(upbeat music) (upbeat music gently fades) - Welcome to "Generation Rising".

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

Here at Generation Rising, we have conversations that explore solutions to the inequities our diverse communities face every day.

Today, we are joined by Kristen Falso-Capaldi.

She's a writer, filmmaker, and visual artist.

In 2023, her film "You Weren't Afraid at All" won the best short film newcomer at the Block Island Film Festival.

She also sits on the board for Women in Film and Video in New England.

Kristen, welcome.

Thank you for being here.

- Oh, thank you so much for having me.

This is so great.

- You had an unconventional journey, road, pathway to filmmaking.

Tell us, what was the catalyst?

- [Kristen] So, I'm just gonna back up to 2013 when I was a public school teacher for a long time, and I was starting to feel like I really needed a creative outlet.

I had been a writer for a really long time, but not steadily, you know?

And around 2013, I started writing every day.

And I was writing a lot of fiction, but I started dabbling in screenplays.

And as the time went on, I got better as a writer, I got some short stories published.

I did continue to write screenplays, but I didn't really know what to do with them.

And then 2020 came, and we were in lockdown and I was sleeping better than I had ever in a while, and I ended up having this kind of crazy vivid dream, and I wrote it out as a screenplay.

You know, there was nothing else for a nerd like me to do during lockdown, but create random things, so I sat outside on, I think it was April, it was a little warm that day, and, for two hours, I just wrote out the script.

And I had some friends that we would meet on Zoom to talk about movies during the pandemic, and I sent it to one of my friends who's a filmmaker, and I said, you know, "Tell me what you think of this script," and he said, "You should make it," and I said, "Okay, good.

You can direct it."

And he said, "No, you can direct it."

And it seemed like he was telling me to go to the moon, to be honest with you, because again, I was a writer and I had been dabbling in visual art for a while, since about 2017, and just the thought of like, kind of taking the writing and the visual together, it really excited me, but it was terrifying because I thought, "Well, how can I direct people?

I don't know how to do that."

But he said, "Yeah, you're gonna direct it.

I'll shoot it for you," and it was the fall of that year, so 2020.

We had five people on set because it was the pandemic, and the locations were donated.

We used a friend's basement for some scenes, we used my uncle, Sorry, my cousin Paul owns a bar in North Providence and it was closed, so we used his bar for some of the scenes, and we were our own extras because we didn't want too many people on set.

We just kept changing outfits and being in the background, and that's how I became a filmmaker.

- Because you used to be a public school teacher.

- Yeah, yeah.

- That is just amazing.

So, it's so beautiful to see that magic was born out of this endeavor, right?

Out of you just taking a chance at writing something, and now it is so celebrated.

- [Kristen] Thank you.

- [Anaridis] You're talking about the film "You Weren't Afraid at All".

That's your short film.

You wrote that you started this just shy of turning 50, and this film went on to win many awards, including the best short film newcomer at the Block Island Film Festival in 2023.

- Yeah, thank you.

- [Anaridis] Did you feel like a newcomer?

- Yeah, I did.

I mean, I think the Block Island Film Festival is awesome, and I had such an amazing time there, and I didn't expect to win an award.

I was just super excited the film got in.

But yeah, and I think, honestly, I kind of embrace being a newcomer at most things.

I find that if I try something that I'm not a hundred percent sure how to do, it's very exhilarating.

It gives me a little bit of a rush, so I'm okay with being a newcomer, and I do kind of feel like it's a badge of honor to be a newcomer at something in my fifties.

(chuckles) So yeah, I think I do still feel I'm always learning.

And the background I had from public school teaching, I think, was really useful in directing, believe it or not.

I think there were some definitely transitional, transferable, sorry, skills to use as you being used to talking to young people and trying to get them to do what I wanted was something I could take into a film production, for sure.

- [Anaridis] What was challenging about navigating this new directing role as a woman in this field, in this industry?

- You know, I had some really great people behind me and the people that I was working with, there was one female actor and two male actors.

I would say they were all very helpful to me as far as letting me do my job and not trying to step on toes.

One of the actors has been an actor in Rhode Island in Massachusetts for many years, and I actually got to watch him work with the young actor who was only just in college, and to see how they interacted with each other, I didn't necessarily feel challenged as a woman.

I think I mostly just felt like I wanted to be able to execute this thing without coming in and maybe making things kind of fall apart.

So, I mean, I think my problems are always like, more in internal than, you know, worrying about letting other people kind of tell me how to do my job, I guess, is the best way to put it.

- Well, it seems like all of it kind of came together so organically, as you mentioned.

You built a community around using your uncle's bar, you mentioned, in North Providence, or somebody's house, or somebody you knew.

