Making her feature directorial debut at the South By Southwest Film Festival would have been career breakthrough enough for director Jen McGowan. But her Kelly & Cal went one better, last week earning McGowan the SXSW Gamechanger Emergent Woman Director Award.
“It’s kind of overwhelming, exciting and shocking,” said McGowan. “In your dreams, you hope things will go this way. But you never let yourself dream about it too much since the reality of the film business is that you’re more likely to get such hopes crushed. For me, what the award means is simply more opportunity. That’s all I want to do—make movies. And this kind of recognition makes that process a little easier, helping to make connections.”
Kelly & Cal tells the story of a reformed punk rocker turned housewife (portrayed by Juliette Lewis) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with her 17-year-old neighbor (played by Jonny Weston). The bond they form provides a positive spark to both their lives.
Similarly, the bond Kelly & Cal formed with SXSW judges and audiences has sparked interest in the marketplace. McGowan is hopeful that distribution will be secured for Kelly & Cal in the coming weeks.
The film is being handled by ICM.
Kelly & Cal was developed through the First Team project at USC, an initiative which is currently on hiatus but during its run brought together USC Film School alumni—directors, writers and producers—for select projects. Via First Team, McGowan connected with Amy Lowe Starbin who penned the script for Kelly & Cal. McGowan was drawn to the script and to Starbin, setting the stage for their teaming on what became a SXSW premiere.
The stage was also set for a continuing collaborative relationship as McGowan and Starbin currently have another film in development, Little Girl Lost, based on a true story about a murder mystery in a small town.
Also on the development docket for McGowan is Millie To the Moon, based on a screenplay by fellow USC alum Lynn Hamilton about a young woman who’s inspired by space tourism. Furthermore, based on her SXSW showing, McGowan is also fielding other filmmaking opportunities.
McGowan started her industry education at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She studied film there and trained as an actor at the Atlantic Theater Company. However, after graduating, she found herself less enamored with acting and more intrigued by filmmaking. She set her sights on the MFA program at USC but in the interim supported herself and gained practical experience in commercial production, freelancing as a production assistant and then moving up the ladder to producing and production managing. This entailed her contributing to projects in NY for such production companies as RSA/Black Dog, A Band Apart and Propaganda Films.
Admitted to USC, she earned a grant from The Caucus Foundation for her work on her thesis short film, Confessions of a Late Bloomer which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and went on a run of more than 60 fests worldwide. She then made another major splash with her short film Touch which won at the Oscar-qualifying Florida Film Festival and went on to take assorted awards at numerous other competitions, including best new filmmaker at the Boulder International Film Festival, and Best Short Film honors at Bearfest—Big Bear Lake International Film Festival, the Breckenridge Festival of Film, the Fresno Film Fest, the Oldenburg Film Festival, the Rochester International Film Fest, the San Diego Film Festival, the Tupelo Film Festival, and the Sonoma Valley Film Festival.
Starring Lily Knight (A.I., Secretary, Boston Legal, Big Love), Touch explores themes of isolation and the universal need for community when two strangers make the most important connection of their lives while waiting for a train. Touch was written by Colin Pink.
Major winners
In addition to the Gamechanger recognition for McGowan, other major awards bestowed by judges included the Grand Jury winners in the Narrative and Documentary Feature competitions which were, respectively, Fort Tilden from directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, and The Great Invisible, directed by Margaret Brown.
The former film centers on two 20something roommates who are trekking across Brooklyn while The Great Invisible examines the Deepwater Horizon disaster through the eyes of oil industry executives, explosion survivors and Gulf Coast residents. (For a full rundown of jury winners, see SHOOTonline, 3/12).
SXSW Audience Award winners were announced and honored on Saturday (3/15). Taking the top Audience honor in the Narrative Feature competition was Before I Disappear directed by Shawn Christensen. Based on the 2013 Academy Award-winning short film Curfew, Before I Disappear introduces us to Richie who, at the lowest point of his life, gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his 11-year-old niece. Cast includes Shawn Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley and Ron Perlman.
The Audience Award winner in the Documentary Feature competition was Vessel directed by Diana Whitten. The film focuses on a fearless sea captain, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, who sails a ship through loopholes in international law, providing abortions on the high seas, and leaving in her wake a network of emboldened activists who trust women to handle abortion on their own terms.
The Narrative Spotlight Audience Award winner was Cesar Chavez directed by Diego Luna. In our SXSW preview (2/21, p. 22), Luna told SHOOT he felt a compelling need to tell the story of labor union organizer/civil rights activist Cesar Chavez in a film. “His is a very universal story about change—change made by a community that was the weakest and most ignored in this country,” said Luna. “By uniting and raising their voice, they proved to the world that issues of others matter to all of us. The farm workers managed to collapse a huge industry and a whole structure built against them. The way they did it is what I find amazing. Instead of attacking those who were abusing them, they went out and talked to the consumers. They introduced them to the fathers and mothers behind the grapes that consumers were buying—parents whose kids couldn’t go to schools like consumers’ kids.
“The whole country reacted,” continued Luna. “Communities with no connection to the farm workers’ community reacted. The idea of the responsibility of a citizen to help others is a reminder of what we need today.” Cesar Chavez stars Michael Peña in the title role.
Meanwhile the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award winner was DamNation directed by Ben Knight and Travis Rummel. This film odyssey across America explores the sea change in national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers.
Taking the Festival Favorites Audience Award was The Case Against 8 directed by Ben Cotner and Ryan White. The film provides a behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, The Case Against 8 follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.
