SKATE FAST TURN LEFT, 1min., USA
Directed by Mary Hawkins
Two friends, Fifi Fleshwound and Little Mary Switchblade, have a quick conversation about their roller derby years...

http://tookaturn.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thngstookaturn/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

My friend Andrea came up with Things Took a Turn, and I'd wanted to submit ever since I'd heard about it. It's an animation anthology for women and gender minorities, and it just sounded like good weird fun... I told Fifi about it, since I'm not a writer-of-things and she is, and we chatted a bunch about ways to react to the prompt for that season: the End of the World. We'd meet in a diner, talk for about fifteen minutes about how we were going to approach the project and then veer off into old derby gossip. Eventually, I told her that we needed to nail things down and while we were at it... why didn't we make the film about us and our experiences. We'd been coming up with little fictional scenarios, but our actual experience was better and more interesting. We'd put years of work into roller derby. It's an all-consuming hobby and a really interesting community.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

We took a while to settle on a good theme, but once we had the script in place, I took a month off of work and edited together photos and animated the film.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

derby love

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

We had soooo many photos! I looked through photos from maybe 100 games and needed to narrow things down. It felt like I was moving through molasses as I made the selects, but then I realized that I was essentially inventing the footage as I went. I think I spent three weeks just on the photo edit and everything came together quickly from there.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I loved the reactions! People put so much love and thought into their feedback and I really enjoyed hearing what they had to say, especially since most of the people who've talked to me about my film have been people I already have a connection to, either because they're friends or also played roller derby or live in NYC. To see that total strangers were also interested in my film and really got what it was about really made my morning. My movie is only 45 seconds long. so nearly any description of the film is longer than the film itself.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

It's funny -- I've nearly-always wanted to be an artist, but I always thought of myself more as a sidekick than the lead. It's only been in the last few years that I've been willing and able to make a full film, start-to-finish, by myself. I've had the ideas and the skills, but it's rough to make your own film as a single practitioner. I grab friends to help with the stuff that I don't know how to do or that I feel isn't in my wheelhouse, but the visuals are mine. At work, I'm usually in a dozen meetings before we hammer out what we want and I'm on a team that has other designers and animators and creative folks. I do believe that that sort of process and discussion does improve that type of work, but sometimes I just want a change of pace. On these personal projects, I can waffle a bit and spend time sorting things out, but I also don't have to -- I can take an idea and run with it.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

I rarely re-watch anything -- there's just too much out there! -- but when I was a kid I had a videotape of Disney's Robin Hood and as a teen I watched Benny and Joon a bunch. Those are probably the two films I've seen the most often in my life. I don't know that either of them really fit into my current filmmaking, but they do give you an odd little snapshot of who I was in those slices of time.

These days, I mostly read. My work day is so heavily visual that I need a break, and I feel less scattered when I read. I read three books over the last week.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

One of the things I really enjoy at festivals is meeting other filmmakers, but sometimes it's just impossible to enter a room that you know is full of super cool people and approach one of them to chat. I went to a film festival recently where the organizers set up a wall of post-its and had people do give-get notes for people, and they're going to type those up and send them out to all of us so we can find more collaborators for the next go-round. I thought that was a great way to connect people.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

It's really good, although you do have to sift through to find festivals that are the right fit for your film.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Pizza. Super easy here in NYC.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

Yes! I just started working on another animated film about my cats: The Ladies' Wrassling Society. I'm having to learn to do cel animation and draw cats, but I'm enjoying both... It's a good stretch.