Q&A: Mar Wolf
Photos By Alex McDowell
A VISIONARY CREATING THE WORLD SHE WANTS TO LIVE IN THROUGH THE SILVER SCREEN - Mar Wolf is at the forefront of the movement to improve the film industry for the better. Working to include more women in the film industry through her work in filmmaking, Wolf’s experience in scriptwriting, editing and now directing, helps her shape the new narrative. She crafts each film as if it is part of her being, treating each project with the empathy and sensibility that many filmmakers work to reach. She is currently studying at The New School in New York, and working on her newest short film BIRD. Read below to learn about all things BIRD, her filmmaking inspirations and more.
LUNA: You dabble in a couple of cool areas within film, so would you mind introducing yourself and sharing how you got started in the film industry?
WOLF: Yes! My name is Mar Wolf, and I am a writer and director based in Brooklyn, NY. I’ve been writing, editing, and freelancing scripts for the past five or six years, and most recently took on Director’s boots to produce a hummingbird of a film, BIRD.
LUNA: How has having experience in both the script writing/editing side and directing side impacted the way you approach an idea/project?
WOLF: Being that I took up screenwriting before directing, I ‘got’ to spend a lot of time mentally planning scripts that I would never produce - this lead to a more detailed writing style on my part, one that was, objectively, more eloquent, but left little room to get picked up by any director but myself. I think that progression is present in a lot of my work, allowing myself the time to marinate with something and put more and more of myself into it.
LUNA: What’s been inspiring you lately?
WOLF: I’ve been on a Yorgos Lanthimos kick the past few months - rewatching The Lobster, giving Dogtooth a first viewing. Somehow, most of my work preconsciously ends up edging on the side of the surreal, and Lanthimos’ films have been giving a kick to my internal threshold that feels much needed.
LUNA: Are there any films, individuals, visual artists etc that have shaped you as an artist?
WOLF: Don Hertzfeldt has been a constant afflatus of mine through time - his work is unlike the content I write, in that he uses illustrations, collage, multimedia, etc., but it is filmwork that is unlike anything I’ve seen to date. He writes with such a candid vulnerability and dryness that matches the tone of internal dialogue in the face of personal growth and conflict, something so individual and universal that is nothing short of transcendence. My favorite film of his, namely - It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012).
LUNA: Do you find yourself drawn to any common themes or narratives in your work? Is there something lately you’ve been drawn to?
WOLF: In both my script and written works, I, of course, integrate my own experience and condition - I try and test this, though, push at it. I heard an idea from David Bering-Porter, to start a development process by choosing two contrasting emotions or experiences and marrying them. Something like fear x lust, fascination x remorse, gratitude x denial, etc. It’s a process I like testing in standing scripts as well, pin-pointing the two sharpest emotions and finding a moment to press them to one another.
LUNA: What opportunities do you think living in New York has brought you?
WOLF: Oh God, plenty. I was born and bred in Chicago, and had lived in Paris leading up to my move to New York a few years ago - I could not have ever anticipated the expansion of urban mindset I was met with upon my arrival. In the biggest city I knew, I was running into faces I hadn’t seen in years, had wanted to meet for years, had no idea I needed to meet until that moment. It’s my favorite part of the city, meeting people - I walk around with a $30 tape recorder, picking up dialogue I couldn’t think to write on my own, conversations you couldn’t get anywhere else. I find connections within connections, giving me amazing opportunities to work on film sets, photoshoots, festivals - the people I find and see in New York amaze me to no end.
LUNA: You’re in the midst of working on your short, BIRD, though things are on hold given the circumstances. What can you share about the story and the current production?
WOLF: BIRD! She is an independently produced, surreal short I wrote in one night last fall. Until last year, I had yet to put one of my scripts into production - my screenwriting professor at the time had met with me, and essentially told me I needed to start directing my own work in order to find growth and success in the film writing path. That night, I set beats and banged out ‘Something Tangible,’ as it was originally titled, and rallied a crew and IndieGogo fundraiser soon after.
BIRD follows its namesake, an urban migrant connecting to the heart and ear of the city through its people, in a rush to purchase her first suitcase and flee New York for kinder winds. The film is backed with a surreal admiration of patience, observing others grow and migrate from separate cages, in a struggle to keep up with the nonstop progression of new connections.
BIRD was set to go into production the first week of June, though with crew and cast scattered across the country in quarantine, we are delayed indefinitely. Thankfully, I’m backed by such a stellar crew of filmmakers and artists, and we are keeping the excitement and sureness in the project raised high.
LUNA: For BIRD you're working with an incredible all women team - that's awesome! Why is representation and supporting fellow women important in the film industry?
WOLF: It’s a historical and present fact that women are continuously shoved down in the film industry. Blanket. Women’s work is a separate entity - you cannot produce a piece without it being labeled ‘feminine’ - it’s an aside. I am surrounded by phenomenal female creators who have been denied opportunities elsewhere, or who seek involvement in a field they otherwise wouldn’t be granted access to without prior experience. I paired with the wonderful photographer Alex McDowell as my DP on BIRD - this is her first go at filmwork, and it only seemed fitting it’s my directorial debut, as well.
LUNA: Is there something in particular you’d like people to take away from your work?
WOLF: Catharsis, maybe. A relation. Movement of any kind. A film is such an individual experience, you get out of it what you do.
LUNA: I know things are in a weird place right now, especially when it comes to putting creative projects on hold. How are you taking care of yourself through this and what advice do you have for those in similar boats?
WOLF: I’m one to suppress emotion by keeping busy, - a habit that I, frankly, do not love - which has proven difficult stuck to the confines of my apartment. Emotion spills out, and everything feels out of control, and it’s horrendous, but it’s temporary. I know that much to be true, everything moves in cycles. It’s incredibly difficult to sit with knowledge of loss, to sit with the uncertainty. When I have these moments of emotion spillage, it’s suddenly difficult to remember that this exact state is being experienced globally. My strongest advice is to allow the waves to come and go, not to fight it - a release is painful, and it’s healthy. Two conflicting emotions that create possibilities for brilliant connections. Ha ha.
LUNA: Continuing with some advice, I’m sure working in a male dominated industry can bring its fair share of difficulties. What can you share to young women wanting to break into the industry but may feel discouraged?
WOLF: Littlest ladies, you’ve just got to be the loudest in the room.
LUNA: Aside from BIRD, do you have any upcoming plans/goals you’d like to share?
WOLF: I am currently working on a period piece with the working title ‘And Bees,’ following a young woman in 17th century Bavaria as she finds connection within her sexuality, and tests the independence so pushed upon her within the home - it’s something really fun for me to work on, as it involves a more rigorous research method than previous films. I’m taking this time to loop back to older pieces, unfinished bits - I’ve got this chance to really mess around with my formatting and style, I’m having a blast.
