Emily Harris is a visual storyteller spanning film, theater, exhibition, and installation. Her work has been shown at major film festivals and museums worldwide including the V&A Museum London, Barbican, Visionary Art Museum, and the Prague Quadrennial.
“Carmilla” will premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 28.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
EH: “Carmilla” is a derailed love story between two young girls. The film is set in the late 1700s against the backdrop of religion and suspicion in the wake of a peculiar illness targeting young girls in the area.
When a carriage crash outside young Lara’s home reveals an abandoned girl her own age, her presence is met with both caution and anticipation. However, Lara’s naive and innocent gaze finds a deep and pure connection with this mysterious stranger, while her governess is overcome by jealousy and suspicion.
Lara is forced to choose between her internal desire for her newfound friend and her external obligation to the woman who has raised her.
Ultimately this is a story about our tendency as humans to demonize the other, the stranger, and that which we don’t understand.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
EH: What was initially interesting was that the underlying novel is the first known vampire story to have a female vampire as its protagonist — this alone was fascinating.
But when one looks further and sees how commonplace it is for female vampires to subsequently be portrayed in a purely sexualized manner, I naturally wanted to understand the psychology that was driving this early female vampire literature.
So it was through this lens that I looked at “Carmilla,” and what I found were similar patterns of human behavior being played out today — patterns of exclusion and ignorance — and it became difficult not to see this as a vital allegory for our time. So the interest was in steering this away from the supernatural tropes of Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel in order to dive deeper into the motivations and behaviors that turn love and openness into hate and destruction.
Once those layers of vampirism are stripped back, I got to spend a lot of time with two fascinating and heartfelt characters who are navigating a very tender time in their lives and finding first love in the face of adversity. That was the real draw!
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
EH: I would like people to feel more than think when they leave the cinema. To be reminded of first love and future hope. To see how this story reflects the absurdity and tragedy of many of the behaviors and attitudes being played out in the world right now, and how it resonates in a time when borders are going up again and nationalism is once more on the rise.
But most of all, I hope the film stays with them beyond leaving the cinema because for me a real test of a film is when it lingers for a while.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
EH: To be honest, the biggest challenge was being away from my kids during the weeks filming on location. I missed my daughter’s first Tooth Fairy visit and my son’s first day at secondary school. Those were tough!
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
EH: This film was funded by a brave financier who believed in me and was willing to take a risk for the sake of art. I am forever grateful! Then two brilliant female producers came on board and magicked a small film into a bigger vision by getting a distributor and sales minimum guarantee and a lot of support in kind.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
EH: I love visual storytelling and film feels like the most permanent moving version of that. I first studied fine art at the Glasgow School of Art but very quickly started introducing actors into the gallery space. This led naturally to exploring theater and for some years after graduating, the stages of Glasgow were my canvas. But eventually the frustration of the work “disappearing” once the run finished got to me, and so I decided to explore film instead.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
EH: The best advice I received was from my eight-year-old daughter the other day. She said if I wanted people to like my film, then “I need to imagine them liking it and stop imagine them not liking it.” She did admit that it wasn’t guaranteed. I’m giving it a go, though!
The worst advice was that I’d suit a fringe. That’s bangs, for you in America.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
EH: My advice would be to not see yourself as a “female director” but as a “director.”
And don’t feel like you can only tell women’s stories — your take on the world in general is valid! Keep telling your stories and pushing forward with your passion unapologetically.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
EH: “On Body and Soul” by Ildikó Enyedi. I love the way she explores the world of dreams and juxtaposes them with the awkward mundanity of her protagonists’ day-to-day lonely lives.
It’s a film that forces us to look at our pure and animalistic subconscious, to look at its beauty in a nonjudgmental way as the characters in the film also learn to do. The film is also remarkably executed, a truly fantastic correlation between form and content, as exists in all great films.
W&H: It’s been 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?
EH: It feels like a more fertile ground for people listening as well as a willingness to confront prejudice and have open conversations about topics that used be all too easily swept under the carpet. There is still a lot more conversation to be had — this is only the beginning.
