THE FILMS OF DEBRA GRANIK

T H E F I L M S O F D E B R A G R A N I K

B R A T T L E T H E A T R E F R I D A Y , M A Y 3 1 S U N D A Y , J U N E 2

FILMOGRAPHY / SCHEDULE SNAKE FEED (1997) DOWN TO THE BONE (2005)..... FRIDAY, MAY 31, 6:30PM WINTER’S BONE (2010).......... SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 7PM STRAY DOG (2015)............... SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 4:30PM LEAVE NO TRACE (2018)......... SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 7PM

ALSO PLAYING AS PART OF THE PROGRAM FILMS SELECTED BY DEBRA GRANIK NASHVILLE (ALTMAN, 1975)........................... JUNE 1, 3:30PM COCKFIGHTER (HELLMAN, 1974)...................... JUNE 1, 9:30PM THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (KAURISMÄKI, 2017).... JUNE 2, 12:30PM HEROES FOR SALE (WELLMAN, 1933).................. JUNE 2, 2:45PM

"Coming of age in the Boston area: Waltham,

working people brought me places I could never go as a

Somerville, Mission Hill, JP. Boston formed and

civilian. You can’t go into the back rooms of the post

shaped me. From feeling a part of a liberal critical

office, meat packing counter, see the pesticide team

mass, a city of students who are in the midst of asking

working in the housing project, talk in-depth with a large

questions about big systems, to the hands-on training

scale apple grower—unless you have an assignment. I

of how to exploit video as a tool of activism—that all

would not have met the men and women who do those

happened in the neighborhoods and enclaves of this

jobs unless I was given the structure to be interested in

city.

their lives, ask questions, record their labor. Filmmaking is that structure. From this gig making industrial safety

Brandeis: Marx and Freud, the history of

films, I became engaged with photographing people in

documentary from Pere Lorenz to Humphrey Jennings

their work and performing labor.

to Salesman (1969) to Gimme Shelter (1970) to Joyce Chopra. Caring about almost everything!

Somerville: Vernon Street Studios was where I did my video-making. It was also used by several other groups of

Women’s Action Coalition: Being part of a radical

political media makers. In the toxic fumes of the foam

action group that was experimenting with ways to

factory, we’d edit and transfer our footage. We’d add our

push the discussion forward about the changes in

titles and our music on cranky outdated machinery.

everyday life that feminists wanted to see happen. I

Abundant skill sharing and training in Somerville, people

had a chance to taste cultural guerilla warfare—we

in the area willing to instruct, bring up the next

operated as a small group of combatants and

generation. Camera training at Somerville Community

conducted ambushes, sabotage, hit-and-run stickering

Access TV. Being schooled that the camera is an

tactics, non-sanctioned postering to fight the larger

important tool and weapon. It was instilled in me by

and less-mobile patriarchal and right-wing forces

these politicized veteran activists that it is worthwhile to

surrounding us. I was in the media and image-making

document, to bear witness, to reveal.

arm of the coalition. I loved activating and hitting the streets. I liked the adrenaline, and the feeling—to

MassArt: Sitting in on classes there, got to see a great

speak up fueled a sense of being alive and active, as

variety of the experimental film work made in the U.S.

opposed to still and angry. (Backed by L7’s Shove,

during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Pried open my mind and

which we used on the soundtrack to one of the

provided a strong counter influence to the documenting

agitprop videos we created.)

and chronicling. Through friendships made at MassArt I committed documentation of many protests—and

Massachusetts Dept of Occupational Safety:

eventually had links to colleagues who could use that

Creating educational and training videos for a state

footage which I stood out there in the field tirelessly

agency with a mandate to protect the health of

recording.” —Debra Granik, from a message sent on May 20, 2019

RECURRING COLLABORATORS

Anne Rosellini: co-writer on Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace, producer on all four featurelength works

Michael McDonough: director of photography on Snake Feed, Down image from Down to the Bone

to the Bone, Winter’s Bone, and Leave No Trace

"A freezing winters day, in the parking lot of a grocery store in a small town in upstate New York. An American flag cake careens down the belt to the

Victoria Stewart: second assistant editor on Winter’s Bone, producer and editor on Stray Dog, assistant

checkout stand. This is the opening to Down To the

editor on Leave No Trace

Bone, an everyday drama about a society, which has lost its bearings, in which the camera closely tracks the

Jonathan Scheuer: co-writer on

life of its protagonist, Irene. She is struggling to raise

Snake Feed, executive producer on

two sons, keep a stale marriage afloat and conceal her cocaine addiction as long as she can. In a sudden burst of decisiveness, Irene enrols in a rehab programme,

all films through Stray Dog

Dale Dickey: performer in Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace

hoping to get her husband back. On her return, the distance between them seems to have become even greater since their separation, pushing Irene into a destructive relationship with a former cocaine addict.

