PIFF16 – 5 Questions for Adi Jahic – THINGS WE LIKE & Amanda Jane Stern PERFECTLY GOOD MOMENT

Originally Posted May 5, 2023

I wasn’t planning on doing the 5 Question Series for the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival this year, because I’ve taken on some other projects outside of T&T which demand a good bit of my time. However, these two filmmakers happened to reached out to let me know about their notable films and I couldn’t resist…

5 Questions for Filmmaker/Actor Adi Jahic – THINGS WE LIKE

Adi’s Intro

TRAILER | IG: @thingswelikefilm | Website: thingswelikefilm.com

Premiere Screening at PIFF – Wed. May 17, 2023 5:15pm
Venue: Canal Street Film Center ~ 924 Canal Street, Phila, PA 19123
Tickets

Film Synopsis: When Georgia meets a young man from Boston, Peter, on the internet, she leaves her mundane life in suburban Vermont searching for something more.

T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for Things We Like and/or the theme that is the heart of your film?

Adi Jahic: I was at a place in my life where I was thinking a lot about where life is heading and how relationships work. Especially how these things can be so funny: there’s a lot of humor and interesting moments that happen because of our different understandings of moments. I made this film to touch on those things and really look at what it means to connect and not-connect with people. The final is funny and emotional and also asks the reader to look a little bit under the surface.

T&T: Tell us a bit about the music (Who did you work with? What did you want to convey? Or any other tidbits):

Adi: There is very little music in the film. I thought that much of the film needed silence to really be experienced. The music that is used is very intentional. I worked with a wonderful musician named Silas Goodman who made two, nearly identical tracks that mirror each other: the only difference is that they feel different despite being mostly the same. The only other uses of music are over the final credits and a pretty but flawed live performance by Peter, the male lead.

T&T: What’s been the most memorable response you’ve received thus far from anyone after seeing your film?

Adi: Not many people have seen it as we are actually set to premiere the film at the Philadelphia Film Festival this month. Thus far we played at a private screening and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it (which was a wonderful experience), but the most memorable response I’ve received was an early cut of the film I showed to the amazing filmmaker Frank V. Ross. When he watched it he basically said “Dude this is great. It’s great. Now change all these things and it’ll be even better.” And I disagreed with him for a bit, but it turns out he was right, so I made some changes. Haha. That was very memorable.

T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to Philadelphia Independent Film Festival:

Adi: Oh, I had the most wonderful creative team for this film. I am so lucky to have been able to collect all the great minds from start to finish. The cast from top to bottom is amazing including Emma Kuhlman who plays the lead and is an absolute star, Liz Bishop, Drew Dunn (who is a wonderful stand-up comedian), and Noel Prophet who is one of the kindest souls and greatest musicians I know (he made the song that plays over the credits). Andres Gedaly, Jordan Lisi, Christian Corrigan, and many others helped make the film look great despite our limited resources. Tessa Richardson did amazing as both the art designer and producer, and producers Sydney Clark and Sean Doucette were the only reason we were able to get this made: they were both there every step of the way to make sure things happened as great producers do. Luke Bonzani and Jordan Lisi both helped me make all the tough decisions in the editing room. I am forever indebted to all these people I named and all the others I wish I could’ve!

T&T: Name 5 of your favorite films which influenced your desire to be a filmmaker?

Adi:
1. Scenes From a Marriage – Ingmar Bergman
2. Faces – John Cassavetes
3. Late Spring – Yasujiro Ozu
4. Present Company – Frank V. Ross
5. In Between Days – So-Yong Kim

5 Questions for Screenwriter/Actor Amanda Jane Stern – PERFECTLY GOOD MOMENT

Amanda’s Intro

TRAILER | IG: @perfectlygoodmoment |Twitter:@PGMMovie |
Facebook: @PerfectlyGoodMomentMovie | Website: perfectlygoodmoment.com
Director: Lauren Greenhall

Premiere Screening at PIFF – Thur. May 18, 2023 3:00pm
Venue: Canal Street Film Center ~ 924 Canal Street, Phila, PA 19123
Tickets

