Filmmaking | Interviews

Double Vision

1 May , 2004  

Written by Sara Faith Alterman | Posted by:

Amanda Micheli wanted to direct films, so she took the advice of Werner Hertzog and started playing rugby. A few place kicks, a warrior princess, and six years later, the Massachusetts-born filmmaker has directed a winner -- 'Double Dare' screening at the Independent Film Festival of Boston this month.

Filmmaker Amanda Micheli could be a "female power icon" herself; besides being a member of the USA National Champion women’s rugby team, she’s a creative force to be reckoned with. Her debut documentary film "Just for the Ride" garnered international attention, earning her such awards as the 1996 Student Documentary Academy Award, the 1996 International Documentary Association Award, and a documentary award from our very own New England Film and Video Film Festival.

"Double Dare," Micheli’s latest film, chronicles the lives of two professional stuntwomen; Jeannie Epper, the other Wonder Woman, and Zoë Bell, Xena’s tougher half. The film has already earned fantastic reviews and a slew of accolades. On May 1, 2004, it makes its New England debut at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

SFA: So what’s the story? How did you get into filmmaking?

Micheli: I grew up in Newton and Cambridge, and then my senior year of high school my mother, who is a teacher, had a sabbatical, so we went to California. I had always been a photographer; I liked being a camera geek. I had this grand plan to go to California, get residency, and then go to a state school to major in filmmaking.

The plan didn’t work out as well as I had hoped because a lot of the state schools had closed their undergraduate film production majors. Film was such an expensive undertaking for a school, to have the equipment and the necessary film stock, especially for undergraduates. They wanted to reserve that money for graduate programs.

So, I did the whole application process, and I ended up getting into Harvard. And I didn’t want to go! Having grown up in Boston, the last thing I wanted was to go to school there. But the funny thing was, when I went to visit, I talked to people in their photo and film departments, and everyone had nothing but good things to say. It turned out that this little film department that nobody knows about has amazing facilities, amazing teachers. It’s sort of this well kept secret, that Harvard has an incredible undergraduate film program. I was already interested in documentaries, so I packed my bags and came back to Massachusetts.

SFA: And joined forces with the women’s rugby team, so I hear?

Micheli: I did start playing rugby in college. I used to volunteer at the Telluride Film Festival, and I remember seeing Werner Hertzog speak. Some young filmmaker raised their hand and asked, ‘What’s your advice for young filmmakers? Do you recommend film school, or getting experience in the field?’ And he said ‘Play contact sports.’ And it totally made sense!

So basically since my freshman year of college, I’ve been playing contact sports and making movies. The two are closer linked than people realize. It’s just about endurance, and it’s such a similar feeling to me; in the last 10 minutes of a rugby game, when you think you’re going to die, but you have to just keep going. And that’s how it’s been with "Double Dare."

The film took six years to make. And I can’t tell you how many times the cheesy sports analogies helped me get through it. Neither documentary filmmaking nor women’s sports are particularly well-respected or valued followings in our culture. So you have to do it for the love of it.

SFA: Did the story unfold the way you had originally anticipated? Or did it begin as one particular project and turn out completely differently?

Micheli: "Double Dare" was originally going to be a job for hire. One of my producers, Karen Johnson, came up with the idea to do a documentary about stuntwomen, and pitched it to me. She felt it would be kind of a talking head documentary about the history of stuntwomen. So I thought I was going to make some money and move on. It eventually became clear that the money wasn’t there, but by that time I had already fallen in love with Jeannie Epper, one of the main characters. She was the president of the stuntwomen’s association at that point, and had been the Wonder Woman double in the ‘70s. So I really wanted to make a film about her, so that’s when I took the project under my wing to make it my own. Certainly, that was a big turn, when I said ok, this is not just a job; this is going to be an Amanda movie.

I don’t know if it’s just that I lack vision, or that I’ve been taught more to react to what’s going on around me, but I don’t usually envision how I think a film is going to be when I’m starting out. Which is why I guess is why it’s so hard for me to get funding for these films! I don’t have anything I’m trying to prove; I really want things to be character driven. I just want to see what happens in people’s lives. And the hope is that if the characters are interesting, then the audience will be intrigued, and people can draw connections between what they find interesting. I really try to just react to what’s happening in people’s lives, which makes it really hard to predict or script what the film will be like.