Without ever falling into easy moralizing, Down To the Bone sets out to provide an accurate depiction of its

Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee: casting on Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace

Dickon Hinchliffe: composer on Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace

characters, with all their failings and problems, who are struggling in that grey zone between right and wrong."

Ron Hall: performer in Winter’s Bone and subject of Stray Dog

—Description of Down to the Bone courtesy Viennale Film Festival

"Found structures and sets that are loaned by the real inhabitants can’t be imitated. Winter’s Bone was filmed in a local family’s holler.

The family was very involved in advising us, providing information, allowing their animals to be present while filming. Over time spent working with them in preproduction, the granddaughter in the family, Ashley, became a lifemodel inspiring the character of the younger sister. Eventually she seemed like the only one who could inhabit the shoes of this character and I asked her if she would play the role. She brought in her own toys and this tree house was a real place in her yard. When I saw it, I liked the shape and form photo by Sebastian Mlynarski

of the structure and it was one of the many details from the life lived in that holler that we incorporated.

The best path to photograph this story was to stick closely to what we were shown, what the family was really living with. The houses, toys, vehicles, clothing, and animals in their holler became the setting and textures of the physical

image from Winter's Bone

environment of the film." — DG

photo by Victoria Stewart

"Parking lots and the great shadows cast by the tall lights. In the making of Winter’s Bone, we had a chance to collaborate with a group of intensely talented local musicians in Southern Missouri. This is one night after a gig when they went to get some pie and coffee before hitting the road home. Parking lots are significant part of the American landscape in any region. They are part of the landscape of nowhere that we contend with. What surprised me about this tableau was the dog-shadows. I hadn’t really seen them amidst people shadows before. I was taken with how graphic this banal setting became once I noticed the shadows. Light and shadow being one of the core guts of all photographic imagery and painting." — DG

TWO INTERVIEWS WITH DEBRA GRANIK

by Jake Mulligan Originally published on DigBoston.com on October 23, 2015

No, I went back a couple times, then came home again, looked at the footage I was collecting, and asked “what

JM: You met Ron Hall on the set of Winter’s Bone.

am I getting here?" That’s when you realize [you have a

When did you realize that he was a movie in his

film]—when the footage contains something

own right? Does that happen immediately, or were

unexpected, or when it’s surreal, or when it gives you a

you already shooting footage before you decided he

stomachache, or all of the above.

was the subject for a feature?

DG: These projects often start with an inexplicable

I read that you would shoot in sessions that lasted

attraction. There’s something about the way Ron

between 7 and 10 days. Is that accurate? Were early

moves, or his dialect, that attracts my attention. Or

shoots longer or shorter?

there’s something I want to know from him—I see the

The first shoot was 4 to 5 days. And that spurred us to

“Vietnam” tattoos on his arm, and want to know what

keep going back, and then the shoots got longer. We

that meant to him. Or maybe I always wanted to talk

also collaborated with local shooters to get footage of

to veterans who’d had that experience. But if you

one-off events we weren’t there for, and also to get

come out of a place that’s not your own, and you’re

footage of events that can’t be planned (like a funeral.)

still thinking about someone there afterwards, then

We knew when Ron’s family would be having a music

there’s going to be an urge to go back.

night or a potluck or something like that, so we’d always try to structure things so we’d come down to Missouri

And what attracted you to Ron on a cinematic

on one of those days. So he was a featured player. He

level? How early are you thinking about the shape

could articulate and communicate to us what he was

of the final film?

doing on a daily basis.

