Su-City Pictures East, LLC

Screenplay & Film Consulting By Susan Kouguell

Category: 2021 Tribeca Festival

Susan Kouguell Interviews ‘Esther in Wonderland’ Filmmaker Stephanie Bollag at the Tribeca Film Festival.

July 2, 2021 / / Comments Off on Susan Kouguell Interviews ‘Esther in Wonderland’ Filmmaker Stephanie Bollag at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Esther in Wonderland, JM Jüdische Medien
Esther in Wonderland, JM Jüdische Medien

“As a second-generation immigrant, I am interested in identity and the excavation of the “self” amidst societal and cultural norms. As a result, my films are roadmaps of conflicting emotional and physical expression that occupies that space “in-between.”

— Stephanie Bollag

I spoke with Stephanie Bollag during the Tribeca Film Festival where her short film Esther in Wonderland had its world premiere in the New York, New York 2021 program. We discussed her current and past work, influences, and her experience at NYU film school.

Stephanie Bollag is an award-winning director, writer and producer from Zurich, Switzerland based in New York City. Her short films won a number of Jury and Best Short awards at festivals worldwide. She previously worked in film in Switzerland, the UK and Israel, where she assistant-directed the Oscar-nominated Israeli drama Beaufort.

[Interview with ‘Souad’ Egyptian Filmmaker Ayten Amin]

Set against the racial tensions of 1991 Crown Heights, Esther In Wonderland depicts two seemingly opposing cultures through the eyes of a Hasidic young woman. Drawn to the expressiveness of hip hop and breakdance, Esther tests the boundaries of her restricted existence as a young married woman in a Hasidic community in 1990s Crown Heights.

Kouguell: Your short screenplay Esther In Wonderland won first place at the 2019 Atlanta Film Festival and the 2018 Shore Scripts Screenplay Competition. Let’s talk about the genesis of this project.

Bollag: It started four years ago. I met a break dancer and together every weekend we went to (dance) battles and the story organically came to be. Esther’s story is stuck in this world where she can’t express herself. This was a theme in all my shorts. My dad, who worked in the fashion industry, studied to be a rabbi and Judaism has been a big part of my life. I merged these ideas together.

Kouguell: Your integration of found footage from 1990s New York City seamlessly worked to set the tone, atmosphere and setting of your film.

Bollag: The idea of using the footage was not in the script. The choice was to add layers of identity and music and genre. I already shot 8mm and digital, and I thought why not add another layer of time, texture and material. So many people were naysayers but my editor was very open to this idea to add this footage.

Stephanie Bollag at Tribeca Film Festival 2021
Stephanie Bollag at Tribeca Film Festival 2021

Kouguell: You’re a classically trained painter with a background in dance and fashion. You describe your work as a quilt of cultural and textural influences that range from visceral to narrative storytelling.

Bollag: I’m very visual in my thinking and how I remember things are through textures and pictures. I grew up going to museums; the emotional impact of beauty and pain are so close together.

[Defining History ‘No Ordinary Life’ Interview With Documentary Filmmaker Heather O’Neill]

Kouguell: Your film offers minimal backstory through dialogue about your main characters, which was a strong choice. It will be interesting to see how you expand upon this in your feature.

Bollag: In the feature we will find out more information about how the characters know each other, their communities and conflicts, as well as the racial tensions. I love when there are many questions and the audience has their own answers.

Kouguell: Tell me about your experience in film school.

Bollag: We had strong filmmakers in my class, and we had very open and honest discussions. It was very formative to me as an artist.

Our professors emphasized learning story structure and that was really good. One professor said to me, you’re asking too much of your actors so you need to explain things more in your script, and I thought no, you don’t have to wait until you’re working with Meryl Streep. You can make actors do what you want with little words.

Kouguell: Speaking as a screenwriting and film professor, I know firsthand that not every professor is a good fit for every student. That said, I find it important for students to get out of their comfort zones and take classes with professors who might not be an obvious choice for them.

Bollag: Yes.It’s important to choose a teacher who doesn’t have your style or someone you’re scared of.