How were you able to be resourceful as you created this project?

- Well, I think part of the good thing about all of this for me personally is I have a really good group of people around me, and I think that's so important.

My two best friends jumped right in and helped me out.

My husband jumped in and helped out.

My husband did the music.

He cleaned up all the audio.

He claims he doesn't like doing music for movies, but he actually did an awesome job.

I had two musicians, a local band called, Well, they're called Belly.

They're local from Newport, but they're actually known all over the world.

But I reached out to one of them.

They donated one of their songs to me, and then I got another song.

So I had really, like, people just helped.

And it's really interesting.

And then there was one actor who was supposed to play a part and he wasn't prepared, so the person who was doing audio for the shoot, he also was an actor, and, last minute, I said to him, "Can you play this role?"

And he jumped right in.

His name's Adam Carbone, he's in all kinds of things now, and it's just amazing to see what came out of this when it was the day before shooting, I lost an actor, called this guy and said, "Hey Adam, I heard you're an actor, can you jump in?"

And he did, and he did an amazing job.

- [Anaridis] And then you get into the circuit, right?

The film festival circuit.

What did you discover through these experiences about where women stand out, or where are they challenged when it comes to creating films?

- I think there's a lot of fantastic female filmmakers out there.

I think that there's probably less known about, the ones like me, versus, say, Greta Gerwig, you know?

And I think that there's a lot of wonderful opportunities.

I would say the place where I found the most help was through the organization Women in Film, which I've only been on the board for a year, and I'm the actually the Rhode Island State Chair, which is helpful.

But I think, prior to that, I didn't have any idea how to find either other women who were in the industry or see the success stories of other women.

So I feel like, once I got involved in that organization, I really found that there was a really great community of women working together and helping each other.

I think that's one of the biggest positives.

As far as the festivals, I mean, generally speaking, I got rejected a lot.

So, I mean, it's great to talk about the wins, and I think that's awesome, but there's so many festivals, and it's really tempting to try to throw your film into all of them, but they also all cost money, so I think that, you know, just knowing that there was gonna be a lot of rejection.

I don't know that it's because I'm female or not, but I think that there's definitely, every film festival has an agenda, every film festival is looking for certain things, so I think you have to learn to deal with the rejection, for sure.

- It's playing out on a international stage before, as you mentioned, Greta Gerwig and her role directing the "Barbie" movie, she was excluded from the Best Director category.

When you see things like that play out, does that kind of motivate you to continue your work on the board and connect with communities?

- Yeah, it does.

I think it's really important for, and, you know, television and film, for many years, was a boys club, and that's pretty well known.

Especially, I would say, Hollywood, right?

The entertainment industry.

But I think there's also so many female filmmakers all over the planet, and Women in Film, for example, the organization I'm in is for New England, so I could probably, not off the top of my head, but I could name a hundred women that are doing fantastic, amazing things.

I know female grips, I know female stunt coordinators.

I mean, there's just so much, and I love Greta Gerwig.

I think it's great.

I'm sorry she didn't win the Oscar, but I also think everyone knows about her, and most people who are not in the industry would probably think that her story's the only story.

Oh my goodness.

There are so many great things happening.

And I've learned a lot of that through Women in Film, of course.

Also, there's the Rhode Island Film Collaborative where the group gets together once a month in Providence.

That group of people, there's many people of all different genders or, you know, people of color.

There's all people in that group, and we have such a great community, such a fantastic community.

- Tell us about the Board for Women in Film and Video in New England.

What is their impact like, and how do you connect to the filmmaking community to make sure that other women have opportunities?

- So, we do a lot of outreach as far as trying to get, especially younger people who are just coming out of college.

Even if they have a film degree, it's often not really a sure road.

I mean, I don't think people really know what to do with a film degree sometimes.

It depends on the college and all that kind of stuff, but we have PA workshops where we'll bring our services to maybe a college or an organization, and we'll run a PA workshop.

You don't have to be a member of Women in Film to come to the PA workshop, but, I mean, it's nice to have people become members.

But when they come to the workshop, they learn everything about set etiquette, they learn how to get a job as a PA, and PA is a good example, because PAs aren't unionized, so generally, you can get a PA job on, say, the movie that's here with Jamie Lee Curtis, or the Gilded Age without having to be in the union.

But we also have people who are in the different unions that are trying to help people navigate the joining the union process, 'cause that can be very complicated.

We have a lot of networking workshops, which I think are my favorite because I love to get together and just talk to people.

We have a great annual meeting every year.

This year, it was held at WGBH in Boston where they always hold it, but there was also kind of a satellite that was in Springfield.

