Family Portrait “I thought about The Exterminating Angel,” Lucy Kerr says over espresso as she describes the origins of Family Portrait, her hypnotic characteristic debut. Indeed, the movie’s central conceit hews intently to Luis Buñuel’s 1962 satire, however as a substitute of posh partygoers being inexplicably caught in a single room, an prolonged Texas household is unable to get everybody to assemble for the titular picture. In explicit, Katie’s (Deragh Campbell) pleas for everybody to assemble are frustratingly ignored or in any other case thwarted, particularly when the household matriarch (Silvana Jakich) is all of the sudden nowhere to be discovered. Wandering across the huge property seeking her mom, Katie seemingly stumbles right into a state of concern and confusion because the prospect of taking the next December’s Christmas card dwindles with every passing second.
Written by Kerr—who appeared on our 25 New Faces of Film record again in 2022—with further writing by Karlis Bergs (Kerr’s husband in addition to the movie’s editor) and Rob Rice (who additionally served as co-producer and directorial adviser), the 72-minute movie explores the impermanence of lifelong connections and confounding “need to keep up appearances” within the face of demise. The sound design is deliberately elliptical, making a sonic samsara which represents each the stagnation inherent to emotional repression in addition to the cyclical nature of demise and rebirth. Per the Edgar Allan Poe quote that opens the movie: “Through a circle that ever returneth in / To the self-same spot.” Can we really break away from familial cycles that we’ve inherited, or are we trapped within the stomach of an ouroboros with no hope of escaping?
Family Portrait opens this weekend at Metrograph in New York City through Factory 25. I spoke to Kerr at a Brooklyn cafe the week earlier than her movie’s theatrical debut. The following dialog contains the director’s perception on the movie’s casting course of, how air con turned an important a part of the eerie sound design and the way her subsequent characteristic will concentrate on debutante balls as “as a very occult kind of ritual.”
Filmmaker: In the press notes, you speak about how the idea for this mission was based mostly by yourself mom’s obsession with taking the annual Christmas card picture. Did you usually mould the characters within the movie round your individual household?
Kerr: While I used to be at CalArts—I suppose it was 2018—I went to go to my household on the similar location the place we shot the movie. It’s my grandparents’ outdated home within the Hill Country on the Guadalupe River. We had been taking our Christmas card as a result of it was Thanksgiving, and my mother’s concept that 12 months was that we’d all put on matching Christmas-themed outfits, these clothes and fits which have all these loopy patterns of Santa and snowmen. I used to be capturing one thing for sophistication, so I introduced my digicam and tripod, set it up and filmed on that area there. I used to be attempting to take the image and it took endlessly. One of my brother-in-laws was kicking round a soccer ball. He didn’t need to be within the image, so he was making it actually tough to return collectively. All the youngsters had been being loopy, too. When I noticed that footage I used to be like, “It almost looks like it could be a scene in a film.” Later I considered The Exterminating Angel, the place they’re unable to ever depart the room. It was like we had been unable to ever take this image, in order that was type of the start of it.
My mother has this massive purple ebook, which is within the movie, of Christmas playing cards from yearly since she received married to my dad within the ’70s. It’s this very ornate album of a household establishment, so the movie is certainly based mostly on my household in that manner after which dramatized. I’ve three sisters who’ve very completely different traits from each other. There are additionally completely different anecdotes from my household which can be within the movie, just like the Vietnam War image. They’re peppered in there, alongside the fiction of the mom disappearing. The demise of the member of the family was additionally based mostly on the truth that many members of my household handed away throughout the identical summer time. I really feel prefer it was type of about our household nonetheless attempting to go on like, “Everything is great,” nonetheless making the household image occur yearly. There are facets of autobiography which can be expanded on, however plenty of it did develop on set by simply listening to the actors inform their very own tales, a few of which received put into the movie. It’s a hybrid.
Filmmaker: What was the overall casting course of like? You have the wonderful Deragh Campbell within the lead function, and I’m wondering how the remainder of the forged fell into place. What had been you on the lookout for—bodily or in any other case—from those that’d embody sure characters?
