Natalia Almada is the recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Genius Award. Her directing credits include “Al Otro Lado” (2005 Tribeca Film Festival), “El General” (2009 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award), “El Velador” (2011 Cannes Film Festival), and her narrative feature “Todo lo demás” (2016 New York Film Festival).

“Users” is screening at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, which is taking place online and in person via Satellite Screens January 28-February 3.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

NA: “Users” is a film about our intimate relationship with technology.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

NA: Having children. I was suddenly having to make a lot of banal decisions about technology. I wanted to engage with these questions deeply and imagine how the world would be for my children and how they would be shaped by the choices I made. I allowed myself to take basic questions and fantasize about them.

For instance, what would happen if I used one of those smart-cribs all the time? Would my child want it more than me? Would my child’s sense of comfort come from machines? Would my child expect everything to be predictable and perfect like a machine? Or what if I put the video on for my kid on the plane? Would my child not look out the window and wonder how it is that we’re suspended up in the air? Would my child not talk to strangers or tolerate boredom? And on and on.

It was also the time in my life. In 2016, I had my first child at 41. I was really afraid of how parenthood was going
to impact my ability to work and be creative. The only way I could overcome this fear was to rationalize with myself that moments of change in my life had always been catalysts for creativity.

Becoming a mother was a huge life change, an opportunity to see the world differently, and I wanted that to inspire my work. This film I think is a reflection of that change in my life — a change that made me think more about the future.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

NA: First, I want people to feel like they had an experience, like they went on a journey of sorts. The way you might
feel after a long hike or trip. I’d like them to have that sense of something not yet totally digested that lingers with them: images that return, ideas that circulate in their mind, sounds that echo. More like smell or taste.

From this place I hope the film leads them to think critically about their relationship to technology and about the unintended and lasting consequences of the choices they make.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

NA: Access. This film was different from all my previous films in that it requires gaining access to a lot of different
places. It is also the first film I’ve shot in the U.S., so I don’t have a previous experience to compare it to. When I first began imagining the film, I didn’t anticipate that I would be turned away so often.

For the most part, I felt that there was overwhelming suspicion of media and no real incentive to participate in something for the sake of journalism, culture, or art. I’m incredibly grateful to those who were willing to engage with us, but by the end of the film I felt really disheartened by the refusals to give access. If we can’t look at the world around us then how are we to think about it? Document it? Understand it?

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

NA: We had a combination of foundation support from Sundance, Ford, IDA, and Chicken and Egg, and then equity financing. What I am most proud of is that we were able to secure our budget without compromising creative control or giving up copyright.

I am really grateful that the people who came on board the film trusted us and gave us a lot of freedom to explore and experiment to make the film we envisioned making. I think this happened because of the amazing work of my producers, Josh Penn and Elizabeth Lodge Stepp, not only in securing the financing, but securing the right partners for this project.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

NA: I never set out to be a filmmaker. I was doing my masters in photography and made a short film and just stayed the course.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

NA: Worst advice: to post two Tweets a day.

Best advice: to do what I love.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

NA: Same advice as I got: do what you love. I think it is the only way to have the strength to overcome all the obstacles along the way and persevere.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

NA: Impossible. I love so many different films for different reasons, and not only films. but literature and art. I am inspired by the works of Chantal Akerman, Agnès Varda, Louise Bourgeois, and Virginia Woolf. There’s no such thing as a favorite.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

NA: It feels amazing to accomplish something under these circumstances. It’s also a bit maddening to try to finish a film with two little kids and a pandemic. I was fortunate to be in the middle of a project when the pandemic hit, so my creative momentum was already in motion. I’m also really fortunate that I work with a tiny crew and my closest collaborator is my partner, Dave Cerf, so once we understood that COVID-19 was not a passing thing we were able to figure out ways in which to finish shooting the film and I moved my edit system into my bedroom.

It’s not been easy and there were things we couldn’t do because of the coronavirus, but I feel fortunate that we’ve had the film to hold onto and give our lives some shape and purpose during this time of uncertainty. There has also been some silver linings for us, like getting to work with the Kronos Quartet. Because of COVID-19 they were not on tour
and because we all live in San Francisco we were able to record on the Skywalker Recording Stage, which is big enough to socially distance.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

NA: I think there has been a shift and a lot of different efforts that are leading to more consciousness about this
problem. For me, it’s always been helpful to think about identity theoretically, so that I could understand the structural and systematic racism or sexism that was affecting me on the one hand, and on the other hand to consider ways in which my work might subvert or challenge those notions.