Director Ofelia Yánez & Co-Producer/Writer Michal Birnbaum have teamed up to create Division Ave., “short film about the fight for justice of a Latina cleaning lady in Hasidic Brooklyn. Inspired by true events.” They’ve recently launched a new crowdfunding campaign. #DirectedbyWomen chatted with them this week about their new film, finding each other through #DirectedbyWomen’s list of women who have directed, and more.

DBW: You’re embarking on a new film project Division Ave. Tell us about it. What’s at the heart of your film?

MB: It’s a film about two women who realize something needs to change in their lives and they have to fight for it for themselves. Fernanda recently came to the US from Mexico, she works in cleaning to support her family back home. She is sent by a shady cleaning agency to clean houses in Brooklyn. Nechama is a Jewish Hasidic homemaker in a community where women get married as teens and immediately have kids. They find out that the contractor who hired Fernanda doesn’t pay her and decide to find him and confront him together.

DBW: I was really excited to hear that #DirectedbyWomen’s list of women who have directed was instrumental in bringing Ofelia onto the project. Discovering and cultivating new collaborations is such an individual process. It would be a gift if you could share how that has been unfolding for you both.

MB: From very early stages of the production I knew I wanted a woman to direct it and to have mostly women on the film’s crew. My research led me to the #DirectedbyWomen pool of directors. I was looking through the works of different directors and came across Ofelia’s film The Good Kind. I was so touched by it and knew immediately that I wanted to work with her. She has a way of telling a story in a very honest and non-cliche way.

OY: I was thrilled to know that Michal found me on the #DirectedbyWomen list. What a wonderful resource to have available! The visibility and validation as a director, to be included in a list along with such amazing and accomplished women is truly an honor. The fact that out of all the options available, Michal selected me to bring her project to life is truly humbling and thrilling. I am in awe of Michal, Lorena and their determination to bring such an important story to the screen, and have very much enjoyed collaborating with them both.

DBW: Have you put together your cast and crew? What strengths do they bring to the project that gives you the confidence to plunge in and make something powerful and moving?

OY: We are in the early stages so we don’t yet have everyone, but Michal and Lorena have done a wonderful job at pre-selecting key players. They have launched the Kickstarter campaign, and it’s important to note how critical this process is in terms of allowing us to put the ideal team together to bring this project into fruition. Supporting work led by a mostly all female team is super important to the growth of the filmmaking community as a whole. So much beautiful work has been created, but there is still so much more to be done. The more support there is for women filmmakers at every level, the more we will encourage up and coming artists to keep creating.

DBW: You are in the fundraising stage of the project. How can film lovers engage to help your film flourish? What kinds of interactions would nurture and support your work at this time?

OY: Talking about the project and following the process is the best way. Word of mouth, which these days means posting and re-posting, is the best way to help put us on the map and reach our goal. Crowdfunding works when the crowd helps see the project through, so I can’t stress how important it is for people to please share the project with others and follow it at every step. The film is a collaboration, and supporters are just as important to its creation as the cast and crew. It’s exciting to see the finished product and know that you helped make it happen!

MB: I agree, I think social media is one of the most powerful tools of the current Feminist wave. Especially if you are a filmmaker. It allows women to have their voices heard with no filters, it’s a way for us to get to the crowd in the most immediate way. Throughout the campaign we will release video updates that people can share and talk about. We will have a few special rewards that will be added as the campaign goes on – so stay tuned!

DBW: Can you share a little about previous projects you’ve each worked on? Does Division Ave. feel like it builds on what came before? Or perhaps you’re taking a big leap in a new direction?

