IFS Film Festival - Girl Knight
Sixteen-year-old ISABEL is not your ordinary knight. She clanks around her lonely life trapped in her own armour until she meets DELILAH, a goth princess, in detention at school. Edging around each other at first, these two wounded souls learn to love by finding the courage to let their guard down.
Interview with Writer/Director Deborah Attoinese
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made Girl Knight because I had a pressing image of a young girl clanking around the world in a knight's outfit in my head for many years - I made the film to try and understand what this image was trying to tell me.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I would encourage everyone to watch this film as I feel it is a witness into an imaginative but real world about the awakening of first love.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Letting go of the armor we all carry seamlessly transfers to a personal theme for me because the film explores the idea of being freed from your own story and therefore our own trappings.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
As most scripts Girl Knight just kept evolving. It was originally a ghost story until I realized I wanted the film to be ghost-like but not trapped on the other side. The story focuses on two young women trying to find themselves in each other and I wanted that to feel very real.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The feedback for the film has been amazing. Women love it but so do men - which has surprised me. I have an older male friend who has titled himself an official Girl Knight groupie. It's a very intimate film in the sense of feelings and vulnerability and seems to touch deeply which was the point. One of my favorite comments came from a fellow filmmaker who said "you're carrying a torch I wish other filmmakers would".
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Challenged in the best of ways as anytime you put something personal out into the world it's going to be interpreted in ways that are going to surprise you. Each film in the end decides who and what it wants to be and finds its own place in the world accordingly-despite what the filmmaker thinks.
I learned that very clearly with Girl Knight as its been treated much more like a piece of art than a film and that surprised me.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We make films and tell stories in the hope to share a piece of ourselves with the rest of the world - I feel the hope is always, in that sharing, that someone, somewhere connects to what moved you to make it in the first place.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Girl Knight is completed and currently on the festival circuit so the more festivals, screening setc. the better. I would like very much for it to find its way to a younger audience as I think it a story they can especially relate to.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I think the metaphor of armor and the need to protect ourselves is always an interesting place to start. Look at what we're seeing today. Grown men and women parading in old costumes and language waving flags and "armor" trying to protect the past and avoid their terror of the future. What are they so afraid of?
Would you like to add anything else?
I hope the current day drama playing out daily continues to awaken us to the great privilege and responsibility we all share in defending.
Thank you so much for the interview.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
My next project is a limited web series titled Lady Liberty - a dark comedy about the story of a homeless veteran who decides to kidnap an out-of-work actress dressed as the Statue of Liberty and get her back to Ellis Island.
Interview: August 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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GIRL KNIGHT
Sixteen-year-old ISABEL is not your ordinary knight. She clanks around her lonely life trapped in her own armor until she meets DELILAH, a goth princess, in detention at school. Edging around each other at first, these two wounded souls learn to love by finding the courage to let their guard down.
Length: 11 min
Director: Deborah Attoinese
Producer: Deborah Attoinese, Clara Ronk, Samuel Ameen and Deirdre Lewis
Writer: Deborah Attoinese
About the writer, director and producer:
Originally from New York Deborah Attoinese is an award winning director, producer and writer. Her work has been selected in over thirty film festivals throughout the United States and abroad and has been shown on Netflix, CineMax and Showtime among others.
Key cast: Darla Dean Lewis, Pilar Petropolous-White and Ellen Dubin
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
sure :)
Social media handles:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GIRLKNIGHTshortfilm/
Security Check Required
Funders: Kickstarter
Made in association with: Overall Production
Where can I see it in the next month?
Playing at the Pictoclik Cinema Preview 2017, August 25, 2017
The Delaney Street Theater, 600 Embarcadero, SF, CA 94107