While LoveTrue wasn’t finished in time to be shown in its entirety at the Tribeca Film Festival, attendees still got a taste of what director Alma Har’el’s film has to offer as select scenes were showcased followed by a discussion session with the filmmaker and executive producer Shia LaBeouf.
The work in progress was well received, just as Har’el’s debut feature, Bombay Beach, was four years prior, winning the 2011 Tribeca Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary.
Bombay Beach also made an impression on Rhea Scott, president of Little Minx, a production company active in commercials, music videos, shorts, branded content, and theatrical features. Scott serves as a producer on LoveTrue along with Delirio Films’ Christopher Leggett and Rafael Marmor.
“I had first seen still frames from Bombay Beach and based on that I wanted to meet Alma. I then saw the full film which heightened my interest. Then she came to my office, I was completely taken by her. We cut through all the b.s. and got into it. I immediately decided that we needed to work together. At that time, she pitched me LoveTrue. I was immediately on board.
Scott collaborated with Har’el on a proof of concept piece, which was ultimately shown to LaBeouf who provided the majority of financing for the film, a documentary bringing together nonfiction and fiction. Har’el’s initial collaboration with LaBeouf had her directing him in Sigur Rós’ “Fjöger Piano,” which won a Webby Award for Best Music Video in 2013. Har’el is an acclaimed director spanning music videos, commercials and features. (She is on the roster of Epoch Films for spots and branded content.)
Genre bender
LoveTrue follows real people and actors, weaving through three challenging relationships. Har’el tells three love stories, making for a poetic journey through the thoughts, feelings, soul, imagination and dysfunctional, flawed aspects we take into relationships.
While characterized as a nonfiction genre bender, LoveTrue defies description according to Scott who noted, however, that Malik Bendjelloul, the late Oscar-winning documentarian (Searching for Sugar Man), may have come closest when he tried to capture the essence of Har’el when they all met some time ago. Scott recalled Bendjelloul noting that with Searching for Sugar Man he had “an amazing story which he had to figure out a way to tell.” He went on, said Scott, to tell Har’el she is “a true filmmaker because you go out and find the story, intuitively blending different elements.” That blend–in this case a mesh of nonfiction and fiction–is evident in LoveTrue.
LoveTrue is the second feature produced by Little Minx, the first being Mother of George directed by Andrew Dosunmu and shot by Bradford Young, who went on to serve as cinematographer on Selma and A Most Violent Year. Young won the Best Cinematography Award in the Dramatic competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival for both Mother of George and the David Lowery-directed Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.
Scott has extended Little Minx’s creative reach over the years, encompassing commercials (Lexus, Pepsi, BBC, Audi, Nike, Guinness), high-profile videos, shorts and features. In the latter arena, Scott said that several other feature projects are in the Little Minx pipeline. As for LoveTrue, she hopes Har’el’s film will be ready in time for the Toronto Film Festival in September.
It’s not only Little Minx’s feature fare that has made its mark on the festival circuit. Scott’s shop has turned out shorts that have garnered accolades, initially with its Exquisite Corpse series of films. Malik Sayeed wrote and directed She Walked Calmly Disappearing into the Darkness, which was the first short ever to open the Sundance Film Festival (2009). The Exquisite Corpse series went on to gain exposure at fests worldwide, from Tribeca to Cannes.
Little Minx also had a producing hand in Logorama, which brought together the directorial duo Herve & Francois. Scott teamed Herve & Francois with writer Gregory Pruss and Logorama went on to garner a Best Animated Short Oscar in 2010, as well as awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Cesar Awards.
And in 2013, Little Minx produced Likeness, the directorial debut of Oscar-nominated (Brokeback Mountain) cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Likeness starred Elle Fanning as a girl struggling with an eating disorder, putting her in a world where her self-perceived worth rises as her weight falls. The film challenges us to consider the role of society in presenting an idealized image of the female body. Likeness made its world premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
Scott described her forte as “managing talent to their ultimate dream.” Towards that end, she has made a concerted effort to diversify Little Minx across different disciplines, genres and platforms, a mission that has only accelerated and expanded since she took the long-standing company on an independent path about a year and a half ago, breaking away from sister shop RSA. “This has been a new chapter in my life and at the company,” related Scott who founded Little Minx in 1998. “But our goal has always remained helping talented people realize their dreams. I try to get a bird’s-eye view of a filmmaker’s ultimate interest and get them to that destination.”
