Iโ€™m still interested.

W&H: Whatโ€™s the best and worst advice youโ€™ve received?

HB: Worst: โ€œJust try and be more charming.โ€

Best: โ€œCommunicate.โ€

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

HB: [Focus on your] body of work. Too many female directors make one feature filmโ€”they arenโ€™t to be faulted for this. It takes a heroic effort to make even one. But filmmakers are not defined by a first film or a last film. They are defined by a body of work. Make a film every three to four years by any means necessary. Donโ€™t wait. Remind people that no one makes a great film every time.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

HB: Probably โ€œOld Joyโ€ by Kelly Reichardt. Itโ€™s exquisite in its rendering of landscape and character. It invents and elaborates its own cinematic language on its very own terms. Julie Dashโ€™s โ€œDaughters of the Dustโ€ does this too!

I am also a maniac for Jane Campionโ€™s โ€œBright Starโ€ for lots of reasons. First and foremost, for the glory and subtlety of the textiles and the respect the lens pays the hard-earned art of a seamstress.

W&H: Itโ€™s been a little over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

HB: The de facto wisdom used to be โ€œStay quiet and donโ€™t rock the boat.โ€ Now it is, โ€œSpeak up, and find or build your own boat,โ€ as well as โ€œStrength in numbers.โ€

 

 

March 28, 2019Interview with Hilary Brougher and Talia BalsamBy Stephen Saito

http://moveablefest.com/hilary-brougher-talia-balsam-south-mountain/

SXSW โ€™19 Interview: Hilary Brougher & Talia Balsam on Climbing to the Highest Heights in โ€œSouth Mountainโ€

On putting together this ferocious drama about a woman whose life is falling apart.

Byย STEPHEN SAITO

There are several things that are shocking about the birth that occurs just minutes into Hilary Brougherโ€™s blistering drama โ€œSouth Mountain,โ€ setting off a chain of events that upends a family living in the Catskills when itโ€™s discovered that Edgar (Scott Cohen) has cheated on his wife Lila (Talia Balsam) and leaving their kids to take sides. But the most jawdropping aspect might be the logistics that went into getting the scene in the first place, with the writer/director shrewdly figuring out what was necessary to incorporate shots from actress Isis Masoudโ€™s giving birth in real life in Miami while the rest of the production was based in upstate New York.

โ€œSome of what youโ€™re seeing is a re-enactment [by Isis] at eight months [pregnant] and some of it is a real birth that was shot by her [family] โ€” itโ€™s labor, so there were just a couple moments that she gave to the camera in and around her real birth,โ€ says Brougher. โ€œSo we had all the footage and we constructed it. She just brought such a great energy to it, I wish she was on set with us.โ€

As it would happen, Brougher would only meet Masoud in person shortly before the filmโ€™s second screening at SXSW where the film recently premiered, having arranged for all the other footage over Skype and brilliantly intercutting it with reaction shots from a frantic Edgar, excited at the prospect of starting one family, knowing heโ€™s going to say goodbye to another with the almost unbearable tension of his private elation of what heโ€™s seeing on his iPhone alone in one room tempered by the inevitable anger heโ€™s going to inspire once he has to deliver the news to those waiting on the other side of the door.

โ€œI wanted the birth to feel undeniably rousing and I didnโ€™t want it to be a bad thing for the audience,โ€ says Brougher. โ€œI wanted to show thereโ€™s this whole other undeniable chapter of life beginning that heโ€™s going to have to be a part of, and having the birth in the first act, thatโ€™s something I couldnโ€™t have done at a higher budget with story people telling me, โ€˜No, that has to go in the third act somehow.โ€™ Iโ€™m really happy I got to put it where I did and do it the way we did it.โ€

For longtime fans of Brougher, itโ€™s that last part that tips the scene into full-on joy since the explosive opening perfectly exemplifies the writer/directorโ€™s considerable gift for transforming inner turmoil into propulsive action. However, after displaying unparalleled technical and emotional precision in such films such as โ€œStephanie Daleyโ€ and โ€œThe Sticky Fingers of Time,โ€ itโ€™s never felt as if Brougher has had full ownership over a film the way she does in โ€œSouth Mountain,โ€ a stirring drama that may be humble in origin โ€“ shot in 15 days at her motherโ€™s house with her husband Ethan Mass serving as the filmโ€™s cinematographer, their teenage kids taking roles in Edgar and Lilaโ€™s family, and much of the crew comprised of former students she taught at Columbia University โ€“ but roars to life as it explores ideas sheโ€™s likely had to discard in the past. In a bleak bit of poetry, the film premiered in the very same theater in Austin where her obviously compromised third feature โ€œInnocenceโ€ debuted five-and-a-half years earlier.