MB: I’ve done a lot of theater in New York, I am addicted to the unmediated connection with the audience. Film for me is the way to get to the masses. You don’t have to live in the city to watch it. I’ve done a few independent films in NYC as an actress and it is now the first time I am producing my own script so I am absolutely thrilled about it. I couldn’t have done this without my Co-Producer, Lorena Rodriguez, who is also an actress. You can check out my website: www.michalbirnbaum.com

OY: This is both a leap and somewhat familiar territory for me. The very first project I created and produced for was mostly concentrated on social issues, so I’m no stranger to defending a cause through visual mediums. However, my short film, The good kind, focused on the LGBTQ and Latino communities, so it’s new for me to develop characters in and for the Jewish community. I initially turned down the project because I felt that I didn’t have enough knowledge to approach it, but Michal reassured me and offered her help and guidance. Her trust and persuasion really moved me to take the challenge and join the team. I can’t express how excited I am to direct this film.

The good kind trailer can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/92804184
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheGoodKindMovie

Past screenings: The Pride Film Festival, aGLIFF (Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Latin Queer Art & Film Festival, Latina Film Festival & Conference at Indiana University, Bloomington, and New Frontiers: West Coast Queer Cinema in San Francisco.

Awards: Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Short at the Pride Film Festival of Brazos Valley, Opening film at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Festival Favorite at the Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

DBW: We’re in the midst of the #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party. Film lovers are on the lookout for films by women directors to tantalize them and expand their film viewing horizons. Do you have any thoughts about films by women directors that you’ve seen and would love people to have the chance to experience? Perhaps ones they might not have heard about yet?

OY: My friend and mentor, Adelina Anthony, just finished her first feature film, Bruising for Besos, which is kicking butt in the festival world! It’s such a brave and beautiful film, and one that I had the privilege to see grow from its early stage of creation. Adelina is an accomplished stage actor, writer, and overall creator, and I have no doubt will play a big part in moving us forward as female filmmakers. Another short film everyone should look for is Gold Star, written and directed by another good friend and multi-talented artist, Karla Legaspy. The film just won the 2016 PBS Online Film Festival’s “People’s Choice” Award, and when you watch it, you’ll see why. It’s a tender, gorgeous, and necessary film, just like Bruising for Besos.

MB: The Israeli short “Shmita” is an unusual project. Directed by Gal Rosenbluth, the film follows a young female soldier that falls for an officer. In order to make sure that she stays in her military base for the weekend, she convinces everyone that they have to observe the Jewish Sabbatical year since it is God’s commandment. The premiere will take place next month in Haifa International Film Festival.

DBW: Anything else you’d like to share?

MB: I want to encourage filmmaker to hire women for the technical crew as well. It’s time for women to play a much more substantial role in the industry, both on the camera and behind it.

OY: I’d like to thank Michal and Lorena for allowing me to join them in this adventure, and ask for everyone to support Division Ave. Help spread the word far and wide, and keep supporting female-led work in general.

DBW: It’s been great conversing with you. Keep us posted. I can’t wait to see what arises as you move forward on this project.  Thanks so much.

To find out more and support this #DirectedbyWomen FUTURE Film Viewing Possibility, visit…

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/749742205/division-ave
Website: www.divisionavefilm.com
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/divisionavefilm/

Hope Dickson Leach’s compelling film The Levelling will be making its World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival on Friday.  #DirectedbyWomen conversed with Hope this week about her film, her work with Raising Films initiative, and some of her favorite films by women directors.

DBW: Congrats on having The Levelling, your feature debut, receive its World Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in the Discovery category: “Directors to watch. The future of world cinema.” That’s exciting, and yet rolling a film out on a big stage like TIFF can be an intense experience. What’s helping you prepare to take the film out into the world?

HDL: It really is exciting. You work hard to get a film made, then you work hard to make it, then you work hard to get it seen. It’s wonderful to be entering the final stage of this film’s journey. As a first time feature director it is obviously all brand new, but I have so many good people around me and the film who have done it many times before and they’re keeping me on track. As large as TIFF is, there’s something very comforting about the fact that there is a whole culture around films being launched, and I get to go along on that ride, and have some fun with making sure that we find the audience it deserves.

DBW: What do you experience as the heart of The Levelling? How would you like audiences to connect with the work at its core?