It was a life that was really photographically available. There’s a lot of texture there. There’s the

And once we get there, there’s some level of verite. You

gravel drive, with all these humble dwellings, and a

embed, and you’re quiet, and the phone rings whether

bunch of bearded men. There’s small dogs. On that

you’re there or not. A cake burns, or dinner is cooked,

level, it’s a photographic paradise: there are layers,

either way. But other things do have to be planned for.

textures, unexpected qualities, lyrical qualities, and

The subject, after a while, knows how your crew works.

downright beauty. But I didn’t immediately say “Ron

And they begin to collaborate with and accommodate

embodies a bundle of American themes and I know

that. I joke that when you get deep enough into a

there worth discussing.”

project, you start to get emails from your subject saying “there’s something you’re going to want to film!”

There does seem to be a level of balance between

talking, people are reenacting everything under the sun, from

what’s planned and what’s merely observed in the

the Middle Ages through the American Civil War. There are

film. There’s a scene where Ron’s neighbor Bobby

people reenacting Vietnam, people dressed as Native

comes over to pay rent. And there’s a beautifully

Americans. It’s a psychohistorical bazaar—America is the

composed shot of Bobby walking in the door—

bizarre bazaar.

that’s not the sort of thing you would catch on the fly, right?

The editing often has us going back and reconsidering the

Yeah, and we have like four different versions of

footage we’ve already seen. Especially in the first 15

Bobby paying rent. There was one instance where we

minutes—for instance when you introduce that trailer

really loved the lines and the exchange—but [the

park, there’s no indication that Ron is the proprietor.

image] was blue and black, and on a video-level it was

That’s a big risk. We are a culture that loves clarity and

super compromised. And so the next time Bobby came

causality. There’s way more room for ambiguity in the

up, we altered the blinds in Ron’s office, so that

European film tradition. When we create narratives in this

Bobby would be illuminated. And we held them up,

country, even our closest colleagues will say things like “Do

too, so that we could get the shot of Bobby walking in

you think we maybe need some more explanation in there?”

the door. So that’s halfway between documentary-

There’s a lot of pressure on today’s editors to never leave any

style shooting and traditional composition. I’ve seen

doubt for anybody. And if viewers have to work too hard,

Bobby go through that gate, and be greeted by those

they make that out to be a negative thing.

dogs, so many times. And the thinking is I really like that, I’ve become accustomed to that, I want to get a

So was that your intent? To structure the images in a way

shot of that.

that would constantly provoke and then deconstruct specific expectations about this culture and region?

Some of the imagery in the film has an inexplicable

I mean, that’s the dream of what editing does for our thought

quality. There’s the scene where Ron reveals the

process, right? Editing provides an opportunity for us to

specifics of his military service: he’s talking to a

compare two things. Or to alter a feeling that has been

clown.

produced by a first piece of information via a second piece of

I know! That visual. When Tory [Stewart], the editor,

information. You’re not looking for the “gotcha” moment, as

would finish a scene, we’d always be freezed on a

Albert Maysles said. You’re not looking to throw your subject

frame. And in that case, in those moments, I would

under the bus. And if you show something unsavory and

succumb. My America, our America… We live in a

problematic, you have to ensure that you show the other

very cacophonous and unexpected set of crosscurrents

elements of the person’s life too—because the unsavory

at all time. And we have to learn to cope with the fact

aspects are never all there is (unless you’re making a movie

that in this very rural community center, they’ll be a

about a sociopath.) The responsibility of editing is to fan the

neighbor in a clown suit who’s listening to an older

cards out, to show the full deck. And when people say what

vet speaking about wartime experiences. That just is.

do you want people to get out of your film, the answer is I

My brain goes crazy to think that while we’re

want them to ask questions.

"The art of rebuilding motorcycles in a backwoods garage. This was a place that a bougie city-slicker could not go alone. This is a place without a published address. This is not visible from any street or lane. Our guide, Stray Dog, was friendly with a young man in the area who could reassemble and re-build almost any motorcycle. His understanding of the mechanical systems in a motorcycle was at an expert and genius level. He would get creative and mix and match pieces from a wide range of bikes.

This was one of his creations. Highly custom—no two alike—fanciful and intimidating end results. In a different life, he might be on a design team.

