Episode 50 transcript: How to create a movie in 13 days in Bali with Michal and Alexandra

Podcast Introduction:

[00:00:00] Alexandra: It was so important to us that we gave every character their own trajectory. And that they would feel real and unfiltered and not like a celebrity on a retreat, but like a real woman that you would maybe meet at the grocery store or getting your coffee in the morning or like the women who are actually populating these retreats.

[00:00:21] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath, depth, and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.

[00:00:55] Aneta: Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. I'm so grateful that you are tuning in again today. And today's conversation is so interesting on many levels. It's the first time I actually had two guests on at the same time. So my guests today are Michal Sinnott and Alexandra Clayton.

[00:01:15] Aneta: Alexandra is a writer and director, whose work leans into the earnest and awkward experience of being human. Her first narrative feature unpacking as a co-writer director and producer is currently picking up awards on the 2023 festival circuit and garnering praise for its excellent ensemble acting. The movie was filmed in Bali over 13 days on a micro-budget. And explores the hypocrisies of wellness, tourism, and the power of vulnerability. She's directed, written, and produced narrative shorts, web series, and branded, and documentary content for the last 10 years. And has three short films ready to shoot on her 2023 docket.

[00:01:56] Aneta: And the other guest is Michal Sinnott, who is an award-winning classically trained actor, writer, director, and storyteller whose work in film, television, theater, audio spaces, and games traverses mediums, genres, and locales. She also worked on unpacking, and this is her 1st narrative feature, and she was the co-writer, director, producer, and currently. She is attending all of the festival circuits with the movie.

[00:02:25] Aneta: Unpacking was recently accepted in the Cinequest VR and Film Festival for their Bay Area premiere. She's also appeared in dozens of plays and over 50 principal starring roles for radio, television, and film, including companies, institutions as diverse as ABC, Sundance, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She also is known for being the voice, the likeness, and the performance capture artist Tracy DeSanta, one of the main characters in the billion-dollar phenomenon, Grand Theft Auto Five. I am so excited for you guys to hear this conversation. We talked about the movie, which is absolutely phenomenal. I got a link to watch the movie and I'll actually provide it so you guys can watch the movie yourselves, but also just talked about what it was like to take on such a huge endeavor to not only act in the film but also write and produce and direct. How to do it in Bali on such a quick turnaround? And then also COVID hit like a year or 2 when they came back. There are so many things that happened that were challenging throughout the process. And yet here they are 4 years later, having this movie on the circuit. Can't wait for you guys to hear this conversation. Take a lesson.

Podcast Interview:

[00:03:40] Aneta: I am so excited about this conversation with Michal and Alexandra. I am so excited to welcome you to the show today. So thank you so much for joining me.

[00:03:52] Michal: Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. I'm thrilled to be here.

[00:03:58] Alexandra: So excited.

[00:04:00] Aneta: And this is so exciting because this is the first interview I've actually done where there are three of us. I've done a big group once before, but usually, it's solo. So, for those that aren't familiar with you or your stories and your journeys, tell us a little bit about and maybe we'll start Michal with you. Tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got to be where you are today.

[00:04:26] Michal: Wow. So, My mom has her master's in theater. So I grew up acting. I did my first commercial with my mom when I was seven. I grew up in that world as a professional actor. And then my brothers and I did too. But I'm the only one that was sort of wild enough to pursue it as a career. And then when I got into New York in my early twenties, I think I was just dissatisfied with maybe the options for when you're so on the receiving end of like, pick me as an actor that I just started naturally writing and working on creating my own work.

[00:05:07] Michal: It was also something that I think was in me before that I'd written a play in a performing arts high school that I went to that received some accolades. And so I think I was always on a storyteller path, but it took a long time to sort of own that. So then I just, I don't know, I eventually kind of found myself as this multi-hyphenate that was writing work that I could be in.

[00:05:33] Michal: But also just wanting to tell certain stories. And so Alexandra and I met in a female filmmaking collective called Film Fatales and we both really respected each other as like, we just liked each other. I think on a personality level, but also like each other's work and thought something of each other's work and said, we should work on something together. And so that's like the seed idea for how this project was born.