HDL: The story has always been for me about that time after a crisis when you have an opportunity to make change. It’s a terrifying, magical part of the grief process, and to be able to find the strength to challenge the patterns that we cling to in our relationships seems to be an extraordinary thing. The Levelling is a chance to watch a character go on that journey, and experience everything she has to confront about her family and herself. I hope audiences connect with the humanity of it. Every time I show it to people inevitably someone comes up and shares something very personal with me – a story of grief, or an encounter with suicide, or of a tricky family relationship. People seem to want to talk about these things, and there are few opportunities to do so. I hope, above everything, this film reminds people how important it is to talk about the difficult things in your life.

DBW: The film’s trajectory seems driven by minute gestures, each moment holding tension roiling with emotion looking for expression through micro movements. What conversations did you have with your cast to help them ground themselves in each moment?

HDL: That’s a really interesting response to the film. The script was crafted with a consideration to a truthful, compelling story – part detective story (into why her brother killed himself) and part family drama (her complicated relationship with her father). The cast responded so well to what was on the page, and we worked so hard at understanding what every step meant in terms of the development both of the narrative and the characters, that I hope that was what grounded them. They are all incredibly talented performers, and what is extraordinary, I think, is that in this film they seem to stop acting and just are present for every moment of the story. That certainly allowed us in the edit to lose extra lines, and cut for emotion and subtext as much as for plot. I think we then found a language to the story telling that felt grounded in what the characters are feeling. So I think the idea of gestures holding the tension comes as much from our incredible editor Tom Hemmings as it does from the wonderful cast.

DBW: Location is integral to the film. The buildings and the land have a powerful draw. There’s something about the spaces that seems deeply familiar but somehow inaccessible. What led you to these places? Did you know these particular locations already?

HDL: The locations are indeed characters to the film, as the story was built around something that happened in the real world. It was important to me that we wouldn’t find the farm entirely forbidding, as this is somewhere that Clover loves, which is why her leaving was so devastating for her, and her return is so poignant. The farm we shot in has a lovely house, and welcoming feel – which is quite rare as many are very functional looking places. I was immediately drawn to it. I didn’t know these locations, but we spent a long time visiting farms, and the area, to ensure that we found the perfect space. We were also very lucky to have had such helpful location owners, who shared their farming practice with us (the actors and I learnt how to milk cows!), and allowed us to make the film as authentic as possible. That sort of collaboration is invaluable creatively, and practically at this sort of budget level!

DBW: Your Raising Films initiative has a strong commitment to dreaming filmmaking practices into being that facilitate creativity and family flourishing together. I’d love to hear how the Raising Films work has influenced the way you structure your filmmaking process. Can you talk about how you engaged your team to generate such an accomplished film while honoring family relationships?

HDL: I would love to say we got it absolutely right out of the gate, but the truth is that it’s hard to know how to pull off this important dream of combining family life and filmmaking. That is why the conversations about it are so crucial. We did have family visits at weekends during prep, but production itself was harder. My sons came down for a couple of days – I had written them into a scene – but that ended up being a very hard day with tears and tantrums and demands that I come home and never work again. What I learnt was that every family and every individual needs different things, but it’s hard to know what it is that works best for you. Next time I will aim to shoot 5 day weeks (we did 6 day weeks) so I will have weekends to see them. I think that would help us all. However I did prefer not having them around as I was working. I find it hard to do my best work (or any really) with my children there demanding my attention. I know there are people who love having their family nearby, and so their process should reflect that. But for me being able to know I had space to do my work meant that when I was with them I could be present with them, and not distracted. Next time I will also do the edit differently – that in fact was harder than production. It was longer and I was travelling away for a few days each week or fortnight. It was sporadic and ad hoc and it was incredibly hard for my entire family. Lesson learnt.

DBW: The Levelling deals with deeply fraught family dynamics. Do you envision stories about family evolving as the practices of living life while filmmaking transform?