Whereas that vampire tale felt as if it had the blood sucked out of it by the time it reached the screen, โ€œSouth Mountainโ€ arrives with plenty to sink oneโ€™s teeth into as Brougher gives the spotlight to Balsam as Lila, who is confronted with the unpalatable prospect of starting over as a result of her husbandโ€™s indiscretions and tries her damnedest to keep the life sheโ€™s invested so much energy into intact. For as much as you can feel the presence of wilderness all around, Balsamโ€™s ferocity turns Lila into the most intimidating force of nature in โ€œSouth Mountain,โ€ both extraordinary to watch and fearsome in terms of what havoc she can wreak. A day after the filmโ€™s premiere at SXSW, Brougher and Balsam were gracious enough to sit down and talk about making the most out of the available resources to retain full creative control over โ€œSouth Mountainโ€ and creating just the right atmosphere in which the cast and crew could thrive.

How did this come about?

Hilary Brougher:ย In part, it was because of that film [โ€œInnocenceโ€], which I donโ€™t talk about too much. There were great people involved, but I didnโ€™t have creative control and didnโ€™t even want my name on it because I didnโ€™t feel like I authored it. I was part of it, but it took me apart a little bit and Iโ€™ve realized both on a very practical level, I wasnโ€™t going to have an easy time getting another film off the ground on that scale. Also, I really wanted to push myself if I was going to make another film and to create an environment to do that, I realized I was probably going to have to create a very small film that I was in charge of on a lot of levels, so I came up with a film I knew I could make. I didnโ€™t have to really count on too many other people to say โ€œOkay, this is going to happenโ€ and I wanted to line it up with my teaching sabbatical too because I teach full-time. One of the hazards of teaching and trying to produce films is the financing and the casting comes and goes, rises and falls, so I knew if I made a small enough film, I could say Iโ€™m shooting it here and it would happen.

So it was this mix of a personal fire to make a film about very, very solid things, to see how much tension I could [wring] out of naturalism, to dig into some themes and ideas about how I wanted to play with space and time and just get back to it. I started making films when I was 14 years old with a Super 8 camera and came to New York and saw how people made independent films and did that in various models. But then I thought, โ€œWait, thereโ€™s a camera my family owns. I can cut on DaVinci Resolve myself if I have to. The means of production are in my hands. Why am I not just trying this?โ€ If I was 25, thatโ€™s what I would do. Why not do it now? So I was trying to connect back with the freedom of my younger filmmaking self before I started following the โ€œthis is how you should do itโ€ path. Thatโ€™s why I concocted this film.

Talia, what made this an adventure you wanted to go on?

Talia Balsam:ย The script. And Hilary. It happened randomly and quickly.

Hilary Brougher:ย It happened fast.

Talia Balsam:ย So [it was a] leap of faith. I had seen โ€œStephanie Daleyโ€ and I was struck by a moment in that film where she gets impregnated by the boy and I remember thinking that just seemed so honest and right on, like somebody did that and shot like that. And we met and talked a little bit, but the strength of the script and how she was doing it and how contained it was going to be [made it] a big leap of faith to take on when you donโ€™t have that much time, but I had the benefit of the person shooting it wrote it, so youโ€™re not completely at bay. So thereโ€™s no reason you wouldnโ€™t have done this โ€“ letโ€™s put it that way.

Hilary Brougher:ย And the script went through many iterations, by the way. Thereโ€™s a thriller version, there was a much bigger version at one point โ€“ I was trying to write it as an episodic web thing, so it went through a lot of morphing. I knew I had the house and I had a pseudo agoraphobic woman [at the center] โ€“ Lilaโ€™s not actually agoraphobic anymore, but she began that way, and in that notion what keeps you at home when you should go, so the character evolved.

Talia Balsam:ย Right, sheโ€™s at this point a nester. [laughs]

Hilary Brougher:ย Now, sheโ€™s a nester and clearly she does function and leave the house โ€” we just donโ€™t see it โ€” so the question becomes why do you stay in situations that might not be perfectly healthy? Thatโ€™s where it grew from. Then a lot of the script was about casting off things that werenโ€™t real.

Talia, was there something that unlocked Lila for you?

