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Interview conducted by Marina Brafa  Natalie attented the 2018 Cannes Film Festval (Photo: Natalie MacMahon) Natalie MacMahon is a Berlin-based actress, director, writer, translator, interpreter, voice over artist and presenter. Currently, she is working on the script of her first feature film Hot Scary Summer and on her Esperanto web series Malsano Nomata Amo (A Disease Called Loved) and organizing the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin. - Submissions to the festival are being accepted until October! - Read Part One of the interview here. Natalie tells us about being a director in a male-dominated industry, her experiences at the Cannes film festival and how important it was to find her own way of working.   Marina Brafa: Last year you and your crew, all women working in film, founded the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin. Where did this idea come from?
Natalie MacMahon: There are a few festivals for female filmmakers, especially in the U.S. But I noticed many times that I did not want to submit my films to these festivals because the description of the festival - why they do what they do and what the festival is about - was too extreme. MB: In which sense? NM: A lot of them send out a very clear feminist message. I think it is possible to showcase female directors without excluding or being against anyone else. I can say that I personally did not identify with their message and did not think my films would fit. Therefore, I wanted to create an alternative festival, a platform for female directors whose films do not have to be about a certain theme. MB: But you still screen films made by women only? NM: We show films where the most important roles are filled by women and where the team is mostly female. We could have a film with a male director with a mostly-female cast with female themes. That’s what I wanted: to be more open and to create a place to connect with each other. MB: Berlin has a festival called the “Berlin Feminist Film Week.” What is the difference between your festival and this one? NM: We are not their competitor because we are not a feminist festival. As I said, we want to give women a platform, support new talents and show international productions. In addition, we present films from countries with underrepresented film markets. We also want to include workshops and panels in our festival about topics that are unclear to many filmmakers, for example financing. A topic many people do not want to hear about, especially creative types [laughs]. In that sense, it is less a cultural event but a platform by filmmakers for other filmmakers based on our own experience. MB: On the Female Filmmakers Festival’s website you state that the focus will be on Ireland and Spain. How will this be reflected in the festival’s program? NM: We will have special screenings with films from Spain and Ireland and feature music from these countries. In two years, Italy will be one of our featured countries, partly because we are already working with an established Italian music festival, the Siren Festival. This year they are including film on their program for the first time so we added a Music Video category to our festival. MB: How many submissions did you receive so far? NM: As of right now, we have received around 450 submissions including short and feature films and music videos from all parts of the world. And we are still accepting submissions until October! We added a pre-event in February, which will take place during the Berlinale, because we have so many good submissions and we want to give people the chance to connect before the actual festival in June. MB: The pre-event in February 2019 will be during the Berlinale but is not directly associated with it? NM: Correct. The pre-event is not connected to the Berlinale but takes place at the same time just to make people aware of our new Female Filmmakers Festival. At the pre-event, we will show some short films, the audience will get to vote for the best one and this short film is going to open our festival in June. MB: That’s a good marketing idea! NM: Yes, but we also have good films and people like to connect! It’s a chance to test the waters. MB: Do you think that it helps holding the FFF in Berlin? NM: Yes, Berlin attracts creative people from all over the world. People here love culture and make time to attend events. There are film festivals about pretty much everything in Berlin. I still think in a way there are never enough! MB: Do you have any advice for women who want to organize a film festival or are in the film business in general? NM: Don’t overthink, just do something. If you have an idea, if you have a script, you should just find a way to do it, for example as a short film. Learn more step by step and develop your own voice. MB: So, “Just do it”? NB: [laughs] Yeah, easier said than done! MB: Many many thanks Natalie for your time! You want to know more about Natalie's film projects? Check out her Website and follow her on Facebook! Also, find more info about the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin here - submissions are open until October!
