5 Questions with Charlotte Benbeniste
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
My grandad is a really voracious movie watcher. My family is from Iran, and even pre revolution, he'd always been interested in American culture and American movies. He knows everything about everything. We’ll watch some basically unknown Western on TV, and he’ll name every single actor in every single frame. He’s 91, still working, and keeps TCM on mute in his office everyday. I lived with my grandparents off and on as a kid, and my interest in movies definitely started with him.
2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?
A few years ago, I was telling my cousin some stories about going to weight loss camps as a kid— how I’d snuck in a contraband pink Motorola razr in my bra and become the camp king pin, how we’d shared facilities with an NFL team. Around the same time, I read this Edward St. Aubyn book called Never Mind, and in it there’s an incredible scene where a young boy is being physically abused, sees a lizard on the wall, and wills his mind to leave his body and enter into the body of the lizard, from which he watches the rest of the abuse play out. That got me thinking a lot about how to visually communicate the experience of existing in a body, especially one that’s been deemed a “problem,” as many larger bodies are, especially by these camps.
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?!
Biggest challenge was probably casting. We saw a bunch of kids from after school programs, etc, and they were all very “jazz hands.” So I street cast, and cast off of Instagram. I probably dm’ed 100 girls being like “sup lil lady, i’m gonna make you a star!”
Easiest part is getting to actually direct. I think as a director, especially starting out, you wear a bunch of hats. There’s a lot of logistical stuff and problem solving that inevitably falls to you. But in the moments when directing can just be about your shots, and directing a performance, it’s such a complete joy.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
The Earrings of Madame De… I’ve been so depressed in quarantine, the only movies I feel like watching are like delightful, structurally perfect classics. For whatever reason, the thought of anything even mildly experimental/challenging threatens to unsettle what little stability I feel, so it’s been nice to just enjoy a really great plot. It’s fun to watch for the super elemental thrill of knowing something a character on screen doesn’t know, and watching it all play out. Also Vittorio De Sica plays a hunky Italian baron, and I had no idea he’d ever acted or that he was so hot.
5) What’s next for you?
I want to make an erotic thriller about Andrew and Chris Cuomo. Shot entirely on the app “Houseparty.” I’m also writing the feature version of this short, a pilot about a psychotic cowgirl on the competitive rodeo circuit, and an ongoing murder fantasy about James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks. The last one’s just for me though.
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IG: @charlottery_