Filmmaker Interview: Writer/Director Julia Angley
I think compassion is really the big thing, knowing that everyone around you is working hard and that you can trust them. I know that I try to be compassionate in my writing, finding out what makes a character relatable even if they initially appear less than perfect, so I guess that’s the same strategy I use on set.
Julia Angley is the writer/director behind the dramedy short film, Matriarch, which is having its premiere this week at the Woods Hole Film Festival on Cape Cod. I was fortunate enough to play the role of “Nancy” in the film, and I took this opportunity to “sit down” with Julia and ask her about her process. Matriarch is a UCLA graduate film that was shot on location in Massachusetts.
What inspired you to write and direct Matriarch?
I was inspired by the women in my family – I grew up in New England surrounded by women who are, at their best, strong and stubborn, but at their worst, can struggle to express their emotions to each other. Because I have a dark sense of humor, the best way to explore those characters was through dark comedy. I think that there’s a real beauty in watching someone finally allow themselves to feel things, so I conjured up these two women who were dealing with something terrible – a death in the family – while focusing on something a little more mundane.
What types of female characters do you like to write?
I love to write complex female characters – what I love about Mary and Nancy in Matriarch is that they are both dealing with a lot of layers. We don’t explore a ton of their specific backstory in the film, but we know that Mary was the “good daughter” who stayed home to care for her mother, while Nancy followed a different path. I loved watching these two characters interact, and see how their divergent life choices had lead them to very differing perspectives.
Why did you want to shoot in Massachusetts?
I knew this film had to be told in small town New England. I grew up in the town we shot in, at the church we filmed at, and I knew that was the world of the film. Having made films in Los Angeles, I knew I needed a very different backdrop and texture for the emotions of Matriarch to ring true. Everything’s colder in Massachusetts, and not just the snow. There’s a hardness and resilience to the characters that is reflected in the landscape.
What were your references or inspirations for the film’s look, style, and tone?
My references were so diverse! There was modern television, including GLOW and The Crown, there were films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Election – and a ton of films my cinematographer (Lambert Grand) referenced that I can’t quite remember anymore. We knew we wanted the cinematography to be very pretty, shot like a drama, but play with humor inside these static frames, so we watched a lot of comedy to prepare as well. I always talked about this film having a bit of a British comedy feeling to it, where it’s all about what’s proper and what’s not – since I think there can be a lot of that in New England!
What is your process for communicating your vision to the production team?
Pictures, clips, more pictures, music, watching things together, color palettes, paintings. Basically I’m pulling everything that has the right feeling and showing it to my team! I also really wanted to tightly control the color palette of the film – it’s all creams and purples, and very understated. I got my whole team on board with creating that look and feel, and it gives the whole film a very homey, pastoral sort of look.
What is your process for directing actors?
I love digging into backstory. When I’m writing a piece, I usually end up writing long bios for each character. I like to talk through them with my actors, exploring how the characters feel, their perspective on life. I don’t love to rehearse dialogue too much, because I don’t like it to become overly stiff. I think I also spend a lot of time watching for reactions, not just line delivery, because I know how important that’s going to be in the edit. With Matriarch in particular, so much of the film’s tone is based on how the sisters are just reacting to each other, which can be way more important than the lines themselves. So a lot of our time in rehearsal goes to figuring out what emotions are simmering under the surface.
Describe a favorite moment from the film.
My favorite scene was the morning where we shot the penultimate scene. It was just myself and the two actors in the room, and we were rehearsing a scene with only three lines of dialogue, but it’s a key moment where the characters are able to work towards forgiveness. It was our last day of shooting and we didn’t have a crazy schedule that day, so we were able to spend a lot of time just listening to music and talking about the emotions both characters were experiencing in that moment. It was so different from what a film set can sometimes feel like, with no hectic energy, and I think it helped allow the actors to really bring out their best performances in the scene. The end result is a small, delicate moment of connection that I’m really proud of.
Did you meet with any challenges during post-production?