Kouguell: Advice to screenwriters and filmmakers?

Bollag: Build your voice. Stay true to your voice and find the best way to express it.

Susan’s Interview with ‘Souad’ Egyptian Filmmaker Ayten Amin

June 29, 2021 / / Comments Off on Susan’s Interview with ‘Souad’ Egyptian Filmmaker Ayten Amin

Susan Kouguell Interviews Egyptian Filmmaker Ayten Amin About Her New Feature ‘Souad’.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Egyptian filmmaker Ayten Amin reveals the unique genesis of bringing Souad to the screen, drawing inspiration from a true event and working with a cast of nonprofessional actors.

SOUD still. Courtesy of VIVID Reels
SOUD still. Courtesy of VIVID Reels

It was a true pleasure to speak with Ayten Amin during the Tribeca Film Festival where Souad had its international premiere. Although our talk was over Zoom (Ayten was in Egypt and I was in New York City), we immediately connected over our passion for storytelling and character-driven films.

Ayten Amin’s first short film Her man received several national prizes and was acquired by Canal Plus in France. In 2013, her debut feature film Villa 69, received the Special Jury Award for Arab Film at Abu Dhabi Film, the Cairo Film Connection Award for Best Film and the Hubert Bals Award at Durban FilmMart. She co-directed the documentary Tahrir 2011 selected at the Venice International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and nominated for Best Documentary in Cinema For Peace award Berlin. In 2019, she directed 20 episodes of the hit drama Saabe Gaar (The Seventh Neighbor), a 70-episode TV series.

Bassant Ahmed and Basmala Elghaiesh won the best actress award at Tribeca Film Festival.

[INTERVIEW: “Acasa, My Home” Documentary Filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc]

ABOUT SOUAD

On the bus, a stranger meets Souad: she excitedly explains that she’s studying for finals at the university in Zagazig, Egypt, and shows her photos of her fiancé, Ahmed, an army officer in Sinai. It sounds wonderful—but it’s not exactly true. In reality, Souad is torn between the expectations set by her traditional upbringing and her social media-based life among her peers, which splits her life in two. By day, she helps her family around the house and looks after her teenage sister Rabab; by night, she’s glued to her phone, sending sexts to her distant content creator boyfriend Ahmed in Alexandria.

KOUGUELL: Let’s jump in and talk about the evolution of this screenplay.

AMIN: At the beginning, I had the initial idea about a young girl whose sister committed suicide and the journey she goes on with the guy she was talking to. I started talking to my co-writer Mahmoud Ezzat who was a social media influencer; he’s a well-known poet and writes short stories. During the 2011 Revolution, he had thousands and thousands of followers and during this time he got to know a lot of girls from small cities who were following him on social media.

When I started to think about the film, I wanted to set it in and talk about girls from small cities. Mahmoud and I talked about the girls who were following him on social media, and he introduced me to a number of them and some auditioned for the film.

We were auditioning for the film before writing the film. We were telling the girls ideas about scenes. We had long conversations, about three to four hours with each girl, about their life. One of them we based a character on.

It was very organic the way we worked. We wrote a treatment and then we met the girls, and then we wrote the first draft and we kept writing and rewriting and meeting other girls. When we met the girls, who became the stars of the film, we did improvisations. I was doing rehearsals with them and filmed them. When I went back to Cairo, Mahmoud and I started to rewrite based on what we did at the rehearsals.

[Defining History ‘No Ordinary Life’ Interview With Documentary Filmmaker Heather O’Neill]

KOUGUELL: Tell me more about your collaboration with co-writer Mahmoud Ezzat.

AMIN: Mahamoud worked with me on my first film. He and I are very close friends, so it was a nice collaboration; we are very open with each other, we talk about our vulnerabilities and the things we face in life. When working on this film we were trying to understand things about the girls and about ourselves.

KOUGUELL: The sisters’ relationship is very poignant; the moments with the younger sister, Rabab, looking up to Souad, and needing her attention and the love she has for her are so realistically and subtly captured.

