5 Questions with Georgia Krause
The stylish documentary profile, “Grid Girls,” by director Georgia Krause, follows two young women, one an emerging racer, the other, a car model, as they battle for respect and fairness. We asked Krause about her inspiration to make the film, the most challenging aspect of the project, and a recent film she’s loved…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
Sure, so I just graduated from NYU where I majored in Film and Television production. I had always been interested in photography and writing as a kid and in high school I applied to a local art magnet school. I ended up getting rejected and decided to enroll in some classes at the local college, the only one open by the time I registered was an intro to film studies course which was a fun time. And so yeah, went to film school, did a ton of projects outside of class, and now here I am.
2) What started this project - what was the initial inspiration moment and how did it develop from there? How did you meet your subjects?
I first started researching Grid Girls after I wrote a a reallyyyyy shitty feature length screenplay about women/girls and their relationships to cars, both in the car scene and from a standpoint of objectification and power. Needless to stay I quickly scrapped that idea, and also kind of stopped working in the fiction genre altogether. Once you realize that the themes you want to write about are already out there in the world, and so much richer and cooler than you could imagine inside your head, it's hard to not be drawn to documentary. I did pretty extensive research in order to find Mely B and Alexus Motes, the two gals in the film. I actually DMed Mely on Instragram like a creep, but luckily she was super cool about it. Alex was written about in a local North Carolina newspaper that I stumbled across. I lived in North Carolina for awhile so going back there to work on films is pretty instinctual. Plus I knew that racing culture was huge down there. I honestly couldn't be happier with how it worked out. They both brought such interesting energy to the film, both very different but with similar concerns when it came to how they operate within their communities.
3) What was the most challenging aspect of making this film, both in terms of the filming of it, and also in the editing process?
The hardest choice I made was in the editing process was choosing to cut an entire third aspect of the film. While I was in North Carolina I actually filmed an all girls mechanics class at my old high school Myers Park. The scenes made it to the second or third cut before I realized that it was just too many voices competing for attention. It was a really tough choice to make though because those gals were badass. Production challenges were just like the craziness that comes with cars and car racing and then throwing that in with the crazy unexpectedness of documentary shoots. Like when we were conducting Mely's interview there was literally a competition to see who could rev their engine the loudest. Or during Alex's race when she crashed, she nearly took out my DP who was down in the pit shooting. Luckily my crew was so incredible on it and so down for whatever that we were able to overcome all of that craziness.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I'm pretty obsessed with Ivan Olita's work. He does a lot of short doc content that really gives me hope for the future of documentary. Specifically his films Muxes, and Can't Nobody Else Love You. I also went to the Lower East Side Film Festival recently and saw the best movie about two dudes just biking around and getting pizza. It was Bam & Rawls Grab a Slice. So good. I love stuff that you're like wait, is this a doc? Is this fiction? Does it matter?
5) What’s next for you?
I'm currently working on a short doc about butterflies and the border wall. I went down to the National Butterfly Center in Texas which stands to lose two thirds of its land to the proposed border wall. It's crazy to go from reading about something to actually experiencing it first hand. Talk about craziness of doc shoots, oh my god, this past one was a whirlwind. But I'm so happy with everything we got and very excited to share it with the world. Hopefully early Fall. And I've actually been collaborating on this one with Ivan Olita. I randomly sent him Grid Girls and he liked it so he's been helping me with this new one - called Ebb & Flow by the way, should probably mention that... hah!