Kim Albright & Anna Maguire on With Love and a Major Organ
The director and star of the new Canadian indie chats to Bleeding Edge about their sci-fi romance.
After a year-long tour on the festival circuit, which included stops at SXSW, Fantasia and grand-prize winning Toronto premiere at the Canadian Film Festival, the science-fiction romance With Love and a Major Organ will finally begin its Canadian theatrical run at the Carlton Cinema on Friday, April 12th.
The film’s high-concept logline, a future where our hearts are literal objects to be ripped out and effectively stomped on, might raise eyebrows, yet based on a hit play by Canadian stage veteran Julia Lederer, this is a smart and earnest film that speaks to a difficult moment in human, and well, romantic history. As the creatives point out in the interview, they went about creating a kind of subtle dystopia of deadening jobs, blank cityscapes and advanced, if not particularly helpful technological achievement.
Bleeding Edge was lucky enough to chat with the film’s director, Kim Albright, and its lead, Anna Maguire, on the eve of its theatrical release.
Ethan Vestby: Can you kind of each talk about how you came to your respective craft, directing, and acting?
Kim Albright: I studied architecture in Montreal, where I did my undergrad, but wasn't entirely convinced that was my calling. I went to London in 2002 for a break, with the hopes of being swept off my feet by a really cool creative career. And by accident ended up on a film shoot for a commercial about noodles. My friend mentioned they needed a runner and I wouldn’t get paid but to come along. I remember arriving on set, and just being blown away. I didn't understand what anyone did, but it was so active, exciting and interesting, there was so much cool stuff going on. So after that I started working as a runner at a production company that did commercials and music videos. I learned from directors on set with their treatments and pitches and soon after started making my own shorts on the side, to the point where I had enough work under my belt to be represented by a production company. And so that's how I kind of got started, basically doing commercials and music videos in London, and that eventually led to this feature in Canada.
Anna Maguire: I love hearing this whole story because I know so many parts of it. I forgot about your architecture degree. I started acting as a kid and was in a children's choir in London. I should mention both my parents are Canadian, and they moved to the UK before I was born. About a year later I went to a French Primary School - my mom's from Quebec and she wanted us to speak French, very understandably. One day there was a sign on the school door for a film that was shooting and they were looking for young kids. I went for it with the support of my mom, and got the part! The film was Saving Private Ryan. And soon after that was sent the script for Ever After and got that part. And then my parents were like “oh, I guess you're good at this?” I went to school and had a very normal life, but every now and then I’d go and do a week here and a week there, doing roles. I felt very lucky at the time.
And yeah, there's many complex elements of working as a kid. And we probably don't have time here now to get fully into that, but I would say that my experience was a really positive one. And then after graduating from university, I started work as a regular director. And so now I write, direct, produce, as well as teach. It's a creative life, trying to juggle all those things and build a community meeting new people and developing projects. And that's how I ended up here.
EV: I did some research and it seems like there was like a bit of a network in terms of the three main creatives of the film. Kim, Anna and Julia [Lederer], the screenwriter. If I understand correctly, Julia gave the script to Anna, who gave the script to Kim? Did that mean the creation of the film was a very harmonious experience? Or was there some conflict?
KA: I was in the UK and moving back to Canada, which was scary to make the leap since I didn’t know anyone, and it felt like I was starting from scratch. It was 2017 and I reached out to Anna, who splits her time between the two countries, and she introduced me to Julia, as they were working on a project together at the time. I should add that Anna and I just finished working on a short film she starred in that I directed. We forged a great relationship in London.
The play, With Love and a Major Organ, had been out in the world for about five years, in Canada and the U.S. I had the opportunity to read the script, and thought, yes, there is a real potential here to turn this into a film. That’s how I connected to Julia, and Anna was involved from day one.
AM: That’s kind of what was so lovely about it. Like the pluses and minuses with independent cinema is that no one's getting paid a shit ton. And so you kind of all go in together, and you make it happen. And there's something about the power of that. There's a lot of energy in building something together. And also working through those difficulties, not necessarily having your reps talking to each other. It’s just you talking to each other trying to figure out how to make a thing and how to collaborate. And it's almost like being a kid, right? You know, when you're a kid, you're playing in the playground, and you can't have that and then okay, you have that for a minute. And then you take turns, and you figure out how to make it work. And it really is so much about learning how to collaborate. And I think each project is a process; learning how to let go of your ego, learning where to push, where to stand back and when to let someone else's expertise take the reins. I would say our whole relationship was pretty harmonious, we managed to make something together and be ourselves.
