An Interview with Kelly Reichardt

In this chapter, Reichardt answers questions concerning her career, film production and methods and provides insights into filming River of Grass, Night Moves, and Certain Women. She talks about the environmental and political threads woven into her films and elaborates on how script and adaptation writing. The interview closes with comments on the filmmaker, Peter Hutton.

Expectations: Meek’s Cutoff

This chapter focuses on Reichardt’s genre mixing, slow cinematic techniques, minimalism, neorealism and her use of the “female gaze” as well as “the open image” or “crystal image” as defined by Shohini Chaudhuri and Howard Finn. Reichardt subtly shifts the environmental and political issues highlighted in her prior films back to the nineteenth century debate of Manifest Destiny and its effects on the landscape and native peoples. Based on historical events during the 1845 “terrible trail” tragedy, Meek’s Cutoff explores contemporary political issues of leadership and community by loosely linking Meek’s violence with George W. Bush era torture tactics and foreign policy. In her feminist Western, Reichardt used an aspect ratio of 1:37:1 creating a claustrophobic framing aesthetic and while this echoes the pioneer women’s vision during their long march in the dessert, it also created distribution concerns.

Breakthrough: Wendy and Lucy

This chapter is a close reading of Wendy and Lucy, a film loosely based on the depictions of disaster victims and the perceived governmental failing to provide and protect those affected by Hurricane Katrina. It is Reichardt’s political statement about being homeless and female in America. Highlighting distribution details, the chapter explores the necessity of a micro-budget that dictate and contribute to many independent filmmakers’ aesthetics. The chapter discusses her use of “slow cinema,” ecofeminism, and the rejection of a capitalistic and patriarchal “American Dream.” Reichardt highlights the overlooked or marginalized in America: women, the working classes, and the poverty stricken. Influenced by the Italian Neorealists of the 1940s, the film addresses current issues of poverty juxtaposed with consumerism in America. Finally building on work of Anita Harris and Sherry Ortner’s analysis of lower class women’s representation in independent film, the chapter situates Wendy and Lucy in relation to post-feminist and third wave feminist concerns.

Growth: Ode; Then, a Year; and Travis

This chapter discusses all three of Reichardt’s experimental short films. Each contain elements of feminist ideology highlighting a mixture of social and cultural tensions pulled from news headlines. All three short films share a haptic sensibility via form and content. Ode based on Bobbie Gentry’s song “Ode to Billie Joe” follows an adolescent boy’s struggle with his sexuality, ending in suicide, set in the rural south. Ode is a 48 minute narrative shot on Super-8 and mixes the tension between homosexuality and extreme religious ideologies. Then, A Year is a collage of images with voice-overs discussing real life news stories: the statutory rape case perpetrated by Mary Kay Letourneau and the murder of a woman by her husband. Travis is based on a National Public Radio interview with a mother struggling to understand the loss of her son during the Iraq war. This chapter connects the influence of documentary style realism in all of these early films to her later narrative features as she explores social and cultural issues.

A Closer Look: Kelly Reichardt

This chapter focuses on Reichardt’s career, definition of success, and specific model of filmmaking. Included is a brief biographical sketch of Reichardt’s life, detailing issues related to family, childhood, education, and other filmmaking experiences in addition to her feature films and shorts. This biography gives way to a discussion of the filmmaker’s experiences in the independent film industry as a woman director and an artist who defines success as controlling her artistic vision. The overview of Reichardt’s early growth and experiences as a student and filmmaker, informs the production details and close readings of her feature films.

Kelly Reichardt as Auteur

Referencing Laura Mulvey, Andre Bazin and Andrew Sarris, this chapter discusses auteur characteristics and explores how Kelly Reichardt is contributing to a definition of feminist avant-garde cinema through her production methods, content, and form. Reichardt offers a 21st century alternative to traditional mainstream cinematic ideologies and her filming style politicizes her cinematic form. While discussing differences between Hollywood and independent filmmaking practices, this chapter also posits alternatives to mainstream cinematic pleasure.

Solidification: Certain Women

This chapter is a close reading of the film Certain Women that explores lost and isolated characters who are content to remain outsiders or on the margins. Adapted from short stories by Maile Meloy, the film is divided into three episodes, and this chapter discusses the production methods, form, and content that focuses on working women and their relationships. Laura (Laura Dern) is a lawyer wrangling a volatile client; Gina (Michelle Williams) is a successful entrepreneur struggling to find balance within her family; and Jamie, a Native American rancher (Lily Gladtone) is battling isolation and infatuation with her teacher, Beth Travis (Kristen Stewart). Reichardt’s cinematic auteur characteristics are all showcased as is her thought-provoking social commentary. The expansive Montana landscapes and barren winter setting reflect the emotional state of the characters and Reichardt’s minimalism creates an authentic portrayal of a flawed, complex, and vulnerable humanity. The chapter also explores adaptation theory arguing that Reichardt creates a “new work of art” allowing audiences to add their own interpretations.

Precursor: River of Grass

This chapter provides an overview of River of Grass, Riechardt’s first feature film, production details via interviews, a close reading of the film with applications of Marxist-Feminist film theory, and an exploration of issues ranging from environmental concerns to the negation of heterosexual romance in a road movie genre. In contrast with her other features, River of Grass’s more overt feminist and experimental themes and gender role reversals align the film within an older feminist counter-cinematic tradition. Reichardt addresses theoretical film concepts such as the “male gaze” by emphasizing the female look and employs Godardian techniques to remind viewers they are watching a construction of reality.

Expansion: Night Moves

This chapter discusses Night Moves as a political thriller about ecoterrorism, and focuses on Riechardt’s adjustments in form, style, and content as compared with her prior body of work. While on the surface, Night Moves appears to have more commercial intentions, it is an overt challenge to cinematic commercialisation. Although the thriller genre promises sex, action, and special effects, Night Moves, in true independent cinematic fashion, never shows these events on screen. Night Moves invites ethical questions through the ecoterrorist actions of the protagonists and the gender commentary supplied through the sparse dialogue and character interactions. Through interviews with Reichardt and her cast and crew the chapter covers production methods and makes connections with contemporary environmental activist groups, such as the Earth Liberation Front, the Occupy Wall Street movement and to terrorist acts such as the Oklahoma City bombing.

Discovery: Old Joy

This chapter is a study of masculinity within American culture and politics of the late 1990s to early 2000s. Old Joy is the only feature primarily focused on male interactions. Reichardt introduces her audience to male stereotypes found in traditional masculine roles and then deeply complicates them, through intentional ambiguous characterization. In doing so, the film resists cultural constructions of masculinity and continues a tradition of resistance by questioning and offering alternative representations of social norms found in independent cinema. The chapter explores production methods via interviews with Reichardt and producer Anish Savjani and contributes to the content conversation around LGBTQ concerns. In addition to a discussion of masculinity, as portrayed in the film, it analyzes the political context of the film concerning the displacement American liberals felt during the 2000-2009 presidency of George W. Bush and the failure of the democratic party to create an effective consensus.