In this episode of Girls On Film, Anna Smith highlights some feminist favourites from Sundance London Film Festival. She catches up with director Shuchi Talati, whose debut feature Girls Will Be Girls follows headgirl Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) as she strives to get As in the classroom and the bedroom, and struggles with a third-wheeling mother (Kani Kusruti). Anna is joined by Shuchi as well as lead actress Preeti Panigrahi as they reflect on women’s filmmaking in India, reveal how they tackled intimacy on set together, and share Shuchi’s initiative Undercurrent, a scheme to train women to work in the lighting department on film sets in India.

Next up, Anna hears from the singer turned actress Maisy Stella, who stars opposite Aubrey Plaza in Megan Park’s My Old Ass. The pair chat about what attracted Maisy to the role of 18 year old Elliott, who meets her 39 year old self while tripping on magic mushrooms and has to deal with the consequences of knowing how her teenage decisions will impact her later life. Maisy recalls the refreshing nature of Park’s script, which portrays a queer lead without feeling tokenistic or trite.

Finally, Anna chats to Vicky Krieps about starring in Viggo Mortensen’s new feminist western, The Dead Don’t Hurt. She talks with Anna about ‘becoming your own department’ when your co-star is also the director, and Viggo speaks about the inspiration behind the character of Vivienne. Vicky also dispels some of the myths of progress in the film industry, while acknowledging the importance of portraying women like Vivienne in The Dead Don’t Hurt in order to move towards a more feminist cinema, but also a more feminist film set.

The Dead Don’t Hurt is in UK and Irish cinemas now.

Girls Will Be Girls will be in UK and Irish cinemas on 20 September 2024.

Follow Girls On Film on social media to see release updates for My Old Ass.

Other films mentioned:

Flowervale Street (David Robert Mitchell)
The Fallout (Megan Park)
Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
Falling (Viggo Mortensen)

Find out more about Undercurrent below:
https://www.undercurrentfilmlab.com/

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Girls On Film is an HLA production.

Host: Anna Smith
Executive Producer: Hedda Lornie Archbold
Producer: Charlotte Matheson
Intern: Jade Evans
Audio editor: Jack Howard
House band: MX Tyrants

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