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 Natalie supports the recent empowerment of female filmmakers and actors at Cannes Film Festival (photo: Natalie MacMahon) Interview conducted by Marina Brafa Natalie MacMahon is a Berlin-based actress, director, writer, translator, interpreter, voice over artist and presenter. Currently, she is working on the script of her first feature film Hot Scary Summer and on her Esperanto web series Malsano Nomata Amo (A Disease Called Loved) and organizing the Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin. Read Part Two of the interview here, where Natalie speaks about founding a film festival in Berlin and her work as a female filmmaker. Marina Brafa: Hi Natalie. You attended the film festival in Cannes this year. How was your stay there? Natalie MacMahon: Cannes was really interesting this time! It was my third visit and every year I have different agendas. This year I wanted to promote my Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin (FFFB), look for funding and meet filmmakers. I noticed people had already heard about the festival even though we haven’t promoted it yet because it will take place in June 2019, so we still have plenty of time. We will, however, have a pre-event in February 2019 and screen the short films sent to us as part of our “Cannes special.” The best one will then open the festival in June! I was also at Cannes to promote my short films. Some of which have been shown at other festivals and I am currently looking for distribution for my latest one.  Film still of "The Readhead" (Still: Natalie MacMahon) MB: You are talking about your film The Redhead?
NM: Yes. Another thing I did in Cannes was to get some ideas and raise funds for my first feature film. I am writing the script for it now but it is not finished yet. I was also scouting locations because I do not know where I am going to shoot the film. MB: Do you already have any concrete themes or a name for your first feature film? NM: The name of the film is Hot Scary Summer for now, and it is probably going to be in English, maybe in German. The film is set in the future, however, this is not emphasized aesthetically but rather narratively. It is about a couple that goes on a virtual reality honeymoon by visiting a studio and putting on AR glasses. Their brains then get scanned for triggers of emotions and experiences and with all this information the studio creates the perfect setting. In their case, the beach. But during the virtual trip something goes wrong and only the husband wakes up and the wife is in a coma-like state. Her mind is stuck in a different virtual reality and everything gets out of control from there. MB: You started with short films, now you are going to shoot a feature film. Why the switch? NM: I do like short films a lot because you can test out ideas and develop your skills. They also don’t require a lot of funding and are easier to make. I learned so much about the filmmaking process. For example, before I made my first short film I didn’t know how to edit, how to make a storyboard or how to direct people. It was really good to try out everything because when I make a film now, I can appreciate the people I work with more. Having a better understanding of all the processes makes it easier to work together and to explain what you want! MB: Besides your new film project Hot Scary Summer, what’s next? NM: For the fall I am planning an interactive web series based on my short film A Universal Love Story, which is partly in Esperanto. It was well received by the Esperanto community and has been shown at many festivals, so I decided to make the web series 50% in Esperanto and 50% in English. MB: Where will it be released? NM: I will probably just release it on Vimeo or Youtube. Usually I am not allowed to make my work available online because of the film festivals but the nice thing about a web series is that it can be online and at the same time I can send it to festivals so everyone has the opportunity to see it. MB: You work in many different fields of film: as a director, a screenwriter and an actor. How have you been treated, especially as a woman, in these different roles? NM: I remember when I went to Cannes for the first time three years ago with my short film. I had to decide if I would go to the festival as an actress, or director, or both – what should I tell people? I had to focus on one aspect, at least for the festivals, and I went as director instead of actress. It really was a different experience. There was less competition among directors, they were more supportive! As a woman it gets easier when you get older. But I guess I’m not that old yet, I just turned 31… MB: So belated congrats! NM: ...well it was in April but it feels like yesterday [laughs]. So it is not that old but it feels different compared to five or six years ago. I think it is definitely true that if you are a young woman other filmmakers tend to think you are naive and do not take you seriously, especially as a director. If you have to direct older, experienced actors, it is difficult until they work with you and notice that you are professional and well-prepared. MB: How does this look in your everyday work as director? NM: I am always open to other people’s ideas and suggestions but especially on shooting day somebody needs to be the boss and say: “That’s what we are going to do.” You have to be confident and trust yourself because you know what you are doing! When I tried to listen to everyone and make