Kat Candler
Former ‘drama diva’ Kat Candler defies film business norms to deliver a dark, gripping message
By Adam Rathe
Published: February 22nd, 2007 | 2:51pm
So-called maverick moviemakers are often just the opposite. As the moviegoer can easily forget, even the most avant-garde piece requires the time and money of a major studio in order to make it to your local Cineplex.
Kat Candler, the Austin-based filmmaker whose work includes Cicadas and
Candler joined forces with mental-health groups across the country and arranged screenings of the film for the people who needed its message the most. In addition, she showed Jumping Off Bridges at numerous festivals and at screenings in cities all over, including a National Institutes of Health Science screening in Washington, D.C., and the 2006 SXSW Film Festival. By doing so, she created her own network and established a distribution process.
We caught up with Candler on the phone while she was in Austin in early 2007.
How did you decide to make a career in film?
I started out in high school drama and wanted to be an actress on Broadway. I was the typical drama diva kid. I ended up at Florida State University and took classes in creative writing and loved them. I got into a dramatic workshop class and had to write a one-act play [and] fell in love with dialogue and creating characters.
How did you decide to distribute Jumping Off Bridges in the way that you did?
In screening it, we had people from different suicide-prevention groups coming up to us and really responding to it. The other thing was talking to distributors after South by Southwest [in 2006]. We would hear, “We love the film, but we can’t put it in theaters. It’s just not a theatrical film.” So we said, “Screw it, we’ll do this ourselves.”
Are you happy with the results?
Oh, yeah. We met so many wonderful people in the suicide prevention and mental-health world who embraced us. We also learned the whole distribution side of moviemaking. It’s important for any artist to know the business of what they’re doing, and it was a very empowering experience to have a film, own the film, and be able to do what we wanted with it.
What attracted you to the film’s teenage characters?
Pretty much everything I’ve done, I’ve done about kids — adolescence is so romantic to me. Everything is so heightened. Every experience is like you’re experiencing it for the first time. I like my 30s a lot, but I don’t really want to write about them. I just find [teens] more interesting.
How has living in Austin, a famously creative town, affected your craft?
This town is like heaven. Everybody is so good to each other, in the film community especially. So many talented people are here, and there are so many resources. It’s been this group of friends who make movies because they love movies, not because they want to be famous or make a million dollars — because we all know that’s a pipe dream — it’s in this community’s blood.
How has teaching film classes at the college level in Austin affected your work?
I’ve volunteered for middle-school girls and am trying to put together a program for the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in digital media. It would be phenomenal to have these girls realize that filmmaking and animation and gaming aren’t rocket science. Growing up, I had no clue how that stuff actually happened.
What would you tell girls who want to become filmmakers?
To just pick up a camera. To hang out with their friends and come up with crazy ideas and make them happen. That’s why I make movies. I have a blast. I love telling stories and if it weren’t fun, I wouldn’t do it.
Issue #28
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