@filmsbyemilymanthei

“Collaboration is a self-charging battery for your soul, and competition with others is the fastest way to drain that creative and internal battery.”

What pulled you into film and TV in the first place?

I made my first mystery movie at the age of 12, and have been writing and directing ever since. At first I think I just liked telling other people what to do because I’m naturally bossy, but as I’ve progressively become a better director, I’ve learned that the best parts of any project are the ideas of people I’m collaborating with! The super-power of filmmaking is choosing a team of actors and creative collaborators whose ideas will super-charge your own. And that makes me feel so alive! My favorite place to be is on set, co-creating something thought-provoking and collaborative and generous.

What continues to draw me to filmmaking is the power of art to educate, inspire, and transform. Stories are a place where we encounter others and it becomes a part of us.

What do you think the industry gets most wrong about women like you?

I don’t have a clue, because honestly I don’t think “the industry” is thinking about me, or women like me.

Often, I feel the pressure to perform self-aggrandisement, and I just can’t do it. I can’t pretend that I’m more important than I am, or more unique, or more worthy than others. I don’t feel like my desire or “talent” to create is worth more than my integrity and I don’t think power or “success” or fame is worth selling out to people whose values I don’t respect. A lot of people have told me “no” over the years, but I’ve said a lot of “no”s myself too. So maybe if the industry thought anything about me, it would think I’m a difficult woman? I don’t know. All I know is that my values are not performative, and I can’t perform importance either. All I can do is let my work speak for itself just like my life does.

What does success mean to you?

I think successes come in shades, and some colors are more important to me than others.

Collaborative success is when people you’ve worked with want to work with you again (and when they also become your friends, that’s the cherry on top!); creative success is when someone in the audience feels seen because of what you’ve made; and when both of those things are in dynamic connection and they actually pull in enough money to make that creative and collaborative success financially sustainable, then that is what I would call “worldly success.”

What are you most proud of that most people don’t know about?

I’ve made a feature documentary that is probably more personal than anything I’ve ever made before (which is why most people don’t know about it). It’s about struggling to find belonging in a foreign country, and how learning the power of collaborating instead of competing finally gave me that sense of belonging. Stay tuned for when I actually get brave enough to show it to the world.

What keeps you going when the industry makes it hard?

To be honest, it’s the power of collaboration. How when you have an idea, and other people add to it, and commit to it, and make it more than it was before, and you’re all creating something that reflects the philosophy and thoughts and dreams and fears and life lessons of a lot of different people all at once… there is nothing to me that’s more magical. It’s actually the experience of doing it that keeps me going.