Thursday, June 7, 2012
Film Talking Florida, Mug Shots and the American Road Movie with Sun Don't Shine Director Amy Seimetz
Posted by Leah Churner on Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Into the seedy, sticky tradition of Florida crime comes Seimetz’s thriller, Sun Don’t Shine, which premiered at SXSW and will make its New York City debut at Rooftop Films this Saturday (June 9). Based on a recurring nightmare of the director’s, it tracks the mysterious peregrinations of a young couple around the backroads of St. Petersburg, Seimetz’s hometown. The atmosphere of torpid panic in the car, and the lack of air conditioning, is palpable; clearly, they’re both about to snap. The question of who goes first—Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil), a chattering doe in the headlights, or Leo (Kentucker Audley), gruff and levelheaded, but slightly dumb—drives the suspense.
This is Seimetz’s first feature to write and direct. She’s already known as an actress and producer. You may recognize her from her roles in Tiny Furniture, The Off Hours, or A Horrible Way to Die. Sheil was a prominent face at SXSW this year, appearing in three other films, V/H/S, The Comedy and Somebody Up There Likes Me. Audley directed Seimetz in his 2010 film Open Five.
I spoke to Seimetz over the phone on Monday about Florida, lady criminals, and her plans for Sun Don’t Shine.
Let’s talk about your research. During the SXSW Q&A, Kate Sheil said one way you prepared her for the role was to send her mug shots of women.
These characters are going through a really intense experience. In all my research, I found that women who commit crimes don’t understand rationally what they did. I watched a great documentary through Women Make Movies [by Allie Light and Irving Saraf] called Blind Spot. In all these stories, these convicted women criminals had no rational explanation for what they were thinking during the act.
But yeah, in Florida, they have these magazines that the prisons put out to make money. Basically, anyone who gets booked, they sell their mug shots.
Oh, right. I’ve seen those at gas stations in Texas. [Interviewer's note: these mug shot tabloids, with titles like Slammer and Just Busted, are printed by small private companies throughout South and distributed in convenience stores. The government does not sell mugshots, but must grant access to the images at the publishers’ request, under the Freedom of Information Act. Disturbingly, these tabloids are moving online, and charging people a fee to have their photos removed from the site.]
Is that Constitutional? They haven’t even gone to court yet and their mug shots are published. You’re seeing a picture of someone at probably the worst moment of their life. I find it extremely depressing but also I can’t stop looking. The women, and the men too, all have this deep frown. It looks like the weight of their whole life leading up to that dead-end moment.
Kate and I worked on that, just to find that [facial expression] without being over the top. It’s also in the way she’s carries her body.
Without being too on the nose about it, that’s one of the women-oriented themes of this movie. All her costume changes are about this metamorphosis she goes through, and where she ends up. It’s why we included the mermaid scene. She’s trying to figure out how to act like a woman, what it means. I love films about women who are trying to be “good” women, but don’t know how, like [Barbara Loden’s] Wanda or [Andrej Zulawski’s] Possession.
Trying to understanding what femininity is—take that pink dress at the end. That’s a really normal outfit for Florida. When I take [the film] around to other places, people are like, “That pink dress is just insane!” But in Florida, it’s hot, and you wear the least amount of clothing you can. When we were shooting at Weekiwachee Springs [the mermaid amusement park], little girls would come out of the bathroom where Kate was changing and be like, “I love your dress so much!” So the idea of femininity in Florida is different than what it is in California or in the New England.
The dress is definitely Crystal’s last attempt at being a good girl, like, “Look, I put on a pretty dress and I’m trying to be sweet to you.” She just doesn’t know how to do it. I guess that’s what makes her such an interesting character.
In other interviews, you’ve mentioned A Woman Under the Influence and Two Lane Blacktop as inspirations. While I watched it thought of Curtis Harrington’s Night Tide and George Armitage’s adaptation of Miami Blues. Anything to add about your inspirations?
Kate and I did an interview for Michael Dunaway for Paste. We started out saying, “I’m not sure anything directly influenced us,” then for 20 minutes went on listing books. I studied literature in college, so I’ve read so much. What we were trying to make is a hybrid of crime novels, road films, even contemporary horror movies. And classic Americana, like the mermaid shows left over from the 1940s and 50s. The characters don’t live in an urban population and don’t have the means to cover up their problems with money. They’re in that situation because they don’t have money. And they’re in Florida. Florida is this weird anomaly the South doesn’t want to claim. It’s like the bastard child of the South!
I like portraits. Throughout the movie, I tried to shoot Kate and Kentucker like individual portraits. There are only a few two-shots, and when there are two-shots it’s when the characters are “in sync.” For the most part it’s close-ups of each person locked up in their own space in this car, just getting one singular emotion across. Like Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. Obviously I could make other references, but that’s one everyone knows, “Whistler’s Mother.” There’s something emotionally beautiful about it.
The cinematographer Jay Keitel and I, decided that, for this story, it’s more interesting be close-up and be intimate with their thoughts and their emotions, rather than to take a step back and shoot it more thriller-style, to see two criminals objectively in the landscape. I don’t respond to landscapes. I respond to faces.
Was making the film cathartic? You hinted as much at SXSW, but also joked that you didn’t want to treat the Q&A like a big therapy session.
I made the film at a very extreme period in my life. I could just talk in circles about the meaning is but the truth is, when I wrote it, it was just this emotional burst and things made sense to me in an emotional way but not a logical way. It’s based off a nightmare I had, so already that sort of visceral basis for the film is in there already. It follows a story, because my nightmare was somehow, magically, very linear.
You know, I thought it would be much more cathartic than it ended up being. I’ve become very aware especially during Q&As of how personal it is and where I’m willing to be completely honest and where I want to keep things to myself. The film is cutting open a lot of veins for me. When I answer questions, I’m as secretive about my own personal demons as I am with the plot publicly.
We’re figuring that out right now. We have offers. If you don’t go with somebody who is completely passionate about your movie, it’s kind of a no-brainer to just do it yourself. That said, it takes up all your time getting it out there. It’s kind of like, do you want to spend the next year getting this movie out, or do you want to make your next film?
More and more people are going to start taking the leap and self-releasing, building that in to their preproduction plans. But you need to have it in your head when you begin the film so you can start marketing it immediately. It takes a whole lot of time to get that going.
It’s such a strange landscape right now in terms of the life of an independent film. People aren’t just going to the movies as much anymore, even big Hollywood movies. Which is why I love the Rooftop Films series. It gets people to come out and enjoy independent films. I think things are going to start moving in that direction, toward live screenings and event-oriented settings. Rooftop is doing exactly what is good for independent films.
Seems like outdoor independent screening series are gaining traction in several cities. It’s almost like the return of drive-in movies.
On a rooftop in New York City, there’s a sense of community you wouldn’t get in a dark theater. Like a drive in, it feels special. It’s more fun.
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