A New Voice in Horror: Ana Lily Amirpour
Ana Lily Amirpour, is a horror writer/director who is most well known for her breakout film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
Background
Ana Lily Amirpour was born in Kent, England on July 25, 1976. She then moved stateside to Miami then she moved again to Bakersfield California. This is when she started getting into filmmaking, citing Michael Jackson’s thriller music video as something that inspired her to get into filmmaking and in to horror. She began shooting shorts on her dad's Sony camera in middle and high school. From here she went to college to study biology for a short time before she dropped out and went into art school in San Francisco, which she followed up with studying film at UCLA. When she got right out of college she was approached by and signed a deal with a Hollywood agent and manager, but shortly after this she realized she did not want to work in the Hollywood system and decided to make her own films and fund them herself and/or through Kickstarter.
Ana Lily Amirpour was born in Kent, England on July 25, 1976. She then moved stateside to Miami then she moved again to Bakersfield California. This is when she started getting into filmmaking, citing Michael Jackson’s thriller music video as something that inspired her to get into filmmaking and in to horror. She began shooting shorts on her dad's Sony camera in middle and high school. From here she went to college to study biology for a short time before she dropped out and went into art school in San Francisco, which she followed up with studying film at UCLA. When she got right out of college she was approached by and signed a deal with a Hollywood agent and manager, but shortly after this she realized she did not want to work in the Hollywood system and decided to make her own films and fund them herself and/or through Kickstarter.
Filmography
Amirpour started out making several short films with the most significant of them being her last two: A Little Suicide and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night -which was eventually made into her first feature film. Ana Lily Amirpour calls A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night the first a black and white, Iranian, western, romance, vampire horror movie, and it is hard to argue that point. The movie is set in a fictional city in Iran called ‘Bad City’ where crime, drug abuse, and prostitution are common elements of everyday, but everything changes when a lonely vampire walks into town. As to not spoil the whole movie since it really is worth the watch, but to briefly describe the themes of the film focus mainly on the girl/vampire as she combats and subverts the toxic masculinity, and the patriarchal and misogynistic society. Ana Lily Amirpour’s second feature “The Bad Batch '' centered around a young woman who is exiled to the desert where she is taken by a group of cannibals.
Amirpour started out making several short films with the most significant of them being her last two: A Little Suicide and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night -which was eventually made into her first feature film. Ana Lily Amirpour calls A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night the first a black and white, Iranian, western, romance, vampire horror movie, and it is hard to argue that point. The movie is set in a fictional city in Iran called ‘Bad City’ where crime, drug abuse, and prostitution are common elements of everyday, but everything changes when a lonely vampire walks into town. As to not spoil the whole movie since it really is worth the watch, but to briefly describe the themes of the film focus mainly on the girl/vampire as she combats and subverts the toxic masculinity, and the patriarchal and misogynistic society. Ana Lily Amirpour’s second feature “The Bad Batch '' centered around a young woman who is exiled to the desert where she is taken by a group of cannibals.
Despite having a star studded cast that included Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Suki Waterhouse, and Diego Luna, the movie received decidedly mixed reviews. Some people found it visually interesting but found the pacing and the script to be a little lackluster. After the release of The Bad Batch she moved on to write/direct the odd episode of a TV series, before she started working on her newest film, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. This film centers around a girl with special powers who escapes from a psychiatric asylum into the streets of New Orleans French Quarter where she is taken in by a stripper and her daughter. Not much is known about the film as it premiered last year at the Venice film festival and at only a few other film festivals before recently getting picked up by Saban Films who will distribute the film theatrically. The film stars, Jeon Jong-Seo who starred in the call, Zac Efron, Craig Robinson who starred in the Office, and Kate Hudson.
Here is a clip from a girl who walks home alone at night to get a taste of what the movie is like. This scene is a little more intense than the rest of the movie but it does a good job of showing what her films are like and specifically how some of the themes of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night are shown.
Here is a clip from a girl who walks home alone at night to get a taste of what the movie is like. This scene is a little more intense than the rest of the movie but it does a good job of showing what her films are like and specifically how some of the themes of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night are shown.
Challenges
One of the challenges that she has faced was the Hollywood system that she was working in. In dealing with Hollywood producers she felt like she was not going to be able to tell the stories she wanted to tell in the ways she wanted them to be told. Oftentimes she would have to change her scripts to please the producers or to fit the aesthetic of certain actors to the point that she felt like she was not writing her own stories. She felt that the Hollywood's system was more focused on making money than creative storytelling. Her next challenge has been raising money for her films, as she has expressed the limitation she has faced with executing the stories she wants with little funding. Another challenge Amirpour faces is that her work gets blanketed as female led, which she feels like is an overly simplistic categorization of her films. She feels like this kind of just overarching statement makes people simply take the film at face value rather than engaging and analyzing with it oneself.
One of the challenges that she has faced was the Hollywood system that she was working in. In dealing with Hollywood producers she felt like she was not going to be able to tell the stories she wanted to tell in the ways she wanted them to be told. Oftentimes she would have to change her scripts to please the producers or to fit the aesthetic of certain actors to the point that she felt like she was not writing her own stories. She felt that the Hollywood's system was more focused on making money than creative storytelling. Her next challenge has been raising money for her films, as she has expressed the limitation she has faced with executing the stories she wants with little funding. Another challenge Amirpour faces is that her work gets blanketed as female led, which she feels like is an overly simplistic categorization of her films. She feels like this kind of just overarching statement makes people simply take the film at face value rather than engaging and analyzing with it oneself.
Comments
Post a Comment