The biggest challenge was the score! I had the cut locked for almost a year and was auditioning different composers, trying out temp music, and experimenting before I hired Michael, who ultimately composed for the piece. It was a breakthrough once we figured out the score, because it really sets the tone for the entire film.
The score is beautiful. How did you work with the composer?
Michael Bryan Stein, the composer for the film, is a genius. I’ve worked with him on three films so far, and he’s just amazing. I described to him the dark tone of the comedy, and he nailed it. He selected the instrumentation, the piano and strings, and made it feel both grand and intimate – which is perfect for dramatizing passive aggression. He understood the balance of leaning into the heightened emotions, satirizing the drama, while also letting those same feelings bring us into something real at the end.
How did your vision for the film, or the film itself, evolve over the course of the filmmaking process?
The great thing was that it came together like a puzzle. In finding collaborators, from the production crew to the cast all the way through post production, every time I found the right collaborator it just felt like it “fit.” And then that person was able to bring something to the film that I hadn’t expected! I love that collaborative nature of filmmaking, because you literally cannot do this by yourself. So I loved just seeing it evolve through the eyes of my cast & crew!
Why are you excited to premiere this film at Woods Hole Film Festival?
I knew I wanted to premiere this film in New England – it just belongs there. I was thrilled when I got the chance to bring it to Woods Hole, because it’s just exactly where it should be! And the virtual format this year has been a bit of a blessing in disguise – I’ve got friends from all over who can all tune in to watch! What a great way to share it with the world.
Matriarch screens online through August 1st. Purchase tickets here. To keep up with Julia and her work, please visit her website.
Watch MATRIARCH at Woods Hole Film Festival
Matriarch premieres today at Woods Hole Film Festival and runs through August 1st. Your ticket gives you access to eight shorts in the screening block Musings on Mortality, and will help to sustain a 30-year tradition on Cape Cod. We loved making this film and hope you enjoy watching it!
WHAT I LEARNED FROM A YEAR OF FILMS BY WOMEN
In October of 2015, Women in Film Los Angeles launched a challenge that asked people to watch one film a week by a woman for a year and to share and discuss those films on social media. To date they’ve reached over 11,000 pledges and are still going strong.
What I’ve learned from my year of women-directed films is much the same as what I’m hearing from everyone else–namely, that you really have to dig if you want to consistently discover female filmmakers. Here are my observations from the year:
- I wanted to watch current films, not just the standards that everyone already knows. It was much easier to find independent films with female directors; very difficult to find mainstream studio films. The Wrap recently released this stat:
…of the 149 movies currently slated for a wide release from the six legacy studios over the next three years, only 12 have female directors. That means a whopping 92 percent of the major motion pictures due in theaters through the end of 2019 will be helmed by men.
- Sometimes I couldn’t find a narrative feature at all and that’s when I started filling out my year with shorts and documentaries–both of which are much more prolific in terms of female directors. Once again, it all comes back to money and opportunity. What can you make when you have neither? I scoured other people’s lists to see what they were watching and the same films came up over and over again (as they will on my list too). There were limited choices; sometimes nothing appealed to me and I had to go outside the box to find something I wanted to watch.
- This process of deliberately watching films from female perspective is what finally drove home to me how much of my life–and the lives of all women–have been shaped by the male gaze and point-of-view. Our stories are not being told and so, because we don’t see ourselves on screen or the potential for what we can be on screen, we often don’t see another choice but to accept and perpetuate the myths and stereotypes of what a woman is or what she can and should be. Of course there are many exceptions (thank you, new Star Wars franchise) and media is not the only thing that shapes a life but I’d never before realized just how critical a role it actually did play for me. What could the world look like for future generations of women if we were truly represented?
- One of my reasons for taking the pledge was to find a director for my own feature project. I fell in love with a lot of new filmmakers but one issue remains: most of them don’t have the breadth of experience that male filmmakers have and may require a leap of faith. Years and years go by between most women’s first and second features…sometimes more years than you can believe and it’s actually tragic how long it takes for a woman to find the funding or opportunity to make one film, let alone several.