[00:06:01] Aneta: Yes. Thank you for sharing. And Alexandra, what about you? What was your journey? Like, and then I do want to talk about the project that you guys just recently did together.

[00:06:11] Alexandra: Yeah, I mean, it's a journey. It's such a fun, strange journey choosing to be creative in this world, especially in this country, cause it's not all that deeply supported. So I was also like a just very precocious child. I love to make up skits and sketches and do school plays. And then I became pretty shy and sort of turned to shy about performing, I should say. And I like turned to the visual arts for a long time and sort of found an outlet and an interest there, but I think was just always drawn to the arts in one form or another and didn't go straight to college and decided sort of, that was my,

[00:07:05] Alexandra: I had loved acting as a kid and I wanted to try it out again. And at that point started acting in indie films in the Bay area, which was amazing and exciting. And then decided I did want to go to school and I decided to like to focus my undergrad on theater directing because it felt more challenging. And I just loved it. And I will say at that point too, I had worked with a few directors who I think just didn't do justice to the role, didn't take responsibility for sort of the leadership position that I think that role is. And then that sort of continued in my early twenties. I found some women in New York and we decided to move in together and make our own web series together.

[00:07:54] Alexandra: And through making our own work in that small space that we're like writing in it and acting in it. And that was really how I started to learn. It was just, that was like my schooling of this. I didn't go to film school or anything. And then, yeah, I think that's just kept going and growing and I found different channels. I also work as a photographer for a really long time now, and I feel like that speaks to a lot of the work I do here too, it's just a different kind of storytelling. It's stories on a smaller, more personal scale and a freeze frame scale, but I really believe in it, I've always been a film nerd. I really believe in the power and importance of storytelling.

[00:08:39] Alexandra: And I think sort of at this point in my life, find myself more drawn to it than ever. There are a lot of things I have a lot of passion for. And I think part of what drew Michal and me to each other is we're both pretty outgoing, curious people about the world too. And that's something I really want to bring into my storytelling and we want to bring that into our storytelling together too, is a sort of more hopeful than a lot of the content that's going out there and more humanist.

[00:09:14] Aneta: Yeah. Thank you for sharing your journeys and your stories because I love to see then how you bring that background and who you are to the work and what you've created. And so I have had the privilege and I'm so excited for seeing your movie unpacking and you two play sisters in it.

[00:09:35] Aneta: So you're not only acting, but I believe you also had other roles with this movie. You guys created it as well. So tell maybe Michal a little bit about what your roles were with this movie, and how you came up with the idea. And I don't want to give too much away, but I was very intrigued because it is about women on a retreat. In Bali. And so tell us what you can share about the project, your roles, and why you created this beautiful movie.

[00:10:07] Michal: Thanks. So Alexandra and I, we both have like several projects, like a handful of projects that we're working on that have been in various stages of development. And we wanted to figure out how we could make something now and not wait for the gatekeepers or the money. Like how do you make a movie? It's like a real conundrum for a lot of people. And so most actors or writers or even directors have, like, usually have some sort of side job that they do in the midst of being this hence the acting, writing strike that's happening right now. And I worked as a flight attendant for a number of years. And so I had the privilege and luxury of getting to travel the world for like free on my off time. And my husband and I had gone to Indonesia the year before to visit his cousin who was doing the peace court there.

[00:11:05] Michal: And we're so close to Bali, and I've always wanted to go to Bali that I was we went for, like, literally 3 days to Bali adjacent to visiting JP in mainland Indonesia and Java. And I just really fell in love with it. I thought it was just such a magical place. It's 95% Hindu and the Hindu religion just, it feels at least from an outsider, it just feels so open and it doesn't have all the sort of, I don't know, puritanical hangups that a lot of, like, Western religion has, and it just felt like sexy and open and beautiful and in touch with all of the world and nature.