AMIN: The story resonated with me personally. It was based on a childhood friend whose sister committed suicide. It was a big thing at school; we were ten at the time. The girl took time off from school and when she came back, nobody ever talked about what happened. It’s conservative here and we didn’t talk about it until we graduated. I was thinking about how the younger sister would deal with it.

KOUGUELL: Let’s talk about the process of making this film.

AMIN: All the actors were nonprofessional, and it was part of the process of making the film. I knew from the beginning this was how the film was going to be made. It was an ongoing process.

Since we didn’t have money, we shot for three days, and then I started editing and stopped for two months, and during those two months, I rewrote some of the first part and then we went back and then we shot for eight days, and we finished the first two parts with the two girls. Then we stopped for five months, and I was editing and during that time I changed a lot of what was happening, and actually, I shot another ending, it was totally different than previously written.

This process was actually very good for the film and for the actors. When we stopped for those five months and when we went back, the girl who plays Rabab grew a little and changed as they do at that age.

[The Making of an Icon ‘Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story’]

KOUGUELL: How did Wim Wenders and his company get involved as producers of this film?

AMIN: When we were selected for Cannes, Souad was not finished; a large part of the sound took seven months. We got funding from the World Cinema Fund and we were looking for a German producer. We met Leah, the producer at Wenders’ company in Cannes and she liked it. After we finished the film, Wenders joined us.

I was telling her about my conversations with Mahamoud when Souad, was just an idea,and how important Wenders’ 1974 film Alice in the Cities was to me; there was something about this film, and the energy we need to capture in ours.

KOUGUELL: It’s also one of my favorite films and was a big influence on my own work. I can see your shared creative sensibility with Souad and Alice in the Cities.

AMIN: Actually, it was a reference for a long period for us. Even Mahamoud couldn’t believe it when Wenders came onto the film.

KOUGUELL: Advice to screenwriters and filmmakers?

AMIN: Develop your own process. It’s nice to listen to other filmmakers and hear their experiences, but I believe you always come up with your own process and I think you should trust it. 

Susan’s Interview with “No Ordinary Life” Filmmaker Heather O’Neill

June 26, 2021 / / Comments Off on Susan’s Interview with “No Ordinary Life” Filmmaker Heather O’Neill

Defining History ‘No Ordinary Life’ Interview With Documentary Filmmaker Heather O’Neill

“Cynde, Maria, Jane, Mary and Margaret took the images that defined history for their generation, yet their own stories have not been told, until now. The shifting scenes between the inhumanity and beauty they filmed, woven with their moments of humor, illustrate how they tried to cope with all they were witnessing. The wars and crises they covered produced images that can be difficult to watch, so I strived to create a balance of stories and images.” – Heather O’Neill

JUN 25, 2021

No Ordinary Life. Photo courtesy Array Films.
No Ordinary Life. Photo courtesy Array Films.

The feature documentary No Ordinary Life had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival during which I had the opportunity to speak with Heather O’Neill about her film and her passion to bring the lives of five extraordinary women from behind the camera to the screen.

About “No Ordinary Life”

In a field dominated by men, five pioneering photojournalists Mary Rogers, Cynde Strand, Jane Evans, Maria Fleet and Margaret Moth went to the frontlines of wars, revolutions and disasters. They made their mark by capturing some of the most iconic images from Tiananmen Square, to conflicts in Sarajevo, Iraq, Somalia and the Arab Spring uprising. In the midst of unfolding chaos, their pictures both shocked and informed the world.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Heather O’Neill is an Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She produced the feature documentary Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi, and with CNN Presents, the award-winning documentary series, Heather directed and produced more than 20 projects around the world.

KOUGUELL: One poignant theme of the film was the idea of bearing witness.

O’NEILL: The genesis behind the film is that I wanted to show the world what these women experience. So often we generally don’t think about who is behind the camera. What motivated me to become a journalist was watching the protest in Tiananmen Square, and 20 years later I would meet Cynde Strand,, who was one of the photographers who stayed the night of the crackdown; I had never imagined at a young age that it was a woman behind the camera.

