By Margarita Sophia Cortes
Jennifer Reeder is an award-winning filmmaker who is best known for her short films, including Blood Below the Skin (2015), which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival, and A Million Miles Away (2014), which was celebrated at the Sundance Film Festival.
Reeder’s narrative feature debut film, Signature Move, premiered at 2017’s SXSW Film Festival, where it was nominated for “Gamechanger” award. It received the Grand Jury Award for “Outstanding American Narrative Feature” at L.A. Outfest, and Reeder took home the “Best Director Award” at FilmOut San Diego. The film was featured as “one of the 50 most anticipated American films of 2017” by Filmmaker Magazine.
This multi-cultural romance about life, love and lady Lucha-style wrestling is opening in NYC this Friday, October 13th. We caught up with Jennifer Reeder as she heads to Friday’s opening screening event to get her perspective on breaking down doors.
It’s something that I’ve been aware of for quite a while, in terms of casting or who I want to write a story about or who I want to put in front of my camera because that’s their story but also as a form of social justice. We made a commitment to have lots of women behind the camera. It wasn’t just me as a director. The first assistant director was a woman, there were two female producers, the art department was all women, the makeup department was all women, the camera department was women. The amazing Indian cinema legend Shabana Azmi, who plays ‘Parveen,’ made a point to say, ‘This set feels different with all of these women in front of and behind the camera.’
There was so much scrutiny on Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman but it held up under such a different kind of microscope than Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain America or any of these other superhero movies, and I love that it obliterated the box-office worldwide. If we continue to be vocal in demanding equality, studios are going to start giving female directors these jobs because they’ll be tired of getting so much shit about it. They’ll be like, ‘fine, find a woman to direct this film.’ They should be like, ‘Awesome, she’s a great director, let’s give her a chance on this,’ but if they’re simply responding to a backlash, that’s fine. I don’t care how the door opens, I’m just like, ‘open the fucking door.’
I am fascinated by how particular and precise our coping mechanisms are as humans. There are so many films that get it wrong, especially when it comes to how women respond to trauma. We’re so used to seeing a woman who turns into a raging bitch or is just crying all the time. In real life we do the most beautifully strange things, and trauma can be quite a small thing for some people or a catastrophe for others.I have never made a film that is about masculinity, so I’m curious about that. I have three young sons so I’m surrounded by a lot of boy energy. I owe it to them to make a film that has a lot of that masculine energy, but also that comes from my perspective as a feminist filmmaker. With fire and explosions and car chases… Let’s do it!
Signature Move (Newcity) is directed by Jennifer Reeder, co written by Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato and stars Fawzia Mirza and Sari Sanchez. The film opens in New York City at the Village East beginning Friday, October 13th.
Margarita Sophia Cortes serves on the executive board of NYWIFT as the Vice President of Communications. Follow her on @BKprgal and @MSophiaPR for more.
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Lindsey Lambert
Lindsey Lambert is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. She works as a location scout for film and television in the NYC area, currently on Law & Order: Organized Crime. After receiving her Master’s Degree in Human Rights from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the spring of 2022, she began directing and producing her debut feature documentary Teaching Social Studies about public school education and the anti-critical race theory laws in Texas. It is currently in production and she hopes the film will be completed by the summer of 2025. In our interview, she discusses her decision to go back to school, her work on the new Amazon Prime series Étoile, how to educate young people about our challenging history, and the most memorable location she's scouted to date.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Melanie Fox
Let's give a warm welcome to new NYWIFT member, Melanie Fox! Melanie Fox is a linguist who turned her passion for accents, dialects, presentations, and language learning into a thriving coaching business. Melanie empowers actors and public figures to speak clear, confident English through accent reduction, interview and presentation training. She also trains actors to master authentic English and Spanish dialects. She is a paid public speaker who helps her audiences "Hack into Language" and hosts a new podcast, "Hack That Accent." Melanie holds a Masters of Science degree in Linguistics from Georgetown University. She credits a lot of her inspiration to two semesters studying abroad at la Universidad de Salamanca in Spain. In our interview, she discusses how her work as a dialect coach spans multiple industries, her coaching success stories, and how she encourages clients to maintain their cultural authenticity while adjusting their presentation to match their business goals.
READ MOREDisney+ Celebrates National Pet Day with Heartwarming New Documentary “Pets” Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard
Disney+ is tugging at the heartstrings this National Pet Day with the premiere of its latest original documentary, Pets, debuting April 11. Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, the film dives into the extraordinary relationships that exist between humans and their animals — no matter the species, no matter the place. In our exclusive interview, Bryce Dallas Howard shared how the collaboration with Imagine Documentaries — and her father Ron Howard — helped bring her vision to life. Along with aspects which will make audiences interested in watching even if they are not pet owners and more!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Melody Gilbert
Welcome to our new NYWIFT member, Melody Gilbert! Melody is an Emmy-nominated and Alfred I. duPont award-winning documentary filmmaker. Over the course of her career, Melody has directed and produced 20 documentaries that have been screened at several film festivals and distributed internationally. Melody is also an educator committed to teaching new and emerging filmmakers. She has been on the faculty at several universities (including the American University in Bulgaria), teaching documentary production, multimedia, and journalism. Currently, Melody is traveling the world and spreading her love for film by teaching pitch training workshops and conducting her “Documentary Boot Camp” while working on her new documentary about the scandalous topless monokini bathing suit in 1964. The most recent documentary she helped produce, Queendom, was shortlisted for an Oscar in the feature documentary category. In our interview, Melody discusses her move from chilly Minnesota to NYC, her unconventional documentary subjects, and key lessons she shares with film students.
READ MORE