Filmmakers in Conversation: Amy Bench x Iliana Sosa
Amy Bench’s “More Than I Want to Remember” was one of just 15 films shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Award in the Animated Short category, and won a 2023 NAACP Image Award in the same category. It premiered at SXSW last year, won best Animated Short at Tribeca and Best Documentary Short at Hot Docs, and is now available on Paramount Plus. Her new short documentary “Breaking Silence” will premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival and is a co-production with ITVS.
In addition to directing, Amy’s a cinematographer whose film “Trans in America: Texas Strong (SXSW, 2018) won an Emmy in 2019. Amy lensed the features Mama Bears, Lover, Beloved, and Shouting Down Midnight, all of which also premiered at SXSW last year. In addition, her camera work has screened at festivals including Berlin, Sundance, The New York Film Festival, and at MOMA/PS1.
Iliana Sosa’s What We Leave Behind premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Louis Black Award and Fandor New Voices Award. The film was picked up by ARRAY Releasing, and was a 2022 New York Times Critic’s Pick. It’s currently available to stream on Netflix.
Iliana Sosa is an Austin-based filmmaker raised in El Paso, Texas, by Mexican immigrant parents. Her work has screened at festivals and museums including SXSW, Full Frame, Camden, Morelia, and the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC, and she’s held fellowships and residencies with Firelight Media, Sundance Institute, Berlinale Talents, True False/Catapult Rough Cut Retreat, Logan Nonfiction Program, and Jacob Burns Film Center. Her work has been supported by Sundance, the Ford Foundation, the Austin Film Society, and Field of Vision.
Her Gotham Award-nominated debut feature What We Leave Behind (ARRAY Releasing) won two awards at SXSW 2022 and was a New York Times “Critic’s Pick.” It’s currently available to stream on Netflix. In 2020, she was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” and in 2021, she was one of DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40.” Most recently, she directed a TV documentary episode for Jigsaw Productions, which will air on HBO later this year.
Amy Bench Growing up, I sort of had blinders on. I mistakenly assumed equality was just a given, that the civil rights and women’s rights movements had done their job. And it was only through more work and life experience that I realized maybe that’s not the case, maybe not everybody’s represented equally or truthfully, or even invited to participate. And so it became important to me to tell more women’s stories because as a woman, I felt shut out of jobs and opportunities. I used to be an engineer — a very male-dominated field — I’ve really felt how hard it can be to try to fit in, in that kind of work environment. And I think this lack of representation touches a lot of industries and public spaces.
Iliana Sosa I really enjoy being out in the field and like interviewing people. I was very naive when I went to grad school at UCLA, because I didn’t know what that process entails. I didn’t know anything about it and anything about filmmaking. I spent about eight years in LA working, I was doing a lot of doc reality TV, and I disliked it. I decided I couldn’t do it anymore, so I came back to Texas. And I started working at the Austin Film Society. And that was really great because I got very tapped into the Austin film community.
Amy on Breaking Silence
AB I originally pitched a series featuring families — specifically women and mothers — across the state of Texas who had been impacted by the [prison] system. And one of those stories was about someone who was recently released from Lockhart. We were green-lit to do a short on the woman, Leslie Estes, and her father Walker. Because of the pandemic, and the resulting access to Leslie’s re-entry, the project evolved to focus more on the relationship that she had with her father, and how her incarceration impacted his activism in the prison system. In essence, it’s a father-daughter story, one that my co-director Annie Silverstein, who is also a parent, was really drawn to. Leslie’s father is deaf. And so when he went to visit her in prison for the first time, he was sort of taken aback by all of the rules that made his visits with her totally inaccessible — making it really difficult for him to communicate with his daughter. And that piqued an interest in him to help other people who were incarcerated get better access to communication. So it’s sort of a film with many layers. First, it’s about a family healing and communicating in ways they hadn’t, but also, how the lack of accessibility and communication access in the prison system impacts those that are incarcerated and deaf.
