THIRD DAYS CHILD Directed By Sara Jennifer Chiro
Shane: Tell us about your film?
Sara: THIRD DAYS CHILD is a science fiction piece, which is really different for me.
How did you come up with the idea for the film?
THIRD DAYS CHILD was originally written for the stage by playwright John Kaufmann. He wrote it for a theater marathon called 14/48 in which 14 plays are written and fully produced with in 48 hours. It was remounted several times, but I never saw a production of it. Someone gave me the script to read and one moment stuck with me. I kept coming back to the moment where the third day girl transforms. I had worked with John Kaufmann before and asked him if he’d like to collaborate with me on the screenplay. Luckily he was excited about it and we went for it.
Was this a school project?
No
How did you find your cast?
I’ve worked for a long time in theater and happen to know many great and gifted actors. I also held auditions and looked at actors that were recommended to me. I had worked with Laurie Utterback and Claire Parchem as fellow actors (on stage). I met Andy Loviska on the set of Guy Maddin’s film BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! I had seen Gusta Johnson’s work at Annex Theatre. Chris Dietz and Cynthia Whalen are well known actors in the Seattle community. I’d seen Aki Baab’s work in a short video, and Farayi Chiro is my husband.
How long did the film take? (From conception to final edit)
This project sat in conception stage for about 6 months, so including that time, I’d say about 2 years.
What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?
The long day of shooting that I scheduled, that became excruciatingly long. Much longer than I had intended. Although the cast and crew were amazing, it was undesirable to have to do what should have been four days work over the course of 24 hours.
What are you most looking forward to at the festival?
I can’t wait to see how an audience is going to react to this film!
What films or filmmakers inspire you?
This is almost too involved a question to answer. I’m just going to start listing until I get exhausted.
Lynne Ramsey – Short Films; Ratcatcher; Morvern Callar
Michelangelo Antonioni - L'Avventura
Jim Jarmusch – Down By Law; Stranger Than Paradise; Broken Flowers
Sally Potter – Orlando; Yes
Wim Wenders – Paris/Texas; Wings of Desire; Tokyo-Ga (and many others)
Jane Campion – The Piano
Michael Gondry – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Claire Denis – Nenette et Boni; Chocolat; Beau Travail
David Lynch – Eraserhead; Blue Velvet; Mulholand Drive
Jean Cocteau – La Belle et La Bete
Jean-Luic Godard – A Bout de Souffle
Guy Maddin – Tales From Gimli Hospital; Archangel; Careful; Sissy Boy Slap Party; The Heart of the World; Brand Upon the Brain!
Yasujiro Ozu – Tokyo Story
Charles Burnett – Killer of Sheep
Terry Zwigoff – Crumb; Ghost World
Mike Leigh – High Hopes; Life is Sweet; Naked; Secrets and Lies; Vera Drake
Hirokazu Koreeda – After Life; Nobody Knows
Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo, North By Northwest; Rebecca; Shadow of a Doubt; The Birds; Rope;
Marnie
Catherine Breillat – Fat Girl
Ang Lee – The Ice Strom; Brokeback Mountain; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Miranda July – Me and You and Everyone We Know
Francois Truffaut – Les Quatre Cents Coups; La Nuit Americaine
Cam Archer – Wild Tigers I Have Known
Hayao Miyazaki – My Neighbor Totoro; Kiki’s Delivery Service
Rob Reiner – This is Spinal Tap
Wong Kar-Wai – In the Mood for Love; Days of Being Wild
Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather; Apocalypse Now; Rumble Fish
Martin Scorsese – Mean Streets; Raging Bull; The Last Waltz; Goodfellas
Lynn Shelton – The Clouds That Touch Us Out of Clear Blue Skies; We Go Way Back
Lars Von Trier – The Five Obstructions; Dancer in the Dark; Breaking the Waves; Dogville
Roman Polanski – Bitter Moon; Tess;
Ridley Scott – Alien; Blade Runnner; Thelma and Lousie
Ingmar Bergman – Wild Strawberries; The Seventh Seal; Winter Light; Cries and Whispers; Scenes From a Marriage; Fanny and Alexander; Persona
Mira Nair – Monsoon Wedding; Mississippi Masala; Salaam Bombay!; Vanity Fair
Andrei Tarkovsky – Solaris; Stalker
Woody Allen – Manhattan; Annie Hall; Stardust Memories; Zelig;
Another Woman; Alice
Krzysztof Kieslowski – The Decalogue; The Double Life of Veronique; Blue
Stanley Kubrick – 2001; Doctor Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Britta Johnson – But Soft; various music videos
Danielle Morgan – collected works
That scratches the surface, but it’s all I have time for now.
What made you decide to become a filmmaker?
I love story telling. I love the visual medium of film. I love the power of images. I love working with actors. I love thinking about design and working with designers. I love thinking about sound design. I want more women to make films, so why not start at home?
What is next for you?
I’m developing the feature of the THRID DAYS CHILD story with Michelle M. Witten.
I’m also looking at acquiring the rights to my new favorite memoir that takes place in the same time period, geographical place and social milieu of my childhood. I’m looking for the right producer to team up with. On a feature I’m going to need a producer I can trust.
I’m also participating in a film anthology of short stories by a famous author, but I can’t really talk about that project yet.
What is next for the film?
More film festivals – and a beautiful life somewhere that I can only imagine.
If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short film… What would it be?
Take the time to think carefully about your film. It takes almost as much time money and effort to make a terrible film as a good one. Also, I like this advice that Jim Jarmusch purportedly gave Tom Waits:
"Fast, Cheap, and Good...
Pick two. If it's fast and cheap it won’t be good. If it's cheap and good it won't be fast. If it's fast and good it won’t be cheap."