I wanted to make a film that allowed the audience to be immersed in their experience; the sights and the sounds of what was coming next. These women were incredibly driven, incredibly professional and their singular job was to bear witness and go to these conflicts and uprisings and revolutions to document what was happening and that was the main driver to go into these harrowing situations.

[The Making of an Icon ‘Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story’]

KOUGUELL: The camerawomen also talked about the female perspective in their work.

O’NEILL: They bristled at the question of ‘did you approach your stories differently as a woman?’ and I expected that and that’s fine. When we looked at some of their footage together, I noticed a bit of difference; there was a bit more intimacy or an instant rapport. Perhaps women are less threatening to certain subjects or in some cultures it’s more appropriate for a woman to approach another woman. I noticed a subtle difference in how they approached their filmmaking.

No Ordinary Life. Photo courtesy Array Films.
No Ordinary Life. Photo courtesy Array Films.

KOUGUELL: In an age when the media is often negatively portrayed by politicians and pundits, this film underscores the importance of storytelling.

O’NEILL: Yes. This was an untold story and that is what really drew me to it. Once I got to know these women and heard their stories collectively, I thought wow, you’ve been

told the history of your generation. I wanted to share their story. I didn’t grow up knowing super successful female photographers and in my career at CNN I would rarely see camerawomen and I felt it was a powerful story that needed to be told.

KOUGUELL: Tell me about the evolution of the project. Did you know the women beforehand?

O’NEILL: I first met Mary in Baghdad in 2006 and was struck by her tenacity and what an incredible professional and journalist she was. I worked with some of these women when I was at CNN. About four years ago I decided this would be a great story to do now. I think women’s stories are still somewhat untold and I think that’s changing, which is encouraging,

We approached all of them and talked about the footage shot and began to record their stories and developed that level of trust which is critical for a documentary director; people have to trust you to tell their story. They slowly began dropping off tapes to me. They had an incredible library of tapes, which told me that this just wasn’t an accident that someone decided to tell their story. I began the two-year process of screening the tapes along with my co-producer. The story began to come together. We interviewed with them, we filmed with them, and the scripting began.

KOUGUELL: When you planned out this documentary, did you work from an outline or any particular source material?

O’NEILL: For any documentary that I create I usually write a treatment, which you use to pitch when trying to get funding for a film. It is also my road map of where I knew I wanted to go. That was the first process, to have the story laid out in a three-to-five page treatment, and go on to do the pre-interviews with these women over Skype and over the phone, and begin to understand from their storytelling and for me, where we wanted to go with the narrative. We decided that we would weave the stories that they shot with their own backstories of behind the camera of what they were going through when they were actually filming.

KOUGUELL: Was there any reluctance from the camerawomen to speak with you?

O’NEILL: They are an incredibly humble group of women. I always wonder if it were a group of men, if it would be different. They witnessed a lot of difficult things and it was challenging at times to get them to talk about how they were feeling emotionally because there’s a little bit of guilt associated with being a journalist and being able to leave a situation where you know people can’t. They began to understand that we (the audience) have to understand their characters as human beings, too, not just journalists.

KOUGUELL: Advice for aspiring documentarians?

O’NEILL: Make your film, don’t wait for permission. If you have a story to tell, you’ll find a way to tell it. Getting this film made had its challenges. It’s a very long road and you have to be prepared to field a lot of nos. You’ll be surprised how many people want to help and be supportive. 

Susan’s Interview with Filmmaker Laura Fairrie. The Making of an Icon ‘Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story’

June 24, 2021 / / Comments Off on Susan’s Interview with Filmmaker Laura Fairrie. The Making of an Icon ‘Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story’

“I loved the idea of making a film that could intertwine fact and fictional storytelling, and through the spinning together of the two, arrive at an authentic portrait of a woman who often shared her most private self in her fictional writing.” – Laura Fairrie

SUSAN KOUGUELL

Photo courtesy AGC Studios
Photo courtesy AGC Studios

Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story tells the untold story of the ground-breaking author who sold more than half a billion copies of her 32 novels in more than 40 countries, eight of which have been produced as movies. Narrated by a cast of Collins’ closest friends and family, the film reveals the private struggles of a woman who became an icon of 1980s feminism whilst hiding her personal vulnerability behind a carefully crafted, powerful, public persona.

