High Falls Film Festival 2018 Best Director - Ingrid
Ingrid is an intimate look at a woman who left her life as a successful fashion designer and mother in Texas to become a reclusive hermit, immersed in nature, focused solely on creating art.
Interview with Director/Producer Morrisa Maltz
Watch Ingrid on Prime Video
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I started making things after my father passed away in high school and haven’t stopped since. As an adult, as I started making money from my career (albeit still a very modest one) I started to lose whatever that was that you start off with – that feeling of needing to make things. I was yearning to find that again.
For numerous reasons, I think living in LA and making things can also be quite draining on the creative spirit. I had just started to feel really lost as to why I had started doing it in the first place. If I was going to lose my want to make things in my late 20s, I knew it couldn’t hold through my whole life and creative career.
So I started looking in the corners of the internet and going through newspaper articles and trying to look for people that made things without the want for money or fame – sometimes known as “outsider artists” – just to pick their brains and figure out why they liked making things. I thought maybe that was a good way to exercise what I was going through. Maybe I could connect to my human need for it again.
I started visiting people for two years in between other work and projects. I must have visited around 10 subjects in various parts of America, particularly Montana (I actually loved this one http://timslittlemansion.tripod.com/). If you, for some reason, end up in this area of Montana please go visit here, Texas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. One of my closest friends actually went with me the day after her wedding to find one in the forests of New Jersey cause I had gotten so obsessed with visiting one on my list whenever I had the opportunity to travel anywhere.
Here is an article in the Dallas Observer that came out with a short video I had made on a subject in my early questioning:
While in Dallas with this subject someone told me about Ingrid. I think the more you delve into a subject the more avenues start to pop up and people start to turn you onto things. So I drove out and met Ingrid and there was this immediate connection. Ingrid was the first woman who had peeled off from society to create in this manner - so instantly I was fascinated. All the other people I visited were men. I started driving out and seeing her for a few months to try to become friendly.
At first I had decided to create a short film about her, opening up the idea to a feature if I thought there was enough material there after spending a lot of time with her. I knew she would be the kind of person whose full story would take a while to get to know. I had to give myself time. After securing financing for a short, about 6 months into filming I approached my investors again saying I thought there was enough for a feature film there.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I wanted the audience to be able to meditate on their own choices and purpose in life. I think it’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of life and forget that we have choices we can make for ourselves – we can create the life we want and imagine a life outside of what society may prescribe. I want this aspect of the film to be a source of conversation – to think about why we do the things we do and make the choices we make, and make sure we are leading a life true to who we are. What I hoped the audience would take away from watching this film has seemed to be quite successful at our screenings. This is a film that emotionally and intellectually affects people – they are able to relate it back to their own life choices and their own sense of who they are and want they want in the world.
The film leaves you with questions about life that you want to discuss. If you want that experience out of a movie then that’s why the audience should see it. For me, that is where art functions best: to leave an impression on you and be the spark of new thought and conversation (and it’s visually beautiful to boot!). You will also enjoy it as visual experience.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
There wasn't a script, just a feeling that Ingrid was a subject I could explore my questioning with. So this idea of what I was making evolved a lot over time and through the process of making the film with her. I really wanted the film to have the feeling of what it’s like to be there with her on her property. I wanted the viewer to be able to have a bit of an existential experience within the film, and have mental space within the film as well to also tune out a bit and think about their own lives and life choices.
I also hoped the audience would need to talk about it afterwards, and have their own philosophical discussion about the possibilities of their own existence. This meant that we spent a lot of time out in nature by Ingrid’s property, trying to make really visual imagery that matched the feeling of the world Ingrid inhabits. It also meant that I wanted a lot of the footage of Ingrid to be meditative – her working mixed with cuts to rapturous long nature shots. This is exactly what it feels to spend time with her and be out on her property.
At first we scheduled the dates with more people going out there and kept it more structured, filming her routines I knew well and doing interviews. We were building the edit as we were filming so we could build the story, and figure out what it was as we were filming. (That's an arduous process). Ingrid lived about 4 hours from Dallas so we could do a quick trip in a day if we needed to grab something. But for example, for the goat birth - we had to build that trip around the actual goat birth so I was out there for a week just waiting for it to happen - which ties into what I was most hoping to capture. As we built the story over two years, we realized we needed this emotional openness to happen that was very difficult for Ingrid. Ingrid hadn’t really opened up about her past to anybody. I needed her to be open and articulate about her feelings about herself and her past and it was hard to just make that happen. It had to be genuine, and for her to really believe in our friendship. Getting a woman that has been a hermit for years to open up about her life and really trust me with our friendship and her story was the majority of the challenge. Although, during the goat birth, I had to stay with her and wait; and this allowed for us to spend a lot of time together that she wouldn’t have volunteered to spend.
Before this trip, a lot of her personal life was sort of off limits, but during this trip she opened up a lot, and a lot of the things she hadn’t wanted on camera before (about her childhood, her family, and her Nazi parents) she openly talked about. Once we got that footage we were able to wrap production but then we still had to finish editing and fine-tune the story in the edit which was a balancing act.
I can honestly say though, what I wanted out of this film to begin with was a meditation on life and our place in the world - asking questions I was interested in and having Ingrid "answer" them in a sense. I don't know exactly how we got there - but we did end up with this exact tone poem I was trying to create. It was a long process strangely enough I was able to match this intuition, or feeling, or quest for a film a started with in the first place. It was anything but a script.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I've been so, so pleased with how people have responded to this film. It has made me so proud of what we made, (especially after the arduous process of not knowing exactly how to make it and working with a shoe string budget).