HDL: My stories often come back to families, it feels like the first place we develop complicated relationships and so perhaps that’s why. I certainly couldn’t have made this film without being a parent myself – it allowed me to envisage the father character in a more sympathetic, and therefore far more complex and interesting way. I expect we all bring our lives to our work, so yes, I think there will be plenty of material for me to explore. Plus until the utopian re-imagination of society happens, filmmaking with a family remains a very challenging thing to do, and the hardest things always push you to interesting places. However I like some of the structure around filmmaking, and I work well within a rigorous practice, so I am not sure I want the process to transform completely for me. At least not right now, who knows what I will feel in a few years? What is really important is that we are able to create a process that does work for our needs – be they caring demands, or access costs, or whatever it takes to enable filmmakers who are currently struggling within the system to be given voices.

DBW: Your premiere takes place during the September #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party. We’ll be holding space for you to thrive! Before we wrap up, I’d love it if you could mention films by a few women directors whose work inspires, delights, or challenges you – particularly work that film lovers may not yet have had a chance to see, but that they could be on the lookout for. Let’s help grow a deep culture of appreciation.

HDL: Your #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party is the most fantastic idea, I love it. It was great to see what you accomplished last year and I imagine it will just get better and better.

Jane Campion has been one of the biggest inspirations to me, and her film An Angel At My Table lives in my brain constantly. I love Catherine Breillat – Romance, Fat Girl, and the incredible Kelly Reichardt who was one of my teachers at film school. Her work is complex and beautiful and I am continually inspired by how she has managed to find a way to work that works for her, and how that has shaped the stories she tells and the films she makes.

My discovery this year (I’m late to the party) is Lizzie Borden. At the Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival they screened the rarely seen Regrouping, which was mind-blowing to me. I love seeing something so political and so raw and shaped by the process of making it. Her film Born In Flames is being reissued on 35mm and will be at the London Film Festival in October so I will be first in line for that.

DBW: Thanks so much, Hope, for taking time to share about your film. Have a wonderful time in Toronto and then at BFI London and beyond.

 

THE LEVELLING 
World Premiere – Toronto International Film Festival – September 9
additional screenings on September 10, 14, and 17

PHOTO CREDIT FOR ALL: THE LEVELLING LTD

Filmmaker Kanchalee Wijakpaisarn, who interned with #DirectedbyWomen last summer in the run up to the first ever #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party, has an exciting new project: New Face of Buffalo, “a short-form documentary series demonstrating a cultural exchange within the diverse and evolving city of Buffalo, NY.”  #DirectedbyWomen conversed with Kanchalee this week to find out more about the project.

DBW: Making a documentary AND facilitating filmmaker training for kids AND exploring challenges refugees face – that’s a multi-faceted project. Tell us about this exciting process and how it got underway.

KW: How the New Face of Buffalo project started is a little complicated. My co-creator (Jesse Deganis Librera) and I have a friend who works at a refugee resettlement agency in Buffalo. Jesse is originally from there and he wanted to do something that would help connect the community and further our understanding of each other. I’m always interested in coming of age stories, and the idea came about of working with refugee youth. Having my own experience as an international student in NYC for five years, I can see the difficulty of living in a new place, with new cultures and alienation. So Jesse and I combined our thoughts and it became this project.

DBW: Who are you working with? What is your approach to collaboration?

KW: The project is co-created with Jesse Deganis Librera who I met from film school. When we came up with the idea, both of us lived in NYC so we had to take the Amtrak back and forth from the city to Buffalo. It was tough trying to have a meeting with someone who is six hundred miles away! We also collaborated with two other filmmakers. Brian Oh is our friend from NYC, and he gave us input and suggestions since the early stage of the project, while also helping us filming the project in Buffalo. We also had a chance to meet a young Syrian American filmmaker in Buffalo, Akram Shibly. He was the instructor during the film class and we worked together to create the lessons for the kids.

DBW: As filmmakers working with budding young filmmakers, you’ll be a role model for them. What do you hope they’ll learn as they watch you in action as a director?

KW: Even though I/ we want them to have fun filming, I hope they will learn that filmmaking is not just having a camera and going out.  You have to know your story and plan it out. Commitment is something that I hope the kids understand. Filmmaking is not about just one person but the crew too. It’s team work. You have to appreciate people who help you and you have to learn how to communicate with them.

