5 Questions with Eli Powers
Eli Powers (right) with actor, Ruby Wolf
1) What have you been up to since we last spoke in October of last year for "Holy Moses”?
I went out to LA to work on David Fincher’s “Mank”. I was assisting one of the actors but whenever they were on camera, I’d camp out behind video village and listen to David direct. He’s like a brain surgeon. He knows what he wants right down to which foot the actor should put their weight on. It’s incredible. When I came back from that experience, I was optimistic about life and the projects I was putting into motion. Someone had just told me in a prophetic sort of way: “You’re going to run this year like bathwater.” Which I think is maybe an expression they only use in London or in the 1930s? I don’t really know what it means but I really liked it. I flew back to NYC on March 1st. Fifteen days later we were in lockdown. And for the past few months I’m not sure If I’ve been running anything at all like bathwater.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
I read online that the tourism department for a certain vacation town was putting on a contest to see who could write the best script using the town as its setting. They were offering to provide the necessary funds to fly the crew out to shoot the winning script on location. I did some research on the town and discovered a religious scandal from the early 1990s. A woman suffering from a severe mental breakdown had been locked inside a hotel room by members of her church who hoped peace and quiet would cure what ailed her. They were all forbidden to speak to her. Seventeen days later she was dead. I chose to write my script about arguably the single worst event in that town's history and sent it in. Obviously, I didn't win. Why would they want to reveal the hidden stain? I never expected to win, I just wanted to let them know that some people don’t forget the past, no matter how much time obscures it.
Two and a half years go by. I’m upstate on my friend’s farm trying to write the “Holy Moses” feature and bouncing off the walls with writer's block. I walk around some. Look at the horses. They look back at me. No ideas. At some point I end up rereading the old script and I get severely sidetracked. I go down a dark rabbit hole of research. I discover that at some point during the ensuing criminal trials all of the witness depositions were made public and uploaded online. So instead of writing “Holy Moses” I spend five days straight reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of witness depositions. It got to the point while reading where I could sense when a person was lying, and I saw all of these contradictory stories, overlapping, circling around the truth which was somewhere buried within. I was obsessed all over again. I rewrote the script using these court documents as a new foundation.
For legal reasons I couldn’t explicitly name the church, and because of that I’m afraid that this short film comes up lacking. It’s not my intention to go to war with that specific church. I have no axe to grind against any one religious institution, it’s their belief systems I’m interested in exploring. In the depositions there’s lots of talk about whether or not the hotel room was locked or not, many witnesses claiming that the young woman could leave at any time she wanted. Whether or not that’s true, I think the image of the unlocked door is a powerful one that begs the question: how much do our own beliefs keep us from opening the door?
“Babywatch” doesn’t spell everything out word-for-word. I know it can be a little disorienting, like parachuting down right into the middle of something. I did my very best to leave a trail of breadcrumbs throughout. Every interview scene has a new piece of information that when combined together paints the larger picture. I tend to ask a lot of the viewer here, and I really hope that they're willing to lean in, become the detective, and bear witness to these moments as they unfold.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?
We opted to shoot longer takes in order to let the actors naturally work themselves up into the more emotionally raw sequences. There was no shortage of footage but at the end of the day we only ended up using these very small moments within the much larger takes. So it ended up being incredibly time consuming because so much of our process was letting the cameras roll, waiting, searching around for the one moment that distilled everything down perfectly.
The easiest part was probably the fight scene. We ended up cutting it for pacing reasons but we filmed a brutally convincing three-person scrap. Although, maybe the only reason I think it was easy was because Ruby ended up choreographing mostly all of it. I didn’t have to do much. All I said was: “You should hit her head against the bureau and then at one point you all end up on the bed.” And then she went ahead and did all the rest. The next thing we do together is going to have to be incredibly stunt heavy.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
Wake in Fright (1971) completely blew my mind. Watching it made me feel like I was covered in dust and sweat and stale beer, and afterwards I felt like I needed to take a shower. It’s a devastating film in such an unexpected way. A school teacher ends up spiraling into complete moral degradation after about three days stranded dead broke in a hard-drinking mining town. The character starts off with a nice white suit and good manners and by the end, he's wandering around mumbling in the streets with a rifle, covered in kangaroo blood. I’ve always been a huge fan of Walkabout (1971) and this film applies the imagery of the Australian Outback with equal psychological force.
5) What’s next for you?
I’m prepping to shoot something about witchcraft, folk music, and how familial curses get passed down throughout generations. I’m really excited for it. It’s my first proper horror script and many of my talented collaborators are coming back together to create something unique and terrifying.
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https://www.horsegodproductions.com/
IG: @elipowersfilm