I had the pleasure to speak with director Laura Fairrie at the Tribeca Film Festival about bringing the Jackie Collins story to the screen, and the surprises she discovered along the way.

Laura Fairrie is a British documentary director whose credits include ‘Spiral’, ‘The Battle for Barking’ and ‘Taking on the Tabloids’. Previously Laura worked as a current affairs journalist and producer in the UK, Northern Ireland, China and America making special reports and documentaries for BBC Newsnight, BBC2, Channel 4 News and Channel 4.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

KOUGUELL: How did this film evolve?

FAIRRIE: Ipreviously made films about tough subjects and in quite dangerous places and often I felt scared on shoots. I wanted to start making films with female perspectives. I was going into meetings, saying I wanted to make a film about a fabulous woman, and I don’t know who that is. Producer John Battsek and I had done another project together before, and he said, strange you should say that because I just had this project land on my desk; Collins’s daughters had contacted me. I said amazing, she was my sex education teacher; I had read her books as a teenager, hid her books under my desk in school. I was excited to learn who the persona was behind her work, what drove this woman to write the books she did, and what drove her to be the businesswoman she was.

KOUGUELL: You were interested in making a film that could intertwine fact and fictional storytelling. Please delve into that more.

FAIRRIE: I was interested in making a film about Jackie Collins that was really surprising and not superficial. I was excited by the idea of being able to intertwine her fictional writing with her factual story and arrive at a deeper understanding of who she was through the books that she wrote. Once I started reading her books again, I discovered that there was so much of her own life and experiences and that her authentic voice was actually in her fictional writing.

[INTERVIEW: “Acasa, My Home” Documentary Filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc]

KOUGUELL: How did you establish trust with your interviewees?

FAIRRIE: I’m always genuine in my motivations for making my films so the conversations I had with people were always very upfront from the start. To do her justice we really needed to show Jackie in all her vulnerabilities and complexities and show the side of her in her own life that she didn’t often share with people. Her friends and colleagues all really loved and respected her and once I spoke to them about it, they all pretty much signed up for it and wanted to tell their version about Jackie.

KOUGUELL: Do you work from a treatment or outline? What’s your process?

Laura Fairrie
Laura Fairrie

FAIRRIE: I start with creative ideas, and a vision and tone of the film I want to make. I’ll often watch movies for reference and for this film I watched , I Tonya, Joy, and To Die For. There were things in those films that were useful for me, and a creative starting point. I loved that idea of narrative films borrowing from documentaries and documentary films borrowing from narrative films.

There were 4,000 pieces of archives, not to mention Jackie’s fictional books and her letters, diaries, Jackie kept everything — photographs, home video footage, there was a huge amount of material to extract a story from. I sat down with her daughters and went through Jackie’s life from beginning to end. From that I wrote a story beats document so I knew when I went into the interviews, I could be specific about what I needed from each person.

I had this idea that in its simplest form, it was the story of a storyteller I would always say to the cast of characters who were essentially the narrators of the film, please just tell stories, let’s make these about storytelling, tell me your tales about Jackie.

[INTERVIEW: ‘Son of the South’ Writer/Director Barry Alexander Brown]

KOUGUELL: There is fascinating archival footage included in the film. Let’s talk about how you gained access to this and how you approached choosing what to include.

FAIRRIE: Jackie’sdaughters gave me access. When Jackie died, they couldn’t believe what she left behind. For them it felt like she left behind the untold story she hadn’t managed to tell in her own life. They felt they wanted to tell it for her. They were incredible about giving me access to the most personal and private information and trusting me with it. It was a beautiful process working with them.

KOUGUELL: Advice for documentary filmmakers

FAIRRIE: Follow your instincts. Don’t be disheartened starting at the bottom and working your way up. You can shoot your own films. I started off with just me and a camera, I did all the sound, and I would immerse myself in stories. I loved the freedom of that, and I learned so much about storytelling and about connecting with people from all walks of life in all places. 

Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story airs on CNN Films in late June and on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later this year.

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