EoM Senior Interviewer Thomas Manning recently attended the Nashville Film Festival on behalf of Meet Me at the Movies and sat down with director Morrisa Maltz to discuss her film Jazzy. Starring Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux as herself, Jazzy is a sequel to Maltz’s The Unknown Country and is executive produced by Lily Gladstone, Jay Duplass, and Mark Duplass. In this conversation, Maltz speaks about taking inspiration from the childhood stories of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux and Syriah Fool Head Means in writing the film, Lily Gladstone’s presence in the filmmaking journey, and the prevailing theme of grief in Jazzy and The Unknown Country.
Thomas Manning: I understand that in the writing of this film you worked directly with the kids. I’m sure that was a pretty unique experience for you.
Morrisa Maltz: The story really did come from the kids. Jazzy is my goddaughter and I live quite close to her in South Dakota when we’re there. So, she would start to come over after school and tell me stories about things that were happening in school. That just started jogging my memory of being a kid. They were funny, hilarious little moments. And also, the things that were affecting her, she would describe to me. So, the stories and the inspiration for the film started coming from her and then we actually started collaborating. When we started making the film, we would do meetings and she would tell me stories and she would be like, “Oh, Morrisa would love this for the film!” She’s a really smart kid. And Syriah as well really started to get the hang of it and would also share stories. And they also created a lot of their own lines. The collaboration was really deep with them.
Thomas Manning: Lily Gladstone has an immense passion for this story, and it’s evolved quite a bit over the years. Her relationship with the Bearkiller Shangreaux family is very important to her as well. You’ve worked with Lily for quite some time – so from your perspective as a director, what have you noticed about how this story has moved her, and also her relationship with the Bearkiller Shangreaux family?
Morrisa Maltz: I think since we started making The Unknown Country and we all sort of had this immense trust and passion and love for what we were doing without really thinking about it in terms of where we were going with it, we just wanted to make this project happen, and we all really built a family in making that. You know, when you’re making something for no money… and it was such a collaborative film, it took so many years. We just built a big family from that. It’s all quite organic. When Lily talks about The Unknown Country – in the first footage she shot, she saw Jazzy when she was five, and that’s what really made her sort of fall in love with the project. And when I met the Bearkiller family, I fell in love with them and that friendship and family has grown. You know, when you’re doing the thing that you love and you’re following your passions really honestly, I really believe that the right people – you find those close-knit families. And that’s just continued to grow through Jazzy.
Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux as Jazzy in JAZZY. Photo courtesy of 42West.
Thomas Manning: Your Director of Photography Andrew Hajek – I know that y’all have worked together for some time as well. I love the way that you use natural light in your films. Can you talk about those conversations you have with Andrew in order to fully capture everything visually that you want to communicate thematically?
Morrisa Maltz: Andrew and I – Jazzy is our third film together, and we’ve worked on music videos and stuff in between. He’s also like family at this point. I think from the very beginning when we started working together – he knew my photography work, he knew my work as an artist – he had a really good grasp at understanding what I was trying to create visually, and being able to technically pull that off. And sort of fill in gaps for stuff that I didn’t know. Like lenses, or style, or… we never sat down and I was like “I want it handheld and I want a lot of natural light.” I would just talk about a lot of feelings of what I want things to look like, and he would interpret that, and that’s just grown as we’ve continued to work together. So, we have a shorthand where I don’t even really need to say what I want things to look like, he already knows at this stage.”
Thomas Manning: You have Duplass Brothers Productions on this film, and obviously they’re legends of indie cinema from the past few decades. I’m sure for you, having them come on for your second feature film meant a lot. What can you share about having their guidance as producers and how that manifested in Jazzy?
Morrisa Maltz: First and foremost, even when you’re making the stuff and you believe that you’re doing something that people will like or that it makes sense, you’re always questioning yourself. I’m never like, “Oh this movie going to be great and everyone’s going to love it.” I’m consistently like, “Wait, is it terrible, is it awful? Is everyone going to hate this? Is it even a movie?” The Duplass Brothers, they watched a rough cut, where I was really at that stage of being like “No one’s going to like this, this is terrible.” And we had a meeting, and they were like, “We never say yes immediately to something, but this is such a special project and we want to help.” And I was like “Oh, that’s great.” I think what they really did at that stage was honestly help me understand [that] making these projects [is] so hard, you need those moments where suddenly people are like “What you’re doing is so valuable,” to help you to keep going. And the Duplass Brothers, them coming on really enabled me to feel that value, right as I was like “Oh my gosh, I’m exhausted, I can’t continue.”
Thomas Manning: Grief is definitely a prevalent theme in The Unknown Country, and it’s also present in Jazzy. But it’s a different kind of grief. Whereas The Unknown Country was Lily Gladstone’s character mourning her grandmother, Jazzy is about mourning childhood.
Morrisa Maltz: My editor and collaborator whom I love so much, Vanara [Taing], once said to me, and I can’t forget it, because we’ve also worked together on a number of films, but she was like, “You know, directors tend to tell the same story over and over in different ways.” I lost my dad when I was a teenager, and I then lost – I’m an only child and I’ve lost a ton of my family. Or not a ton, actually just a few, but I don’t have that much family. So, I think about – those themes are just in a lot of my work, and it’s lot of just processing. I honestly don’t know how to describe it, there’s not really words for it. In Jazzy specifically, we thought about, what’s the moment where you kind of realize you’re not a kid anymore? And you start to like see adults as people with problems? And you realize that life isn’t just all – you know, it is a moment. I remember when my parents talked about somebody dying for the first time. Like “Wait, what? What does that mean?” And looking at them and I remember seeing their faces. I remember that moment as a kid. So, I think that was something in Jazzy that felt really important to have as their kind of growing up moment. And then in The Unknown Country – I’m very proud that The Unknown Country feels like a palpable understanding of grief that a lot of people can relate to. Because I’ve felt it a lot at various points in my life. My grandmother who I was incredibly close with and why Lily and I decided to make it about a grandmother, she just passed away last year at 103. You can also make a movie about grief, but it’s not like then you’re an expert and can deal with it any better. It still strikes you in all the ways. But yeah, it doesn’t help anything, it just is communicating a feeling. But maybe in watching it, you could feel something from it that helps you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Official Synopsis:
In the follow up to her award-winning film The Unknown Country, filmmaker Morrisa Maltz captures the joys and heartbreaks of childhood friendship as young Jazzy (Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux) navigates the challenges of growing up with her peers in South Dakota.
Screening during Nashville Film Festival 2024.
In select theaters February 7th, 2025.
Thomas Manning is a member of the NCFCA, SEFCA, and CCA, and also the co-host of the television show and radio program Meet Me at the Movies. He has served as a production assistant and voting member on the Film Selection Committee for the Real to Reel Film Festival. Additionally, he manages his own film review and interview site, The Run-Down on Movies. Manning is a graduate of Gardner-Webb University with a double-major in Communications and English. His passion for cinema and storytelling is rivaled only by his love for the music of Taylor Swift.
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Categories: Filmmaker Interviews
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