women in film
FIRST THERE WAS THE WRITTEN WORD
Connecticut native Addie Morfoot came to the film world via journalism. After graduating from the University ofWisconsin-Madison with degrees in communications and English, she moved to Los Angeles,“ thinking that Iwould go to the beach and marry asurfer,” she jokes. An internship at Variety, for which she still writes today, led to fun times“ at the outskirts of the red carpet scene.” It also led toher interviewing her future husband, Ross Kauffman, who cowrote and directed Born into Brothels. She moved to New York to be with him, worked full-time at Variety and traveled the globe with Kauffman as he showed his films in far-flung destinations such asJapan, India and Africa.
The script that the couple wrote together for Boy Boy Girl Girl is Morfoot’ s“ first foray into the other side of the business,” she says. The story, which has been condensed from a longer screenplay the two have been working onsince 2009, isbased onthe story of their friends, agay couple who planned to adopt ababy from ameth-addicted pregnant woman, and their( dark) comic struggles to keep the woman clean atthe end of her pregnancy. The casting of Katie Holmes in the role of the pregnant addict came about when the actress heard adescription of it from an employee of Kauffman’ s production company, Fictionless Films, while appearing on the same panel.
“ We shot part of it in our house in Verona, part in Verona Park and part in abad part ofElizabeth,” says Morfoot. The three-day shoot, which was made possible by Apple, was shot entirely onaniPhone 7Plus, using a stabilizing contraption Kauffman built to hold it.
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ADDIE MORFOOT
CO-WRITER OF THE SHORT FILM BOY BOY GIRL GIRL
FILMMAKING FAMILY( Top) Ross Kauffman directs Katie Holmes;( middle) acamera within acamera;( bottom) Morfoot works from home.
ON WOMEN IN FILM
As a journalist, Morfoot interviewed Harvey Weinstein several times.“ I didn’ t get how he could treat people the way he did and get so far,” she says.“ I’ m just glad it’ s all come to light. At least [ male executives ] are going to have to be more sensitive and think before they speak and act.” Her husband, she says, has always worked with women.“ The theory is that there are so many women working in documentaries because there’ s not alot of money involved,” she says.“ The higher up the money chain, the harder it is for women to be taken seriously and have their voices heard. I wrote something about how even in the documentary industry, women feel that they don’ t get as much money, and their budgets are smaller than the ones the men get.”
TOP PHOTO: COURTESY OF NATALIA IYUDIN; OTHER TWO: COURTESY OF ROSS KAUFFMAN
36 MAY 2018 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE