Frameline 42 - Angela Wilson: A Butcher’s Story
Meet Angela Wilson, a female butcher and the owner of Avedano’s, an independent butcher shop in the rapidly shifting landscape that is San Francisco.
Interview with Director/Producer Gaby Scott
Watch Angela Wilson: A Butcher’s Story here
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Well, I love meatand that is one reason that I got into it. When I was living in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, I discovered Angela Wilson and her butcher shop, Avedano’s. I have made my own pastrami in a cinder block smoker that I built and people were surprised by that. I started to become interested in the idea of a woman butcher in a field that has always been dominated by men. And I began to see that Angela’s character – in person, she is no-nonsense, confident and hardworking – would make a great character study for a film.
I love food stories. I initially set out to explore this individual who indirectly pushes against patriarchal norms. The film’s arch further evolved into its own nuanced narrative around value systems, community, and the challenges Angela faces in the context of her butcher shop and nearby home.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Because it’s good. Because it is done with an interesting chiaroscuro effect that is visually soothing. Because the subject Angela is a compelling figure - a gay, female successful business owner in a traditionally patriarchal endeavor. Because it portrays a character trying to live a singularly honest and interesting and industrious individual working and personal life in our city. And because, ultimately, it is a portrait – particularly, a San Francisco portrait – one that I think San Franciscans will appreciate and ultimately find very moving. It is an intimate story about our beautiful city.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
My graduate work at the Art Institute of Chicago explored our deep relationship to food, its connections to identity, affect, community and nostalgia. I think all these themes reverberate in my film. I shot a lot of the scenes at night and I intentionally split the film from day time to darkened compositions with Caravaggio lighting to highlight Angela’s form against the animal carcasses and interior shop. With this presentation I wanted to allude to 17th century allegorical European still lives. I wanted to cast Angela Wilson as a contemplative artist. But also as a highlighted subject, whose meaning is current, but also reached back in time.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I intentionally took a familial and community-centered approach to getting to know Angela. We met several times at local Bernal Heights bars, coffee shops, and eventually at her home in the neighborhood to discuss the potential of a film about her life. I wanted to build trust and a kind of intimacy with her before starting the recorded interviews in order to keep the story as honest and unscripted as possible.
I eventually conducted a series of 1-2 hour long interviews to chronicle the themes we had discussed and then parsed down a fluid storyline. As a professional editor I was comfortable working from a large body of visual and audio footage and narrowing it down in the edit room. The more material I had to work with, the more of a story arc I was able to clearly see and develop.
When I assembled all my footage and began to build my edited versions, something happened that I think often does with creative projects: you hope for it, it doesn’t always happen. The film started to become a broader story; it sort of took on a newer meaning, and maybe a deeper one. I started to see that this was a film not just about Angela Wilson bucking the patriarchy and doing her own thing, and meeting the needs not only of more affluent clients at her butcher shop, but also those who come in rarely to splurge on a nice cut of something really special and banter together.
And I saw that the film had become a story also about an individual bridging the San Francisco of the past and the current city as we find it. I think its a film about someone who is courageously trying to bridge that gap, and it is inspirational.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
People have commented they want to see more! They want to hear and see more of Angela. Friends and community have been surprised that meat could be filmed so beautifully! Even some vegans have really appreciated this film. Audiences loved the commentary about San Francisco and supporting small businesses that are falling into the gaps in today’s changing city. It has also garnered real interest in several LGBTQ film festivals throughout the US and abroad.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I was a bit surprised by the pick up from the LGBTQ film festivals because Angela’s gay identification isn’t explicit in the film. But the attention is great, and feels validating for me as a queer director as well as the subject’s identity.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I’d love for more people to see the film. I’d love for people to see it and remain passionate about the city and care about its direction.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Film festival directors, producers, distributors, and creative media.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want people to connect to Angela and her story, as a woman, a butcher, a small business owner and a member of the San Francisco community.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How has the tech boom impacted small business owners, especially Angela and her shop?
Would you like to add anything else?
Thank you for your interest in my film and helping to increase its exposure.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Gaby Scott, director and editor, is researching other stories with a similar treatment and potentially building Angela Wilson into a feature documentary. Keenan Newman, the cinematographer, is working on a poetry film shooting in San Francisco and Japan.
Interview: July 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
Angela Wilson, a butcher’s story
Meet Angela Wilson, a female butcher and the owner of Avedano’s, an independent butcher shop right here in the rapidly shifting landscape that is San Francisco.
Length: 7min
Director: Gaby Scott
Producer: Gaby Scott
About the writer, director and producer:
GABY SCOTT is a film editor at Avocados and Coconuts, a San Francisco based production company. Originally from the Boston area, Gaby moved to Chicago in 2005 and obtained a MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They then migrated west to join the post department at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and began to hone their cold water appetite for surfing in the bay area. Their graduate study focused on molecular gastronomy, affect theory and nostalgia, and curiosities in the hidden quotidian led them to create, direct and edit the film, "Angela Wilson, a butcher's story." What began as a project about an artisan in the food industry, a woman butcher in the traditionally male dominated profession, became a tale of a last pioneer in the shifting gold rush incentivized city.
Key cast: Angela Wilson
Funders: Avocados and Coconuts and personal funding
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Stay tuned for upcoming festival dates!