One of my most vivid memories remains sitting on the floor of school bathrooms calmly guiding my friend through her first use of a tampon, it is something we were ‘taught’ with the use of vintage videos, unclear and useless medical demonstrations and quite frankly outdated suggestions from unsympathetic adults. Christa Haley’s Swim Captain affectingly highlights this universal aspect of womanhood with tenderness and clear cinematic vision. Upon digesting the NYU Graduate Film production restrictions and reflecting on her own very intimate and heartfelt struggles with being a young woman, Haley submerges us into a painful but empowering story of ultimately overcoming insecurity. Swim Captain is unexpectedly visually arresting considering its austere confined setting but Haley’s use of the space and adaptation of the location, combined with considered symbolic colours and cinematography takes it far beyond its locker room locale. Making its online premiere on the pages of Directors Notes, we spoke to Haley about her desire to see and create a film which affirms her own experiences and struggles with womanhood, using a silicone vagina for the most intimate and exposing moments and adapting a harsh and unyielding location to her wants and desires when filming.
What prompted this emotive and powerful female led story?
I was eager to tell a story about a young woman who’s both a leader and uncomfortable in her own skin. It was inspired by my experiences as a swimmer and co-captain in high school. I wanted to tell a story about a woman’s body, without showing her body. The project was my spring narrative film during my first year in the NYU Graduate film program. We had restrictions to work with: to create a 7-minute film with up to three characters, in up to three scenes, in up to three locations. And the restrictions were really helpful. I was excited by the additional challenge of creating beautiful cinematography in a story that mostly takes place in a toilet stall.
How did the script evolve from your own experiences into the narrative we see here?
Feelings of insecurity with my own body really started in high school, where I felt very vulnerable in my own skin. Chloe’s struggle with the tampon in the film illustrates that disconnect between her ‘inner self’ and her body. Movies that show women empowered in their bodies (while wonderful!) haven’t affirmed my own experiences. I find it frustrating that a woman’s worth is somehow always tied to her body, and what she is able to do with it sexually.
I was eager to tell a story about a young woman who’s both a leader and uncomfortable in her own skin.
I combined two very personal memories of early womanhood to make this film. One is quite literal; I was a high school swimmer who regularly struggled with tampons. The other was a very emotional moment in my varsity swim career, where my coach had to remind me to get back on deck for my teammates who had voted for me as co-captain of the team. Sometimes my own insecurities made it hard for me to see myself as a leader.
Whilst at its heart Swim Captain is an empowering film, Chloe’s character is so vulnerable. How was this part of her character developed and balanced with her as an authoritative captain?
Chloe’s character is multifaceted – she can be both vulnerable and have her teammates look up to her. That’s what makes her a complex character. Great leaders don’t have to be one-dimensionally confident. The film drops us into Chloe’s world in a moment of intense vulnerability and insecurity. But we know that outside of the stall, her authority comes from the fact that her teammates look up to her. Not from a naturally confident, authoritative personality. For preparation for the character, Kelly and I discussed the character’s family background and home life over emails and Zoom before production began.
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Casting must have been tricky to find the right female lead to embody the multifaceted character you built.
I knew that I needed to find an actor for Chloe who could hold a performance on her own in a stall. I did research on young actors online and came across the trailer for the feature film Goddess of the Fireflies starring French Canadian actress Kelly Dépeault. I was so struck by her, and even though I don’t speak French, I could see the depth of emotion in her that we needed for the part. Kelly and I met over Zoom to talk about the story, and then we offered her the part through her agency. I asked for self-tapes for Lindsay and Coach which is how I met Francesca Keller and Dani Nelson, who were perfect for their respective roles. Because the cast lived in different cities, we had table reads over Zoom. And then I planned to have 1-day of rehearsal on set with just me and the actors before the crew arrived for our 2-days of production.
I was so struck by her, and even though I don’t speak French, I could see the depth of emotion in her that we needed for the part.
It is a very exposing role, how did you approach those intimate scenes with Kelly?
On set, I wanted to create the safest space possible for Kelly’s vulnerable performance, so I planned to have women in all of the roles directly behind the camera (DP, Sound, AC). I didn’t want Kelly to have to mime the tampon performance, so I searched for a fake insertable vagina and found a silicone vagina that is marketed for crossdressers and she used that during production. I knew that I wanted the film to have a very soft focus and be tight on Chloe in the stall. And I wanted to contrast that coverage with wides outside of the stall in order to enhance her isolation. The natural colors in the locker room: the reds, whites, and blues, were symbolic on so many levels. And that gave Claire Barnett, the DP, and I the opportunity to make intentional framing choices around those colors.
