Erin Greenwell is the founder of the filmmaking collective Smithy Productions, and the writer/director/producer of Mom, a new comedy featuring lesbian comedienne Julie Goldman. Mom is a buddy road movie with a lesbian twist, and a message to buck up any despairing soul. Fellow filmmaker Dasha Snyder sat down with Erin to chat about Mom, her inspirations and aspirations, and the state of queer filmmaking.

AfterEllen.com: What made you want to go into film?
Erin Greenwell: I like the magic trick of: this is completely constructed, it’s gone through 55 levels of construction but when the person sits in the audience and just laughs or cries - that’s the magic trick. And I love that everyone can be in on the magic trick: the audience, myself, the actors, the writer, the crew. To me, it’s one of the strongest ways of collective storytelling. That’s the reason I like to tell stories.

AE: Is that one of the reasons you formed a filmmaking collective?
EG: Yeah. Smithy Productions, which is a rotating collective. Basically if you want to be a part of Smithy Productions, you just volunteer and we work together. (laughs)

AE: Easy right?
EG: Easy, right. I think one of the more daunting things in film is, if you have one idea and everyone thinks you can’t do it, it becomes exhausting and you end up not doing it. It’s terrifying to hear that you can’t do it. But if you have a lot of people, who care about what they do 100%, say “Yeah, we can do it!”

I went to a panel discussion and was asked “What advice can you give filmmakers?” Get your priorities straight and get your nerve up. And just know that you’re going to be doubting yourself a hundred times a day. You’ve probably had this experience, too: I went to a panel discussion at Reel Affirmations on Women in Film and I was soaring for 2 days after. Where someone said “Hat’s off to YOU, Erin Greenwell!” And I was like “Oh, this is so GOOD!” And then I get home and the phone message is “Ms. Greenwell, this is Chase Manhattan Bank and you owe...” And it drives you crazy.

You can achieve creatively so much, and then the reality is like: What am I doing? This is so self-indulgent. I’m running out of money. I have to work 3 jobs. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. Then you get a call: “Hey, I’m off Saturday and I have a mic you can borrow.” And all of a sudden the energy is: I can. I can. I can. So, that’s the long-winded version of the biggest person to say that I can’t do this is me, and the biggest person to say I can are the people around me.

AE: Thus, the collective.
EG: I’m good at gathering people and getting them to respond positively, but if they only knew the darkest corners of my mind... If you push and you push and you push what you know in your heart of hearts is fantastic, all it takes is 2 other people to say “you know, that’s fantastic” and you know you can get it done. The big trick in moviemaking is that people make it sound like the moviemaking is hard. Getting money, getting the resources...

AE: But that IS hard.
EG: It is. But, to me it’s kind of the delight. If you’re passionate and creative, that’s not the hard part. For me, it’s the pitching yourself, reinforcing yourself, convincing other people you can do it. That’s a lot of mental work that people usually don’t open up about. No one likes the loser who’s going to admit that part. (laughs)

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