[00:11:43] Michal: And I thought it would be such a great backdrop for a movie. And I said to Joseph, my husband, who was our third writer on this. I want to make a movie here. And I came back and I called out Alexandra and I left her this long message about how we had been talking about maybe creating something. And I proposed that we send an email to friends and colleagues that might want to go on a filmmaking adventure with us.

[00:12:09] Michal: And everyone would like to pay their own way. And then just, we could like collectively finance this, like we could come up with some sort of model that would make us all producers and just do it. And, Alexandra said yes. And so we just like collectively figured out who we thought would be wild enough to go on this adventure. And we wrote 40 people and 15 people said yes. And so we proposed it. At that point, we didn't even know we were going to direct it. I didn't actually think I was going to direct it. This is my first foray into directing but Alexandra really encouraged me. She was like, I think we should direct this and I think we should do it together.

[00:12:49] Michal: And so people were able to name what they wanted to do on it. And so the people that signed up to act were all white women. So we were like, what are we going to do with this? And then it just sort of evolved. It's Bali. It's a bunch of white women. This feels like, this is a wellness retreat. And so we wrote for the circumstances of the movie and then we asked all of our actors to bring on like some sort of vulnerability or thing that would ground them in it because we knew we'd be on this sort of run and gun like real intense, slightly improvisational quality because we weren't able to go and location scout or there were so many variables that you normally have in a movie that we wouldn't have.

[00:13:32] Michal: And so it was a collective community-based project that was centered on the people that signed up for it, and it had to have, like, a lot of give and take in that way. And so that's how it was, like, initially born. I'm sure Alexandra might have things to add to that.

[00:13:51] Aneta: I just, it's the thing that struck me when watching the movie so I'm hosting a retreat coming up. So I love the fact that in the movie, and I won't say too much, people think that they're going to go on a retreat typically, and you think you're going to go and relax and whatever the expectations are. But I loved the realness and the humanism that came through in everyone's stories and I will just say that the acting, it didn't feel like I was watching actors.

[00:14:23] Aneta: I really felt like every single person was someone that I know that is going through something that is so real and the vulnerability and especially you two, cause you do play sisters and there's a lot going on there and the dynamics, but Alexandra, like what do you want to add in terms of like the story, but how did you find these actors because it just seemed like the most amazing ensemble and everybody was like such a key part of what you needed to tell the story.

[00:14:54] Alexandra: Thank you so much. I think that's one of the pieces I'm the most proud of. This has been such a layered experience, but I think our ensemble is really strong. And I also love every actor in our movie. And I'm so proud of all of them and our own work in the film. Sort of like Michal mentioned we did, it was people who had signed up to also sort of be producers in the film.

[00:15:19] Alexandra: So we made this collective and then we had the women who were going to be actors once we had the concept of the retreat, make us the submission videos that kick off the movie where women are applying to their retreat. They made those on their own and emailed them to Michal, me, and Joseph, Michal's husband, who's our writer on it as well.

[00:15:43] Alexandra: And then we built the characters off of those videos. So they did. Again, Michal said some of this, but because we knew it was going to have to be so run and gun, we really wanted them to play things that they could play easily, fluidly, deeply, and naturally. And as we built out the characters, we also talked a lot about how this was before White Lotus and Nine Perfect Strangers. And there was no content. No stories were being told on this realm when we started making this. And it's such a big world, like the wellness industry, wellness culture. It's such a big part of Los Angeles. We were both living in Los Angeles at the time.

[00:16:28] Alexandra: And Part of what we were talking about too, is like, there is this Instagram media filter for a lot of these personalities and a lot of these experiences. And it was so important to us that we gave every character their own trajectory. And that they would feel real and unfiltered and not like a celebrity on a retreat, but like a real woman that you would maybe meet at the grocery store or getting your coffee in the morning or like the women who are actually populating these retreats. That was like a huge part of our mission that, yeah, they'd feel like real ladies.

[00:17:10] Aneta: And I think you succeeded. And the other thing that was so interesting was that there was a sort of ominous music that was playing the whole time. And so it always kept my nervous system just a little tweaked, like stuff is happening. I'm feeling a little uncomfortable, which I thought was perfect because you have the beautiful backdrop of Bali. You've got people sharing and being very vulnerable, but then you've got this music that just reminds you that things aren't always as they seem. Things are not glossy, like you said, in an Instagram story.

