Lake Travis FF 2021 Interview: SHORTS #1 Three women directors talk about getting the financing and having a harmonious set to make their films

Three shorts that couldn’t be more different, with three women behind the camera (and two of them in front of it as well) join us for this interview.

Olivia Nash’s HI. places us on a pier overlooking a bay, where two aspiring young writers take the first steps to possibly explore each other’s writing, but more importantly to explore the feelings they have for one another.

Lisa Belcher’s JAVELINA RUN is a comedy about two ranch hands who say they were responsible for a train robbery to impress two saloon girls, not realizing they may be giving the real robbers convenient fall guys to take the rap – and the noose.

Kara White’s RISE ABOVE: WASP is a drama/documentary hybrid of sorts that utilizes newsreel footage and staged scenes to tell the story of the women who flew planes for the military to help during the WW II effort and yet were not afforded the respect or the benefits that men in the military did.

The three shorts screened as part of the 2021 Lake Travis Film Festival and in the interview, we talk about (as I frequently ask shorts filmmakers) why they are bothering making a short film. (Spoiler: we talk about “proof of concept” a lot.) We also talk about the challenges filmmaking-wise specific to being a woman and how to get financing is routinely a bigger hurdle than the actual movie making. They also talk about the value of picking their crew members wisely to foster a supportive set filled with collaborators who point to them as the leader of the project.