We had the SAG-AFTRA President from this area spoke, and we had a stunt coordinator who spoke, and it's just a great community.

There's job postings, just trying to keep everybody that's in the industry, specifically women, but men can join, anyone can join Women in Film, just giving those opportunities, making sure that they know that they're there because I didn't know that they were there.

- And for our viewers at home who may not know, PA stands for production assistant, right?

- [Kristen] Yes, production assistant.

Yeah.

- And you say that there are opportunities out there, and you don't necessarily need to have a background in film to take a leap of faith and just see if you like it.

- Right.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't have the background in film.

My undergraduate degree was in English and Communications, and then I have a master's in teaching, so I wasn't really prepared in any way by school to do all this kind of stuff, but I think, again, organizations like Women in Film, like the Rhode Island Film Collaborative, with having that org, having that community, I think, is the most important part, because there are people who, I also do production design for films where I go in and I do the set dec or I'll do the wardrobe, and a lot of those opportunities have just come from people knowing me, and me knowing other people through going to festivals, going to the Women in Film events.

- You're also a teacher, a professor, actually, at Bryant University.

- [Kristen] I am.

- And you're coming across, maybe, some aspiring filmmakers in our own community.

Tell us about that experience.

- Yeah, I mean, Bryant is known more for its business school, of course, but there are a lot of creative students as well, and there are business students who are also creative.

We actually have a new program called Arts and Creative Industries that is brand new this year, and our majors will be prepared to work in the arts industry.

So whether it be for a corporation or a nonprofit, they'll work in arts administration, they get to take classes in visual art, writing, filmmaking, and performance, and I teach kind of on adjacent to that, or I teach film studies and, right now, I'm doing a fiction workshop, so I'm super excited to see where that program's going to take these students in the next four years.

- So you're teaching them how to write screenplays and things of that nature?

- Yeah, yeah.

Currently, I'm teaching fiction writing, so they're writing short stories, but yeah.

And then, last term we, I did film studies, and that was more film appreciation, but it was really a really fun class.

The students really learned a lot about how films get made, and I think they appreciated that I have some set experience.

- And you also have experience creating and making a film.

Tell us about "You Weren't Afraid at All".

I'm excited because we're going to show our viewers a preview of it.

- [Kristen] Thank you.

- And tell them where they can watch it.

At first glance, I'm thinking, should I be afraid?

Is this a thriller?

What?

What kind of short film is it?

- So again, it was based on a dream I had.

I know that sort of sounds, I don't know, maybe cliche, but it really was a dream I had, and it was just kind of an eerie dream, and I took it in a fictional direction.

But this woman, a young woman named Allie, she's running from something you hear growling in the distance, and when she tries to get help, she calls a phone number she finds in her pocket, and it turns out it's her father who has passed away.

So she kind of goes into this sort of magical heaven that belongs to her dad.

And then, the original title was actually called "Heaven is a Bar" because his version of heaven is this bar where he's sort of like this big shot, but she goes into the bar and she kind of is able to see parts of her life and the choices that she's made as a young woman, and how she can kind of change some things that she doesn't like about the way things are going, and a lot of that is just, she needed the closure from her relationship with her father, which wasn't great, and there's some other scenes in there that kind of teach her that she can kind of walk away from certain things that are toxic and not great.

So it's not scary at all, and the line actually comes from, in one of the rewrites of the script, I was thinking about this moment from my own childhood where I went with my dad to an amusement park and he won this giant, big, blue teddy bear, just bigger than me, and we brought it home, and it was just kind of this symbol of like, my dad was a very complicated man, but this was like a symbol of how much he loved me or, you know, kind of thing like that.

So when I put that into the script, I kind of created this monologue for the actor who played the dad.

His name's Steven Martin, he's a local actor, and he kind of ad-libbed that part.

And, I said, in the monologue, he said something about the child went running off into the amusement park, and he said, "And, you know, you weren't afraid at all," and that was when I was editing the film together, and he said that line.

I said, "That's gonna be the name."

(chuckles) And I wanted that to be kind of like, the symbol of how she really shouldn't be afraid.

Like, as an adult, you're kind of going forward into your life and you have to learn from your mistakes and you learn from your past, but you have to kind of jump into things.

- That's a beautiful message.

I look forward to watching it.

- [Kristen] Oh, thank you.

- Tell us, we only have a few seconds left before we show the preview of the film.

Tell us how people can stay in touch with you.

I know you're back on the film festival circuit this coming spring, right?

- Yeah, I'm going to the Block Island Film Festival again with a screenplay that I wrote called "Sing Out", which is based on my friend Debbie Romani's novel called "Megan Gamble, Sing out", so I'm gonna be part of the Screenwriters Forum at the Block Island Film Festival this year, and, hopefully, other film festivals, but we'll see.