[00:17:43] Aneta: So I just love how that all came together, but you guys did this really quickly, right? When you talk about Michal, you said that you wanted to make a film, you wanted to do it now. And so you put things in motion, but how long did it actually take from the time you guys arrived at Bali to do you call it to record the whole movie or to make it, I don't even know what the right language is yet.

[00:18:05] Michal: Yeah, shoot it. We shot in 13 days. So it was incredibly quick. I mean, I would say that your average indie film is probably like a 20-day shoot or 21. Even that can be kind of short, I mean a hot little film is like a big, studio film can be 3 months. Maybe even longer if there are pickup shots and whatnot, it could be like a six-month project.

[00:18:27] Michal: So yeah, we shot this so quickly, especially considering that we had never seen the location before. I mean, we'd seen pictures but we really did this. There are so many miracles that went into making this. I mean, there were so many things that went wrong, but we just like rolled with it and I think that Alexandra and I, it's been like a great lesson and just sort of, I don't know, overcoming obstacles, making a movie is all about overcoming obstacles.

[00:18:54] Michal: It really is. It's like a series of hurdles. And so it was very quick to shoot it, but because it was also quick to shoot it, and because we did, it was a micro-budget and we did it. Like so quickly and on the fly, it also was an incredibly long post-production experience. So, because we didn't have the luxury of having the financing to just like pay everyone to all our collaborators to just do it. And because COVID hit there were a number, and I moved back to the East Coast. So we were on different coasts. And also as co-directors, we always had to be on the same page. So we weren't just making singular decisions. We had to be on the same page. And some we're very blessed to have very similar tastes and that's something we've realized.

[00:19:37] Michal: We actually have another project in the works. And I think we're both it's been such a blessing. Alexandra and I call each other our work, we're work wives. And we like my relationship with my husband. Like I've never had the level of intimacy that I've had with Alexandra, like with anyone before Alexandra, because you just, you're in it.

[00:19:55] Michal: Like I don't have kids. But we created this baby together. It's like separate from us. It's like a separate [00:20:00] entity. And sometimes like what I think is best for the baby is not what Alexandra thinks is best for the baby. And we have to collectively figure out what's best for the baby and get on the same page. And cause we co-own it, and we don't co-own it. It's like its own entity because you don't own anything in this world. Right. But it is like, we're the shepherds of this child that we have collectively created.

[00:20:22] Aneta: I love that. I love this idea of you two partnering together and creating something, birthing something together, and Alexandra, I'm curious so the title of the movie is Unpacking, right, which I love because there are so many meanings to that, but what did you discover during this process? Because you have this idea, you're in making a film, which is a huge idea. And I know you guys have been in the space and in this industry for a long time, but how did you change during the process? Is there something you learned about yourself, just like the women on the retreat and the movie maybe weren't sure what they were going to discover about themselves at the end?

[00:20:59] Aneta: What did that look like for you too as you finish this project and maybe not just even at the end of shooting it, but even at the end of really doing all the post-production work as well?

[00:21:10] Alexandra: I think I've always been a learn-by-doing kind of person. That's just my whole life. I've needed to like to get my hands on it and figure it out for myself instead of hearing about it. I guess what I found my sort of biggest growth was in really, it sounds so corny, but learning to love the process or just learning to accept that it is so much about the process you make something, and then you give it out into the world in the end.

[00:21:40] Alexandra: But like it took just Michal and I loving this story when everyone else was ready to be done with it for years to really get it to the point it is now and to really care about the details and care about the women, but also care about each of our different collaborations. And I think it opened me up to the reality of how powerful collaboration is. And filmmaking is such a uniquely collaborative art form where like we had never done. We had never worked with a composer before. That was such a journey to figure out what we even like. How do we communicate that with them?

