Kat Candler made a name for herself in the local film scene when her first feature, cicadas, premiered at the 2000 Austin Film Festival. Her film about "four teenagers trying to find strength and understanding at that age where no one understands" was an audience favorite at the fest and went on a tour of other US film festivals. Candler went on to make a number of shorts, including "The Absence of Wings"--her contribution to Six in Austin.

Kat Candler is probably the nicest filmmaker that ever was. There is no ego, no air of self-importance, no bossy attitude; just smiles and good cheer and a hearty love of making films. Perhaps she has had many years of therapy, but when we meet and talk with her, and watch her interact with others, the word that first comes to mind is kind. It isn't hard to see why Kat is such a beloved local filmmaker, why people love to work with her, why she's a darling of the Chronicle, and why even Mayor Will Wynn is willing to jump of a bridge for her. When we greet her on the set of Storie Productions' jumping off bridges, which she has written and is directing, she hugs us like she really is happy we came. The set feels relaxed and happy. Everyone gives us a smile.

Kat grabs a plate of the catered Mexican food and we make our way through the house where they are shooting in East Austin. We sit at the dining room table surrounded by movie lights. Crew members file in and out quietly.

Interview after the jump!

Do you want to talk about jumping off bridges?

I wrote it shortly after I did my first feature. Back in 2001 or 2000. And it’s very loosely based on a friend of mine whose mom committed suicide when we were in high school. It centers on these four friends and basically the aftermath of her death and how they struggled with grief and the collapse of the family of the friend, and the mom and her family. And it’s just one main character, Zach, who goes through all this weird and screwed up stuff.

Is that something you’ve always been interested in?

I tend to like and be drawn to more depressing subject matter for some reason. Although the next one I’m doing is a comedy. But I just enjoy films that are based on human experience. And things that we can all sort of relate to. But for some reason I do have a morbid fascination with depression, death, and all that stuff. I don’t know why.

You seem to be interested more in focusing on younger people.

Yeah, I do. Although I’m trying to break out of that. Although the next one I do is a comedy (Brain Brawl) and it is about an eighth grade academic decathlon team so it will be all like thirteen and fourteen year olds. But I did a couple of shorts—-one was about a middle aged man and one was about a seventy year old woman. And I love adolescence and then I like forty and beyond. I’m not too crazy about the twenties and the thirties. I just think it’s a little boring.

Yeah, that’s been done a lot. Especially in independent film.

Uh-huh. Yeah, I don’t wanna do something about relationships. And twenty-somethings sitting around tables and bitching about love and all that.

How would you describe your directing style?

I basically am really good at finding really talented actors and finding really good, really talented crew people and putting them in a room and letting them go. I can’t take much credit for how good they do because they always shine and that’s because they already do shine. I’m good at finding good people and putting them together.

I rehearse a lot. I am very detail oriented. I spend months in preproduction as far as storyboards and break downs and outlines and I make sure that once I get onto the set that everything that can possibly go wrong is taken care of ahead of time. I don’t have time to waste. We are working on very little money so we don’t have time to screw up.

Do you think being low budget or ultra low budget acts as a sort of cheerleader for creativity? Do you wish you could have more money? Well, I’m sure you do.

You know what, it doesn’t matter how much money you have. I mean, there are always going to be compromises that you are going to have to make and there are always limits that you are going to have, but I think that they are beautiful compromises in the end. And, yeah, you do have to be really creative about how you set up shots and how you maneuver situations and you have really creative people around you who help you with that and put their hands on it and the collaboration is what propels it forward and makes things work.

Is there one director that you love that you feel inspires you or that you emulate? Or even a bunch of directors?

I love the styles of Cassevettes and Mike Leigh in that they're very naturalistic and there is an honesty and a realism about them that I really have been drawn to over the past couple of years.

They are also very actor friendly, character-focused directors.