Iliana on What We Leave Behind
IS The film world premiered last year at SXSW, and it won two awards there. It was really amazing. I didn’t think it would do so well at the festival. I mean, it was amazing that it got in, and I was very happy and proud of that. And I knew that I wanted an in-person premiere post-pandemic. So many colleagues around me did not have the opportunity to have in-person screenings. And that’s devastating, especially after working on a film for so long, mine took seven years. So I just wanted it to be out in the world in person and have people experience it. We didn’t have a sales agent going into SXSW. Then after that, it screened at a lot of other festivals.
We actually approached ARRAY before SXSW, sent a screener, and didn’t hear from them for months. And we’re like, oh, I guess I don’t know if they liked the film. But then after SXSW, it really helped that we got really good press. And then we won these two awards. And then ARRAY came back and said they were interested in acquiring the film. And so we were really thrilled with that, just to be able to get any sort of distribution, especially for a Spanish language film. And then we started working together and ARRAY has a deal with Netflix, where any film that they acquire goes on to Netflix for three years. So that’s how that happened. But it’s funny, because when I started working with my producer I told her, ‘Oh, I’d love for the film to be on Netflix.’ She’s like, that’s wild, like, good luck, because that’s probably not going to happen. But funny enough. It happened in this way. It’s amazing that it’s now accessible to so many people.
On SXSW and Austin
IS For me, it was really special to premiere there because I’m now based here and a lot of my community is here. And with other festivals, It can be overwhelming also because there’s just so much to do. I love that people [at SXSW] show up to go to screenings and sort of the word of mouth goes around in terms of films, with ours being this small, very small Spanish language film. It was amazing to see the reception. Then they added an additional fourth screening which really helped, so I think my experience being there just people go and really are there to watch films. And that’s been really amazing. And the community here is unlike, I think, in other places, at least where I’ve experienced other festivals.
AB SXSW is really special. But it’s been my hometown since my youth, it’s also like something I’ve known. When I was going to school for engineering I was a volunteer at South By. And that was like, in the early years of South By existing so it was very small, and more intimate, yet the talent they brought was so impressive. It was like, you know, I saw bands before they were signed to major labels. So to then flash forward to now, and to be showing films at SXSW, a globally respected festival, it is pretty remarkable and special. But I think I have to think about it in that context of like, wow, like this used to be like a really big beacon. It would be like what I would do during my spring break when I was in college. Like Iliana said, the audiences are really good. They really come out and they ask great questions. I think having theaters like the Alamo Drafthouse is great because like, you can like watch films all day and not forget to feed yourself while you enjoy the festival. And everybody is having such a great time. Friends I’ve met at other festivals, who live on the other side of the world, say that SXSW has this reputation for being the most fun for filmmakers. But yeah, it’s a huge festival, and it can be a little bit overwhelming. But the screenings themselves I think, are really great. The Q&A is always awesome. And, you know, people come out.
IS Yeah, and I feel like you can meet future collaborators, or at least I’ve had the opportunity to just meet people randomly and then later, work with them on something. And that’s been cool. Because sometimes that doesn’t ever always happen in other festivals.
AB The community here is great. Austin Film Society and Austin as a whole are supportive of creative people. It’s got a history of creative culture. I lived in New York after grad school and I found it much harder to be an independent filmmaker in New York for obvious reasons like rent and just the difficulty in scheduling and pulling off a shoot there was… just so different. Life here is a little slower and easier, and people are here for the love of the community. And, just having the film school here you know, you’ve got a natural talent pool already and a lot of people stick around. There is a really nurturing community for filmmakers here in Austin.
On The Changing Roles of Festivals
AB Because I’ve been making shorts, it might be really different, because I’ve never been driven by what I think people want to see commercially. Shorts don’t have or haven’t historically had a lot of options for distribution. But I actually think in the case of shorts, that’s changed, I think there are a lot more options because of streaming and platforms like Vimeo and Short of the Week. While there may not be money, there’s definitely exposure. And I would say from my point of view, festivals are really crucial to advancing your career as a filmmaker and providing potential opportunities. While people may not be acquiring films at the festival per se, distributors are definitely paying attention to what festivals a film plays, and what awards it’s winning. And it’s hugely important. I do think that festivals are important.