[00:22:22] Alexandra: How do we build these cues? How do we shout out to Mitchell Manberg? This was also his first feature and we really learned together. And I think you have that triangle of like good, fast, cheap, and we ended up going cheap and slow on this because that's what we can do with our collaborators, but it did give us the chance to sort of build up confidence in what each of these, what does it look like to color grade a movie?

[00:22:53] Alexandra: What does it look like to do sound on it, to have some visual effects put into it, to get stuck on a movie? And know that there's something better in there, but not know how to break the narrative hurdle ourselves. And like, who are the outside eyes that we can rely on, and whose perspective we're going to understand? And whose perspective is going to jostle us into something new and exciting. We had those breakthroughs because we invited collaborators in, and because I think too, we were 2 people that, as Michal said, were so blessed to have such similar taste in what we value storytelling-wise and what we're drawn to performance-wise, but we're still 2 different people.

[00:23:38] Alexandra: So it's not like the movie that I would make on my own or the movie Michal would make on her own. It's the movie we made together, which is an entirely different creature. And I think that's like the women in our movie, something so important to us to show as these retreats are sometimes advertised as like reset your soul in a week or like find your purpose in a week. And we're like, that's just not possible. That's just not really how life works. It's a journey. And we wanted to explore that. And I think the truth in that is you can plant a lot of seeds in that amount of time. If you put a group of women together and you make them raw and vulnerable and real, you're going to get something magical happening, but are they going to like to solve every deep trauma that they've ever had?

[00:24:25] Alexandra: Of course not, but they're going to start on a journey that should be a lifetime journey. And I think that's sort of what this film gifted me is like, this is my first film. And I learned so much from it and I want to take those lessons and do it again and then take those lessons and do it again. And like really commit to this as like a life journey to how to become a better storyteller and what skills it takes to tell different stories and what different stories are asking of me as the like shepherd or creator or collaborator. So I don't know, to sum that all up, I guess I would say the biggest lessons are like trusting the process and learning to actually enjoy the process. Be way more patient than I've ever had to be. Yeah, like, but in that there's just so much like constant beauty, joy, surprise.

[00:25:30] Aneta: And that's the beauty. It does. And there's no wrong answer because I think everybody, as you said, we all have our own experiences, and Michal, I'm curious because I find that in life sometimes. It helps to be a little naive. It helps to be a beginner sometimes, because if we knew everything that was going to happen and all the hardships, sometimes we would stop ourselves and say, yeah, no, I'm good.

[00:25:59] Aneta: I don't think I really I'm going to do it. So did you find like looking back? Of course, sometimes it's easier to look back. But I'm sure there are things, as you mentioned, that didn't go as expected. There are things even with as much planning as possible, do you feel like it was helpful to be a little naive about the process and not necessarily know just how hard some of the steps were actually going to be?

[00:26:22] Michal: Definitely. I have not a single regret. It's like this movie is probably the thing I'm most proud of in my life outside of, like, my marriage to my husband and the longevity of that, but yes, I mean, this has been four years in the making, and if you told me when we started this that it would take four years to get on the festival circuit to be doing this, I'd be like, no. I'm really looking to do this.

[00:26:46] Michal: This is a micro-budget. This is like a starter film. It's going to be a kickstart. We're going to finish this in like a year and we're going to be onto the next thing. But it also has been just such a beautiful journey and I have grown so much and I've gone through wildly crazy things. I mean three weeks before we went to make this movie. I was actually diagnosed with cancer and that's why the character of Charlotte has cancer. Well,

[00:27:11] Aneta: A little spoiler that's okay.

[00:27:20] Michal: It just felt like that was the elephant in the room that felt so large, and because I was wearing so many hats, because I was directing this, producing it, as a co-writer, I was in it, like, it just was way too many hats to not address that, and so, Joseph and Alexandra and I got together, and we were like, I mean, I came to them first.

[00:27:39] Michal: They were not like, we need to put this in the movie. I was like, I think this needs to go in the movie. I can't speak for them, but I think they're probably relieved because it did need like I was going through so much personally when this happened. I mean, directing a movie is its own giant life thing. And then like going to like another country that you've never had with all these different rules is another giant thing. And then to go through this health crisis at the same time, while I was also working like I was still working full time as a flight attendant.

