TIFF 2010 Q&A: ‘Amazon Falls’ Director Katrin Bowen

Katrin Bowen’s Amazon Falls tells the story of Jana (April Telek), a struggling B-movie actress who’s not getting any younger, trying to make it in Los Angeles. It’s a dismal tale about broken dreams and not knowing when to quit. Bowen herself worked as a B-movie actress in L.A. when she was 18, and got the idea to make the film after Lana Clarkson, a mentor of hers, was found murdered.

CityNews.ca spoke with Bowen about the film and what it means to be premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. Read our Q&A below.

Brian McKechnie: How did the idea for ‘Amazon Falls’ come to you?

Katrin Bowen: I had heard about [the death of Lana Clarkson] who was one of a group of women who mentored me when I was 18 and starting out in B-movies in L.A.  I contacted a friend of mine and asked if he’d like to write the story; I didn’t want to write it myself because I didn’t want to be too sentimental about it. We wrote it together in about two weeks and we shot it three weeks later.

BM: How did you get into acting in B-movies?

KB: I’m six feet tall and there was an open call for women over six feet for an amazon kick-boxing movie. I thought it sounded amazing and I went to the audition. There was about 500 women over six feet there and I got cast. I’m quite athletic and I loved learning how to kick-box and play what I thought was a strong woman role. Once you’re cast you fall into that circle and get cast in more and more movies.

BM: What made you decide that Miss Canada 1994, April Telek, could play a B-movie actress?

KB: I had contacted a casting director and said I needed a woman who is glamorous but isn’t afraid to get ugly and show that side to her. She said April Telek. I wondered if she would do it because it’s a pretty dark place to go and I knew that April had made her living as a beauty queen. When she walked in I thought she looked perfect. After I cast her she said, ‘You know I wear wigs and I’m willing to take off my wigs in the movie and show who I am’.

BM: How many struggling actors did you meet on a daily basis when working in Los Angeles?

KB: Even my dentist wanted to be an actor. He threw a party for me because he thought I could get him into B-movies. It’s very surreal … everybody wants to be an actor. Part of the theme of the movie is the burden of a dream; it seems so amazing but is it really what you want? I got out of it and studied anthropology and am so grateful that I did.

BM: So you got out of acting to study anthropology and then became a director?

KB: I went to Berkley and asked if I could make a film instead of a paper [for my thesis]. They wanted us to do it on the sub-culture of the Bay area and I was really fascinated by rap music in Oakland. They said sure, so I made a film and then I was hooked.

BM: Although the film looks great, it does feel like it was shot in a B-movie style. Was that what you were going for?

KB: I really wanted to set up this whole feeling of  L.A. — the warmth and the glamour and the glory. I wanted that feeling of over-ripe L.A. at the beginning and then it just becomes this cold and bitter place. A lot of it too is probably because of our limited budget.

BM: As a Canadian, do you think Canada has a B-movie scene?

KB: Hard to say. I know Lloyd Kaufman from Troma very well and he has a very “Let’s just do it” attitude. There was no reason why not. He was making movies for $50,000 to $100,000 and selling them for millions at the markets. He’s an incredible businessman. There’s a few folks in Canada doing that, but here it takes so long to develop things that it becomes a different way of making movies.

BM: How hard was it to get funding for ‘Amazon Falls’?

KB: We funded it ourselves. We made it for basically nothing. It was all volunteer crew and we begged, borrowed, and did whatever we could to get cameras and lights and things like that. The production budget was only $50,000. The post-production budget was an in-kind donation of $100,000. We’ve done shares with everyone so that when we sell it, they’ll actually make money back.

BM: How important is it to you to premiere at TIFF?

KB: It’s amazing. I guess I didn’t think we would [get into the festival] because I know how hard it is. Now I feel as though so many other opportunities have opened. I have three scripts written and I’m actually getting calls and emails from people who want to meet. Where as before it was hard to break down those doors.

BM: What would you like to see the audience take away from the film?

KB: I hope they reflect on the burden of a dream and what is a dream and what makes you happy. It’s almost a cautionary tale. April and I were models as well, and parents will send their children off to either L.A. or Europe to model and it’s a pretty dangerous world out there. One of the main reasons I’m alive today is because I had these women mentor me and tell me not to go to [the studios] after 9 p.m., and to check in with them and that sort of thing. If you don’t have that support group, it can be scary and people do disappear.

Amazon Falls plays at TIFF next on Monday September 13 at 3 p.m. and Saturday, September 18 at 9:15 p.m. Check the full schedule at tiff.net/filmsandschedules.

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

Top image: A scene from Amazon Falls. Courtesy TIFF.