As a directorial debut which she wrote, produced, directed and stars in, Hannah Levin’s Golden Child is a bold, funny and satirical look at the ways in which we handle trauma and the lasting effects it has on us. Levin was hyper aware of ensuring the right balance was struck as she wanted to make a short about, what is outwardly a hilarious story, but comes with a heavy backload of experiences, issues and baggage. Golden Child takes us on a journey through an awkwardly stilted family celebration which includes a well meaning father fussing over his daughter’s immodesty and a mother blithely waxing lyrical about body positivity, but Levin isn’t looking to chastise her characters. Rather, Golden Child serves as a reminder that we can laugh at the absurdity of perceptions we and others have of us and that the ways in which we heal can look however you want them to! Alongside Golden Child’s online premiere today, we speak to Levin about knowing the time was right to put her authorial voice to this film, ratcheting up the camera movement at a key point to increase the chaos and the execution of her deliciously apt denouement.
Trauma is a behemoth and the ways in which it can be dealt with are innumerable, I love the comedic approach you take in Golden Child.
I was interested in constructing a piece that could have an arc of something moving from light to dark. I think traumatic situations can sit with you initially as ‘weird’ or as a ‘funny anecdote’ and then, when you unpack it, you realize the darkness beneath whatever you were shrugging off. I was also interested in this phenomenon of how common it is for people who are sexually assaulted to coexist around their perpetrators even after they’ve come forward. There is just so much absurdity one encounters when grappling with sexual trauma. Of course, there is nothing funny about assault. But, in reality, the aftermath of it is often fraught with well-intentioned, misguided responses that are inherently comical. As someone with a comedy background, my impulse is always to explore heavy topics through humor…and often it’s humor that makes things feel the most real. When I thought of the idea of someone peeing on another person, that was an event that I felt could seem funny at first but take the journey to ‘oh that’s actually extremely fucked up’ in a nonconsensual situation.
I think traumatic situations can sit with you initially as ‘weird’ or as a ‘funny anecdote’ and then, when you unpack it, you realize the darkness beneath whatever you were shrugging off.
This is my first short. I’d made small films before in college and then have mostly worked in the comedy writing space. I’ve always wanted to write, direct, and act in my own projects. After I wrote Golden Child, I knew this was what I wanted to put all my energy behind as my first real thing as a creator. When I look back on making this, so much of it was bringing on collaborators I really trusted, building out a team of people whom I loved working with and who were all-in on my vision for the film.
As I’m sure you are MORE than aware, women in comedy don’t have the easiest ride and are often the only ones in the room. How did you find the jump from industry writing and acting to then putting your words to paper and building the script for your film?
I would say the jump was more from behind-the-scenes to creator. Since graduating, my foot in the door into entertainment has been through being an assistant. I’m very lucky to have worked for some amazing folks and seen how TV comedy is made on the highest level. I hit a point a couple years ago where I was like, “I’ve learned so much and been dedicated to helping people make their visions come to life. It’s time for me to do that for myself.” When I sat down to write Golden Child I had fragments of images, like Lulu’s back, and themes I was interested in exploring. After I wrote the film and showed it to some people, I knew this was the thing I was going to put my all into, properly fundraise for, and make my first big project as a creator.
I went to a panel recently on comedy writing and they were discussing how integral it is to keep your voice, for it to be your film and to have your voice and self seep through all of the processes. Was this a challenge for you?
I think one of the greatest things about short films is that if you decide to make one, it’s only because you really want to. People who write and direct shorts do so to showcase their vision, express something they feel compelled to say. There’s no money to be made. It’s a fully self-motivated art form and you can have ultimate control of your vision. Because I wrote, directed, and acted in the film, my voice is in every element of the short I really can’t hide! My being able to carry my voice throughout was kind of inevitable which was both terrifying at times and extremely liberating.
There’s no money to be made. It’s a fully self-motivated art form and you can have ultimate control of your vision.
How did you manage that all-important balance in tone?
Making sure we were hitting the tone correctly and maintaining the deeper meaning of the film was always at the forefront of my mind. I never wanted it to be too broad or seem like I was making light of something that deserved weight. In the edit, Chelsea Taylor and I were constantly looking for that balance of how you honor comedic beats while still sticking to the story, keeping the narrative moving. The final version of the film is almost exactly the script I wrote, there are only a couple of lines here and there that came from improv. However, there was a ton of hilarious improv that ended up on the cutting room floor. Seth Morris and Gillian Vigman (who play Alexander and Nadine) are two comedians/actors who are brilliant improvisers. A big reason why I was eager to cast them is because I knew they’d be able to nail dramatic beats while also having an eye open for comedy. Chelsea and I would watch Gillian’s takes back howling. I wish I could show everyone all of her improv that didn’t make it in. Coming from a comedy background, it’s easy for me to want to prioritize getting the laughs. But in the edit, the real process was about how precisely we could balance dark-funny-real so the story shined through.
When you’re making a comedy, you have to think of how the camera is visually telling the story on an emotional level, but also be very aware of how it’s allowing space for jokes to land.
I want to know about the direction, how did you find the right DOP and what setups were you looking at around the pool to fully capture that awkward family get-together feeling?
Ali Arminio, the Director of Photography, was one of the first people I talked to about this short and came aboard very early. We went to college together. She’s so talented, smart, and the greatest person to work with. Early on, one incredible observation Ali made was how the pool operates as a metaphor for the pee incident. Everyone’s talking around the pool (the way they’re talking around what happened to Lulu) and when the climax of the short happens, it’s finally when people go in the water. The final scene is also when we introduce more camera movement to help ratchet up the chaos.