IS Yeah, I agree with that. Because I think in our case, winning those awards, and then going on to other festivals really helped build the reputation of the film. In terms of distribution, I mean, the numbers don’t look so good, right? Even out of Sundance, I think there are still, even this year, very few films that just didn’t get acquired. So I think maybe festivals aren’t the path now to get distribution, but I think they can help. And I think there’s always people still scouting, whether it’s agents or, you know, funders or distributors, but it’s tricky, because everything’s changing so fast. And now with the streamers that makes it even more difficult. But I still think there’s a lot of value and in screening your work. I mean, it’s really important, especially for independent filmmakers to have a platform to screen their work. And if festivals aren’t there, then I don’t know where you go? It’s a tricky, tricky time for sure.
Amy on being shortlisted for an oscar
AB Well, it was sort of a dream. As I said earlier, I only made films motivated by my own interest, or, stories I felt needed to be told. And to make something that starts winning awards at top tier festivals — wow, that kind of floored me. But yeah, just to see the momentum pick up throughout the year was really exciting. And to get shortlisted was really exciting. I don’t know how to, I don’t know what else to say about it, I’ll say it’s a lot of work. And you basically have to put all your energy into campaigning, which basically means getting the word out about your film, because people can’t vote for your film if they don’t know that it exists. And even though it’s on the Oscars portal, doesn’t mean voters are gonna go watch them all. So it does take a significant amount of effort to encourage people to watch your film. I know how to do it now that I’ve done it, but it was hard to envision the campaign until I was in the middle of one.
IS Well, you’re sort of still in it, too.
AB I’m still in it. I’m not in the Oscars race anymore. But there are two big awards that we’re still in contention for, one is the NAACP Image Awards were up for Best Animated Short, and the Annie Awards, which is the most prestigious animation award in North America. We’re up for best director and I’m sharing that with my animation director, Maya Edelman. We’re up against Netflix and Disney+ and Apple, and for mostly TV series. So yeah, it’s been pretty exciting to make work completely from the heart, that’s not commercially driven in any way, and see it have some level of industry success.
On building a production team
IS It’s so important. I love cinematographers and I love to work with female cinematographers. It’s a conscious choice. I have worked with male DPS in the past, but I really love to work with female DPs. I worked with two female DPs, Mónica Wise Robles and Judy Phu on What We Leave Behind. And for me, I just really thrive in that environment that is intimate. But also, women just get it; I feel I’m able to communicate better. And they understand what I’m trying to do. Not to say that men can’t do that. I think that as you move forward in your career, it’s important to not only mentor but also help other women. I see that as my role.
AB Yeah, I would agree. I think we still have a lot of work to do in terms of having parity and especially more creative roles. I think there are women doing more jobs in more fields, but in directing and cinematography, those opportunities aren’t evolving as fast as they could. When I make films I try to bring on as many women as possible because we have to create the opportunities that we wanted when we were first starting out. So I think it’s really important to keep that going. And women get it. Women get the struggle. It’s nice to have women on set who are supportive.
IS At the end of last year come, I was pretty burnt out from traveling a lot and also doing an awards campaign for What We Leave Behind. My grandfather passed away in 2019 and it became difficult to talk about the making of the film and his impact on my life during interviews and Q&As. It’s good to just take care of yourself, especially when making personal documentary films. It’s so important. Doing an awards campaign almost feels like running a political campaign. And that’s not why I make films. And it was such a new experience to do that type of awards campaigning. And I did not want to be like, hey, come, go watch my film. Like, you know, if you’re going to see it cool. If you’re not, that’s cool, too. So that was very out of character for me. And that took a lot out of me to do. So I don’t know. That’s where I think I started burnout after doing a lot of months of that.
AB For “Breaking Silence”, I got to work with two friends — Annie Silverstein (co-director) and Monique Walton (co-producer). We made this film during the pandemic. I tend to really dive into my work. And I don’t have much free time outside of work and family these days. But when you work with your friends, it’s social. So every time we were working on the film, we were also hanging out. In addition to liking the people you work with, I think respecting the work they do on their own is also important. Because then there’s like a mutual trust, and coming to decisions is actually really easy if your collaborators have similar aesthetics and values. Collaborating with Annie and Monique has been really nice. We support each other.
