“You can’t trust anybody out there,” Nana (Lisa Emery) tells Iris (Bella Miah Estrada), the 12-year-old girl who’s come to her farm, at dinner in “Little Orange Flags.” They’re eating meat that was procured on site, and with Iris still a bit shaken from seeing a dead deer earlier in the day, she’s hardly feeling safer around her elder than living in the city, though her mother wanted her to spend the summer as far away as possible upon discovering she’s already started attracting the attention of boys.
One can rest assured that Iris won’t be straying too far when Nana insists on living off the land, rarely leaving her sprawling property herself and so far afield that hunters regularly creep up as close to the edge as possible for sport. But in Julianna Gelinas Bonifacio’s gripping short, the boundaries alluded to in the film’s title can be blurred when the occasion of Iris’ first period leads both her and Nana into unusual terrain. Iris’ journey into womanhood can resemble the forest nearby that can alternately feel like an enchanting refuge or a grove that can swallow you whole, but it is equally daunting for Nana, who has had no use to purchase tampons in years and has another child to raise in her granddaughter Pruey (Bella Price), whose mother passed away six years earlier, and as well-intentioned as she is in her desire to protect both children from harm, it could be that she’s doing more damage than good in putting limits on herself and their exposure to the outside world.
If “Little Orange Flags” comes across as particularly accomplished for a directorial debut, it is because it seems like it’s been a long time coming for Gelinas Bonifacio, who has served for some time as the producer – and occasional star – on the films of her partner Matthew Bonifacio, shorts such as “Fortune House” and “Master Maggie” and their feature “The Quitter.” The writer/director may observe characters stepping gingerly into dangerous territory, but she is far bolder in taking on the tonal tightrope that the film requires, capturing a place where the open fields feel full of endless possibilities yet frustratingly limited when no obvious way forward appears and has a gentle touch with her young stars who really appear to be growing up in front of the camera. With the film having made its premiere this weekend at the Sarasota Film Festival, Gelinas Bonifacio generously took the time to talk about her own path to settling into the director’s chair for the first time, her return to her mother’s farm to make the film and infuse it with such a sense of authenticity and how the short is the start of something greater than just one film.
You’re no rookie filmmaker, but how did the directing bug finally bite?
I really never had seen this happening. Matthew Bonifacio and I had talked about it at one point like, “Oh, one day are you going to want to direct?” And I had said, “I don’t think so.” Producing feels so natural and my personality suits that position so well. But I think writing was the gateway drug, because then when I started to create stories instead of bringing a story off the page and turning it into visuals, I started to [think], ”Wow, it’d be really cool to mold this myself from the very beginning” because I’d want my script to be seen in the way that I see it in my head and the only way to do that was to direct it.
This story in particular was very personal to me. It’s fictionalized, but loosely based off of my summers as a kid at that very house where we filmed, on my family’s property in Pennsylvania. I’m actually surprised how different the whole process feels. Every film that I produced of Matthew’s, I considered my own film as well, and I took a lot of ownership and pride in all of them. But this film, I just put the entire weight of it on myself and maybe I would have benefited from sharing more of the responsibilities, especially since I had Matthew and Meghan Lennox by my side producing. But I just wanted it to be what I wanted it to be. I’ve definitely had a lot of self-reflection during this process and at the end of the day, I’m just grateful that I got to do it at all because it’s not easy to get any film off the ground. But John Gelinas Jr. and Carole Buddenhagen Gelinas believed in me as a writer and first-time director and came on as executive producers, so we were off to the races.
It sounds like it was about time and when it is a personal story, does that make it easier or harder to have a vision for?
I wrote it at the kitchen counter of the house where we filmed. My mom’s renovated the house from when my grandmother lived there, but I wrote it during the summer and being there with the noises and the smells of my childhood, and there are still things in the house that were there back then. So it was totally influenced by this being a personal story and thinking of my grandmother who wasn’t the easiest person, at least for me as a kid, to get to know in a very personal way. But writing this, even though the character is super-fictionalized, I feel like I got to know her a little bit better. I just have such a love for the property that I was so glad to capture it on film and tell a story there.
Was it interesting to reimagine a place you know well as a film set?
We were lucky to be able to do a location scout with our director of photography Ben Goelz, who we had also worked with on “Master Maggie,” and a lot of the walls are white or a very pale shade because it was not designed to be a film set! And he was like, “Oh, can we get some wallpaper or a different color on the walls?” And I [said to myself], “Number one, I think my mom would kill me. Number two, I don’t think I have time to do this with the schedule. And number three, that’s not the house that I knew.” So thinking of it from different perspectives was really interesting. But there’s a scene set in these girls’ bedroom and that’s the bedroom I shared with my friend who would come with me for the summer as a kid and we would talk and whisper and giggle and stay up too late, so it was really cool. But it was also thinking from my experience in film, “How is this going to work best for the camera?”
What was it like to find your young stars?
They were playing 12, but they were actually both 11 when we were filming, and Bella Miah Estrada came more traditionally through a casting search with the help of our producer, Meghan. Bella Miah lives in California, and we were looking for kids that lived closer, but she was submitted and she had this incredible confidence for an 11-year-old. It was like she knew who she was and she has a lot of spunk and charisma. She was so contrasting to the other actress, Bella Price, who I actually found on Instagram. She came up in my feed and I just couldn’t get this kid’s face out of my mind. I [thought], there’s something so unique about her and soulful and mysterious, in a way. I just found her really interesting, but I knew nothing about her.
