Rama Rau moves from documentary to narrative filmmaking with the intense sex trafficking tale HONEY BEE

An award-nominated documentarian for a decade and a half, Rama Rau makes her fiction feature debut with Honey Bee (currently screening at Women Texas Film Festival), the gritty tale of an underage truck-stop prostitute. Boasting an impressive star turn by Julia Sarah Stone, the movie offers no easy answers for its protagonist; just hard choices to obtain her own agency. And like Rau’s documentaries, it provides educational opportunities as well. Producer Sally Karam has been hosting community screenings of the film across Ontario, followed by testimonials from real-life key players in the battle against sex trafficking. Unlike some more sentimental cinematic tales of rehab, Honey Bee stresses that the struggle is ongoing…but it’s worth it.

In a Q&A with Films Gone Wild, Rau discussed her process, and what it’s like to bring the authenticity of documentary to a more stylized, fictional take.

1. As a filmmaker who comes from documentary, is it in any way more freeing to create fiction, where you can imagine whatever story you like?

It’s freeing and not freeing. I like working from a script and having an actor actually deliver the scene in question whereas in documentary, we wait hours, weeks sometimes, for the right moment or a mood. But documentary is more freeing in other ways, where we can explore a subject matter deeply and not stick to a script. Even the crew in documentary is used to running around and following the subject whereas in fiction, there are department heads who get very upset if you run after a shot. Having said that, I did run after shots and after the initial confusion from crew, they totally allowed me to do crazy things like that.

2. Conversely, does working as a documentarian make you feel just as dedicated to accuracy and realism when depicting something like truckstop prostitution?

Yes, absolutely. As a woman director who comes from the world of documentary, it was very important for me to research really well, to tell the story from the inside and to not sensationalize the prostitution. I wanted the audience to see the vulnerability of these young girls, not to sexualize them further. We talked to police who deal with these girls, we talked to counselors who are in the frontline of bringing trafficked girls in. It was a lot of reading, watching films and discussions with Julia about her character and what she’d be going through at a given time.

3. Did you have experience covering this kind of subject matter before?

Not this particular subject of trafficking but I have a lot of experience making hard hitting social issue films, like the one I made about the underground trade in human organs. So it didn’t scare me, going in, that I was making such a dark film. I never considered it too dark or too negative. For me, it was about a young girl who finds agency, who grows up under such hard circumstances and comes of age in a tough situation.

4. Julia Sarah Stone is astonishing in the lead, and looks appropriately strung out. Did she undergo any kind of physical transformation for the role, or is it purely acting?

It’s a lot of preparation, a lot of inspiration, a lot of research and yes, brilliant acting from Julia. She LIVED as Natalie for many months before we even rolled the camera. She even asked Steven Love, our pimp character, to send a recorded message so she’d listen to it and get psychologically prepared. Julia is astonishing and what I call an old soul. She’s superbly prepared and very inside the character.

5. How did Martha Plimpton come aboard?

Ha, good question. We knew we wanted someone who would embody the ‘tough love’ that I needed the foster mom to have. So I made a wishlist of actors and the producers got in touch with Martha. At that time, I think she was traveling in Africa. She read the script, liked it and said, “I want to speak to Rama.” So we chatted for an hour and she asked about my documentary work, etc. Then she asked me a crucial question: What is your experience working with actors? I said I don’t have a lot of experience working with actors, it is true, but what I can promise you is authenticity. I’ve worked with a lot of real people and the minute I find a false note, I’ll make sure I catch it. And that’s all I’ve got to offer. I must have said something right, because Martha said yes. She was absolutely a gift to work with. I mean, here I was, on my first fiction film and there she was, on what, her fortieth shoot? But she was consistently brilliant in every take, I absolutely loved working with her and Julia. I was spoiled – working with two fantastic ladies on my first fiction film.

6. Were there challenges to working with horses, even in the relatively limited situation they were required?

We had an animal wrangler and it was mostly fine. I do remember, at one point one sensitive horse got annoyed that the crew was in the stables and kicked down one wall of the stall and we had to stop filming. But other than that, the horses were gorgeous.

7. I understand you’ve been proactive in hiring female crew. Do you see others in the industry starting to follow suit?

I always try to hire women, people of colour, trans or bisexual and otherly abled people. I will always do so. I’m not sure others follow suit but I do keep hearing that of more crews these days, so that’s a good thing.

8. Considering the subject matter, was it difficult to get locations/approval for high school scenes?

We had an excellent Locations Manager, Douglas Brisebois and Producer Sally Karam and he did an amazing job getting us the perfect locations we needed. We would discuss what kind of location would work and somehow, we got the right one and I think Producer Sally Karam worked miracles with the budget she had, the locations looked amazing, and I’m so grateful.

9. Do you intend to do more fiction films after this, or stick mostly with documentary still?

I plan to work on lots of fiction after this – both feature films and TV. I’m already developing a full slate. I enjoy working with actors too much not to. But I will also continue to make documentaries. It’s the story that decides the genre, not me. And I just hope I can do it justice.

10. Popcorn or candy?

Popcorn, for sure!