Yeah, I’ve been a little bit freer more recently with movement and cameras and so forth, whereas before it was everything with a very definite placement and now I’m a little bit more “okay, let’s move the dolly.” But overall I’m more concerned with the honesty of performances and the honesty of actors and making things seem more real.

Do you find that Austin has an influence on the films that you have made or think about making here?

It is just a freer environment and a very collaborative environment here. People are just really nice and there is talent oozing out of everywhere. You don’t feel like you are in a machine. And you don’t feel like you have to do cookie cutter stories.

Are you talking about Hollywood?

Yeah. It’s just a lot more open.

Maybe more creative and less of a business? Would you ever move to Hollywood?

Los Angeles? No. I don’t want to. I want to raise a family and I don’t want to raise a family in Los Angeles. But, New York, if I could afford to live in New York I’d love to. I like it here. I want to have kids. I want to have a house. I want to raise my family here.

So you have a day job. What’s your day job?

I work for a company called Cycorps and they are an artificial intelligence software company.

Wow!

Yeah, you work with robots! No, I don’t work with robots. I do travel. I am basically their travel agent. It’s a day job, but my boss is super duper supportive. She’s bought us food and let me off work and has been a huge blessing for me as far as my Monday through Wednesday.

If you could do anything you wanted, do you see yourself always being a filmmaker?

Oh yeah, it is just something I can’t not do. You know? I’ve tried other things that I’m not good at and I don’t care about as much. But, this is just where my heart is in a big way and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

What is your favorite part of the process? Writing or actually making the film or editing?

Being on the set with all these people and listening to their suggestions and watching their performances--even watching them move light stands around. We laugh and have fun together.

Have you ever had a movie experience you didn’t like?

There have been times of complete disaster. On cicadas we had this scene that we had to do with all this prosthetic makeup and Brian, who is now sixteen, was ten at the time and had to do this emotional scene and it was really, really great and we had to go back and look at the tape for some continuity situation and the whole tape was just ruined. That’s when I just proceeded to go outside and cry for an hour. Other than that, no. This is heaven for me to be on set.

I hope it’s heaven cause it’s up at 5:30 in the morning! Did you decide to move to Austin because of its filmmaking community?

Yeah. I moved here in 1997. I went to Florida State and got my degree in writing and got involved with the film kids there. And I decided I wanted to be a screenwriter and decided that I didn’t want anyone else to direct my stuff so I decided to learn how to do that. I moved here after researching LA. LA—-I’ve been there twice and it is so frightening. And New York is too cold. I tried Boston in college and couldn’t hack it. And so, one of my roommates in college lived here as a kid and she’s like “Oh Austin, it’s so great! It’s a mecca of wonderful people!“ I visited and instantly fell in love and when I moved here I took some filmmaking workshops. Everybody is just so nice here and the film community is just so supportive. I’ve grown up since 1997 with this other batch of friends who are making films. I’m just floored at how far we’ve gotten, back in 1997 making little tiny shorts to friends who’ve gone on to do huge things. It’s nice.

Was cicadas your first film outside outside of a school environment? Did you just jump right into a feature?

Yeah, basically. We basically made that-–two friends and I-—it was was kind of our grad school, learning how to make a feature film. In the end it cost twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars, but it took us five thousand in production. And now I’m like five thousand, dude.

And it was received really well.

Yeah, it did really well and we had no expectations. we just wanted to make a movie just to make a movie. Just to learn how to do it. And we certainly made a ton of mistakes and did a lot of things wrong. I mean there are flaws in everything, but that’s what makes things so perfect.

If you have your hearts in it, that comes through.

That’s why my rule on the set is that everyone has to be nice. My first rule before everyone comes on the set is that you have to be nice or else you are not going to hack it. You’re out of it.

It seems like the opposite is usually true.

The experience this summer is going to come across on screen. People’s experiences this summer will be on the screen. You are gonna see people’s hearts and hands all over it, and if it is not a good environment, you know, if it’s not fun well then there is no point in doing it.

What do you love about Austin?