We were the highest-rated documentary from reviews coming out of Slamdance and we played to sold-out audiences at Oak Cliff Film Festival. Our Arclight screening in LA just played two-in-a-row, totally sold-out screenings. At Bend Film Festival in Oregon and after every screening (Atlanta, Eastern Oregon, Rhode Island) – even if we haven't sold every single ticket like at those screenings I have an outpouring of emails after the screenings of people asking where they can see it cause they heard about how moving it was from a friend.
Women (and many men) come out of the theater in tears and inspired – which was a surprise to me at first – genuinely feeling the weight of the questions within the piece. It has also been seen as an incredibly visual film, making every frame count, which was really important to me coming from a visual artist background.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The only that has slightly surprised me is how much I need to push a women’s film about women’s issues. I'm sure other people are not at all surprised by this and I guess I shouldn’t have been! Other than that, no – luckily the film has been received exactly how I imagined.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to work a sales agent coming at our premiere as I didn't understand enough about the process. I need buyers and distributors that can see how powerful the film is to audiences if it's out there for consumption. We are working closely with the Sundance Creative Distribution Fellowship – they are putting out two separate articles about Ingrid to push it out in the world in case I do the self distribution route.
Although, I'm still open to talking to anyone that may be interested in helping me push it out in the world. Similar to Ingrid I mostly made the film myself and I know it would be advantage to have more help in distribution. Journalists are also always welcome. Articles help, and any chance I can get to discuss the unique philosophies and women’s issues in the film I would love to have. It helps the message continue to build and grow.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Apart from what I mentioned before about the audience engagement, I hope the film also inspires people and, specifically for women, I hope it inspires them to make the life choices they think are right for themselves and who they are as a person. It's really hard (again I think specifically for women) to think out of societal norms, and I hope this film inspires people to do so, talk about it, and follow the path that's for them - for the specific unique human they are. I hope it also gives creative people in a general the courage to follow make the work they want to make and follow the course in life that's truest for themselves.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film
What are the societal norms and expectations for women? How does that match up with what I truly want in my own life, for what I feel my own purpose is?
Would you like to add anything else?
Please come see the film! This is a truly independent film in every sense of the word and sentiment. I will be there for the screening and would love to meet you in person and talk to you about it!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I'm in production on a film called The Unknown Country. This narrative/doc hybrid is an exploration of the American Midwest and the people and places found within it. Spurred by the discovery of a forgotten family photograph, a young Lakota woman embarks on an epic journey that will take her from her home in Minneapolis all the way to the Texas border – everyone she meets a long the way are real people (gas station attendants, waitresses, motel owners etc) that I have met in my travels. The film will weave in and out of their lives in an effort to make an honest portrait of the American Midwest.
We recently received a grant from Austin Film Society and we are accepting tax deductible donations via the film collaborative, and also at a point where we are bringing on investors. If anyone is interested in knowing more, please email me personally via my website, and follow the project @the_Unknown_country on Instagram and https://www.facebook.com/theunknowncountry/ on Facebook.
Interview: November 2018
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. 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
Ingrid
Ingrid is an intimate look at a woman who left her life as a successful fashion designer and mother in Texas to become a reclusive hermit, immersed in nature, focused solely on creating art.
Length: 52 minutes
Director: Morrisa Maltz
Producer: Morrisa Maltz
About the writer, director and producer:
MORRISA MALTZ (Director, Producer) is an artist and filmmaker. She holds a BA from Columbia University where she majored in fine art. Her work has been shown at MOCA, LA, as well as at the MCA, Santa Barbara. In 2012, she created Mofones, an art product for iphone that was sold at Urban Outfitters and Museum stores worldwide. Her first film, The Caretaker, won Best Live Action Short at the 2012 LES Film Festival in New York. Her second short film, Odyssea premiered at Slamdance in 2014. Most recently, her music video for DYAN's, Looking For Knives, was featured on Creator's Project/ VICE. Morrisa’s first feature documentary, Ingrid, premiered at Slamdance 2018 and she is currently in production on a narrative/doc hybrid feature, The Unknown Country, an AFS grant recipient.
ANDREW HAJEK (director of photography) was born and raised in Dallas and studied at University of Oklahoma before returning home to pursue a career in commercial cinematography. Andrew’s clients since then have ranged from Mercedes to the American Heart Association. Andrew recently wrapped production in the Dallas area on ESPN’s newest 30 FOR 30.
VANARA TAING (editor) is an editor and writer based in Los Angeles. She has edited three independent features and done additional editing work on The Lego Batman Movie and the upcoming Lego Ninjago Movie. She earned her MFA in Editing from the American Film Institute Conservatory while on a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Her work has screened in numerous film festivals around the world. SAMNANG, a short she wrote, was a national narrative finalist for the Student Academy Award, premiered at the New York Film Festival and awarded Best International Short at the 2014 Milan International Film Festival and Best Student Film at the 2014 USA Film Festival.
Facebook: Ingrid the Movie
Instagram: @morrisam
Funders: Dr. Kenneth Reed (14,000 was our budget)
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
High Falls Film Festival November 4, Virginia Film Festival November 3, Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilminton) November 11, and Red Rock Film Festival on November 10. Please go to our website www.ingridthemovie.com and subscribe to our email list to get updates about our theater release and when you can watching online.