So I was trying to find who this kid is and where she lives, which I wasn’t really able to do. But Matthew suggested I go through who she was following and see if there were any adults with public profiles connected to her that I could see. I found her stepdad, Blake Smith, who had a public profile, and a picture with her in a car, so I sent this big, epic message like, “I’m not creepy, I’m a filmmaker, please Google me. And I’m sorry if this is strange, but I came across this person with this handle on Instagram and I would love it if she were interested to audition for my film.” To my surprise and joy, he wrote back right away [saying] she has no acting experience and was based in Arkansas, but she would love to audition. And Matt always brings up that somebody had commented on one of her Instagram posts, “You’ll never be famous,” just kind of bullying her, and knowing her now, she probably wasn’t even affected by it. But it hurt me for her. And I don’t know if we’re going to make her famous, but there was something about that that’s like, “Well, we’ll try.”
So her stepdad and mom [Amanda Smith] brought her to New York to audition. Even though she had no experience acting, she was so smart and handled the dialogue so well and wanted to get it right so badly. And then these two kids from different parts of the country came together to act in this film and were best friends from the moment they met. And then also in the film is Lisa Emery from “Ozark”…
When you were describing your grandmother, that sounds like perfect casting…
You see the connection already? [laughs] Well, I just knew her as a fan. She’s done so much amazing theater work and other films and TV shows, and Matt has this magic when he calls agents, getting out all of our credits to legitimize us and then be like, “Can you please read this script?” And [her agent] said yes, and when we sent the script, I wanted to send a letter, as well, telling Lisa why this was so personal to me and why I love her so much. To write that letter, I did a lot of research on her and found out that for part of her childhood, she grew up about 10 minutes from where we were filming. So I was like, “Okay, this has to be another sign.” She said yes. So that was really great.
Was there anything that changed your ideas of what this could be once you got it in the actors’ hands?
Yeah, because the character of Pruey, played by Bella Price, was loosely based off of me, I don’t think she looks or acts like me at all. She’s way more soulful and thoughtful, and I was more chatty and maybe spoke even when I didn’t have anything to say, so I wrote it so that her character and the Iris character were more contrasting than my real life friend and I were. She made that character as written come alive.
I also wrote it to be a drama, and I think I figured out in post that it’s a thriller through editing and then score. I wanted it to sound like a music box, so it inherently was a little haunting and Michael Bacon, who is a good friend and also did the score for “Master Maggie” and “Libero,” did it based off of this idea. I don’t look at the location as creepy, but the reaction that I found from people who haven’t ever been there or know me that well personally that have seen it [think] the location is haunting, so witnessing it through other people’s eyes maybe changed the genre, as well. But I leave that up to interpretation. I don’t want it to be too much of one thing or another, but that was a big realization [to think], “I don’t know if this is a drama anymore.”
I know you’ve said in the past it was a proof-of-concept for a series. Do you still have that ambition for it?
I would love that. Matthew and I started a new production company called Lizzy & Dicky Studios about a year-and-a-half ago, which slowed down the process of finishing “Little Orange Flags” a bit, but for good reason. Once I directed “Little Orange Flags,” Matthew [said], “You know what? We should start something fresh. We both direct, produce, write now. Instead of it being my company that you work for, why don’t we start a company together?” This is our first production company that we’re co-founders and we have a bunch of other projects and we have a Development Assistant. So it’s been really great. It’s been life-changing. And it’s also meant that certain projects we spend more time on because they either have more interest or they seem to be more of what’s desired in the industry at the moment. I wrote a new feature that’s a thriller. Go figure. Maybe I found a genre. And I see how [“Little Orange Flags”] could be something more. So I would love to pursue that down the line.
What’s it like just getting the film to Sarasota now?
It’s an honor. I’ve had three films in the past at Sarasota and had such a great experience. It’s such a well-run festival and we saw so many great films there, so I’m really excited to get on the ground and see some other work and have an audience see this film. I’m lucky both Bellas are flying out for the premiere and they’ll see it for the first time with their families. And our editor, Avi Edelman, and our director of photography, Ben Goelz, are coming down to see it. Then my mom [Judy Gelinas] not only provided the location, she was also the costume designer — she hand-sewed all of the costumes in this film, so she’ll come down as well with my stepdad Randy and celebrate with us. And Matthew, of course, will get to see it up there on the big screen as well, so it’s really exciting and I’m just really grateful that we got to this place.
I can’t let you go without asking about your mom, if she did the costumes. Was that something she volunteered for?
My mom is a great seamstress. She made a lot of my clothes when I was a kid and my Nana, her mother, also sewed, so I [told my her], “Mom, I have this idea. I want the costumes to look very handmade in a certain color range, and I want the fabrics to look a little old. Would you make them?” And I thought she’d be all like, “Well, I’m so honored,” but she was like, “Okay, that’s going to be a lot of work!” [laughs] And it was! She knew more about what would go into it than I did. But I spent a week at her house before filming, and I helped her cut out pieces and pin things, so we actually had a really nice time putting together some of those costumes. It’s something I’ll never forget.
“Little Orange Flags” will screen on April 7th at the Sarasota Film Festival as part of the Deeply Poignant shorts program at noon at the Regal Hollywood.
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