Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell’s s debut feature, “Small, Beautifully Moving Parts,” premiered at SXSW in 2011 and went on to play over thirty festivals. Awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Audience Award at RiverRun Film Festival. The film opened theatrically in New York and went on to play several other markets. Howell and Robinson have each directed other short work, including “Tia and Marco” and “Hollow,” respectively, for the vanguard ITVS series “FutureStates.”
“Claire in Motion” opens in theaters and On Demand January 13.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
LR&AJH: “Claire in Motion” is the story of a woman in crisis. Claire, an established math professor in a small college town, thinks she knows herself, her marriage, and her world — until it all crumbles when her husband hikes off into the woods and never returns. It’s then she discovers a side of him she didn’t know, and that prompts her to question everything in her life.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
LR&AJH: We have been thinking about identity for a long time, and how fluid it is throughout all stages of life. It seems like it’s a pretty typical desire to want the people in our lives to be familiar and unchanging, particularly as we start to achieve some goals and have a family. But it doesn’t always work that way.
The tension between stability, chaos, and growth was interesting to us. We were also drawn to the location — the low gothic hills of Athens, Ohio — and this strange isolation of a college town. We were excited about using this physical landscape in a visual and psychological way to explore someone’s mental state.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
LR&AJH: We don’t have a specific prescription for peoples’ thoughts, but we did want to leave ample space for a wide range of experiences. There are definitely themes we care about deeply — identity, certainty, and loss — but ultimately we want the viewer to feel close to Claire and her experience.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
LR&AJH: In order to make it work for our star, Betsy Brandt, we had to shoot on a fairly quick schedule. We were happy to do that because we were thrilled that she was all-in for this challenging and immersive role, but she only had so much time.
We were also chasing the afternoon light quite a bit which had us moving all the time, which is always a herculean undertaking.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
LR&AJH: The movie was financed with a mixture of private equity and grants. We won the Sloan Prize for our first film which helped provide a foundation, and then worked piece by piece from there. We laugh that each film we make is not really a repeatable model.
W&H: What’s been the journey since you first premiered the film at SXSW to its release? How did you decide what distributor to go with?
LR&AJH: We signed with Visit Films and they’ve been amazing, helping us with everything from PR, film festivals, and distribution, both domestically and internationally.
We chose to work with Breaking Glass domestically because they wanted to release the film theatrically as well as on VOD and that was appealing for many reasons. We are still attached to people seeing films in theaters as much as possible, without the distraction of life.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
LR: Best advice: “Focus on what’s interesting to you.” Worst advice: “Rush the edit for festival deadlines.”
AJH: Best advice: “Stop waiting and make something.” Worst advice: “Filmmakers should pick one genre/tone/style and stick to it, otherwise executives won’t get it.”
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
LR&AJH: Less advice but a call to arms: We need you. Please keep going. Please make small things that give you the means and confidence to make bigger things. We so desperately need to complicate the generalities of women on the screen, and the only way to fix it is to put you behind the camera or typing at the keyboard.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
LR: “The Piano,” by Jane Campion. For waking something in me up by portraying a woman’s experience so passionately and intimately that I realized that this had been missing for me in past films and was something I wanted to emulate.
AJH: “Cléo from 5 to 7,” by Agnes Varda. For brilliantly blending documentary footage shot on the streets of Paris with more formally-composed indoor scenes, for breaking into song, for the pain of self reflection, for the trap of youthful female beauty, and for Varda’s incredible command of craft.
W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year (or so) 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?
LR&AJH: It’s hard to tell if the opportunities have truly expanded despite the attention. Although television has made some strides, film still feels sparse.
The bill introduced last summer in NY State that would extend tax rebates to above-the-line female and people of color hires in television could be an amazing precedent to set for indie production companies and studios. Money back into the budget is a powerful incentive!