them all happy it was a mess. When you clearly tell people what you want, it works. MB: This year the jury in Cannes was mostly female and there was a movement called “5050 by 2020,” similar to “Time’s Up” in Hollywood. Were you aware of this during your stay? NM: Yes! When we got the festival bag there was a flyer with a hotline you could call if you felt like someone was approaching you in a weird way. I think that’s the first time they offered it. I do not know if anyone called it but I think it is a good idea. I never had bad experiences myself but I heard from other women who did, especially at Cannes. I also noticed a change in the panels and talks I attended. The speakers were mixed 50/50; not only men were giving talks. MB: Do you think we have an equivalent movement here in Germany? A German version of 5050 by 2020? NM: Yes. It never became that big but many things are happening, especially in Berlin. There are so many talks and events to support women. When it comes to funding there are also opportunities which are female-only. Many still do not know about the funding schemes that are out there. I think an important next step is to raise awareness of this in the film world. You want to know more about Natalie's film projects? Check out her Website and follow her on Facebook ! Get a taste of Natalie's short films by watching the trailers: The Readhead A Universal Love Story Like a Summer Sonata Two of her films are available on realeyz: The Man Who Coudln’t Cry Like a Summer Sonata  (photo: www.artistandpervert.com/press) EN: The interview with Beatrice Behn was conducted by our editor Christina Schultz in German. Christina then translated the interview into English. You can read the original German version here. DE: Das Interview mit Beatrice Behn wurde von unserer Chefredakteurin Christina Schultz auf Deutsch geführt. Christina selbst übersetzte das Interview auf Englisch. Du kannst die originale deutsche Version hier lesen. If you missed it yesterday, please read Part One of our interview with Beatrice Behn! Christina Schultz: So what led you to make the film The Artist & The Pervert? Beatrice Behn: René Gebhardt and I stumbled upon this story about two years ago because of an article in the The New York Times [featuring Georg Haas and Mollena Williams-Haas]. I thought it was exciting because everyone, including myself, had a kind of ad hoc reaction. They immediately wanted to give their opinion about it. That triggered so much! We wrote to Georg and Mollena and they said sure, come on over, let’s make a film - and we made it right away. Since it all happened to fast, we never had the time or really even cared to think about why we’re making this film. We just made it. Period. Nobody does it like that, but we did. CS: How did the public react to the film? BB: Now we have the first screenings behind us and we were surprised because we thought the audience would leave the theater and think oh my God, these perverts! I’m going! I don’t want to see these people naked! They’re old and fat for God’s sake! But the exact opposite happened. Everyone stayed in their seats. The more the film was screened, the more people came to the theaters. The Q&As afterwards were unbelievably long and there were so many questions. We were blown away by this because we, funnily enough, thought that the film would not be received so well. We were not prepared for the film to be received so positively. We are still trying to wrap our heads around it [laughs]. CS: It’s interesting that the film was made so spontaneously. I read that it was financed by crowdfunding. Is that right? BB: Yes and no. We filmed it without a budget. We already had cameras and when we went to see them we paid for everything out of pocket. When we went broke we had fortunately finished filming. We just had to take care of the postproduction. The good thing is that René and I have enough knowledge that we could do just about everything but the sound design. We needed money for the sound designer and we did it with crowdfunding. CS: Kudos to you! The couple, Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas and his wife who voluntarily serves him as a slave, the writer and sex educator Mollena Williams-Haas, is pretty unique but also full of contradictions. There is no commentary in the film so that their relationships is shown as authentically as possible. But who are they really? BB: I think there are two levels. The one as a real life couple and the other as a symbol. And that’s what the film is about because after they outed themselves in The New York Times, most people reacted to Georg and Mollena as a symbol for something. For some it was a symbol for total freedom, for others a symbol for absolute perversion. The symbolic level is bigger so we made this film to find out who the real people are behind the symbolism. A 24/7 BDSM relationship sounded totally exhausting to me. But we wanted to find out how it works and why they do it. How can it be that they both consider themselves feminists and are in a power exchange relationship where the woman is submissive? Where they play out a 1950s household story? That’s very hard to capture. And naturally the whole question of race as well. How can a white man from a Nazi family dominate a black woman? Why does she allow this? Those are the big questions hanging over them and that we are trying to answer on a personal level. CS: What do you like about them? BB: There are things they do that I find really great. It’s so radical that they live