Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kali Veach. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kali, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

At the moment of writing this, I am less than three weeks away from starting principal photography on my first feature film.

A couple of years ago I made a short film which garnered a small grant to go toward making another project. I decided to take that little pile of money and run with it, opting to make a micro-budget feature.

Rhapsody follows Devon, a composer, as she struggles to balance relationships with her family, her girlfriend, her career, her art, and herself while living in the Inland Empire of California.

I’m not sure how common this is for writers, but for me, I can pinpoint the moment this character was conceived. I was stuck in traffic on the 10 headed up to Big Sur for a birthday camping trip. It was a difficult time in my life. I was 27 and the year prior had ended a 12-year relationship (crazy, I know). I was living in a hostel on Calle Cuatro in Downtown Santa Ana between a pinata store and a gay bar. I really, really wanted to make movies.

I knew I wanted to make a movie about the bonds and limits of intimacy. I knew that I wanted to see more lesbians on screen imbued with full humanity, not overtly sexualized or the punch line of a joke. I knew I was interested in what we might call “regional” art.

When I was a teenager, my mother, my sister, and I packed up a 26-foot U Haul by ourselves and drove straight through from St. Louis, Missouri to Riverside, California. Eventually, we moved to Orange County. My high school girlfriend (the aforementioned 12-year relationship) was still in Riverside, so I took the Metro on weekends to see her or to catch a show.

What feels like by chance, I ended up going to undergrad out there as well. I graduated, lived life, and then went back for my MFA. Riverside gets a bad rap. Sure, triple-digit heat is the norm in the summer. But, for better or worse, I love the city.

It’s a bit of a cliche, but Rhapsody is just as much a love letter to Riverside as it is anything else.

Kali, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I would say the chances someone has read about before are nil.

So, it’s nice to meet you. I’m a filmmaker.

I didn’t grow up with access to cameras, so I have not been making Super 8 movies since I could walk or anything like that. I have always loved movies, though. One of my earliest memories is seeing the second Jurassic Park in a crowded theater. I remember getting in trouble for turning around to look at all the glowing faces of the viewers behind me. At one point, my little sister got scared and my mother told me we had to leave. I refused so her and my sister waited in the lobby until the movie was over. In high school, I frequently did not attend school, preferring to sneak into movies or read.
I liken realizing I wanted to make movies to realizing you’ve been in love with your best friend for years. When I knew, I knew. I got a job on a feature film, quit my day job, and haven’t looked back since.

I love character-driven motion pictures that take emotional risks. Some of my favorites this past year were: Poor Things, Showing Up, Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, and A Thousand and One.

As far as my own work goes, I write and direct films that explore themes of mental health, obsession, intimacy, and the varying ways human beings perceive and move through time. Oftentimes, but not all the time, these characters are queer.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

If you want to be a filmmaker in any sense of the word, you really ought to read Christine Vachon’s book Shooting the Kill. She’s the producer behind some of the most exciting American independent films in the past couple of decades. If you want to be a director, it’s especially important to get a producers point of view on filmmaking.

It’s profoundly difficult work. In the words of Susan Sontag, “Be passionate. Be serious. Wake up.”

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I believe in art for art’s sake.

For me, the collaborative art that is making motion pictures is the ultimate expression of the human spirit. It is soulful work. It is life-affirming to make and watch movies.

In the case of my current film, the fact that a couple dozen people are willing to follow me on this ludicrously ambitious journey–shooting a feature film in 15 days for basically no money as far as movies are concerned–is undeniably humbling. Through this process, I am constantly reminded of the dedication and goodness human beings can show one another.

I hope that whoever watches the film will somehow feel this as part of its DNA. I hope they will walk away with the feeling that caring for yourself, for art, and for others, is a worthwhile pursuit.

Contact Info:

• Website: kaliveach.com
• Instagram: @kali.veach
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kali-veach/

Image Credits
Ankai Cai