Talia Balsam:ย I think it has to do with where she landed, not necessarily the circumstances. My [own] son was going off to college and I had lost people in my life, so I feel like I was dealing with a lot of things internally that were changing, that were beyond my grasp. I couldnโ€™t do anything. Life was moving forward and I think thatโ€™s part of what [Hilary] wrote and thatโ€™s what I related to. The other things scene-by-scene, those were the things we could discuss, but the internal part is what I connected to, whether I made a good choice or not.

Hilary Brougher:ย You did. And we also shot almost in order, which is rareโ€ฆ

Talia Balsam:ย So it was almost like a play to me.

With that being the case and so little time to prepare, were you having epiphanies as you were playing the character?

Hilary Brougher:ย I think so! I remember [Talia] saying, โ€œOhhhh, so sheโ€™s nutsโ€ย 

[Balsam laughs] Just at a certain moment, not altogether.

Talia Balsam:ย Yes, well, thatโ€™s like a gift and a totally scary thing to go, โ€œI donโ€™t actually know what that is, but weโ€™re here, weโ€™re doing it.โ€ Itโ€™s a little scary. But itโ€™s great material and you always want to come up to it. You donโ€™t want to fail it.

Hilary Brougher:ย And I look for surprises and maybe try and play with them a little bit, knowing that we donโ€™t have to use them, but we have them. I shoot to have options, to rewrite in the edit room.

Talia Balsam:ย Given the amount of time, it just added to [having] to make those connections and these histories quickly. Living in a house, making these meals together, the drama of a cast and crew, which is sometimes more than the film itself [laughs] โ€” all these things add to everything and Hilary makes an atmosphere also where itโ€™s like Iโ€™m not in a Motel 6. We were at a big beautiful house in the Catskills with a big beautiful kitchen. Everyone was very generous.

Hilary Brougher:ย Yeah, the crew house was big and you could move around. The shooting house was small. And the flies found some craft service. A tragedy that plagued us the whole timeโ€ฆ

Talia Balsam:ย Yeah, that was real.

Hilary Brougher:ย We lost takes to flies andโ€ฆ

Talia Balsam:ย And the heatโ€ฆ

Hilary Brougher:ย Yeah, it was hot and sweaty even at night. But it was familial โ€” my teenagers were there. Itโ€™s my motherโ€™s house, so she moved in with us and was helping out and it was a very small crew, this mix of experienced people and newer people. Thereโ€™s no grip or electrics running around. Itโ€™s really my husband, who shot it, and Maria [Rosenblum], whoโ€™s the producer, the editor and the primary first AC, so everybody knew what was going on with everybody else. And one thing the film and the crew mirror is that there was a lot of love. The separations werenโ€™t giant. And thatโ€™s the underlying thematic of the film is that as you fall apart, you remain deeply connected and I think that was earned in the chaos, I hope. [laughs] The actors would work off each other really well, so they would help each other find the family conflicts.

Talia Balsam:ย That part was the least challenging to me. Everybody just worked really well together and I think it shows. [Hilary] picked a good cast.

Speaking of which, how did Scott Cohen come onboard to play Edgar?

Hilary Brougher:ย He had gotten the script through someone on his team and said, โ€œI think I should play this part,โ€ and I was like, โ€œOkay.โ€ [laughs] He was really psyched to work with Talia and he had a lot of energy and dynamism. I think I mightโ€™ve written Edgar as a little bit more bookish on the page, but [there was] always a restlessness that was really important to the character and Scott had that in spades. When I recognized there was this fountain of energy and he conveys just the right amount of love, and that was what was going to make this character who was loving so much that he has to go start a new family. [laughs] He canโ€™t say goodbye to the old one and he had the right sweetness to play this complicated guy in a way that we couldnโ€™t quite hate him. He had this energy of necessity and I thought thatโ€™s going to give Lila something to have to really grapple with.

The camera is so lively within such a night space. Was there a lot of blocking of the actors?

Hilary Brougher:ย I wish we had more time to rehearse and stage. But the actors really knew what they were doing and I really knew the house backwards and forwards. Because itโ€™s my momโ€™s house and I wrote certain scenes for certain places. There were only a couple switches for rain in the staging. But itโ€™s a huge asset when you as a director have access to the space for a long time before, and/or schedule for it because it was mostly natural light [and] we were creating a schedule around [the light], like when this part of the house was going to look interesting.

Talia Balsam:ย Thatโ€™s right. I didnโ€™t even think [while we were shooting, but] you knew what time the dining table would be in the right light.