the way they want at their age - Georg is 65 and Mollena is in her 40s. That personally touched me and got me thinking. And the audience too. They have no choice but to think am I really living my life the way I want? That’s very exciting. There are also aspects that I personally find problematic like the time aspect. She gives up almost all of her time to serve him and that helps him in his daily life and with his art. He can produce so much more than before. But she is also an artist and produces art. They even make art together but she gives up so much time for him. But just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that I have to judge the two of them. It’s their life and not mine. That’s the most difficult and most exciting part about the film. CS: What do you think about the accusations that the couple is putting on an act? BB: I find it super fascinating that Georg has been accused of using it as a PR strategy. But he is so renowned and well-known that he doesn’t need it. If his music was total shit and no one knew him, OK. But he was already established beforehand. I think it’s simply an attempt to deny that two people fulfill themselves in such a radical way. It’s easier to believe that it’s a PR strategy than believing the two of them are serious. And I think that’s really funny. CS: You mentioned feminism and racism. How does a feminist behave, in your opinion? How does feminism, sexism or racism play a role in the film and in their relationship? BB: To the first question: what is feminism? That is a personal question. There isn’t one kind of feminism. There are thousands of kinds. For me, feminism is the wish for equality between all possible genders (I believe there are more than two) and that one has all opportunities open to them to live their life the way they want to, regardless of their gender. It’s not against men. It simply means that we want equality. I believe Georg and Mollena would answer this question in a similar way. And if you think about it, you realize there isn’t a big discrepancy between how they live and feminism. Because the whole point of feminism is that one should realize themselves the way they damn well please, regardless of gender or even race. And then everything makes sense. If you reduce feminism to such a narrow pop culture idea that only women can demand equal rights and that they have to be strong and can’t be submissive, then you realize that there is a discrepancy. But to me that’s more a sign that one hasn’t thought out their feminism and not a sign that the two of them are lying to one another. CS: And with sexism and racism? BB: This racism, this sexism, this perceived anti-feminism are all in the film but not where most people think they will find them. Instead - and I think this is the most interesting part - these things are all found in the individual prejudices that one holds as members of the audience. And they are somehow confronted with their prejudices, that’s one of things the film does, just by seeing the way these two live out their daily lives. That’s the source of friction the film creates. I think that’s why people have so many questions after seeing the film. And that’s awesome. CS: It is. I definitely want to see the film! My last question to you is: what would you say to girls or women who are interested in a film career? Do you have any tips or encouraging words for them? BB: Part of me wants to say, don’t do it. Part of me really wants to be protective and say that it’s very exhausting and annoying because you have to fight against so many things. And if you deal with feminism and film like I do, you are very quickly put into a niche and that’s a struggle. The other part of me wants to say, yes absolutely. We need more women, we need more voices, we need more diversity, especially in film criticism which is dominated by young, white, middle-class men. We also need other kinds of people so we can have different perspectives in the current discourse. And I believe - except for saying that you should realize that it won’t be easy to establish yourself, especially as a woman - I can’t really give any other advice. CS: It certainly can be a struggle as a woman, whatever field you’re in. Thank you for speaking with us and thank you most sincerely for your wise words. The Artist & The Pervert is on tour. Check for screenings near you here: http://artistandpervert.com/ Be sure to sign up for the newsletter for updates!  (photo: courtesy of Beatrice Behn) EN: The interview with Beatrice Behn was conducted by our editor Christina Schultz in German. Christina then translated the interview into English. You can read the original German version here. DE: Das Interview mit Beatrice Behn wurde von unserer Chefredakteurin Christina Schultz auf Deutsch geführt. Christina selbst übersetzte das Interview auf Englisch. Du kannst die originale deutsche Version hier lesen. Beatrice Behn is a film scholar and film reviewer. She received her degree in Film Studies at the Free University in Berlin. Her main interests in Film Studies are body cinema, gender (especially masculinities), action films and comedies. Beatrice is editor-in-chief for Kino-Zeit and writes for other publications such as VICE, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Celluloid, Indiewire, Fandor, Sissy Magazin and Königsalle. She is also a lecturer at the Free University in Berlin, a curator and a filmmaker. Her first film The Artist & The Pervert is expected to be screened in Germany by the end of the year.