Kerr: The casting was tremendous enjoyable. I did it myself, with my husband serving to me watch tapes. It took a very very long time, although. The movie began as a far more low-key brief, then ended up being such an enormous brief that I used to be like, “Well, maybe this is a feature.” I forged [Robert Salas], the dad character, first, about two years earlier than we shot. I later noticed Deragh in Anne at 13,000 ft, and I bear in mind simply being so mesmerized and brought by her efficiency. I additionally noticed Chris Galust, who performs Olek, in Give Me Liberty. In that movie, he performs a Russian-American who’s taking good care of his grandfather. So, I discovered these two actors by means of movies, however in any other case, I needed to have a really open course of. I needed to seek out as many individuals in Texas as I may. I discovered Robert on Backstage, simply placing out a put up and having individuals apply and do tapes. Then he launched me to the 2 actors who play the brothers-in-law, Christian Huey and Les Weiler, who’re additionally based mostly in Austin. They already knew one another by means of being performers on a podcast collectively, so in addition they had a little bit of humor between them. There had been additionally another actors from the Texas space, like Ed Hattaway, who performs the caretaker of the property. Otherwise, we did an open name and introduced in actors from elsewhere. I went by means of 1000’s of self-tapes and met with individuals for espresso or over Zoom so we may get to know one another. I needed to seek out people who possibly aren’t represented by brokers, however have one thing about them that actually connects them to the character.
Filmmaker: The familial chemistry actually works, so it’s cool to know that among the actors had collaborated prior to now.
Kerr: I went to highschool with Katie Folger, who performs Grace. She’s additionally from Texas. We received to know one another rather well as a result of it was nearly like summer time camp with us dwelling there and swimming collectively.
Filmmaker: Did you all keep on the home collectively?
Kerr: Most of us did.
Filmmaker: That will need to have additionally helped to tether everybody to your loved ones, exhibiting all people across the place.
Kerr: All of the household photos had been there, and these tales would simply come up. There’s a scene the place two younger women are underneath the porch stabbing a fish. That’s one thing I did after I was six with a buddy of mine. We had been each type of loopy, and we tore up this fish and received the meat out. My mother cooked it for us and we ate it [laughs]. I used to be telling people who story they usually had been like, “We should do that.” It didn’t find yourself being as grotesque within the movie, however yeah.
Filmmaker: Your background in dance is palpable right here. Each characters’ motion, or lack thereof, works to speak the bonds or rifts between sure relations. How did you implement choreography right here, notably with the opening photoshoot scene?
Kerr: For the opening scene, we had just a few days of rehearsal. It felt like an enormous job to do one take and never create a sense of it being staged, or simply chaos for the sake of chaos. Chaos needs to be activated one way or the other. Lidia [Nikonova], the cinematographer, labored with the Steadicam operator to seek out the parameters for what Katie’s doing. Her thoughts is subconsciously feeling like she must wrangle everybody, so it’s nearly like an exaggerated manner of pulling individuals down, however as you see later within the movie, they’re resisting and preserve going again one way or the other. The digicam finds her and performs this recreation along with her the place it’s generally along with her and generally bounces off earlier than discovering her once more. That created the framework which is then repeated once more within the final a part of the movie, the place she’s soaking moist and the digicam is nearer however nonetheless doing that.
When I was extra of a choreographer, I labored with massive teams of individuals and located methods for the entire ecosystem of that group to develop into a panorama, like they’re shifting organically, nearly like a area does with the wind. I’d instruct sure performers: “Okay, you’re going to go down, but then you’re going to go back again, then this person is going to be here,” issues like that. On high of that, the actors improvised rather a lot. Rob Rice—the co-producer and author on the mission together with Karlis [Bergs] and I—helped direct the actors collectively as my directorial advisor. We had been occupied with how every character has their very own motivations, however we didn’t have the actors inform one another what they had been. For instance, Grace, the [sister] with the child performed by Katie Folger, may act like she doesn’t care concerning the image, however she has this new child and is definitely actually excited. She’s the one which’s sporting the identical outfit because the morning. She additionally needs to be within the center throughout the extensive shot. They all had their very own private motivations that they didn’t inform the others, which created a type of [controlled] chaos.
