Rhode Island International Film Festival 2019 – One True Loves
Between her tweenhood and late twenties, Lydia meets eight different loves of her life and discovers what it means to fall in and out of true love eight times.
Interview with Writer/Director Olivia Accardo
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made One True Loves because at the time, I was very much obsessed with my own melodramatic obsession with heartbreak. I was heartbroken (over someone who I think I went on barely two dates with) when the concept of One True Loves started becoming more of a real project. The original idea was to make a short film about every single person I considered the "love of my life" starting from my first boyfriend in the 7th grade. My roommate at the time was (actually, still is) a producer at an ad agency and also my #1 confidant. He and I sort of joked about going through with the project, until the joke involved a DP, two other producers, auditions, and suddenly shoot dates? It has been a largely insane and cathartic experience.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
As people of this earth, most of us at least, find ourselves at a young age thinking about love or relationships. How do we do them? Why does everything about it feel wildly uncomfortable? Why are we ignoring each other at lunch, and is it because...he likes me? I think, a lot of people, have some sort of version of their first love in their mind. The near excruciating pain that is involved in overcoming the discomfort to hold that person's hand for the first time. One True Loves is about overcoming that discomfort, one totally embarrassing relationship at a time. It's about growing up with and following a character as she grows and learns from the weirdness that is dating. I just think that a lot of people have their own versions of these stories and watching someone else clumsily navigate young love on the big screen can be maybe cathartic, but in the very least, something you definitely relate to.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
One True Loves is a coming of age web series about love. I kind of feel like I accidentally answered this already but, as people of Earth, we grow up and we fall in love and that is, at its absolute core, all that the series is about.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
So, I mentioned my former roommate, Will Mason, who was one of the producers on the series and also the editor – he and I have a history of angstily venting to one another about heartbreak and love. For example, there was one insane week in my life where I just gave him my diary from high school and let him read it cover to cover. We are very close and initially, I had told him – I wanted to make 12 short films about the 12 different people I loved. I showed him a text edit document on my computer that had 12 names next to the years that I loved them. His initial reaction being, "you've been in love with 12 people?". He grounded me a bit and we agreed that 8 shorts might be more realistic of a project, while still ambitious. He and I talked to some close friends of ours about the project and brought them on as co-producers and a DoP. Once a week for months, I would wander away and write some pretty ambitious scripts, and come back – and be told "great, but we have no money – less, one location per episode, less characters, less less less" – until we had 4 solid scripts, and a realistic budget of $10k. We raised that $10k and we made 4 episodes, there are 4 more episodes in script form that we are currently working towards getting funding for (you happen to know anyone trying to uh, fund the rest of my show?).
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I gotta say, I've been overwhelmed and humbled and like, brought to tears basically – by the kind of feedback we've gotten. It's really really hard to get people to watch your work in the first place (when you're a nobody director with no significant following on any platform) – and I am so thankful to the people who have taken the time to watch it, either online or at festivals. I've had people at festivals seek me out after screenings and tell me about their first kiss, I've had people yell at me on the street at film festivals "I LOVED ONE TRUE LOVES!" days after my particular screening, I've received long thoughtful texts and e-mails from strangers, distant cousins, co-workers, and old friends of all ages and genders saying they binged the show, and that they wanted to watch more. I've been approached at parties after screenings from people telling me they immediately went home and watched the rest of the series, and then they often tell me stories about their first heartbreak and their first kiss. It is really amazing and means so much to me that the show seems to hit a very wholesome vulnerable place in a lot of people and makes it safe for them to approach me and share their experiences with me.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It has been surprising, this is the first big ambitious project I've made out of undergrad. So I'm not the most confident or secure filmmaker just yet, my expectations for how my work will be received aren't the highest as dumb as that might sound. Not that I think the work is bad! It's just hard to get out of your head sometimes I think, and swat away the kind of negative and "not good enough" thoughts that haunt you. Having some exterior validation certainly helps. ;)
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I would love more eyes on the project, the show is available online to be watched by anyone (for now). We are shopping the project around to prospective platforms and networks – we've had meetings, and some interesting bites but we haven't 100% committed to anything yet as far as the future of this series goes. I want anything from 1 million dollars to a new fan who dms me on Instagram and says "I love your show!!!".
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Distribution! More film festivals! Journalists! I'm still submitting to film festivals, I still cold e-mail publications asking for someone to write about the series, I am applying to grants to help alleviate the cost of finishing the series.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I truly just hope this project hits that vulnerable place in you, maybe brings up some old memories and allows you to laugh at and see the humor in something that felt so serious and humiliating at one point in time. I hope that an audience can walk away from watching One True Loves thinking about what their own version of One True Loves might look like.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Who was your first one true love?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am in production on a documentary titled Finding Beast (working with producers from One True Loves, Will Mason, and Kristen Politis) essentially about contacting the dead pets that are haunting my childhood home as my parents are trying to move out of it. Corey Vent (our DoP) is also working closely with Kristen, and Will on a short he shot over the summer that is in post-production. Andrea Massaro (another producer) is working in development at Goddard Textiles. Also, we, as a gang, are planning on finishing the latter four episodes of One True Loves in 2020.
Interview: July 2019
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
One True Loves
Between her tweenhood and late twenties, Lydia meets eight different loves of her life and discovers what it means to fall in and out of true love eight times.
Director: Olivia Accardo
Producer: Will Mason, Kristen Politis, Andrea Massaro
Writer: Olivia Accardo
About the writer, director and producer:
OLIVIA ACCARDO is a motion graphics artist and filmmaker. Her short film, Cupcake Bob, screened at film festivals throughout the country and was selected for PBS’ national “Film School Shorts” program on broadcast TV. Olivia’s web series, One True Loves, recently won the audience choice award for best web series at Richmond International Film Fest, and Dances with Films and was an official selection at Oscar-qualifying film festivals including Seattle International Film Fest and Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Fest. She’s also animated graphics for award-winning social media campaigns for Film and TV, including Warner Brothers’ Detective Pikachu, and Paramount’s Pet Sematary and Mother!. Olivia’s video art, comics, and illustrations have been showcased in exhibitions and gallery openings worldwide. Her hand-drawn gifs have been featured on Giphy, accumulating over 1.3 billion views.
Key cast: Maddie Rien (young Lydia), Sean Vargas (Tommy Rossi), Olivia Fine (Dominique), Victoria Montoya (Val)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, buyers
Facebook: ONE TRUE LOVES
Twitter: @OneTrue_Loves
Instagram: @onetrue_loves
Website: onetrueloves.com
Other: Vimeo
Made in association with: Omelet Agency, The Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund
Funders: Seed & Spark, Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Rhode Island International Film Festival, August 8th in the "TV Pilots Block 2", 2PM @ Providence Chamber of Commerce, in Providence, RI