Malla Grapengiesser has a background in art, theater, and performance art. In 1994, she established the independent film production company Hysteria Film AB alongside Antonio Russo Merenda. Her credits include co-producing “Searching for Sugar Man” and producing “My American Family.” More recently, she founded the production company Fosfor Produktion AB.
“Giants and the Morning After” will screen at the 2019 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 6. Per Bifrost and Alexander Rynéus co-directed the film.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
MG: It’s a low key drama from one of the smallest municipals in Sweden. Life goes on with its ups and downs, with problems and with joy. There’s light to be found in the small events in life, which essentially is what most life is all about — one small moment after the other which replace each other in time.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MG: I was brought up in this small community and am one of those who moved away because of the lack of choices and opportunities to be found there. The alternative — that I should stay — was never an option, and never discussed. It was a sort of a natural law that I should move.
So it was my curiosity which drew me to the story. [I was contemplating many questions.] What are people doing in this community? Why do they stay? How does it express itself? What does it symbolize? These are the things I was asking myself.
What is it here that cities such as Stockholm lack? I think the factory owner and his conversation with his wife if they should continue running the factory or not is a very central scene which is gives us some clues. And the mayor who knows everyone!
But the place itself has a big importance — the odd, old stories which are very connected to this very old community, and the people rooted there for generations, including the factory owner and the mayor.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
MG: Well, this is a tricky question. I think it depends on the viewers’ own references. I hope the low key humor and odd stories [make them feel a sense of] magic, mystery, and time.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
MG: The editing was definitely the most difficult and challenging process. There was so much to consider — so many choices and paths to pursue. We had 200 hours of material. And since this is not a film of conflicts and contrast, [the aim was to] mirror the small municipality, such as the challenge with the refugee and with the factory — everyday problems [concerning] the place itself, the small talk, and the small jokes, all to convey a sense of place and people.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
MG: It’s funded mainly through The Swedish Film Institute, but also from small regional film funds such as Film I Dalarna and Film I Öst, also a minor sum from the community. It’s a co-production with Swedish Television (SVT), as well.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
MG: I have done a few films before but mainly I work as a producer. I hope to engage myself as a director in a new film when time permits.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
MG: Believe your dreams and believe your ideas. Though they often start as a hardly heard whisper, catch them, hold on to them, nourish them, and make them stronger. Be creative, because it is very fulfilling — you interact with your heart and with your soul.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
MG: There are many I would like to mention, but since I have one choice I’ll say the Swedish director Mai Zetterling. She was an actress and a very bold and fantastic filmmaker who made films with uneasy and scandalous themes. Her short film “The War Game” is just amazing — the building up of the terror when two boys play with their toy pistols [is intense]. It turns into something very scary where they put their lives at stake just to avoid showing their cowardice! The point she makes with the film is that little boys are [raised to believe they are] supposed to become “real men.”
The feminist film “The Girls” is beautifully filmed, provocative, anarchistic, and stylish. The film mix images from a production of the play “Lysistrata” with the female members’ private lives in the theater group. Her film “Night Games” caused such a scandal and was only shown to the jury in private at Cannes. It’s completely full of poetic wild images.
I love her because she broke so many taboos and exceeded all limits. Besides the fact that her films are beautiful, a wild spirit like hers can transfer such a joy and happiness. She made most of her best known films during the ’60s.
W&H: It’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?
MG: The #MeToo movement has been revolutionary, and as such it’s quite amazing. I am sure it’s giving women a lot of strength and power and changing and shifting the power landscape between men and women. In Sweden the movement has become huge, and there have been many men — particular in the media and film industry — who have lost work and gone on trial, which is followed by tragedy for many families. Some have been accused for fair reasons, but then others for more doubtful ones. But it certainly has turned things upside down a lot in the industry, opening up people’s awareness of men’s conduct and behavior towards women, which has been more or less been accepted in the past and almost taken as something rather okay.
Almost every institution in the media, the theater, and the film world has taken action and changed their policies. So the movement has definitely caused tremendous change.