Hilary Brougher:ย Yeah, and when the shadows would come in. The fact is itโ€™s a film that didnโ€™t cost a lot of cash, but when nature does it, nature does it best. People say โ€œOh, itโ€™s beautifulโ€ and itโ€™s like โ€œwell, thatโ€™s because thatโ€™s actually the thing that people spend thousands of dollars and hours trying to get the light just right through the window.โ€

Was the idea of nature as prominent in the script or did having all the humid days and all the flies [during shooting] amplify it?

Hilary Brougher:ย I didnโ€™t expect the flies. They came because we were a crew. [laughs] But I knew the humidity might happen and hoped it wouldnโ€™t be too unbearable because it can get pretty muggy up there. The nature was always there, even though itโ€™s a film about people in a house. The house really is on the side of a mountain with bears and wolverines and things coming out of the woods at night, and one of the things I love about my momโ€™s house is itโ€™s cozy little, but you can feel the wildness around it. Ethan and I did come back and do second pickups, because Iโ€™m married to him and I can be like, โ€œOkay, now, the tomatoes are turning brown, so weโ€™d go back and get that shot.โ€ So we came back and got that mountain shot without a crew, and thatโ€™s the other beauty of being able to control the gear. We shot a compact schedule [with the actors], but we were able to bring in those elements [later].

Talia Balsam:ย I remember sitting at a table and there were ants on a glass and youโ€™re just getting these shots where you can of infringement. If you had done that on a [larger-scale production], theyโ€™d be like, โ€œWe have to set up for that.โ€ No, [you] just grabbed it.

Hilary Brougher:ย And those are usually the shots that you take and the DP rolls their eyes and you never use. But the irony was [in] our third act [we have] this montage of cutaways that weโ€™d gotten at some point. But it is about the nature and I was happy it sustained. At some point when I was immersed in filmmaking [earlier in my career], I started to think of nature as set dressing and I donโ€™t anymore. I think of us as the set dressing. [laughs] The human story is working within some larger natural rhythm and itโ€™s important for me as a filmmaker to really give landscape a voice. Itโ€™s more than just backdrop. Itโ€™s got to be a primary force.

Whatโ€™s it like coming to SXSW?

Talia Balsam:ย Itโ€™s been amazing. Because you go away from something for a while and then you see the end product and itโ€™s so good and itโ€™s being received so nicely. That doesnโ€™t always happen and I feel grateful for that. It deserves it. I felt really happy to be part of something that hopefully will be seen and Iโ€™m glad that SXSW has made a home for it.

Hilary Brougher:ย Yeah, I donโ€™t actually believe that any and all festivals would get it. I think South By got it and this was actually the festival I always wanted it to come to, just on vibe. I canโ€™t really explain why. Watching their programming over the years, I felt like okay, their humanism and vibe line up with us somehow, but I really had no idea because the whole time weโ€™d been making this film, I knew we were working against the grain. If you just say, โ€œOh, itโ€™s a woman at her house over the course of a summer,โ€ it doesnโ€™t sound very interesting. So that the programmers got it, Iโ€™m so grateful and so thrilled. We had most of our cast, most of them seeing it for the first time, so it was pretty emotional because weโ€™re a little family and we were all tearing up after the screening. The other thing about making a movie without a lot of means is you havenโ€™t compensated people adequately with money, so you really want them to be proud and feel like this was worth their time, so Iโ€™m very relieved and very grateful. I canโ€™t quite explain why this is the right launching place for it, but I think it really is.

I may be making a connection where there isnโ€™t one, but I saw Talia may be directing soon [as part of the anthology โ€œEverything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Menโ€] โ€“ did this give you a nudge in that direction?

Talia Balsam:ย Yes, I would say on some level. I donโ€™t have any real experience with [directing]. A friend of mine came to me with something and I thought no oneโ€™s really asked me to do that and I never thought about doing it , but I reached a point in my life where I was like, โ€œIf somebody said yes to you, why donโ€™t you say yes back and try it?โ€ And I liked her story. Itโ€™s 17 shorts by first-time women directors and I just think Iโ€™m taking another leap. Thatโ€™s the year for me to try it and Iโ€™m interested to see how I function in it. Weโ€™ll see.

Hilary Brougher:ย Youโ€™re going to do a great job because I remember how you processed the script, the way you broke it down. You understood it mechanically as well as emotionally, but thatโ€™s all there is, really. You just talk to the camera about it.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbz6pPep7w8

Filmwax Radio, March 13, 2019

AUDIO: Interview with Hilary Brougher& Maria Rosenblumย By Ronald Wohlman

 

FILMWAX RADIOspatches From Maryland Film Festival: Hilary Brougher segment (SOUTH MOUNTAIN) FROM MARYLAND

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKMYvkjHWQM

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