The life of a movie director may seem glamorous at times but one Ohio University professor knows otherwise.
“Basically our entire crew fit into a van,” said Annie J. Howell, associate professor of screenwriting and production for the division of film in the School of Dance, Film and Theater. “We were such a small crew. … We’re in there ducking down as we shot (the main actress) driving around the West.”
For the first Inside/ Outside: Art Talks of this academic year, Howell will discuss on Thursday the process and creation of an independent film. In 2011, Howell and fellow filmmaker Lisa Robinson co-wrote and co-directed Small, Beautifully Moving Parts, a film about a technophile who’s pregnancy sparks a spontaneous road trip to see her estranged mother who’s off-the-grid.
The movie began as a web series, titled Sparks, and eventually turned into an award winning independent film. Small, Beautifully Moving Parts won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2011 and the Audience Choice Award for Best American Independent Film at the RiverRun International Film Festival in 2012.
But that didn’t mean there weren’t issues along the way, and that is what Howell will discuss during her lecture at the Kennedy Museum of Art.
“I can’t describe one massive boulder that was in our way. It was an accumulation of different processes,” she said. “It’s very intense work. … You’re working with other people and finding your way with those relationships. There’s sort of never enough money.”
And the small size of the crew made the task that much more difficult.
“It was shot in the way that documentaries are shot with that size of crew,” Howell said. “That in itself presented all kinds of little problems. There was a system in place and we were working outside of it.”
Howell said she plans to show part of her film, and possibly a few episodes of Sparks, during her lecture. She added that she looks forward to hearing input from the audience.
Gladys Bailin-Stern, president of the Friends of Kennedy Museum, said Howell might be the first filmmaker to host an Art Talk.
“I’m so amazed that we’ve had hardly any repeats in mediums,” Bailin-Stern said. “It’s been going on for years. … That says something about this town. We have a university and town filled with wonderful, talented people.”
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If You Go:
What: Inside/ Outside: Art Talks: Annie J. Howell
When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Kennedy Museum of Art
Admission: Free
