Natalia Leite is a writer/director/actress, born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her feature film debut, “Bare,” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015, starring Dianna Agron and Paz De La Huerta. The film was released by IFC and Paramount Pictures. She is a frequent contributor to Vice Media, creating original content like the provocative Vice show, “Every Woman” where she documented her experience working in a truck-stop strip club. Her comedy series “Be Here Nowish,” which she stars in, is currently in its second season on Vimeo.
“M.F.A.” will premiere at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival on March 13.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
NL: M.F.A. is about a struggling art student who gets raped by a boy in her university and, unable to find support from the school and her community, decides to take matters into her own hands and seek vigilante justice.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
NL: I have a personal connection to this even though I didn’t write it. I went to art school and had my own sexual assault story during that time. I was able to infuse some of that personal experience into the film.
Leah McKendrick wrote a phenomenal script, and I was also drawn to it because it is such a timely issue. Rape in college campuses has of course been happening forever, but more recently some of these crimes surfaced into the mainstream media and now more people are paying attention. There’s never been a better time to talk openly about these issue and fight for change.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
NL: The moral issues in the movie are complex and I hope that the audience will leave the theater with a lot to talk about. Can we empathize with Noelle, even though she’s killing criminals? Did she achieve some moral justice in the end? I think the simple fact that she’s a woman complicates things even further because people are not used to seeing likable women do bad things in films.
People love Dexter Morgan, so I hope they can also love Noelle. I think it will be interesting to see how different people respond to this. I want people leaving the theater talking about all these questions and also being more aware of the severity of rape crimes and how we can be active about creating change within schools.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
NL: This was a pretty ambitious movie for the limited time and money we had. There were stunt scenes, fight scenes, and rape scenes happening all with very little time and money. Aaron Kovalchik, DP, and Kelly Fallon, production designer, and I really had to come together and brainstorm creative ways to shoot this without sacrificing our creative ideas. We cheated so many locations and borrowed everything we possibly could.
The other big challenge was having to completely reshuffle our entire schedule because one of the main actors we cast dropped out of the picture the day before the shoot to take a higher paying job. It’s an awful thing to do to an indie film. This guy probably has no idea how much trouble he caused our production but somehow we managed to pull it off.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
NL: Our producers — Leah McKendrick, Shintaro Shimosawa, and Mike C. Manning — pieced it together through several private investors. It all came together pretty quickly during pre-production but we were raising money throughout the shoot for post and during post. They were knocking on every door. It was a lot of work!!
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at SXSW?
NL: We couldn’t be happier! This is a dream premiere! This is the audience and experience we wanted. We feel honored to be in competition with so many other amazingly talented filmmakers.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
NL: A manager told me last year that my work would never sell because it was too gay or too weird or too feminist, and that I needed to pay more attention to what stories were selling at the time and work on that instead. In other words, I couldn’t make work that was too me. Worst advice ever! I didn’t take it of course.
To counter that, I have a friend — who has also been a great mentor to me — Rose Troche, who always encourages me to just do my thing and not give up. Thanks Rose!
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
NL: To not focus too much on the fact that you are a female director. What I mean by that is don’t focus on your disadvantage in the film industry. Yes it’s true, women directors have to struggle harder than male directors and they are not given the same opportunities — statistics prove that every year. But hey, you have everything it takes to compete in this field.
Don’t see yourself as having a disadvantage because that will just put you in the wrong mindset.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
NL: Hard to pick one so I’ll name two. Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” and Lucia Puenzo’s “XXY.” Love them!
W&H: There have been significant conversations over the last couple of years about increasing the amount of opportunities for women directors yet the numbers have not increased. Are you optimistic about the possibilities for change? Share any thoughts you might have on this topic.
NL: Yes, I’m optimistic. Look at how many female directors are premiering features at SXSW this year. Change is happening, just not as fast as we hope for. I think producers and executives have a big responsibility here, especially if they are female, in helping create this change.
