Fresh off the strike and newly back to work, American writer-director Dee Rees has set her sights on her next feature – a stylized dark comedy meant to visualize a central character’s frantic stream of consciousness.
“It’s a weird, experimental thing,” says Rees, who’s currently serving on the jury of this year’s Marrakech Film Festival. “[I’ve explored] comedic elements in my films, but this is the first time where it’s a kind of a dark, sad satire.”
While the “Pariah” and “Mudbound” filmmaker had toyed with this latest project for years, she picked up her pen anew once the writers strike concluded and then committed full-on following an opportune encounter in Marrakech.
“People will come to you with what they think you should do, or what they think you’d be good at,” she tells PvNew. “So I try to still listen to that kind of voice. I was talking to Tilda Swinton the other night, telling her I’d written some weird experimental thing, and she’s like, do that, do that thing!”
“[That came as a] reminder to follow that heartstring,” Rees continues, “to follow your passions, because filmmaking is such an arduous and never-ending journey. You have to really love what you’re doing without connection or anticipation of what the outcome will be. You have to do it because you love it. And so I’m trying to get back to that magic. I want that freedom where no one’s looking, no one’s expecting. Just make something that feels interesting to you.”
She later adds: “Film should be a gamble.”
Indeed, the filmmaker has spent the past year in a bout of recharge and renewal, taking inspiration from films like Maggie Betts’ “The Burial” and Emma Seligman’s “Bottoms,” taking in exhibitions like “Henry Taylor: B Side” at The Whitney, and most of all, taking to live shows to kindle that inner fire.
“I just went to concerts to kind of bathe myself in music,” says Rees. “So I think I’m back in feeding mode where I’ve been absorbing a lot of art.”
Performances by Björk and Frank Ocean proved particularly inspiring, though neither could best the reigning queen of culture.
“I mean, come on, it’s got to be Beyoncé, because her shows are so cinematic,” Rees laughs. “I was studying her stagecraft, her lighting and the way she’s able to create dimensions with screens behind the stage [to create] a narrative, because actually her shows are super narrative.”
“[Watching the show], I was thinking, how can I move the camera to make you feel like the opening chord? How can I make the editing feel like a flute? How can I summon the same feeling?” Rees adds. “Because at the end of the day, you want people to feel something, and you can learn editing and pacing from music. You can understand what’s too much, and how silences work.”
The director recently helmed two episodes of the Apple TV+ war drama “Masters of the Air,” including an installment about the Tuskegee Airmen. The work came about quite casually after Rees sent a word of encouragement to director Cary Joji Fukunaga. “It started as a love note to Cary after the [‘No Time to Die’] trailer came out,” she says. “I was writing to say, hey, congratulations, James Bond looks amazing. And he replied, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Come do this thing!’”
“I knew that [‘Half Nelson’ and ‘Mississippi Grind’ directors] Ryan [Fleck] and Anna [Boden] were going, so I did it for the peership and the camaraderie,” she continues. “When working on TV, it’s more interesting to do so with such an interesting group of filmmakers… [It was] by far the sexiest shoot I’ve ever worked on. I mean, it was huge, the crew was incredible, and I learned, oh, this is what happens when you have time – people can build new rigs for you, and you can play.”
Working on such scale also fed Rees’ desire for her next feature. “I don’t want to be rushing through 20-day shoots anymore,” she says. “I just want the time to tell the story.”