Film Synopsis: Ruby and David have been together on-and-off for 8 years, since she was 19 and he 34. Six months after Ruby last ran out on him, she has returned. Once the initial bliss of the reunion wears off, old toxic patterns re-emerge. Is David that demanding and controlling or is Ruby just too sensitive? Is Ruby as delicate and demure as she appears to be…or is there something more sinister behind the surface? Why did Ruby really come back? Perfectly Good Moment explores a sexually charged, toxic, age-gap relationship through a revenge lens. It unfolds in a three-act structure, but each act has its own distinct color palette to signify the different ways in which Ruby must modify her behavior and personality to survive in this relationship.

T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for Perfectly Good Moment and/or the theme that is the heart of your film?

Amanda Jane: I was thinking a lot about how frequently we see age-gap relationships onscreen but never interrogate whether there is a power imbalance. Take Last Tango in Paris or Manhattan for instance, in both movies the younger woman is still a teenager paired up against a very adult man. I wanted to flip that and explore that kind of relationship a few years down the line where the woman has grown up and is now looking at her partner through a different lens. In Perfectly Good Moment Ruby and David meet when she is 19 and he’s 34, now it’s 8 years later and she’s really re-evaluating the power dynamics of this relationship.

T&T: Tell us a bit about the music (Who did you work with? What did you want to convey? Or any other tidbits):

Amanda Jane: We really wanted to use songs that at first seem romantic, but when you really listen to the lyrics, can also come off as sinister. I actually wrote two specific songs into the script, the first is Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest,” it’s a very popular wedding song, but the second verse contains the lyrics “what if I’d been born 50 years before you…” since the film deals with an age-gap relationship, it was the perfect song. We pitched directly to Folds’ manager Mike Kopp and they loved our pitch and helped us license the song. The other song I wrote into the script is “You Made Me Love You,” again the lyrics are incredibly sinister despite the happy, big-band sound. We actually have Stephen Carlile, our male lead, sing the song at the beginning of the third act and then it transitions into a cover of the song that we commissioned for the film.

As for the score, we hired Mikey Coltun from Mdou Moctar. He read the script and came in with a lot of great ideas and he created this really intense, thriller score for the film.

T&T: What’s a great take away from working with an intimacy coordinator?

Amanda Jane: I loved working with our intimacy coordinator Acacia DëQueer. There’s this misconception that an intimacy coordinator is like the “virtue police,” they’re not. Yes, an IC is there to make sure that intimate scenes are being filmed safely and no one’s boundaries are being crossed, which makes filming these scenes a lot easier for performers. They are also storytellers, just like a stunt choreographer, they know how to choreograph intimate scenes so they convey what the director and writer want to convey, and look real. Intimate scenes are a lot like stunts, and they can be physically dangerous if not blocked out properly. For instance, we have a scene where Stephen climbs on top of me on a couch and pushes me up against its back so that I’m leaning over it and then he grabs me and flips me over so I’m sitting on him, Stephen is 6’3” I am 5’2”, if we had just gone for it without taking the time to go over all blocking and positioning, I could have gotten injured. At the end of the day, having an IC on board made filming those scenes incredibly easy for us as actors.

T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to Philadelphia Independent Film Festival:

Amanda Jane: Our whole team was incredible, so I just want to thank our producer (my co-storywriter) Julian Seltzer for encouraging me to actually move forward with this and Stephen Carlile and Lauren Greenhall for completely jumping onboard a project that was so different than anything they’d done in the past. Also, Matt Braunsdorf our cinematographer and his team (Jonathan D. Rodriguez and Sean Li) and our colorist Emily Bailey made this movie look breathtaking. And also, Rich Hamilton at Philly’s own Dragonfly Audio Post created a great sound design for the project.

T&T: Name 5 of your favorite films which influenced your desire to be a filmmaker?

Amanda:
1. His Girl Friday – Howard Hawks
2. Blue Velvet – David Lynch
3. My Beautiful Laundrette – Stephen Frears
4. The Handmaiden – Park Chan-Wook
5. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Ken Hughes