Filmmaker: Also in reference to that opening scene, the sound design is unimaginable. It really seems like being immersed in the course of a household reunion, with disparate conversations and kids’s playful shrieks creating an unparsable cacophony. Can you broaden in your collaboration with the sound designers/mixers and Nikolay Antonov to attain each a sonic whirlwind and quieter pure moments?
Kerr: I watch plenty of TV, and I’m all the time pissed off with how dialogue all the time has to operate. It has to level to one thing that’s going to occur sooner or later. Something I used to be eager about whereas I used to be at CalArts is language as materials. In poetry, we see phrases as materials, so why not dialogue? That’s type of how I wrote the script. Part of the rationale some issues really feel to tug on with out one thing actually taking place is as a result of it was intentional. When I taught movie for a few years at LeMoyne College, one thing that I attempted to encourage my college students to consider is off-screen sound, as a result of it’s simply not used sufficient. When one thing’s off-screen, it creates a picture in our minds as we watch it, which makes it a extra sensorial expertise. I actually love that, so I knew I needed to additionally work with it.
The strategy of designing the sound and blend was very lengthy. I didn’t have plenty of that in thoughts earlier than we shot it, and I ended up including extra sound design than I had deliberate. Andrew Siedenburg was there on set and was actually nice about exploring the placement by himself or bringing somebody with him, and they might simply take plenty of recordings. One factor that all of us actually cherished was the air con sound. At the aspect of the home, there’s an enormous air conditioner, and it’s tremendous highly effective, in order that’s the place the hum is coming from. There had been generally lawnmowers and development sounds, so the drone isn’t actually only a drone, it comes from all of that. That feeling of underlying horror and suspense comes from air con. That introduced Andrew to the prepare sound, which is on the finish, when Katie’s strolling backwards and forwards. She’s type of like a shifting prepare, and we simply EQ’d it in order that it’s at a a lot decrease frequency. Nikolai, the opposite sound designer and mixer, got here in for that half. I needed to take the sound tremendous significantly. It was a 10-month course of. It’s reversed on the finish when the prepare overcomes the dialogue, and at first the dialogue is hidden after which emerges, type of like a circle.
Filmmaker: Since you even have a background in philosophy, I’d like to select your mind concerning the literary excerpts that seem on this movie. It opens with a line from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Conqueror Worm” and options Katie studying from a Barbara Bush memoir, applicable for a rich Texan household to have on their bookshelf. Can you communicate extra to the affect of those distinct cultural figures?
Kerr: Collaging these completely different sources was a particular a part of the writing course of and was very distinctive to this movie. I’d prefer to say that the paragraph that Katie reads to Olek off her cellphone is what actually grounds the movie. It’s this story a couple of younger girl who’s sitting along with her mom at lunch, then she seems to be up and all of the sudden sees her mom current in entrance of her, however probably not there. She says her mom left the world and what’s in entrance of her are the eyes of a monster.
When I first learn that paragraph, it actually struck me. Like I used to be saying earlier than, there was that one summer time when so many relations handed away, however everybody nonetheless moved ahead. I went to camp, we took the household Christmas card. In the U.S.—or possibly particularly within the South—there’s a have to sustain appearances and sustain this picture of prosperity. That’s what the Christmas card represents. But as a child, I bear in mind seeing my mother all of the sudden be not there one way or the other. During that point, this grief drew her away from her physique.
I discovered that passage on the web. It’s the opening to a very theoretical paper about Lacan by this girl, Liora Goder. I used to be attempting to seek for the time period jouissance for my class, as a result of I didn’t perceive it. I like that paragraph, after which the remainder of the paper turns into tremendous dense. I couldn’t perceive it that nicely, however that paragraph all the time stayed with me. Deragh and I had been speaking concerning the script, which didn’t have that paragraph in it but. We had been speaking about her character’s relationship to the mom, then I used to be like, “Oh I read this thing once that really stayed with me.” She was like, “I think that should be in the film.” We put it in there and it actually grounded every little thing.
