In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Kourtney Jackson, director of WASH DAY.
Kourtney Jackson is a filmmaker from Toronto. She was the 2018 Emerging Director’s Spotlight winner at the Regent Park Film Festival, where she premiered her experimental short 1 vers[us] 1. Through film, she continues to explore the histories, nuances, and intersections in her ethnic, cultural, and spiritual identity. Wash Day is her second project.
Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?
Thank you! Wash Day is an expressionistic, experimental documentary that follows three young Black women as they get ready for the day whilst discussing the public perception of their blackness and bodies.
What inspired you to tell this story?
I wrote a poem eons ago that started with the line “If you asked me where to meet me when I felt my strongest / I’d tell you the shower / on Wash Day”. I thought it would be cool to make a film with visuals that catered to the concept of strength and vulnerability and just half-heartedly wrote what that could look like in a notebook I definitely don’t have anymore. When I got an opportunity to pitch a project at the Regent Park Film Festival in 2018, I decided to transform the idea into a documentary that included other voices and perspectives. I’m glad that that’s how the film came to be.
Still from Wash Day
You clearly took a lot of care in the art direction of WASH DAY - can you tell us about how you came up with the looks for each scene?
I wanted the film to be colourful and reminiscent of the bright and colourful hair tools that are sold at beauty supply stores, and so I kept an eye out for objects that could be in frame while shooting. I also bought flowers to accent the frame when I saw fit and used them as a motif for the final sequence of the film. In terms of actual shooting, I didn’t know what my subjects’ homes looked like until I arrived, and so when we were about to shoot, I kind of frantically moved around their rooms with my camera until I was satisfied with a shot. And finally, shooting something on Super 8mm film was something that I'd always wanted to try, and I thought it'd be perfect in capturing the striking image of soap suds on brown skin.
Still from Wash Day
What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?
I wanted to showcase the differences in the complex relationships black women have with their hair, and bodies in general, and how these evolving relationships are impacted by daily confrontations with racism and misogynoir. I think mainstream conversations around body-positivity and self acceptance have previously failed to consider the pervasiveness of racism, sexism, ableism (the intersections of these -ism’s), and the difficulties that arise when one starts to unlearn the societal messaging they’ve internalized for so long.
What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?
Remember that your unique and authentic voice is your greatest power. Allow yourself to write ‘badly’, and to make ‘bad’ films. Give yourself the space to make mistakes and don’t be hard on yourself when you do (still learning this myself!).
Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?
Mahalia Melts in the Rain is a stunning film directed by Carmine Du Four and Emilie Mannering. Fast Color is also a film I saw recently. It’s about three generations of black women who have the magical ability to disintegrate objects to its granular parts, as well as the familial tensions around how these abilities are used in a dystopian world with little water. The film has been described as a superhero movie, which I disagree with, but still recommend everybody check it out. Both films are on Crave!
Catch WASH DAY as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Kourtney on Sunday June 28th. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.