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Photo Credit: IMDb
Crystal Moselle is a New York based filmmaker who’s best known for her films The Wolfpack and Skate Kitchen. Her ability to depict raw individuality is what makes her such a talented director. From robots (SOPHiA), to skaters (Skate Kitchen and Betty), to dreamers from Brooklyn (The Black Sea), Moselle’s filmography explores themes of identity and human experience to inform and entertain audiences. Her passion for documentary storytelling has earned her several film festival awards such as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Commercially, she’s directed multiple brand campaigns for brands such as Miu Miu and H&M.
This morning, I was honored to speak to her virtually about her past and upcoming projects. Read on for Crystal Moselle’s responses to my questions about her documentaries, filmmaking, and creativity!
ROBERTA FRAUSTO: I recently just rewatched Skate Kitchen and went down a rabbit hole of all your pieces of work. I’m curious, what spurs your creativity to come up with your projects and if there’s anything or anyone you look up to for inspiration?
CRYSTAL MOSELLE: For me, I get inspired by people. It’s usually like I’ll meet somebody or get just like inspired by a robot – I made a film about a robot – and from there it’s either you know for me, I don’t think there should be, you know, one way to tell a story whether a documentary or a scripted film. I think that the story will present itself in the way that it’s supposed to. Like for instance, for Skate Kitchen, I met those young women on the train in – I think like 2016 – and there was a real collaborative type of connection between us and it made more sense to do like a scripted collaborative piece rather than a film that was like a documentary because they really wanted to be a part of the creative process. SOPHiA, a recent film that I made which is about a robot, that made more sense to be a documentary because we’ve seen so many scripted films that are with robots so I felt that fiction wouldn’t make as much sense, like what’s so cool about Sophia was that she’s actually a real robot in the real world. So for me, I think it’s just mainly about, you know, I meet somebody and they really – I don’t know, I have like an instinct – It’s kind of like an instinct when you meet a new friend and you’re like “I like that person.” I get a similar feeling.
FRAUSTO: Yeah, that’s awesome! So I know for Skate Kitchen, you stumbled across the girls on the train, as you just mentioned. Did you find that casting them as non-professional actors influenced the direction of your film?
MOSELLE: Oh, absolutely. You know, I observed and hung out with them for, you know, probably like eight months before we made the film and I really understood the way they talked, the way that they communicated, and I just hung out with them and immersed myself into their world. So, it was important that – like I don’t think I could’ve just like grabbed actors and put them in there. I think that they just made this authentic kind of, you know, [film]. For me, being authentic, like that’s what my work is about. It’s about the realism, it’s about, you know, really feeling like it’s living and breathing in real time as opposed to feeling like somebody had written it down on a page and I think that people that are non-professional actors, and you know, you’re giving a part of their life having them feeling comfortable in their world is super important.
FRAUSTO: Yeah, and you know, that's something that I really loved about the film– is how real and authentic it felt because of all the girls’ chemistry, because you know, of their friendship. I loved watching them interact and skate with each other like normally, and then that’d be accompanied by the fictionalized world that you created like the script. So, how were you able to balance both the authenticity of the skaters with the actual story?
MOSELLE: Well, we had a script– Have you seen Betty, the TV show?
FRAUSTO: Yes, like the spin-off?
MOSELLE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So with Skate Kitchen, we had a script, but I mean I was just like teaching myself how to do this at that point. I think that like, my most recent film that I just made called The Black Sea, we didn’t have a script at all. It was completely improvised – and which I’ve like really learned how to create that type of scene, like the type of authenticity. But there was a script, we would do a scene and then we would get it right –because we have to get it right when you’re on set, like it takes a few times– and then at that point, we would just say like “Don’t worry about about the lines, like just yourself be in this scene and go after your objective.” And then in the edit room, that’s where you have all that footage of what you wrote and what they’ve brought & built. It’s the editing where you kind of find the moments that work. I think that a lot of directors do let their actors go off the page, so it’s not unheard of, but I’m just trying to perfect the art of not having a page at all. Just letting the actors really live in these worlds.
FRAUSTO: For Skate Kitchen, I loved the themes and messages of this movie regarding feminism. You see, I view this film as a metaphor for girls that they can own the idea of doing things they thought couldn’t be possible, you know, with not only skating, but for filmmaking as you’re a female filmmaker. What did you hope that the audience for this film took away from this message in terms of female empowerment?