[00:28:08] Michal: So I took like vacation days to make this, I mean, it was just crazy town. So yeah, we added that to the film because it felt like the best way to hold a space for it, but also not have it like interfere. And I think that's what life is, you can't just ignore when something happens, it's like, okay, you have to pause, you have to take it in. You have to accept it.

[00:28:31] Michal: It's not always going to be what you want. Acceptance is not like liking what's happening, but it is owning what's happening and deciding that it is, and we know that it is, then you can move on and then you can find gratitude. And going through that and I went through it again like it came back like in post.

[00:28:52] Michal: So I went through that again, I had two surgeries in the process of this journey. So, I mean on personal levels I shifted, but I was also shifting with the movie. There's just been so many points of growth through this journey and so much learning how to collaborate, learning how to like, I'm a very headstrong, opinionated person.

[00:29:15] Michal: Like, how do I bring intention to someone else that I equally share this with? So I'm not like, you can't will something like with bullying or doing it your way. How do you collectively find that magic sweet spot where you're moving forward, but you're also doing it so that everyone is held and taken care of, also it's moving forward. Yeah, it's been a really, beautiful, wonderful process, the whole thing.

[00:29:47] Aneta: Thank you for sharing. And I only recently found that out when I watched the movie. I didn't realize that you were going through the same pieces that Charlotte was going through. Can I ask, how are you doing today? Are you healthy?

[00:30:02] Michal: I am. I'm good. I'm like two years cancer. Like, I think it'll be two years in November cancer free. And I was very lucky when they caught it very early. I only had to have surgery. I never had chemo. And I would never like, wish that on anyone to go through something like that. But so many people do go through that plus a million other harder things. But I will say that I actually have a lot of gratitude for having gone through that because I just became so aware of how loved I am.

[00:30:37] Michal: By so many people and I just felt like so much love going through this process. I mean people came out of the woodwork that I had not talked to in years. And I think that when we go through hard things, we do really have the opportunity to have our community show up. And that was such a beautiful thing because we all go right.

[00:30:58] Michal: We all have 100 years. Like, maybe we have 110 years, but let's be real. We don't get more than that. And so what do we do this is exactly what your podcast is. Like, what is the width of your life? Right? So we don't get to decide how long we get, but we do get to decide if we really are smart about it.

[00:31:15] Michal: And I do think that's the secret to life. Like, how can I imbue each moment with meaning? How can I enjoy each moment when something really bad is happening? How can I find the gratitude? How can I find the thing that this is the lesson or this is hard, but look at all these people that are showing up for me? There's always gratitude if you look for it.

[00:31:36] Michal: And I think that was a journey that I was on before this journey, but it definitely got deeper and I feel the gratitude more. I can feel like the more I lean into gratitude, the more I have it. And similarly, if you just lean into the negative it starts to become a black hole. It's just everywhere. I don't want to live that kind of life because it doesn't do me any favors and it's definitely not doing the world any favors.

[00:32:02] Aneta: That's so true. And it's so interesting because knowing that you two have this close relationship, you could feel the love between your characters, but it was so true and so real in the story. In the movie itself, which is just so beautiful for me to even think about after the fact, right? Because I don't know all these things, but you're hoping that as actors, I'm sure, and as writers and creators, you are bringing to life through storytelling. Real, true, genuine, authentic moments of truth, right, that other people can feel like you could feel it through the screen, which is just so amazing.

[00:32:37] Aneta: And I definitely felt that. So I want to talk a little bit about where you are in the process now. So it's been four years. You mentioned that it's on the circuit. So how can people find the movie? Do you still need to raise funds? Like I'm so unfamiliar with how a movie is made. So, you think, okay, somebody typically on a big budget. Some, you have people who do all the different parts, right? And here you guys have a much smaller team and you are so heavily involved in all of it. So where are you in the process now? And also, how can people find the movie? Like that, I'm sure people are curious to want to watch it now, too. So who would like to take that?

