Krystin Ver Linden is a director and screenwriter. Her script “Ride” sold to Lionsgate with Jill Solloway attached to direct. Her pitch “Love in Vain,” an unconventional biopic centering around Blues music pioneer Robert Johnson, sold to Paramount. She was chosen as one of Variety’s 2022 “10 Directors to Watch.” “Alice” is her first feature film and will be released nationwide in March via Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions. 

“Alice” 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.

KVL: “Alice” is a film of freedom and self-belief. One person can create an entire movement. “Alice” highlights the power of defining yourself on your own terms, not the labels put on you by others.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

KVL: “Alice” was inspired by true events. I found the people that I was reading about heroic, poetic, and brave. My heart melded with each and every one of the men and women that I learned about.

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

KVL: I want people to think and feel. “Alice” should be a reminder and an inspiration that self-expression and embracing who you are defined on your own terms is powerful and what you believe in can actually make a difference. It takes one spark to start a fire.

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

KVL: Covid. Period. Directing my first film was the easy, exciting, and fun part. Covid hung a worrying cloud over a beautiful process. [We were hoping that] we could make it through without any positive tests, which we did.

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

KVL: Steel Springs Productions fully financed the film.

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

KVL: Filmmaking was the only thing I have ever wanted to do since I was six years old. Films were my reality. It is the only language I speak, to some degree.

Screenwriting was a means to getting into directing, which was what I have prepared myself for my entire life. My heroes as a kid were Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and David Lean. I would study their films and work and how their films and film choices were cathartic and from the heart, [how they used] the camera as a character and a way into a story.

Movies are in my DNA.

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

KVL: The best advice was from my mentor, Quentin Tarantino. He told me to not be afraid on set to ask any questions. A lot of first-time filmmakers fear asking things for fear of how they may look. For example, a shot the director may have in mind may not be doable or maybe it is, but until the director asks — because they’re trying to act as if they know every little thing — they won’t know. He empowered me to be unabashed during the process and really enjoy the first time making a film– because it’s the only time it will be the first time.

Also, always be where the camera operator is. He is your best friend on set. Sitting behind a monitor in a tent is unacceptable. When your actors can see you and know if it’s cold or hot or anything and you’re right there with them, freezing, on fire, etc. they’ll give you their all.

Worst advice? Luckily I haven’t gotten any from anyone, or if I did, I wasn’t listening and didn’t retain the information.

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

KVL: Don’t take no shit. Ha. No really, though, there’s a lot of ignorant and insecure masculinity in this business — [guys] who don’t really have a sense of who they are, so they’ll try to assert themselves. Just put them down gently, meaning play chess and don’t roll over. If you know who you are, nothing can stop you.

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

KVL: As a cinephile, this is a hard question to answer. It depends on genre and era and so many things, but I will say this: I love Agnès Varda and every film she did. I also have a massive amount of love and respect for contemporaries like Sofia Coppola. “Lost in Translation” was one of my favorite modern-day films as a kid growing up. Jane Campion is a present-day inspiration for sure.

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

KVL: My life got busier during Covid with shooting “Alice” from prep, to post, to now it coming out. Also, I’ve been cooking up my next project so I haven’t had the cooped up experience with Covid — yet.

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 it more inclusive? 

KVL: The actions that need to be taken are to not define films by race but rather by the heart of the characters and their story. There’s a reason the sound “care” is in the word characters. I’ve really been noticing an adverse to being politically correct in the sense that, for example, as an African American woman, if I want to make a film about Buddha, I may get turned down. Instead they’ll opt for someone from Nepal or India, which feels a bit ridiculous and sad that filmmakers are getting wrangled into created boxes built around their race.

I say tell stories from the heart and you can’t go wrong. The world needs to take their hand off of the pulse a bit and stop defining humans as different but rather as one species where every story that is powerful and can elevate people and the world around should be told.