Jeannie is at the end of her career; she was the Wonder Woman double. Zoë is at the very beginning of her career; she was the Xena double. So you have these female action icons in skimpy outfits from totally different decades. And you have these two characters that are completely different, but somehow have similarities. I mean, Jeannie is a Born Again Christian, and Zoë is a hippie atheist. They couldn’t be more different. I have to say, it was nerve-wracking. But when they met, they hit it off. The film became these two threads that just came together, and I could never have written that, or guessed it would happen

SFA: How did you connect with Zoë?

Micheli: Jeannie was an obvious choice for me, but it was hard to film her because she was older, she’s in her 60s. She’s not working a lot. When she did work, we wouldn’t get permission to be there. So I knew that I wanted to find a younger character to contrast with her. I interviewed younger stuntwomen for a year, but there was nobody that clicked for me the way Jeannie did. There were a lot of younger women that, I felt, were excited about the film because it would help their careers to be in a documentary, and I didn’t want to do that. So this project ended up on hold for a long time. There were a lot of times where I didn’t even think it was going to be a movie. And then a friend of a friend asked if I would consider going to New Zealand to be on the set of "Xena." And I never would have thought of leaving the country to shoot, but at that point I was having such a hard time getting into Hollywood, so I looked on the Internet, and found Lucy Lawless’ stunt double, Zoë. And she had a lip ring, and these ripped jeans, and she just looked like a big dork, so I thought, ‘This is my girl.’ So I flew to New Zealand. And as soon as I met Zoë, I knew I had a movie.

SFA: There are a lot of similarities between "Double Dare" and your first film, "Just for the Ride."

Micheli: "Just for the Ride," my thesis film at Harvard, was about women’s rodeo. I had been drawn to strong women characters or athletes as a personal interest of mine, but I also was a horse girl. I think I had that childhood fantasy of ‘the cowgirl.’ I didn’t know what it was, but I just thought it was cool.

One thing that’s similar between the cowgirl thing and some of the ideas behind "Double Dare" is the idea of a female icon. You know, the cowgirl, and Wonder Woman and Xena, these kitschy female power icons in our culture, which I am a little bit obsessed with, I guess. But I’m not really interested in the image as much as I am the real people that live that. It’s much more interesting to me to see a woman who actually works cattle. I think when I was younger I was more into the image, and then as I got older I got more interested in the real people behind these iconic things.

SFA: Both films are about women attempting to carve their niche in a male dominated environment. Do these themes reflect your own experiences as a female director?

Micheli: You don’t think about that when you’re doing it, but of course there are parallels. It is mostly guys that are getting positive feedback and recognition in filmmaking. Actually, documentaries are a little bit different, because I feel like there really are more women making documentaries than there are in the fiction feature world. But nonetheless, I think there are not a lot of female role models out there. Myself, I struggled a little bit with my own identity. I never liked to categorize myself. But I think a lot of women who pursue physical careers and who are sort of ‘one of the guys’ have to have a stronger sense of identity in order to survive, and just know who they are. And [as a woman] you have to be very clear about who you are, because you don’t necessarily fit into a cookie cutter image.

SFA: You grew up in Newton, studied at Harvard, and now you’re based in California. What do you think the biggest differences are between the East Coast and West Coast styles of filmmaking?

Micheli: It’s funny, because you could almost contrast L.A. and San Francisco [where Micheli is based] that way. It’s a world of difference. San Francisco, I would say, is akin to Boston, which is why I think I’ve enjoyed it so much here. Boston and San Francisco are really supportive communities for documentary filmmakers. Nobody is really making a very good living, but everybody is smart and sharing ideas, and very passionate about it. I think Boston is definitely more old school; I feel like it’s the foundation of documentary filmmaking in this country.

San Francisco feels a little more open here, just in the sense that there’s more different stuff going on, more experimental influences. But San Francisco and Boston seem to be very similar in terms of the level of passion for documentary filmmaking, and the commitment to it as an art.

The world of L.A. is a completely different animal. It’s such a company town, totally overwhelmed by Hollywood. The thing that makes Boston so great is that there’s actually a film community that’s really strong.

More information about Amanda Micheli and ”Double Dare” can be found at www.runawayfilms.com.
The Independent Film Festival of Boston will take place May 1-4. Screenings will be held at the Brattle, Somerville, and Coolidge theaters. For more festival information, or to see a full screening schedule, go to www.ifsboston.org.


More information about Amanda Micheli and ''Double Dare'' can be found at www.runawayfilms.com. The Independent Film Festival of Boston will take place May 1-4. Screenings will be held at the Brattle, Somerville, and Coolidge theaters. For more festival information, or to see a full screening schedule, go to www.ifsboston.org.

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