KA: So one thing I should add too is that it was around that same time our producer Madeleine [Davis] came on board.. Looking back now, all four of us were very much involved from day one. And so everyone came at the project from different angles, and contributed towards the development of the script. I thought that was really useful because everyone wore a different hat.
EV: In terms of the specifics of the film, how did you go about kind of creating what I’d call a subtle science fiction mise-en-scene? Visually, it's still a romantic drama of sorts, but with science fiction elements. I mean, I’m guessing a small budget goes into that. But how did you go about conceiving that?
KA: I think that's material I'm generally drawn to, in terms of stuff that I make, but also what I enjoy watching. Things that are kind of subtle and feel grounded I think you can relate to them better, and an audience can as well. I never set out to create a super futuristic world, in fact what was important was that it looked and felt more like the world we're in, maybe with a little sprinkling of differences here and there, but it was definitely an intention to keep all the futuristic things very much at bay or miniscule.
AM: There's something really fun and refreshing about playing with this. We live in a world with a lot of these paradoxes; we have self-driving cars but we still also have to get up on time and go to our office jobs. And so we ask: how would you balance that? Even Thomas More was talking about this back in the 1500s when he wrote Utopia! The idea that we're going to have all this technology that's going make humans can work less, enjoy life, and make art more. And obviously, that didn't happen; look at the Industrial Revolution. And then look at where we are now when we're talking about AI, and our human relationship to it; it's dystopian. Why are we getting AI to write our films? Why aren’t we getting AI to do the dishes? That was something tht really came from Kim; to lean into the mundane, because that is 80% of our lives. And then to accentuate moments of colour and light and joy that punctuate that and make it so our lives are worth living.
KA: Jumping onto what Anne is saying. It was definitely a conscious decision to lean into the bleak and misery of everyday life. And so we tried with the cinematography and the color to reflect this, very much like what Vancouver looks like in February.
EV: I mean, you brought up Vancouver. It was interesting watching the film, I actually thought it was Toronto, and it made me think about how much just I guess every big Canadian city is meant to look like the same kind of condo hellscape. How did Vancouver speak to you as a location?
KA: Well, I actually made a very conscious decision to not reference any Canadian city in the script, or landmark. I wanted it to feel like it could be anywhere. When we were developing the script, I was still exploring Vancouver. I live on the North Shore, which I don't know if you're familiar with Vancouver, but there's mountains, cliffs, lighthouses, all sorts of stuff I've never been exposed to. And felt we needed to embrace the misery that Vancouver has to offer in the winter. But also lean into all its beauty. It would be such a perfect backdrop for Anabel who loves to hike in the woods, and showcase all the wonderful things that tie into Anabel’s enjoyment of life along with the special relationship with her mom.
EV: And I'm also curious, I mean, my partner and I discuss a lot how it seems like kind of films about love have disappeared from mainstream cinema, be it rom coms, or even just sort of like tear jerking romantic melodramas. Do you feel sort of this same absence in contemporary cinema? And do you hope the film kind of fills it?
KA: I definitely have a bit more of a darker perspective. And I remember we got asked this question in a q&a, “do they get together at the end of the film?” Maybe they do. Maybe they don't.
AM: I think that's what's so cool about the film as a love story. It's so unexpected. When we were developing, one of the issues we came up against was that it's a love story, but they spend no time together. So that's like an inherent paradox when you're trying to write it. There are love stories where the patterning is like, You've Got Mail, for example, and it’s setup so that they meet near the end. There's so many ways to think about patterning a love story. And I think this is what made it such an interesting journey. None of us came in thinking we’re making a romantic film, we came in saying we're telling a story about many things. I guess it ended up sort of encompassing self-love too, it’s how do you find a way to live in the world? How do you find a way to live with yourself, and how do you live with your own heart?
With Love and a Major Organ begins its Toronto theatrical run at the Carlton Cinema on April 12th. Bleeding Edge’s Ethan Vestby will be on hand to moderate a post-film Q&A with screenwriter Julia Lederer for the 6:50 PM screening. Tickets are on sale now.