The People. I love the individuality of Austin. I love driving into the East side and seeing the flavor and the color. I love going to the green belt and all the mom and pop restaurants. The restaurants is a big one. I love the food here.

Are you a fan of Tex Mex?

I am but I also love Indian, Middle Eastern, I love the Persian restaurant on Steck and 183. I love food so much.

What are some of your favorite restaurants?

Ararat. I love Polvos. I love Madras Pavillion. I love Eastside Café, Mothers.

Are you a Hyde Park resident?

I am.

I think I was reading that in your blog. You were discussing Hyde Park.

Yeah, 40th and Avenue D. I’m at Quacks all the time. I’m there at 6:30 in the morning when they open with my little laptop and storyboards. I love Hyde Park so much and sadly I could never afford to buy a house there.

What is the reason behind cicadas and jumping off bridges being titled in lowercase letters?

I guess the lowercase titles feel more relaxed and familiar to me for some reason. Most of my shorts are capitalized. It just depends on the story and how it feels, as lame as that sounds.

You appear to have a lot of female crew members. Is this something that you set out to do, or does it just happen organically? Do you find that more and more women are attracted to careers in film?

I'm a huge fan of largely female crews. Somehow on this production, it happened organically. It isn't something we purposefully set out to do. We just stumbled upon some amazingly talented, strong and hard working women. It's been inspiring watching so many of them rise to their potential. Stacy (Schoolfield), Lorie (Marsh) and I try to create an environment on set that allows our crew, male or female to learn, try out different departments, teach, take chances, make mistakes and grow from them.

I hope that more women are attracted to film. I think it brings fresh perspectives to storytelling.

How can Austinites watch your stuff? Is it available at any video store in town?

Storie Productions was on the path to releasing cicadas on DVD, but then we got busy with the new film and have since let that slide. Hopefully we'll get it out this fall. It would be nice to not have to burn a DVD every time someone asks for it. And yes, I very much need to stick it in video stores in town so people can rent it locally. I have films that can be watched or downloaded at www.cineclix.com or purchased on the last installment of Slamdance's collection of shorts at www.slamdance.com. Lastly, people can shoot me an email at kat@storieproductions.com and request stuff. Stacy, Lorie and I always talk about cloning ourselves so we can finish everything we need to get done. The cicadas DVD has been something we know we need to get out there, but things keep getting in the way, like a feature film production.

What is your opinion of the genre of short film? And what gets played in festivals? Do you find that more often than not they tend to be calling cards or one-joke movies? Or maybe you love them that way.

I love making short films. For me, they're exercises in filmmaking. I spent the last two years making about 5 or 6 short films while I waited to do my second feature film. I looked at them as ways to experiment.

I've heard of people spending up to a hundred grand on short films. That always baffles me. I guess some people are looking to make these 30-minute, slick calling cards in order to get hired to make the next FAST AND FURIOUS, but that's not for me. The most I spend on a short is about $1000. And that's usually paying for food, equipment and a miniscule amount to the tiny cast and crew. Not to mention, my shorts aren't exactly the kind with the clever plot twist or joke at the end. I try to do more slice of life pieces. I like to explore characters and relationships rather than come up with some crazy ending that makes the crowd spill over in laughter. I don't know, that's just not my thing. I'm sure most of my shorts are boring to other people, but I could sit and watch a 70-year old man have a conversation about baseball for a good while and be riveted.

What books are you reading?

Sadly, I'm not reading anything right now. I think the last book or books that I read were Coraline, As I Lay Dying and Peter Pan. I go in waves of reading. Right now I'm in a slump because I've been so busy.

What recent films have you loved?

The most recent films that I've loved ... again, I haven't watched a movie in a long time. I've had a hard time getting to the movie theater and I can't watch DVDs at home because inevitably I fall asleep. Mean Creek is by far my favorite film of the last year. That movie left me breathless. I thought it was such a quiet, simple and painful film.

All Photos Taken By Will Branch for Jumping Off Bridges 2005.