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Director Proposes a Movie Residency With Fewer Scripts and More People
· New York time
Filmmaker Josephine Decker says making films has become lonelier and has discussed a dream of creating a residency for movies without scripts. She pointed to her short A Stable Marriage, made from a one-paragraph starting point and a day of improvisation, as an example of an approach she found refreshing. The idea treats collaboration as part of the creative material rather than simply the machinery needed to execute a finished plan. A paragraph gives participants a direction without telling them every turn to take. It can leave room for discoveries, though it also asks everyone involved to tolerate more uncertainty than a neatly numbered screenplay might provide. A residency would give that kind of experiment a place to happen. In an industry where a project can be discussed through schedules, budgets and distribution plans long before an audience sees it, Decker's emphasis is on the people making the work and the experience of making it together. The appeal is understandable even to anyone whose creative process involves carefully labeled folders. Decker is not announcing that every movie should abandon its script. She is imagining a place where filmmakers can try another way of working. Sometimes the most appealing production document is permission to spend a day in a room and see what everyone can make.
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