Francisca Alegría is Chilean filmmaker whose short film “And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow’s Eye” received the award for Best International Fiction Short Film at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and Best Latin American Short Film at Miami Film Festival. It was also selected to screen at Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. “The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” marks her feature debut.

“The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” is screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which is running online from January 20-30. More information can be found on the fest’s website.

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

FA: In a wounded world, where animals sing songs before they die, a mysterious woman comes back from the dead to reconnect with her family, and eventually heal the broken bond with the daughter she left behind.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

FA: Certain images just started coming to my head, all framed by the world of my childhood: my grandparents farm. The first one was a speaking cow skull, which with the years evolved into a live, flesh and blood singing cow.

The scenes surrounding these images were based on experiences I had as a child, some of which began to take a fantastical dimension. The characters are all based on my family, including myself.

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

FA: I actually want them to connect in whatever non-intellectual way they feel like connecting. My hope is that they find in my work a space for releasing any preconceived ideas of life and death, and just melt into what’s on screen.

I hope they get out of the film filled with emotions and sensations they can’t explain with words. That’s a big hope, I think — but this is what I am interested in at the moment.

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

FA: There were many. Time was one of them. The level of ambition of the project wasn’t proportional to the amount of time we could afford.

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

FA: The combined government funding of Chile, France, and Germany. On the U.S. side, we got private investment. It was a multinational producing effort that took many years to achieve and a flexible approach to combine different ways of funding.

Our film also got resources and the support of great institutions like Sundance, Women Make Movies, and Cinereach, as well as the propulsion of film markets such as CineMart (Rotterdam Film Festival), Netherlands Film Festival, and many other institutions that gave us their support, which was essential for us to get funding.

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

FA: I thought I would be a painter when I was a kid. I liked drawing and I was drawn by visually compelling images. Then, at 13, I began filming little films with my sister and cousins, up in the Andes Mountains, where my grandpa took us for a few days. There it was just us, our adventures, and a camera, which I manipulated because I sort of knew where to put it. I became the director of these experiments without knowing what it meant. So then, when I was old enough to choose what I wanted to do with my life, I realized it was the combination of these two loves: art and that freedom I felt at those mountains.

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

FA: Best advice: As a director, when you are on set and someone asks you a question about anything that falls under the directing area, you are allowed to say “I don’t know, but give me a moment to figure it out.” Before this advice I was afraid to “not know” — I thought directors should always have the instant right answer to everything all the time. I’ve learned to trust myself, trust my knowledge, and trust the fact that answers will show themselves if you’re truly in the present moment.

Worst advice: It’s hard to say. I think I might have a talent for erasing bad advice out of my life.

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

FA: To please trust their instinct at any and every part of the creative process. It’s so hard to put into words certain “calls” or “sensations” that we feel, which for others don’t make sense right away. It’s hard because we have this systematic way of communicating verbally, where we need to respond to input or questions on the spot, without taking the time to “feel” first.

I want to rebel against this way of communicating, and normalize the need to take time to process and de-codify the intuitive language before needing to translate it to someone else.

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

FA: “Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren. It’s a rare, exquisite cinematic jewel. It’s an original psychological piece with an absurd amount of complex surreal and aesthetic achievements for the time, and all in such a short span of time.

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

FA: It hasn’t been all smooth, you know, but I’m working more than ever. I’m lucky to have the space and opportunities to stay creative. The first year I dove into self-work — therapy, ancestry healing work, etc. — and creative storytelling workshops. It was a year of excavating, of starting to truly deal with darker aspects of myself.

The second year I began writing a TV show with my life and creative partner, and in the third year I made my first feature in Chile.

I think one of the main factors for keeping myself creative was to deal with my own shit.

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

FA: Be coherent and inclusive in all parts of the process. If you say you’re making an inclusive film or show, then start by yourself first, then your team, and everyone you hire to be behind the camera and then think of who will be on screen. Get involved in these decisions, not only in the abstract or aesthetic choices for your film or show. Get involved in how your film or show will be made.