- A highlight: Ashley Judd seeing my blog about her film Come Early Morning (one of my all-time favorites) and writing a lovely comment to me on Facebook.
- I watched 35 Narrative Features, 8 Narrative Shorts, 6 Documentary Features and 3 Documentary Shorts.
- My Top Five new films that I discovered and highly recommend are: Stray Dog (Documentary Feature) by Debra Granik, Into the Forest (Narrative Feature) by Patricia Rozema, Hostile Border (Narrative Feature) by Kaitlin McLaughlin & Michael Dwyer, Cigarette Candy (Narrative Short) by Laura Wolkstein and Emotional Fusebox (Narrative Short) by Rachel Tunnard.
- I remain committed to working with women directors and am very inspired and excited by the prospect. I also remain committed to seeking out films by women on a regular basis and especially to supporting them at the box office and on social media–two places where it counts.
- Join the movement and take your own #52FilmsByWomen pledge HERE.
The Films
LOVE & BASKETBALL (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood
OBSELIDIA (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Diane Bell
BLEEDING HEART (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Diane Bell
GAS FOOD LODGING (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Allison Anders
STORIES WE TELL (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Sarah Polley
COME EARLY MORNING (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Joey Lauren Adams
SELMA (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Ana DuVernay
STRAY DOG (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Debra Granik
ANOTHER KIND OF GIRL (Documentary Short) / Directed by Khaldia Jibawi
JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Amy J. Berg
I DON’T CARE (Narrative Short) / Directed by Carolina Giammetta
LIFE IN COLOR (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Katharine Emmer
ADVANTAGEOUS (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Jennifer Phang
THE INTERN (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Nancy Meyers
HOSTILE BORDER (Narrative Feature) / Co-Directed by Kaitlin McLaughlin & Michael Dwyer
TOUCH (Narrative Short) / Directed by Jen McGowan
SPEED DATING (Narrative Short) / Directed by Meghann Artes
BELLE (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Amma Asante
GIRLHOOD (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Celine Sciamma
ENOUGH SAID (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Nicole Holofcener
HOTEL 22 (Documentary Short) / Directed by Elizabeth Lo
MIELE (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Valeria Golino
SEQUIN RAZE (Narrative Short) / Directed by Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
EMOTIONAL FUSEBOX (Narrative Short) / Directed by Rachel Tunnard
CIGARETTE CANDY (Narrative Short) / Directed by Lauren Wolkstein
WAITRESS (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Adrienne Shelly
THE PIG CHILD (Narrative Short) / Directed by Lucy Campbell
WATER (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Deepa Mehta
TALLULAH (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Sian Heder
WOMEN HE’S UNDRESSED (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Gillian Armstrong
FANGIRL (Documentary Short) / Directed by Liza Mandelup
ALWAYS WORTHY (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Marianna Palka
STRANGERLAND (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Kim Farrant
BONESHAKER (Narrative Short) / Directed by Frances Bodomo
PINE RIDGE (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Anna Eborn
BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Sharon Maguire
IMAGINE I’M BEAUTIFUL (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Meredith Edwards
BIG STONE GAP (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Adriana Trigiani
CERTAIN WOMEN (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Kelly Reichardt
SUFFRAGETTE (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Sarah Gavron
OPERATOR (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Logan Kibens
RED ROVER (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Brooke Goldfinch
INTO THE FOREST (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Patricia Rozema
BRIGHT STAR (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Jane Campion
ALWAYS SHINE (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Sophia Takal
IT HAD TO BE YOU (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Sasha Gordon
AMERICAN HONEY (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Andrea Arnold
THE DRESSMAKER (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse
LEARNING TO DRIVE (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Isabel Coixet
THE WINDING STREAM (Documentary Feature) / Directed by Beth Harrington
THE INTERVENTION (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Clea Duvall
DESERTED (Narrative Feature) / Directed by Ashley Avis
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