Christina Schultz: Beatrice, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Our focus at Femfilmfans is women in film and in the media. Not only is your career as a film critic and film scholar interesting for us, but also your first film The Artist & The Pervert. I would, however, like to start from the beginning and talk about the film later. Can you tell us about how you discovered your passion for film? Beatrice Behn: That’s pretty easy to explain. I was raised in the GDR and my entire film education consists of me secretly watching West German television at night. I learned quite a lot because 3sat and other stations played pretty good stuff and I believe that was my very first window to the outside world. After the Wall fell [in 1989] and I got older, this really stayed with me. Especially the idea that film allows you to travel to so many places that you otherwise can’t see, to meet so many people and to gain so many experiences that you normally wouldn’t be able to accumulate in your lifetime. CS: Is that why you studied film? BB: Yes. My journey through life wasn’t typical. I was in the States for a while when I was younger and I first completed my high school education in Germany at the age of 26. When I had my diploma the question became what do I really want to study? What would I like to spend years working on? Film was the only thing that I found interesting enough and that’s why I thought I should study film. I went to the Free University in Berlin for Film Studies and I think it was a good decision. CS: What or who inspired or influenced you? What kind of films do you like? BB: The worst question to ask a film critic! Next you’ll ask me what’s your favorite film?! CS: No! We won’t ask this question, we swear! [laughs] BB: It’s really hard to answer. Personally I love genre cinema, especially horror films, fantasy films, etc. I really like trashy cinema. I’m a big fan of midnight screenings and trashy films from the 1970s to the present. Those are the kinds of films I like a lot but I have less to do with them professionally. As a film critic I focus on indie and arthouse films, although I should differentiate between innovative arthouse films and commercial arthouse films, the latter of which I don’t like so much. If I had to spontaneously name a film that’s coming out soon and really speaks to me, it would be Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here [it came to theaters in the U.S. on 6 April and in Germany on 26 April]. A film with Joaquin Phoenix as a hitman who is totally broken and suffers from PTSD. It’s an awesome movie made by a woman, wonderfully innovative, really well directed and it’s tough. Movies should change or affect you somehow and not just make you fall asleep. CS: Definitely. You mentioned Lynne Ramsay, a female filmmaker. What are your own personal experiences as a woman in the film industry? Do you notice any differences between the roles you take on? BB: Not really. Generally I walk into a room and I’m one of the few women present. That’s the typical experience. The other thing I experience is surprise that I’m there. It happens time and again that there are some people who either are happy that a women is doing the job or are irritated and surprised about it and ask themselves if I can do the job at all. Then there’s the part where I have to prove myself, to validate my presence and after that it’s OK. That’s the basic structure that I’ve experienced in film critique for the past ten years. Interestingly enough this is repeating itself in a similar way with the film [The Artist & The Pervert]. There is one difference, however. The film happened to come out during this time of awareness inspired by the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements. I made the film together with René Gebhardt, a person who identifies as a man, but I am actually receiving more attention than him. We made a film about a very interesting topic and we are receiving lots of support from the feminist and film critic camps that specifically support women’s films. And that’s really new and totally amazing. CS: Absolutely… Tomorrow you can read the exciting conclusion of our interview with Beatrice Behn where she talks about her film The Artist & The Pervert! If you just can’t wait to learn about the film, check out the trailer. See you tomorrow! |
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