I mostly draw from classic movies, painting, illustration, and interior design books. A lot of the references that seem to derive from the ‘60s and ‘70s are a lot older. For instance, horror movies from that time used a lot of Victorian influences – velvet flocked wallpaper, Victorian furniture, and dark wood. Those references also appear in Gothic romance novels and in older films, as do heroines with long hair, perfect facial features, sexy clothes, etc. If you’re designing a Gothic romance/horror movie, these are the obvious visual references. The visuals come from the script and story, not from copying the style of a ‘60s movie.

It’s about artistic integrity. So far I haven’t had much of a choice – it’s either do it myself, or I don’t make a film. It costs money to hire professionals.

I studied witchcraft extensively while researching this film. In the process, I became a witch.

Witchcraft is an individualistic religion, so it’s well suited to non-conformist types of identities.

Witchcraft as practiced today started in the ‘50s by Gerald Gardner. The witch covens of the ‘50s through the ‘70s or ‘80s were mostly heterosexual. When you talk about a ‘long history’ you’re referring to the last twenty or thirty years at most, and to a subset of covens. My protagonist is heterosexual, and her coven leaders are a heterosexual couple who are training her in gender polarity, which is specifically based on the binary between male and female forces. The story had no room for exploring other types of sexuality, because the movie is not about that; it’s about a woman searching for the love of a man.

I expected men to sexual objectify her like the men in the film, and for women to identify with her. But I was also interested in whether or not men would be able to see how being a woman who is forced to play that role is so oppressive, and think about their own role in that; and for women to identify not just with the sexy part of themselves, but also the oppressed part. Looking at her just as sexy or erotic is quite a stupid reading, but many men still look at her only in that way.

I think the movie is pretty obvious with what it’s saying. It’s not hidden underneath; it’s in the actual story. If people refuse to see that, then there are either political reasons for that, or else they don’t know how to read a text or follow a story. It’s disappointing when the work is dismissed like that, but I also get a lot of intelligent, thoughtful responses.

I have never considered myself beautiful. But I know that sometimes people have thought of me as beautiful and objectified or ignored me because of it. I also know other beautiful women who are quite isolated because men only want them for sex, and women avoid them because of envy.

I think it’s good, because it’s a way of calling attention to female-directed films. This extra focus on female directors has helped women to become more visible. Hopefully soon there will be enough films directed by women that it will no longer be valid as a category.

I’m working on a noir-film inspired movie about a sadistic, controlling husband.