For now he was tinkering, amusing and impressing his friends with his resourcefulness, but with an aura of the threat which the large glass of alcohol in his hand cast over his every day." —DG

image from Leave No Trace

The following is an extended transcript of

But they’re all bound together by this one

by the findings. It was of course

an interview originally published in the

base—they know each other through this

photogenic. The director of photography

June 28, 2018 issue of Dig Boston.

business endeavor they’re trying to do. So

that we like to work with was amped about

I’m just trying to find a visual, a concept,

the idea. And Oregon crews are really adept

When I interviewed you leading up to the

that we can cling to. Sometimes when

at working in the forest or in the rain. So a

release of Stray Dog, you’d mentioned

you’re doing a documentary, it’s like

lot of things are starting to stack up, saying

that you were doing pre-production

groping blind, looking for what? Not truth,

yes, yes—we can make this film.

work on a nonfiction feature about the

but evidence, detail… you find a lot, and

lives of men who’d recently been released

some of what you find is not what you were

Another comment that stuck with me

from prison. Is that a film you still hope

looking for. It’s a messy business.

from our conversation about Stray Dog

to make? And what led you from that

was you citing the photographic texture

project towards Leave No Trace?

Leave No Trace was being developed,

of that film’s location as being one of the

I am still doing that project. Even on the

simultaneously, as a script. It’s an

primary motivations that attracted you

train today, I was hacking away at it. We do

adaptation of a novel called My

towards making it in the first place.

it in monthly increments. So at the end of

Abandonment. A producer up here in

Certainly I felt a similar interest at work

each month, I owe this big report to the

Boston, Linda Riceman, had been very

in Leave No Trace, especially in the

team: what we filmed, what’s not working,

affiliated with that book. She’d cultivated a

opening minutes, like the way that the

what is working, what’s happening in the

relationship with the author, and then

green palette of the park gives way to the

lives of the characters. And in today’s

brought the book to me and my producing

grey of the nearby city’s architecture,

report, I pasted this big hydra into the

partner, Anne Rossellini. We liked it, and

highways, and concrete.

beginning paragraph. I said, we have to

we thought, let’s dig deeper: let’s go to

You know how they say people who live in

view this as a hydra.

Portland, let’s do a recce, let’s talk to social

the north have 18 different words for snow?

workers, let’s ask rangers to bring us into

I always think people of Oregon must have

Is it expanding?

the heart of this municipal park where

had that many words for shades of green…

Well that, yes, but… there’s a core

people do live undetected for long periods

to be in the Pacific Northwest and to

organization—meaning a business—that

of time, let’s go out into the farm area

immerse there means you’ve got to see all

the people we’re filming are affiliated with.

[where the characters are temporarily

those raindrops, and you’ve got to see all

They’re trying to open a gym. So the core is

placed], let’s look at all of these

the ways that rain then reflects off surfaces.

this place. Then there are all these lives,

environments and see if we think we can

It is a texture: the reflective quality, and

like tentacles, trying to find their own way.

tell this story. And we were very excited

moistness, of the temperate rainforest.

Much of Leave No Trace occurs in

One thing that I’ve always found very

I’m definitely in that school that believes

“natural locations”, but it also shares

moving about your films is how little

there’s too much weight on the human face

certain qualities with the tradition of the

information you give at the start of each

in the American cinema. That’s implicit

road movie, or just with on-the-road

work. With Stray Dog I felt the editing

and imperative within the star system. And

stories in general. Every twenty minutes

was designed to suggest expectations

I become exhausted by that. I want to see

or so, invariably, we end up in a new

which are themselves related to

what they’re doing as well. I want to see

location. And there’s always a process of

stereotypes—and then those stereotypes

where they are. The face versus the

indoctrination that comes with each new

and expectations get broken down by the

environment… when you’re on a set…

location: getting use to the labor, the

information and images which follow. I

even a set that’s quite familiar, like a starlet

social mores, even just what they eat.

felt a similar quality in Leave No Trace.

in a wealthy house… what’s interesting

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to

Can you tell me about how you decided

probably is her, or him. Because the

read the source novel on which the film is

what information to give upfront?

fabricated wealthy-house set isn’t all that

based, so I don’t know how faithful this

As a storyteller, I love to go against the

interesting after so many years of it.

is towards the original text. But I am

grain of the conventional American dictate,

curious where it came from—from the

which would be that A has to really connect

Could you tell me about finding the

text, or from your research, or from

to B which then connects to C—and that if

editing rhythm for this movie?

something else altogether?

there’s any moment between B and C

I like to work with the editor. And we go

The locations, once we find them, influence

where you think some viewers might get

through a lot of versions. Any shot that has

us a lot. They come into the script in a big

lost, you have to plug it up so they don’t.

the option to go longer has probably, in the

way, whether they were in the novel or not.