MOSELLE: Well I think that, absolutely there’s like a big parallel between being a woman who does movies and women who skateboard. Like, you know, I think now – When I first met those girls, like there were no female skateboarders out in the street at all, but now they’re everywhere. Do you skateboard?
FRAUSTO: I used to–-I saw the movie for the first time like sort of when it was released and then that got me into skateboarding. I did that for like a year or two and then I gave up cause I wasn’t that good, but Skate Kitchen did influence me to skate.
MOSELLE: Yeah, yeah, I think that, you know, it’s this idea that like we can do anything we want to do. There’s no like “That’s for girls,” “That’s for boys.” And you know, now with like the direction of where the world’s going, gender isn’t informing anything anymore. So, I think it’s really positive and, you know, I just want women, girls, or anybody to feel they can do what they feel. It’s not about what society’s telling us what we can do.
FRAUSTO: Yeah, and I was curious before Skate Kitchen, did you have any prior knowledge or interest in skateboarding or skate culture?
MOSELLE: Yeah, I definitely was very connected to skate culture since I was young. I grew up, you know, I skated a little bit but not really. But I grew up with a lot of like boys around me skateboarding so I was definitely aware of it and in all honesty, pretty sick of it at a certain point. Like super happy to not be involved in skate culture at all. But when I met the girls, it kind of like inspired me and I was like “Oh… cool like girls who skateboard? This is awesome!”
FRAUSTO: So now switching the subject to your documentaries, The Wolfpack. I know that you came across the boys one day and were curious about their lifestyles. And in the film, the boys are unique and their story was very inspiring to see and learn about in the film. I believe you captured that very well! When shooting this film, how did you ensure that their story was portrayed accurately and in a respectable manner?
MOSELLE: For me, when you make a film, you have to take your time and not try to rush things. You don’t completely like – Whatever idea you have in your head about if something’s going to be scripted or not, it’s always going to be something different because you get to know it. It’s like a friend, this connection you have, and for me, you know, I met those boys not really knowing anything about them. But, they were very charismatic and excited about making movies. That’s, for me, everything I needed to know. Like I was like, “Cool, that’s great!” We became friends and, you know, we made some films, we made some shorts and stuff. You know, I slowly learned about their lives, and they revealed their stories to me and then we had a film.
FRAUSTO: About The Wolfpack and your other documentaries SOPHiA and The Black Sea–-When filming these documentaries what were some of the most surprising moments when filming?
MOSELLE: I think just when something beautiful and unexpected happens. It’s really exciting when you start to see things work, when you start to see a vision, when you start to have your point of view come across so I think it’s just like the beauty of like creativity. Making something unique is I think what I really gravitated towards because it’s a process finding your voice, making movies and stuff, you know. It takes a long time to figure it out and when you do, it’s very fulfilling.
FRAUSTO: Some of your work revolves around female identity and empowerment. How do you view your filmmaking contributing to the broader cultural discussion about gender and representation?
MOSELLE: My work, probably has a bigger idea to it, but for me I’m really focused on the individual characters and stories that I’m telling. Of course, like, I hope it has a broader conversation. But, I’m never thinking about it when I’m making it. So, I’m more thinking about – I think for me, there’s a word that me and my husband use called “togetherness” and we just made a film called The Black Sea together that just went to South by Southwest (SXSW). For us, it’s like all the work that we want to do is about togetherness and we want the message at the end of the film to always leave people feeling like there’s hope and there’s connectivity between people that they can find. There’s a lot of – the world is in this state of kind of breaking apart and nobody’s really seeing eye to eye. It’s sad, I really hope that we can make a change.
FRAUSTO: Yeah, I love that! Now wrapping the interview up, what advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers finding their own paths in the industry right now?
MOSELLE: Just, keep making small things with no money with your friends and keep trying different stuff because finding your voice is the most important – Just finding a unique voice is what I think is most important to creation so just keep making stuff! Get yourself out, you know, paint a flower in your head, I don’t know.
FRAUSTO: Lastly, do you have any upcoming projects you’re currently working on that we can look forward to?
MOSELLE: Yes, The Black Sea!
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Click on the following link for more information on how to watch Crystal’s upcoming project, The Black Sea.
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