When you’re making a comedy, you have to think of how the camera is visually telling the story on an emotional level, but also be very aware of how it’s allowing space for jokes to land. Ali and I had many discussions about that: when it made sense to live in coverage versus when we could have more complex shots that wouldn’t step on comedy. Similarly, I was very allergic to the idea of close-ups because it would make things feel too morose. We only have one CU in the film and it’s at a pivotal point. Another thing we did to amp up the awkwardness was making sure we saw principal characters talking in the background of scenes that they weren’t necessarily in. This contributes to Lulu’s anxiety: the sense she’s both under a microscope and invisible all at once.
You have a spectacular cast and I love you mentioning the enthusiasm of your collaborators, how did that help you, especially as a first time filmmaker?
I could talk about this for hours! I am soooo grateful to everyone who worked on this project because their impact was meaningful not only on a creative level but also on a personal one. The thing that makes me the most excited about filmmaking is that it is a collaborative art form. I love working with people and love hearing everyone’s ideas. Such talented folks worked on this short. I really valued the chance to have creative conversations with them along the way. And keeping the line of communication open was essential because things would inevitably come up where I needed to ask questions. As a first-time filmmaker, everyone who joined the project did so because they simply believed in the script and thought I could execute it. That was so validating.
On a personal note, having collaborators who were all in on the project also helped me feel safe in what was a pretty vulnerable position. Yes, I put myself in that position! But like I said before, there was nowhere for me to hide if I flopped. I really couldn’t think about what I was doing too hard because I could have easily spooked myself out of it. People donated money! But having this amazing cast/crew to work with alleviated any possible doubts.
That bathroom scene, examining her back in the swimsuit, can you tell me about filming and acting in the scene? Furthermore, you have a distinctive, forward thinking and much-needed voice for body positivity which we so desperately need more of.
Early on, I kept thinking of the back image: Lulu’s back in a revealing bathing suit. I was interested in that shot, just as something I don’t typically see on screen. It also felt like a vehicle to get into the conversation of the intersection of body and trauma, how our bodies can not feel like our own sometimes, how we become a vessel for projection. The opening shot of the film was actually a pick up. Ali and I filmed it in the assistant director, Jessica Dho’s, guest bathroom so we had the space and freedom to try a bunch of things. We needed an opening moment that grounded the audience in the tone of the film. I really wanted to start on Lulu’s back but we also had to communicate information about the world, these characters, which is tricky to do when you’re just looking at someone’s back. I had the idea of her putting the bathing suit on and getting ready in the bathroom where we see her trying to feel good in her skin ahead of the party. Part of me was apprehensive about having a ‘getting ready scene/girl looking in the mirror moment’ because it could feel like such a first thought – tropey. But there is something inherently charged about the image of Lulu’s back. And it really cinched the whole movie together thematically I think because it crystallizes this push-pull between Lulu’s efforts to feel good in her skin and how scrutinized she is for her body.
It also felt like a vehicle to get into the conversation of the intersection of body and trauma, how our bodies can not feel like our own sometimes, how we become a vessel for projection.
In terms of the body conversation, I just tried to write a film that felt honest and captured a particular reality. There have been a few times young women have come up to me after screenings and said how seen they felt by all the discussions around Lulu’s body. That’s meant so much to me and literally all I could ask for from creating something. I didn’t set out to ascribe any body positive messaging to the short per se beyond just trying to authentically show the layers of Lulu’s experience, many people’s experiences, and how everything intertwines. At the same time, I am aware that whenever a woman above a size four appears on screen it is seen as ‘radical’ and becomes a statement within itself no matter what story you’re telling. I definitely wish we saw more actors with varying body types and sizes on screen, this is very much an intersectional issue too.
I died (in the best way) when she awkwardly/lovingly/romantically put her legs around him and peed….please tell me how exactly you did it.
Figuring out how we’d execute the pee shot was one of my favorite parts of making the short. So many little decisions went into how we practically achieved that moment, it had to land in a way that felt real/grounded but also visibly read on camera…there was a possibility of those requirements being at odds because, famously, pee comes out clear in pools. Shannon McDonough, the production designer, did an incredible job achieving on the day what we conceptualized in pre-production. She built a ‘pee rig’ – a pump sprayer filled with water, food colorings, and juices to get the perfect color. There was a tube taped to my leg connected to the sprayer that would be pumped off-camera so the ‘urine’ would come out in a perfect stream. Luckily, we were able to do a few takes. Ali and the producer, Gracie, were in the pool operating the B-Cam we used to get the underwater shot.
So many little decisions went into how we practically achieved that moment, it had to land in a way that felt real/grounded but also visibly read on camera.
We also had an intimacy coordinator on for that scene – it was my top priority everyone felt comfortable! Because I was writing, acting, and directing (aka wielding so much power), no matter how cool and down Babe Howard (who played Little Alex) was with everything, I felt it was important to have a third party helping facilitate that piece. We rehearsed the scene the day before with Kelley and did a pee rig test.
This an amazing first short, what was the biggest thing you learnt to do and perhaps what not to do that will inform your filmmaking going forward?
As an assistant, your whole job is to read the room. As the director, you’re creating the room. Not to be so cheesy but, honestly, the making of this short was a learning process of how to take up space as a leader. Making Golden Child there were times I’d briefly slip into the ‘don’t overstep just make sure everyone is happy’ mindset I’d become accustomed to at work (or maybe just in society? lol). But then I’d remember I was in charge! I’d always valued when my bosses were direct, communicative, decisive, and had a passionate presence that galvanized the group. I set out to embody that as much as I could even if there were moments I felt intimidated or nervous.
I am desperate to know what is coming next from you.
I’ve been writing the feature version of Golden Child and hope to get it off the ground. There’s so much more in the story and dynamics I’m excited to explore. I also have a new TV pilot I’m working on. I’m hoping to shoot a new short too in early 2025 too!