With backstory, that’s really tricky. Most

course of editing, been very short at one

If something ends up being there that we

stories involve it, to bring you there. And I

point, then somewhere in the middle at

respond to, then we try hard to bring it in,

do think about dreams, and flashbacks, and

another, then maybe we tried it very long to

because it’s what we really found. So we

whatnot, but then I think, “well, what

see if that was effective… we try a lot of

love to think of it as a marriage between

happens if, like life, you just start it in the

different permutations. I would say that

what’s in the book and what we really find.

here and now”. You don’t get to see Tom’s

editing is trial-and-error unless you have a

mother because she’s not there. You don’t

big dogma going in—unless you have a big

A nonfiction element.

know a whole lot about Tom’s military

formal thing you’re going to do, [like] the

Yes. And you’re right with the analysis of

experience, his combat experience. Not to

beginning of every scene will begin with a

how it breaks down, that’s even how we

be coy, but it’s true: we’re dropping little

crane rising up, and then we’ll cut to this

edited them, as chapters. “The forest”, “the

pieces of information, and if you’re

and that.

farm”, “on the road”, “in the cabin”, and

listening, you’ll latch onto them.

finally that community at the end, which is

Would it be fair to say that you’re not

named Squaw. That community has certain

Does this relate to your sense of visual

dogmatic in that sense?

kind of dwellings… and we didn’t know

composition? You don’t employ the

It’s fair to say that, yes. I’m very eclectic,

what we were going to find. Squaw was a

close-up very much. You often stay in the

actually. I’m trying to look for how long

real place. It was an old logging camp from

long-shot, and in deep focus. In terms of

people can actually take in the scene, study

the 1920s. With those dwellings which look

framing and blocking you’re often giving

it with the characters, let the characters

a little bit like an advent calendar or like a

as much emphasis to setting as you are to

function and perform something, really

Hobbit village. It’s not just RVs but these

the people within them. Is that connected

make something, really cut something,

micro-cabins, original tiny houses.

to this idea of giving the viewer freedom

really use the wood to light the fire, even if

to be active?

the fire doesn’t light magically on the first

On some level I'm surprised to hear that

Well I love to include the details in the

take. Let’s just say it takes four tries. In that

the community is one you found as

frame. I want people to be able to see the

scene, it’s damp, he’s getting frustrated—

opposed to one you crafted, because it

camp, to see how they start a fire. Near the

it’s important to let some of that play out.

hews closely to the kind of communities

end there is a moment where Ben lights a

depicted in your other works.

fire with a ferro stick. And I really wanted

The nonfiction elements yet again.

Yeah, it was not a set that we built. And we

the knife to be seen—it was pretty much a

Yes, absolutely. I was wondering what

were grateful when we found it, because it

close-medium. As much as possible, my

[Tom] would find in the rural setting. She

did remind me of some of the wonderful

favorite close-up is one that includes the

found a young man next door who’s getting

parts of Stray Dog’s micropark… the idea

hands. He’s hunched over, so they’re very

through school by being interested in

that the people in the dwellings are

close to him—that is a very “close” shot.

agricultural class, who does 4-H. 4-H exists

neighborly, at times. Not always, but you

in every state of the country. It’s one of

know—they can decide to pull out a guitar,

But it’s more about the motion of the

those unknown unifiers—which intrigue me

say, and make a night of that.

body than about the face?

sociologically.

On a narrative level Leave No Trace functions as a parable of sorts. And yet there’s still this intense focus on surface texture —the kind of thing we’ve been talking about—the research elements, the nonfiction elements. They’re discernable and they don’t necessarily feel as if they’re being used in service of the parable, or in service of some larger “point”. Is this a balance that you’re conscious of while you’re working?

You can never be so conscious of that. I think you grow into it. You start to make the connections as you’re working. I don’t have the kind of brain that can go into it with that. It was kind of a fluke, but halfway through one of the many rewrites of Leave No Trace, I happened to go to a performance of The Tempest. And I was like, lo and behold, here’s this really adrift father character, it’s different circumstances but, he’s also exiled, he also has a storm in his emotions, and he’s also hypervigilant yet conflicted and confused, and feels harmed, and is a roiling person, and his daughter is his whisperer, almost, she’s the person who can bring him into balance. I loved that this classic work of literature shed some light about dyads—about two people who offer each other something complementary that somehow facilitates survival.