Things stored coming in after that. We initially included the Bush household cookbook, however once we received to [the house] there have been two Barbara Bush books proper subsequent to one another and the actors simply improvised. The Edgar Allen Poe ebook got here later once we discovered the round construction within the edit. I learn it in Ghosts of My Life by Mark Fisher, which is about how issues preserve being recycled in our postmodern capitalist realist society, and there’s develop into this incapacity to create one thing new—particularly in artwork, but additionally in political actions. I learn that and was occupied with the household on this suspended actuality, as a result of so long as they’re unable to specific grief and share their mourning they’re going to be unable to course of and transfer ahead with life. They’re all on this melancholia collectively, which creates an incapacity to maneuver or speak to at least one one other.
Filmmaker: When you had been profiled for the 25 New Faces record a pair years in the past, you mentioned that your subsequent characteristic would concentrate on a debutante ball as “as a very occult kind of ritual.” Is this nonetheless the plan?
Kerr: Yeah, I’m nonetheless engaged on that mission. It’s a couple of debutante ball set in 2004 and follows a sorority woman on the University of Texas. I used to be as soon as in a sorority myself, really, however left after a 12 months. It’s about these swaths of individuals that every one look the identical and act the identical. I used to be a debutante as nicely. That was a little bit of a surreal expertise and I actually hated it.
Filmmaker: So this additionally stems from an expertise that’s a way personally associated to you.
Kerr: For certain. It’s rather less autobiographical than Family Portrait. It comes from my very own expertise in these areas the place I used to be fairly terrified at occasions. It’s a bit extra of an arthouse thriller in that sense, and the primary characters are based mostly on these two mystics from the center ages that I’ve been obsessive about since CalArts. The principal character is overcome by a power nevertheless it’s unclear if it’s demonic or divine, which then begins to beat the cohort of debutantes. I’m studying Marjery Kemp’s autobiography proper now—some individuals say it’s possibly the primary autobiography—and she or he writes about how some individuals blessed her and mentioned she was involved with the divine, however many individuals accused her of being inhabited by demons. It’s simply based mostly on who was round them, the place they lived, what individuals had been saying. I’ve all the time discovered that tremendous fascinating.
Filmmaker: So there can even be a component of choreography in your subsequent movie, then.
Kerr: Yeah, I feel it’s going to be much more choreographic. I don’t know in case you’ve seen a Texas debutante ball, however what occurs is that they carry out what’s referred to as the Texas Dip, which is when the debutantes come ahead with their arms outstretched they usually bow down and press their torso to the ground. It’s tremendous devotional. So, [my film] known as The Bow. The rituals which can be carried out within the ceremony really feel very occult. But the unique historical past has been purged, as a result of now persons are like, “Oh, we just do it because it’s expected of us” or as a result of it’s a practice, or as a result of, you understand, “I’m doing it for my mother.” But nobody’s speaking about the truth that [the debutante ball] was initially completed to point out {that a} girl is able to be married. So the primary character brings that unique historical past to the forefront and takes it very significantly.
Filmmaker: I’m actually excited to see that.
Kerr: I’ve been in a residency this 12 months. I began the mission in Spain, in San Sebastian, for six weeks the place I used to be creating the therapy. That was tremendous enjoyable. I’m co-writing it with Rob Rice, who additionally co-wrote Family Portrait. And Megan Pickrell, who’s a producer on Family Portrait, can also be producing this one.
Filmmaker: Are there every other initiatives you’re seeking to develop in the meanwhile?
Kerr: I moved to New York a 12 months in the past and it’s arduous to focus right here. There’s rather a lot happening.
Filmmaker: What introduced you to New York?
Kerr: Karlis received a grant from [the Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment] to make a movie about Staten Island. He began engaged on that whereas we had been dwelling upstate, then he was gone rather a lot. We had been like, “Well, we should just move down to the city.” But it’s very nice being right here, as a result of I actually missed having a neighborhood. Karlis and I are additionally writing a brief proper now that’s loosely based mostly on this ebook referred to as The Twenty Days of Turin, which is a couple of haunted library. I received’t go into particulars, however that brief could be a lot cheaper and extra DIY. I feel it will likely be good to have that in addition to The Bow, the place I can have somewhat bit extra management over the method slightly than on the lookout for cash, which is tough.