[00:33:25] Alexandra: I'll take it. You can find the movie at unpackingmovie.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at unpacking movies. Michal and I will give you our personal Instagrams too at the end of this, I'm sure. But yeah, honestly, those are the better ways. We don't need to raise any funds for it. The movie's completed. We've paid for the post. We have all the rights to the songs and like everything's tied up in that sense but we're still looking for distribution. So the more festivals we get into and the more people do follow the movie, spread the word about the movie, come to the festivals we're playing at, watch it, leave reviews for the movie online because we're such an indie.

[00:34:12] Alexandra: With no famous people attached to it. That is a huge reality in our industry. We really need sort of grassroots audience interest to get on the radar of distributors and show them that it is a quality movie and it is a movie people are relating to and there is a place for it. So we have Cinequest coming up in the Bay Area this month we have two screenings in Mountain View on August 25th and August 30th. We have Iowa, we have Richmond International, we have a fest in New Hampshire, and we have like five festivals in the next two months. Again, I'd say like, for all those details, go to our website, and go to our Instagram, they're going to tell you where you can see it.

[00:35:04] Alexandra: And we have a sales agent that's working with us to try to get us a distributor, but I wish we were already at the phase where we could be like, it's streaming on Hulu. Like, please spread the word, watch it, rate it, and review it, but we are not yet on a platform. So that's sort of the next step and are like the continued learning curve is like, how do we get it out to the next layer and level without the sort of having already those built-in connections or I'm just not going to lie, like the fame component of getting a project.

[00:35:34] Alexandra: Yeah, even maybe pretty mediocre or not great to a platform is. Is really big in our industry. But we really believe in our movie. We believe in independent storytelling. And we love our actors and we think they should be people that you know and want to see more of. So, that's, that's where it's at now. But, yeah, honestly coming to festivals, rating it on IMDB we're trying to get it up on Rotten Tomatoes to rate, but just like spreading the word so that we have more followers. We're also on Facebook, all of that stuff, just to sort of show true interest in the movie will really help it at this point.

[00:36:17] Aneta: Yeah, I will definitely include all of the links in the show notes and promote it and share it. And I will do everything you just said too, because I do want to rate it and leave a review. It's so important. And so Michal tell me what your intentions are, any intentions that you guys set for the movie, anything that you want to sort of put out into the energetic field in terms of what you're hoping for and also how it finds the right people, maybe.

[00:36:48] Michal: Yes, I have the intention that it will find its way onto a perfect platform that is just going to, yeah, I think it's really a beautiful, funny, vulnerable, heart-opening film that both women and men are really responding to. And I know that when it gets the space to have a commercial audience, it will find it. I mean, the audience feedback has been incredible at these film festivals. And so I know it's just a matter of time before it does find its way onto a platform like Hulu or Netflix or one of the major platform distributors since we're going with intentions.

[00:37:27] Michal: I'll just put it out there. It would be the like miracle of miracles. If it got a limited release and got to go into theaters, that would be like my Indie heart would just like gush. So let's put it out there because why not? And that it will end that the accolades and the magic of this journey will just naturally ease funding the next project that we're working on together. And all our other projects too, will just become these accomplished directors that are like the future Greta Gerwigs of the world.

[00:38:04] Aneta: Yes. And so it is. I love that because you know what, it's so beautiful to be able to state, this is my intention. This is why I create, and this is why we put so much work into these projects. So any other little teasers about? Other projects that you guys are working on that you're super excited about right now.

[00:38:25] Michal: I don't know if we can tell you exactly what we're doing. It's very secretive.

[00:38:30] Aneta: You'll have to come back. You'll come back and tell us.

[00:38:34] Michal: Yeah, we're just not going to tell you like too much because it's too juicy and we're like, we'll tell you privately, but out into the ethers, but Alexandra can tell a little bit about what the three of us, the three writers are going to do.

[00:38:47] Alexandra: It's another, ensemble story and it's another destination story. And it's also exploring a different topic from a lot of different perspectives with, like, juicy real characters having complicated life experiences.

