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 Marilyn Cooke, director of WANTED: STRONG WOMAN.
After graduating from film studies, Marilyn Cooke is exploring the themes that fascinate her, including family relationships and dreams. She was a finalist in the screenwriting competition Sprint for Your Script. Her first short film, Nothing But Us, was screened at various film festivals and was selected for the Solveig Anspach short film competition in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?
In Wanted: Strong Woman, Nadège is an ordinary black woman who takes care of everybody but herself — she likes her job as a nurse’s assistant, and she selflessly takes care of her ailing uncle, but she has some pent-up frustration that something is missing in her life.
She fortuitously discovers wrestling and is inspired through poetry to slowly step into the shoes of the person she feels she can’t be in her everyday life. She finds the confidence to be who she truly is. To sum it up, it’s about the birth of an ordinary superhero.
What inspired you to tell this story?
The film weaves a lot of inspiration from different sources in my life. Wrestling was a staple in our household growing up. We’d watch Sunday afternoon and Monday evening WWF matches every week, and I was fascinated by that world, where everything was overdramatic and over-the-top, even more than a telenovela! There’s an element of theatre and of complex physicality that I admire, especially watching stereotype-defying women performers who are unapologetic about who they are. They embody a level of badassery that is incredibly impressive. I always wondered what motivates someone to get into wrestling in the first place? That was the spark.
From the beginning, I knew I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of a complex, multidimensional black woman, to follow how her sense of self evolves through learning this craft. I wanted to explore her duality, how her conscious logical brain clashes with her subconscious longing for something more and how that manifests in her life. That’s why there are so many mirrors and reflections in the film. The way I found to show this subconscious meandering was through poetry and dream-like sequences to illustrate the divide between her reality and her interior monologue/mental state.
I wanted spectators to identify with the character and to embark on that journey to become strong with her — when she discovers that she had that strength inside her all along, I wanted us to feel that on an emotional level as if we were right there with her.
I was also inspired since the start with a vision of the sensory aspect of the film. There was a conscious effort to bring the sound design intentionally in the writing to augment the feeling of immersion and the tension between the interior/dream state and the exterior/reality in the film.
Still from Wanted: Strong Woman
Can you talk a bit about the poetry in the film and why you chose to include it?
Thank you! I wrote all the poetry that appears in the film, both the original French version and the translation in English.
I’ve loved poetry since I was about 13. Being a tad melodramatic at that age, I wanted nothing more than to become a romanticized troubled genius, a French poète maudit and have a tragic fate. I grew out of it (thankfully!) but the love of writing poetry and prose stayed with me.
Although Noel Alexandre is a fictional poet, he was inspired by the Afro-Caribbean poet Aimé Césaire and his Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. The Caribbean has a very rich literary and poetic history, and I wanted to portray that in the film.
What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?
The film is basically about self-realization. The relationship we have with ourselves is one the most important things in our lives. What is the difference between living and surviving? I wanted audiences to wonder what in their life makes them feel truly alive, and whatever that is, that they feel empowered to pursue that after seeing the film.
Accomplish what it is you feel you were put on this earth to do, and when the voices in your head tell you that you can’t do it, when you’re at your most vulnerable, find strength and power within yourself to roar in the face of the booing crowd and keep going.
Still from Wanted: Strong Woman
What’s next for you?
I’m currently writing a lot! I have a 3rd short fiction in the works that mashes up the themes of dreams, deceased grandmothers and working at the morgue.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I’m developing a comedy web series about three women of colour in Montreal trying to find their way around love, family and relationships while tackling the subjects of technology, cultural and sexual diversity among others.
What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?
Trust your instinct! What is it in the way you see the world that makes you unique? Find what that is and work on developing your singular vision and voice.
Make sure to surround yourself with diverse people. I’m not just talking about cultural diversity, but people of different backgrounds, who have different notions of what cinema is or should be, different opinions and perspectives on life, society, art, etc. People who support you but aren’t afraid to challenge you and push you further.
And finally, persevere! Know that there will be a gap for a long while between the quality you’re trying to achieve and your actual result. Some people say “practice makes perfect”, but I don’t believe perfection is of this world. But practice will eventually close that gap.
Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?
I love Miryam Charles’ work, particularly her experimental shorts Drei Atlas and L’album rouge ou l'intention poétique. Recently, Atlantique by Mati Diop also resonated with me for its mix of fantasy, contemplative imagery and migrant themes.
Catch WANTED: STRONG WOMAN as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, screening in the Shorts Program In The Family. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.