Jake Kolton’s “Catherine” is an immaculately constructed tale of a discontented woman taking on a stranger’s identity. We asked Kolton how the project began, about the slow burn pace and atmosphere, and the hardest scene to get right…

1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

I grew up in rural Indiana. I always knew I wanted to be creative but I couldn't quite figure out what medium felt best for what I wanted to say or explore. I did a lot of trial and error as a teen - doing theater, taking photos, writing and eventually landed on film with the help of my dad's VHS camera. In 2011, I moved to New York and got my BFA at NYU Tisch where I studied film and art history and I've been working in film ever since. 

2) What’s the origin story here - what started the project, and what were some of the first steps to get it rolling?

Audrey (writer and producer) and I knew we wanted to write a film together about our mothers. A lot of the film began with the two of us just tossing ideas back and forth about the woman we were both seeing and visuals we wanted to include. Eventually, we spent so much time developing a character and narrative that it grew too large for the short format. Hitting 20 mins in a short is so tough because it needs to be just enough story to fill the time but also not so much that it feels like a rapid fire feature. And after writing and reading so many pages of our failed concept I was discouraged and remember saying, "I just want to watch a movie about a woman who buys a pair of shoes and by the end of the day everything is different." And Audrey was like, "Okay, let's write that then." And we banged out the story in an evening and I would say 90% of that outline is on screen in CATHERINE.

3) I’m intrigued by the slow build atmosphere building. I didn’t know where the film was headed until it was there, and then before I realized it, I was so engrossed and nervous. Can you talk about how you built up your sequencing, and finding the pace and tone.

I think at the most basic level time is the root conflict Laura finds herself in. She's staring down the barrel of time and scrambling how to fill it, desperate to occupy herself for a few hours. It's a very existential and immaterial, so it's difficult to display it onscreen. A lot of what I shot were long one takes, trying to make time physical for Laura and the audience. It's also a reason I shot film because celluloid is quite literally making the passage of time physical. We built up most of the sequencing and rhythm in the edit room and honestly, a lot of it was trial and error and figuring out what felt good. We knew we wanted to slow burn to the hotel and really have the audience waiting for the full narrative to kick in. It's almost as if the audience needs to feel as bored as Laura by that point to understand her decision making.

4) What was the hardest part of this project - both in terms of the production of it, and also narratively or character wise, what was the hardest scene to get right?

Ooof, I mean, emotionally it's just hard to make a movie and wake up everyday to keep working on it. No one usually asks you to make short films as a young filmmaker so it can feel very isolating and like an uphill battle during the entire process. If I had to pick... the bar scene was the most difficult to shoot both in terms of production and narrative. I wanted a strict one take at that moment so it was a lot of rehearsals with cast to get the beats right. And since we were shooting film there was no way to go back and check my work to ensure I got what I wanted. It was a lot of going with my gut and hoping I was right. Narratively, it's a big scene - it's Laura's moment to perform as Catherine in a public space so it there's an inherent creative challenge of constructing a character who is also performing an additional character. Mascha and I wanted that double performance to feel natural so we played a lot with it in rehearsal to find something that felt subtle but also revealing. 

5) What’s a film you’ve seen, new or old, so far this year that you really loved and why?

I recently saw Claire Denis's WHITE MATERIAL and was fucking blown away. How she shot that movie is how I want every movie shot. Handheld XCUs versus static wides, sort of whiplashing between the two. Also, I'm a sucker for an ill-advised female protagonist lost in her own mind and Isabelle Huppert is the master of that woman. 

Bonus Question) What’s next for you?

I'm working on a couple of different things right now. Currently writing a feature that will *fingers crossed* have a short proof of concept version made towards the end of this year. But most of my time recently has been spent finishing a series of Microfilms I've been shooting since 2018. They're these little films, a minute or shorter, that are sort of tone poems based off of familiar cinematic gestures. Hope to have them finished by the end of the summer. 

Contact Info:

IG: @jake_kolton