And I have a website, KristenFalsoCapaldi.com.

I'm also on Instagram as Kristen Falso-Capaldi, and I'm happy to talk to anybody, young filmmakers that want to get into the business, or any filmmakers.

If you are older and you think you can't, you come talk to me.

(laughs) - [Anaridis] You are living proof that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Kristen, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you, I appreciate it.

- Well, don't go away.

We are going to show you a sneak peek of Kristen's film, "You Weren't Afraid at All."

It is available to stream on Reveel.

♪ Feeling like you would hold me close ♪ - Hi.

(ominous droning cello) (staggered breathing from Allie) Where are we?

- My place.

- I can see that, but where?

- You know, it's really good to see you.

But what are you doing here?

- Something is chasing me.

- So you came to see me?

- [Allie] I know.

Pretty stupid.

You were never good at rescuing little girls.

(disquieting synth music) Are you gonna even ask me if I'm okay?

Something big and scary is chasing me.

(paper crinkling) I called you.

You answered, then you hung up on me.

- I couldn't pick up.

It's complicated, you know?

I was frightened.

- You.

you weren't frightened.

You were running away.

The way you always did.

- Oh, jeez.

Oh, come on, gimme a break would ya?

- Can you please get me water?

I feel like I'm suffocating in here.

- Here.

- I need water.

That's not gonna help.

- That's all I got.

- I was in high school the last time I heard your voice.

You didn't pick up the phone then, either.

- How long ago was that?

- It'll be five years next week.

- Is five a long time?

- [Allie] Yes and no.

I know this can't be real.

(voice echoing softly) It's not a dream, but it's not real.

(Allie breathing heavily) - Why don't you get yourself together?

I'll take you downstairs and you can meet everybody.

- What, are you gonna lift me onto the bar stool like you did when I was five?

Order me a Shirley Temple?

- Well, you look old enough to have a drink.

- [Bartender] Hiya, Mr. J.

What can I do you for?

- Don't with me.

I'm in big trouble upstairs.

Get her a drink.

- [Bartender] Now, what's your poison?

- Just give me (sighs) whatever you've got.

- Okay.

Shot!

- I don't belong here.

(sighs) (soft slow music plays) God, what's this music?

It's splitting my head.

- I don't hear anything.

Do you hear anything?

- How can you guys not hear that?

Its, (soft, ambient surreal music overlaps slow music) - Oh my God.

That's me.

- [Father] No, that's not you.

That's not you.

- Yes, it is.

That's me.

I'm right there.

- [Father] No, no, that's not you.

- [Allie] She looks just like me.

- Listen, trust me.

That's not you.

That's Lucy.

Hey, all you ups, mind your own business.

Allie girl, trust me.

- Don't call me Allie girl.

Who are you?

- [Father] It's Lucy.

- Where's mom?

- Ma's not here.

Ma will never be here.

- Then where is she?

- I don't know where she is, Allie girl.

- I told you not to call me that.

Where is mom?

I want my mom.

- [Father] I told you people to mind your own business.

(dissonant cello tone overlaps slow music) - That's not me.

You promise?

- I promise.

♪ Take my hand and hold me tight ♪ - Something is after me.

Maybe I can't outrun it.

♪ Can you keep a secret baby ♪ Where is mom?

- I don't know.

- You're lying.

You always lie.

You're always a liar!

- Yeah, I was.

- Where are we?

Is this Hell?

- I kinda like it here.

I'm in charge.

- I don't even say it.

This place, - Not the worst place one could find himself.

- I'm leaving.

- No, no, no, no, no, no.

Stay, please.

- You're selfish.

- I know.

- I don't belong here.

- Listen, stick around.

- Nothing makes sense.

I'm only here because something is chasing me.

(distant creature growling deeply) It's still out there.

Will you protect me?

- I can't.

- Yes, you can!

- I can't.

You don't understand.

- I can't stay.

- Listen, I got some things I wanna say.

- What?

(ominous cello tone resumes) - Do you remember that time I took you to the amusement park?

Rocky Point.

You got out of the car, and you went down the midway like it was the most beautiful place in the world.

- So?

- You forgot I was there, and I lost sight of you.

But wait, wait.

But I was right there.

And you, you weren't afraid at all.

Not one bit.

I spent a fortune that day trying to win this big, blue teddy bear that you wanted.

And I did.

- I would like to thank Kristen for joining us today, and don't forget, you can stream her film, "You Weren't Afraid at All", on Reveel, and you can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org, and be sure to follow us on these social platforms for the latest updates.

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