[00:39:04] Michal: Funny and heartfelt as well.

[00:39:07] Alexandra: Awkward and earnest. I think we really want to tell truthful stories with real people, but, like, we really talk about this a lot. The world is filled with amazing people, and maybe they're like, bumbling and fumbling, but they're trying to do better, and they're trying to grow, and they're trying to be more aware, and they're trying to be kind, and those are the kind of stories we want to highlight. There's so much focus on like, Psychopaths and stalkers and stuff where we're just like we just don't want to do this. And there's like a, yeah, I still think you can get really complicated, juicy, weird, layered stories by also highlighting people that are like trying to grow and be good people. So, we can't wait for the next one. Yeah, we're writing together again.

[00:39:58] Aneta: So exciting. Well, I can't wait. And of course, I would love to have you guys back and hear more about it. You guys are so delightful. I am so grateful that Michal and I, it's a funny story. I'll share it quickly. We met when my family and I were in New York City and we were traveling and visiting and we happened to stop at where she works and spent about two hours talking your ear off.

[00:40:21] Aneta: We just all connected so well. And somehow you shared that you and Alexandra made a movie and the girls were like, you should come on my mom's podcast. And suddenly it was just one of those beautiful serendipitous moments where you're like, wow, this was so cool that we made a connection. And then here we are.

[00:40:41] Aneta: And I just love when moments like that happen so unexpectedly and totally divinely orchestrated, I think. And I am so excited for people to see this movie. I'm so excited for people to learn more about you and, I do think that things are changing. I think that we're tired of sort of the fake glossy, perfect representation of life. And so I do think that the stories that you are telling and creating and building with real people are definitely what people are craving and looking for right now.

[00:41:13] Michal: And I just, speaking of intentions, like you literally, I mean, you're exactly what we were looking for. And you just showed up with such ease. This was the easiest process to end up here. And so it does speak to intention and manifestation. Thank you for that.

[00:41:30] Alexandra: We're on all those same pages with you, too. Yeah. We're open to the world, being open to the energies we come across, and like, what naturally blooms when you allow yourself that space.

[00:41:43] Aneta: I love that and Alexandra, I would love to ask you about what living the width of your life means to you.

[00:41:52] Alexandra: I love that this is the focus of your podcast because I think it takes a lot of us a really long time to come to this in life. And for me, it really means embracing the fact that I do have a lot of interests but allowing them to speak to each other and layer on top of each other. And also releasing some of the time pressures that I think our society can really put on things.

[00:42:25] Alexandra: And also some of the, like, here are the markers of a successful life. Like I've had to do a lot of work to release those things and sort of embrace like, well, my idea of a successful life is having long dinners with friends that really make me so excited and spending time in nature with my little dog and really working to craft stories that I find meaningful and important and traveling and, I sort of allowing myself to truly set my own expectations and I will say In this culture, I constantly have to re-engage with those things, so then part of what helps me live the width of my life is having close friends and collaborators that are also committed to that path, and that is important very much Michal and very much how we communicate with each other.

[00:43:19] Alexandra: And we give each other space to like to take on other projects or other things, part of why this has been the process it's been and it's taken longer is because we both do have a lot of other pots cooking and there are the responsibilities of life, but there are other projects and there are other interests and yeah, it's giving the space and the grace to set my own boundaries and expectations.

[00:43:42] Aneta: I love that. I love that so much. And I think you're not the only one that has struggled with releasing these sorts of programmed societal expectations of what success looks like. And so much of the beauty of the journey, of course, is allowing those things to sort of fall aside, let go of them and discover what's true to us.

[00:44:04] Aneta: And so thank you both. For the conversation today, thank you for the beauty and the creativity, and the stories that you're putting out in this world, helping to make the world a better place. I'm so grateful that I got to meet you guys and I can't wait to hear all about your future projects as well. Please do come back again.

[00:44:24] Michal: Thank you, Aneta.

[00:44:26] Aneta: You're welcome.

[00:44:27] Alexandra: Thank you so much.

[00:44:28] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals created more joy and are living the life that they've always dreamt of living.

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