And there is an element of the mythic which sits on the margins of the movie. There are a few scenes where it creeps in. The ending, with the mountain, is one. That is almost literally a case of the mythic sitting on the edge of the movie just out of view.

After screenings of Winter’s Bone, it was European people who kept telling me: that’s a classic fairy tale. The witch warns her not to go too far into the forest, she goes anyway, she has to bring back a trophy, the heart of the hunter, to prove she was there, and that she did the journey, and that she didn’t turn back. Leave No Trace has a few of those elements—getting very lost in the tempest, right? They go deep into the forest, there’s a storm raging, trees are blowing, the water’s coming down, it’s getting colder, they’re very lost—those are the elements… to tell a story in a natural environment means you’re going to bring in the mythic.

image from Leave No Trace

Image from Stray Dog

"The ending shot of Werner Herzog's Stroszek

cheaply constructed asphalt and cement site of fast-

(1977) is a chicken on a turntable, dancing behind

buck commerce. We don't know if he is there

the glass of a miniature tableau in a roadside arcade.

volitionally or forced by circumstance. All we do

The chicken dances to the surging and careening

know is that he could not be more alone in the

harmonica and whooping vocals of Sonny Terry,

frame. Attempting to describe it reminds me of a

scratching the surface for traction and turning in

statement by the filmmaker Claire Denis: ‘many

circles. The chicken is out of context, isolated, lost

times images describe and make you feel what

and lonely. The music imposes a sense of the frantic

words can not.’

and desperate.

As I replayed the scene of the dancing isolated Why do animals let us feel things we cannot put in

chicken, and heard the police officer speak the

words, and cannot experience directly? Is it because

phrase "can't stop the dancing chicken", I thought

they give us space to wonder what they might be

why am I attracted to this? Is it not wildly heavy-

feeling, which is probably what we're feeling? Or is

handed? I struggle with the contemporary taboo of

it the space to project onto this chicken my feelings

being too obviously symbolic. Sometimes,

about the protagonist, and what has happened to him

especially when it comes to trying to let out a cry of

in his struggle to survive living in the U.S.? All

feeling about this big, young, conflicted, fast, cheap,

these questions surge up, triggered by this final shot.

and outta control nation, I crave the heavy-handed.

Then there's the awareness that the chicken is locked

Sometimes the most unsubtle image serves as an

in a cage inside an arcade in which “Genuine Indian

elegy, eliciting the ancient and needed emotional

Souvenirs” are sold, adjacent to a parking lot in

cycle of catharsis. Herzog certainly does not shy

which a lone Native American man in full regalia is

away from confrontation, holding up mirrors, or

standing, waiting, watching as cars drive by.

