5 Questions with Anya Alekhina
The surreal and oddly comic story of a family dealing with an unwell mother on Christmas, “A Celebration,” is our second film in as many months from director Anya Alekhina (see also: “Decompression”). We asked her how the new film originated, how she creates her characters, and working closely with collaborators…
1) How did this project begin? What was the initial spark?
It was my 2nd-year project at Tisch, so the initial spark was the deadline. I wanted to try doing something personal in foreign settings and see what would happen. Transferring my Russian experience to Connecticut was a strange exercise, which resulted in a natural tone shift. The geographical distance was freeing in many ways, but what's most interesting - It was like putting a filter into my brain, a Pro-Mist of sorts. Suddenly I felt like I can create an entertaining experience out of a very painful story, which still affects me so that I couldn't imagine doing it in my hometown.
2) Can you talk about your characters a bit. In particular, how did you go about creating the mother character, and her specific mental condition?
I was looking for a visual metaphor which could reflect the experience of dealing with a schizophrenic person. I knew I wanted it to feel disturbing on the edge with disgust. In first drafts, she was fully covered in blood and once I found out how expensive the sfx is, it made me think more. I realized that there is not only disturbance happening but also a weird subconscious fear that it could affect you directly, like a virus.
That's how I arrived at the stickiness concept. I brought some kind of sfx slime, but it wasn't quite working. All of the crew lived on the location and the AC happened to have Godzilla hair gel which not only was sticky as glue but also produced these squishy sounds that I ended up using in the post.
3) There’s a really unique tone here. If you had to pick one, would you consider this a comedy or drama?
Some people see it as a comedy, some more like a drama. I wouldn't insist on anything. Some people are not certain how to take it and this is the kind of reaction I was aiming for.
4) You wrote this film with 2 others (who have also have had films on NoBudge - Artemis Shaw and Prasanth Kamalakanthan) — what was your working relationship like on the script?
These two - my constant collaborators. They also titled as "Producer" and "DP", but really - they were involved in every stage of production. While working on the script, I met each of them one-on-one at a bar and we wrote ideas of scenes or dialogues or whatever sparked us at the moment. Once we felt stuck, we went home and worked on stuff separately and then met again for a session. I like working that way, I'm not attached to the whole auteur thing. Collective writing does not only make you feel less lonely but also adds more dimensions to the creative process, because it blends our experiences together! Obviously, it has to be guided somehow, and the criteria for that guidance comes naturally from the project's needs. It's like making a child in a lab by hand mixing her DNA. I would definitely do so if I could!
5) What’s next for you?
I feel the urge to do a longer form. I am a slow thinker, and I am most awaken on the shoot starting from day three or so, which is usually the end of a short film's production. That's why I think I could do better on a longer run. Right now I am developing a feature film which takes place in two locations - New York and a small village near my hometown in Russia and these places are connected by a single character's imagination. I am writing it having in mind very limited production resources I have access to, so "cheap magic" is my motto for this script.
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