Sundance Film Festival alum, humanist filmmaker, and proud Scotswoman Marianna Palka has previously directed the features “Good Dick” (2008), “I’m the Same” (2014), and “Always Worthy” (2015). Palka has directed a number of music videos for artists including Moby, Last Night, Carly Ritter, and Rain Phoenix and her band, Paper Cranes. Also an actress, Palka will appear in all episodes of Jenji Kohan’s upcoming Netflix show, “GLOW.” She has also acted in “A Rose For Emily,” “Girls”, “Neds,” and all of her directorial efforts. more. In 2014, Palka produced Lucy Walker’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary “The Lion’s Mouth Open,” in which Palka confronted her risk of developing Huntington’s Disease.
“Bitch” will premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 20.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
MP: “Bitch,” a movie which we put a lot of unique thought and love into, is about a mom, Jill, who has four awesome kids and whose husband is cheating on her. She can’t kill herself, so she finds another solution by living as a dog, in the family basement. Our film follows Bill, played by receptive Jason Ritter, and Jill’s sister Beth, played by the glorious Jaime King, and the kids as they move into light from darkness.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MP: I read and heard a story that Scottish doctor R.D. Laing had a patient who had empty nest syndrome when her kids grew up and left the house and it was so fascinating to me. Since then, since we’ve made the film, anyone I talk to about it is equally fascinated by the idea. The idea that people become how we treat them.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
MP: Joy! That marriage is positive, loving, and wonderful. That it’s great to be a good parent and love your family, even if you disagree with them. Especially now! Stories, we need them now more than ever to spark conversations of understanding.
That healed people heal people. That women deserve all of their civil and human rights. That no one needs to use the term “bitch” against anyone else, unless they’re literally talking about a female dog. Because no one is actually that term. So let’s find a better word.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
MP: I didn’t find any challenges. Filmmaking to me feels like being in Hawaii, at the beach. Fun and playful and filled with family and laughs.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
MP: I looked at the whole world and wanted to find great gentlemen, who were making feminist films well. And since I was already friends with Elijah Wood and knew Daniel Noah and had heard good things about Josh Waller — and SpectreVision in general — I said we should make a movie together.
They decided “Bitch” was for them, they raised the money with MarVista for a slate of movies and everyone chose to do “Bitch” first. Which I took as a huge compliment, simply because as a filmmaker, you’re always patient and ready to wait, and this time it felt like I didn’t have to wait.
After I saw Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” I fell in love with SpectreVision again in professional terms because they so clearly know what they’re doing, and I had manifested finding a production company that suited me like a glove. And it’s been magical. After producing my first three films, I was ready for someone else brilliant to take the production reins.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Sundance?
MP: Everything. Sundance is my heaven. It’s my fifth time at the festival. “Good Dick,” a film about intimacy after childhood sexual abuse, played in the Dramatic Competition in 2008. I wrote it, directed, produced, played the lead, self-released, and more. And then my friend Jenée LaMarque had me act in her film “Spoonful,” which was about breastfeeding and was at Sundance, and I was a juror. And then, in 2015, the mighty Lucy Walker’s “The Lion’s Mouth Opens” that is about me was at Sundance, too! It’s on HBO still, was shortlisted for an Oscar, nominated for an Emmy, and the charity connected to it has raised more than $400,000 for the cause of healing Huntington’s Disease because of our movie.
So, Sundance is genuinely my place to be calm and absorb all the art that I can. If I don’t have a movie, I go to solely watch movies and support other artists. Banksy came to Sundance and he understood what the healing power of cinema is. Don’t get me started on how much I love the programmers, the vision of Robert Redford, who founded the festival, and the Native Program at the Institute. We honor Native Americans every second because we want and love to see true Native voices in cinema — that’s what Sundance was started for and it’s a beacon of these healing themes!
Also, I’ll never forget Michelle Satter, Director of the Feature Film Program at Sundance, for taking me into her office when I was the youngest director at Sundance in December 2007, and her telling me, “We know how hard it is to make a movie and so we’re making you an Annenberg Fellow and we are donating $15,000 to finish your film.” She changed my life with those words because I felt seen. Which is mostly what everyone is looking for; we seem as humans to want to exhilarate each other’s growth via the grace of togetherness.
Also, I’m excited this year because my boyfriend, musician Zac Clark, is coming to the festival for the first time and he has a song, “California,” in our credits and he epically plays Uncle Brian in “Bitch.”
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
MP: The very best advice is from Peter Mullan, who told me when I was 16 to “be kind to everyone,” and it’s all over my work. It’s in “Bitch” — there’s a sign, a light box, in our film that reads “Be Kind” in Reel 1. And I honor our friendship daily by being kind in my personal life, in my work, definitely on set, definitely as a director; I rule with kindness and no fear. No tension, never tension.
I love a happy and respected crew. Kindness makes the best performances, the best movies. You can feel the kindness sewn in when you watch my movies.
The worst advice: I don’t remember the bad.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
MP: I say join Film Fatales. I don’t have different advice for female directors than I do for male directors. I think talking solutions is great. I say it’s our time! We’re taking stage! Go! Go! Go! Yes!
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
MP: I vacillate constantly from minute to minute about what the greatest films ever made are. There are so many! I can’t ever choose one, so, to me they’re all the greatest film ever made. English is limited in this way. In other languages many films can be the greatest film ever made because the number one top slot isn’t singular; it’s plural! Which makes more sense to me and my heart in terms of art.
W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year due to the increased attention paid to the issue? If someone asked you what you thought needed to be done to get women more opportunities to direct, what would be your answer?
MP: To women and anyone else who wants to get something, I say write a letter saying “thank you” for whatever it is you want. For example “Thank you that I’m directing a studio movie for $20,000,000. Thank you that I’m a vital member of the DGA and helping other women and all diverse people in our community join the DGA. I bring myself and thousands of other women and people with me.” Whatever your biggest dream is, write down the specifics of it as if you already have it. That’s how to manifest [the dream]. You don’t say, “I want blank.” You must say, “Oh, thank you that I have and love blank.”
This is very powerful because you are the only person who knows exactly what you need and desire. You can do this with finding love, manifesting a job, making a baby, making art, creating style, a home, a garden. Anything you want. This life belongs to us. We have a chance to contribute a verse as the powerful play goes on. What is your special contribution? We want it! Share it with this world! Heal an entire community or chunk of society with your movie. These are powerful tools we have! I love our job!