catharsis. I have a special reverence for filmmakers

Visually, this lone figure is within the larger arcade

who do what I dare not." - DG, excerpted from

of the tawdry re-sale of his culture, encased in a

longer writing about Stroszek

The Art of the Unreal

originally published in Dig Boston on May 30, 2019

by Hannah Kinney-Kobre When we talk about realism, we talk about

of surviving in the wild: McKenzie’s

But her films also reveal those places where

it mostly in terms of the banal. The can

character begs to sit down; her hands grow

reality shifts not on the basis of terror but

rolling down the hill, desperate impatience

cold and stiffen as her father hurriedly

on the basis of something akin to mystical

in waiting rooms and lines, offhand

breaks branches and clips fronds in order to

experience. Later in Leave No Trace, Tom

gestures and flat lighting––those details that

construct some kind of shelter, placing

helps a neighbor with beekeeping. The light

we take to signify everyday life as it is

leaves inside her jacket for insulation. But

is warm and dappled; Granik cuts close on

lived. The filmmaker Debra Granik is often

when watching the scene we don’t register

the hive as a section of it is pulled up, the

described (and on occasion has self-

it just as a realist depiction of survival in

yellow of the bees revealed by the light, a

described) as a “social realist.” And it is

the forest, but as a place where reality

faint humming sound emerging alongside

true that Granik does hew to a certain

breaks down: The light in the scene is

them. The woman places the bees in Tom’s

realist tradition; her films are often about

intensely blue, turning the patterned green

hands, as the camera moves from a medium

survival on the edge of systems. This is true

leaves into something kaleidoscopic, a

shot to focus more on Tom, now perfectly

of the father and daughter who quite

vision only broken up by the white of their

quiet except for the noise of the bees. Later

literally live on the edge by choosing to live

breath in the air (the cinematography is by

she shows the hive to her father, instructing

in the woods in Granik’s latest film, Leave

Granik’s longtime collaborator Michael

him to close his eyes, then removing her

No Trace, but also the residents of the RV

McDonough). Granik and editor Jane Rizzo

protective suit. When he opens his eyes, he

park in her documentary Stray Dog, who

cut quickly between shots here––Foster

smiles––and the film cuts close to her face,

struggle to pay rent or see dentists. But

grabbing a bundle of sticks, the harsh noise

serene, surrounded by wisps of hair, then

what marks Granik as a realist is not so

of his feet on the frozen ground, and his

moves down to her fingers, crawling with

much her interest in survival but her

knife hacking at the branches. The abrupt

bees. Reality gives way once more, but into

interest in the process of survival. Her films

cutting and his abrupt movements are

an image not terrifying but quietly ethereal

document the minute details of experience

contrasted with McKenzie’s slow, almost

and ineffable––a moment where the

that are usually left out in service of a plot:

mechanical attempts to collect fronds.

material of reality shifts not to produce a

the way Ree slices potatoes directly into the

Music seeps in, long dissonant chords, and

horrifying emptiness but instead a vivid

pan in Winter's Bone, or the sound that rain

the editing is no longer abrupt but rather

mystery.

and sleet make as they hit leaves in Leave

elliptical: Foster constructing the shelter, to

No Trace. This attention to the intricacies

him picking his daughter up, to placing the

Granik has cited influences such as

of experience is borne of a careful research

glistening leaves into her jacket.

filmmakers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh––

ethic––Granik has stated in many

but also, tellingly, the work of classical

interviews that she spends years doing

As the two lie down, McKenzie’s Tom asks

Hollywood directors like King Vidor and

research for each of her films, even taking

him if they’re going to freeze to death in

William Wyler. She notes in one interview

the time, for instance, to interview and talk

their sleep, a flashlight illuminating her

that the work of these classical Hollywood

with truck drivers before writing a short

face. When he says no, she asks him how

directors is “sometimes more cumbersome

scene in Leave No Trace where one truck

he knows that, with the camera close on her

or melodramatic than European social

driver offers the primary characters a lift.

pale blue face. But the sequence then ends

realism, because they are emerging from

And yet to say that Granik’s films depict

on her father’s face, the white light of the

the studio system.” Granik’s work is not

reality is to leave out the fullness of

flashlight strong on him as he looks up into

cumbersome, not having emerging from a

experience they actually depict.

the dark. Granik by this point heightens the

system that functions in the same way as

intensity of the sequence so that it verges

Hollywood did in the ’40s. And while her

What she is actually interested in are the

on the expressionistic—the blue color, the

work is not melodramatic in the way we

places where our idea of what life is begins

jagged cutting, and the clinical white light

recognize melodrama in classical

to disintegrate and become something else,

amidst the dark. It captures reality not as it

Hollywood film––as something explicitly

the marginal space that exists between the

is lived but as it is felt. The motions of

constructed in the narrative itself––Granik’s

realist and the surreal where our experience

everyday life gives way to the moments

films do reveal how the heightened and

becomes something strange to us. For

where our experience of reality is not so

unreal sensations of the melodramatic form

instance, there is a scene in Leave No Trace

banal, not dependent on the temporal, but

exist even in the banalities of daily life.

where the father and daughter (played by

fragmented instead. In this scene

Realism expands under her watch to

Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie

Granik captures those moments of terror so

encompass the unreal, the horrifying, and

respectively) camp out in the freezing

acutely that it appears the material the

the fantastic—not life as it is seen, or even

forest, which on one level demonstrates

world is built out of seems to have become

typically photographed, but rather how it is

Granik’s attention to the practical realities

something else entirely.

experienced.

images from Leave No Trace

produced in conjunction with