DBW: I love the pitch video you created. The stop motion Lego sequences are a lot of fun! Can you share something about how you came up with this approach?

KW: Thank you! The original video we had was pretty serious, I would say it quite ‘dry’. Since we are dealing with kids, Jesse and I wanted something that was playful and can be a bridge for both kids and adults to relate to. Lego is a good fit for that. It was something Jesse and I both played as kids! Also, working on animation is always fun, it only just took forever to make!

DBW: What is your vision for sharing your film when it is complete? And what about the films the children make? Where will those be screened or streamed? What are your hopes and visions for the project?

KW: For our documentary, we hope that this project will make people understand the complexity of refugee kids’ lives. We also want the kids to learn more about Buffalo, their new home. We do not want to show the refugee story as only a sad story anymore. It definitely deals with a lot of struggle and heartache, but we want to show them as kids just trying to live their lives. This is a coming of age story in a way, growing up in a new place and trying to fit in. These kids are the newest wave of immigrants like any other countries and we want people to see that. We also want the kids to find their voice to express themselves through the strong tool of filmmaking. Our goal is to build a better community based on everybody starting to understand each other a little better. We had a great opportunity to partner with F.L.Y. After School Program to teach the kids as part of their summer camp, (big thank you to Bethany Ortquist, the director of the program!). At the end of the summer camp, the kids had a talent show and we already showed each student’s films there. However, we plan to screen the kids’ films in our documentary and we hope to finish our film in 2017.

DBW: Your film is a project of Fractured Atlas. Can you share about your decision to step into a Fiscal Sponsorship relationship? What does it allow you to do?

KW: Jesse and I agreed that we should set up a proper way for people to financially support this project. This was my first time dealing with Fractured Atlas, which I heard about through a friend of mine (Jennifer Dean). They have their own fundraising platform in which donations are tax deductible. But what’s really great is that having fiscal sponsorship allows us to apply for grants that we wouldn’t have an opportunity to do as individual artists.

DBW: How can people support your initiative?

KW: You can go to our website www.newfaceofbuffalo.com to check out our project and find more information about contribution. So far we have received support from Jericho Road Community Health Center, Western New York Book Arts Center, Homerun Creative Services, WNED-TV, and Delaware Camera. We really appreciate any help in spreading the word of the project through blogging, social media, etc., and, of course, we are still trying to raise funds to support all the work being done and to continue teaching kids about filmmaking.

DBW: Anything else you’d love to share about this project or other filmmaking projects you may be involved with?

KW: It is such a privilege for me to experience working with and talking to refugees in Buffalo. It makes me realize that I, and we, took our opportunity for granted. The struggles being between two worlds are harder when your parents don’t know English and you’re pretty much isolated and on your own. FLY After School Program really gives the kids the place they can feel comfortable with as refugees and their roots. Working on this project let me meet people who work not for themselves but for others, especially the teachers. They work hard everyday and you know middle school children are such complicated creatures! It’s totally mind blowing how much the teachers have to do to make things work. I’m glad that while we were in NYC, struggling to make a living, we still made this happen. We received support from friends and family in Buffalo where we had time to actually focus on the project with such a low budget and were actually able to give back to society. I could not be more happy (Well, I could if we have more donations!) Just kidding 🙂 Well, half joking half serious 😉 I also have another project called “It’s a Girl.” It is a series aimed towards girls, and is about women in professional careers talking about their experiences in their jobs as well as how they were when they were younger. I will show one of my work in progress film at the Directed by Women Event managed by Jennifer Dean, Leah Abrams and Eric Rice on September 12 at Ryan’s Daughter, NYC.

Thank you so much!

DBW: Thanks for taking time to share. Can’t wait to see your projects unfold. Have fun at the NYC #DirectedbyWomen screening. Take pictures so we can all dip in to the experience like we did last year.  And thanks again for being on the #DirectedbyWomen Action Team last summer. I’m so appreciative of all you’ve done to help move the celebration forward.