Can you detail the filming of her struggling to fit the tampon, were there many takes and how did you ensure the authenticity of the experience?
I ran 10-15 minute long takes and would have Kelly run the lines, and then reset to the top without cutting. Because we were so tight on her with the camera, and the performance was so vulnerable, I wanted to give her the chance to really live in it without interrupting her with the mechanics of stopping and re-running camera, sound, and slate.
You must have been looking for a very specific location.
My producing partner Jessica Li and I struggled to find an affordable, available locker room location in NYC. So I ended up scouting my old high school locker room in Plattsburgh, NY, an hour south of Montréal. Our high school didn’t have a pool, so we swam at the local state college SUNY Plattsburgh. Amazingly enough, the locker room was sitting vacant waiting to be gut renovated. As soon as I arrived to scout, I knew it was our location. It was perfect because it was the space that I had imagined while writing. While I was there, I took stills on my Canon AE-1 35mm film camera and took measurements of the locker room, which helped me prepare for production.
At SUNY Plattsburgh, we worked with Richard Larche who was overseeing the upcoming construction. He was incredibly generous and supportive of our project. He and his construction team ended up taking a marble stall wall down, so we could film profile shots in the stall. They also moved an old Kotex machine, so it could be seen in the frame when Chloe’s character runs in. And their team mounted additional mirrors along the wall, so we could block Lindsay’s character right outside of Chloe’s stall.
You’ve managed to make a beautiful film in a toilet! What inspirations did you take for the cinematography and how did you achieve your desired look?
Thank you! When I’m initially setting the look for my projects, I tend to start with photography. The first piece of visual inspiration was Justine Kurland’s photo Bathroom, 1997 from her book Girl Pictures [a photography collection which also inspired Ania Bajorek’s music video homage Ogień]. The previously mentioned stills I took when scouting ended up serving as framing references. And later, as references for color and texture when finishing in the DI. Other film/TV references that were in the back of my mind were Gus Van Sant’s Elephant and for the tight, soft focus shots on Chloe, S1 Ep8 of Euphoria – the deep shallow focus scene with Sydney Sweeney at the doctor’s office.
I was excited by the additional challenge of creating beautiful cinematography in a story that mostly takes place in a toilet stall.
In terms of equipment, NYU provides the Sony FS7 camera for our spring narrative assignment, which creates an image that is very crisp and digital. It didn’t feel right for this project, so in order to soften the image we rented Zeiss MK3 Superspeeds and used Black Pro Mist 1, which was a huge focus challenge for our classmate who AC’d, and she knocked it out of the park. In finishing, our incredible colorist, Patrick Devine at Company3 brought out the hues that I was looking for and added an overall grain to match the feel of my 35mm location stills.
Tell us about your background in editing and how this aided post production and of course the decisions you made on set.
My background is in post production as an assistant editor, so I came into the film knowing how I wanted to edit it. And the edit didn’t change much from my original intentions. The biggest challenge was making it clear to people who don’t have periods, what Chloe was struggling with in the stall. I never wanted to shoot an insert of a tampon. But we had a take where she tries to make the tampon easier to insert – and we used that to solve the clarity problem.
When I went into Swim Captain, I knew how I planned to edit it and that plan helped me to understand when I had gotten what we needed on set.
I did in-camera editing when I first started making movies as a kid on my Hi8 camcorder. And I taught myself to edit when I was 14. My middle school tech teacher, Mr. Miner (who recently passed away) let me sneak into the school’s only edit suite during my lunches and study halls. After undergrad at SUNY Oswego, I started working professionally as a Local 700 Assistant Editor on features and TV shows in New York City. I have always thought with an editor’s mind, so when I went into Swim Captain, I knew how I planned to edit it and that plan helped me to understand when I had gotten what we needed on set. And afterwards, I edited relatively quickly because I had that plan in mind.
This is a strong start to your directorial journey, what does it mean to you to have it out to the world and what are you working on next?
This project has meant so much to me because it allowed me to express a side of myself that I feel hasn’t been well represented in film. About a young woman who is not confident in her body or her sexuality. The biggest reward in making this film for me has been connecting with people who after seeing the film, feel empowered to share their very similar personal stories about menstruation and virginity with me. It has made me feel less alone in the experiences that I’ve had in my life, and it makes me really emotional to think about.
My next short film Tragedy Babes is about a young woman whose obsession with social media live streaming spirals out of control during a night out on the town. It again stars Kelly Dépeault (in a very different role) alongside Thea Sofie Loch Næss. We recently had our world premiere at Palm Springs ShortFest which was an incredible experience. And next, I’ll be entering my thesis year at NYU Grad Film, where I’m developing my first feature film (a horror) which is again set in high school and inspired by experiences in my rural hometown.
