Interview with Melissa Johnson, Director of No Look Pass

Melissa Johnson is a producer and director from Venice, California. In January, 2008, Melissa directed and produced the short documentary film, Act As If, about Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. Showing in film festivals nationwide and recognized by The New York Times and The Boston Herald, Act As If served as a prequel for No Look Pass, which follows the life of a Burmese lesbian basketball player.

Having worked for Comedy Central, BBC America, and Spike TV, Melissa ran websites for television series such as The Colbert Report. She also directed and produced over 100 shorts and segments for these networks, earning a 2009 Webby Honoree for BBCAmerica.com. Melissa’s personal essays have appeared in the New York Times and Salon.com. One of these explains her inspiration for her latest release (2014), Love in the Time of March Madness.

Below, see what she had to say to Chris, our Blog Reporter:

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I was wondering if you could talk about your film background a little bit more to me –– where it began, what inspired you, etc?

Yeah, absolutely. There are these really clear moments when I fell in love with documentary film, like when I saw Hoop Dreams when I was in high school. It totally endures the test of time. It’s a story about two tricksy African-American boys, and it follows them for many years in their dreams to try to get to the NBA. I’d just never seen a story told like this. I didn’t know such a thing existed, and once I did, I couldn’t unknow that fact, because it felt so drawing to me to follow people over time. I really carried that with me.

Films like that turned me to an absolutely new world and way of viewing the world-- I just really wanted to take part and it felt really exciting for two hours. For someone that’s drawn to people like I am, documentary film is a natural medium.

I guess there must have been challenges during those early stages of your career. Can you elaborate on that? What specifically did you feel was the biggest challenge for you?

Well, I guess you should know that I was studying in New York at the time, and I was developing my skills as a filmmaker, working for a lot of networks. Then things were taking off with “No Look Pass,” and it got to the point where it was using all my nights and vacations. And then it was like, “Alright, now [Emily] is going to Germany.” I couldn’t just leave and hold down a ‘day job.’ I had to decide that I would spend my savings to make this film, and no one was going to tell me otherwise. It was definitely scary to take that leap. It was something that most filmmakers that I know and respect have--that kind of moment where you just have to get into the game.

You must have really loved it. One thing I really admire about your work how you were able to get that great characterization, especially during “No Look Pass”--that way you told this story of this dynamic individual. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your secret to doing that? Even in writing, it is so hard to convey that nuance.

Good question. I had a great writing teacher... and he had this theory that I think about a lot. I think filmmaking is actually an energy transfer business. So for you to feel this character, I’ve really got to feel it. I need to mainline that feeling while I’m writing or directing. If I don’t have that feeling as a director--if my heart is not breaking with Emily when she’s coming out and doing all these things--then it will never get to you, the audience. I have to generate that feeling…I’m a filmmaker that’s all about those small, really true moments, and I think that’s how it comes across.

Okay, now to get more specific. Your first film,“ Act as If,” was about your Harvard coach whom you said was a big inspiration. Did it really just come about as a joke about going back and making a documentary?

Actually, yeah. I would joke with her: “I’m going to come back and make a documentary about you.” And she would just laugh and didn’t think I was terribly serious. Then in New York, I made enough short films for TV networks. I was talking with this great editor, Amanda Hughes... We’d been working and I was like, “Listen, are you into documentaries?” And that’s really how it happened.

When I walked into the gym initially [to film Kathy], I had five minutes to pick a girl to interview about Kathy, and immediately I saw this gorgeous Asian-American girl, with this fantastic, black ponytail whipping around. And my assistant was like, “You pick whoever you want, but it’s my responsibility to tell you that you’re going to love that girl.” So I asked Kathy if I could take her, but Emily didn’t want to interview.

I think Emily told me later she hardly slept the night of her interview; she was so nervous. I interviewed her at the very end of the weekend, in the locker room. Everyone else was gone. I told her I’d cut out her “ums” and “ahs,” and then she started opening up. She told me so much more than just her relationship with Kathy, about her own life and what she’d gone through.

So when you were filming for “Act as If,” you found the inspiration for “No Look Pass.” It wasn’t really planned out.

Not at all. Completely organic. I had no idea, I thought that’d just be it. I’d shoot the thing with Kathy, and we’d be done. And then I met Emily, and this lightning bolt was just doodling in big red letters in my mind: This is it. You have to tell this story.

This is kind of the way I think about stories sometimes: films have to want to be made. It’s not really about you as a director. Your job is to show up for the film, but it’s not really about you at the end of the day. Some people call it “Listening to a muse.” It’s really understanding that kind of relationship--not trying to impose your will on the world, but being a powerful listener.

Your next film is “Love in the Time of March Madness.” How exactly do you transition from a documentary to a short animated film about a “6’4” tall woman who is a star on the basketball court but struggles to find true love,” as described by the Torronto Film Festival’s website?

That’s so funny, because to me, the gap is not so big. The trend that I would say is throughout my work is that I think I’m really interested in rite of passage stories, and a lot of stories that center around women and women finding their identity. For me, both of those stories are about that.

But to answer your question about the animated short. I was working with my brilliant and wonderful co-director, Robertino Zambrano. It’s like creative nonfiction--like writing about something that actually happened, but in the style of a novel. I love things that are in the gray zone between fiction and nonfiction. I think with Robertino and myself at the time, there was a bit of that. We purposely decided to go with this style of animation...[His style] was like in Alice in Wonderland. It’s a little dark and trippy with exaggerated perspective.

Why exactly did you choose animation for your short documentary?

We chose animation because we knew the subject matter lent itself so much to another perspective and size. Like when Alice (Alice in Wonderland) eats the cake and she gets really big--that’s what you see in the first scene in which I’m a kid at a desk, and my right hand hits the wall. Robertino and I talked a lot about what animation could create--all the tricks of the eye, and the fluidity we could communicate these scenes around. And definitely a feeling of motion. He did such a beautiful job of communicating that visually.

Obviously, basketball has been a driving force for your work. Why exactly basketball?

Basically, basketball became my way of understanding my unusual body in the world, my physical existence. For as long as I can remember, I played basketball; it would have to be on teams, and I was trained and trained so hard. I had a personal trainer when I was in eighth grade. So I’ve just had this whole team mentality--which frankly, in basketball or any team sport, translates well into filmmaking. The way you need to work in a team--the pressures around it, the idea of a common goal--has really drawn a lot from that. But I guess I keep finding these stories; I actually have a new project that’s also basketball-related. So I do them because I have to. I love them and I’m drawn to them and they just come to me.

Particularly when making my first film, I knew that I had a lot to learn about filmmaking. But I sure as hell knew a lot about playing basketball, and I could bring that expertise to this. So yeah, I made films about what I’ve lived and what I’ve felt. It’s funny, because people are like, “Oh wait, you’re not a woman of color. You’re not a lesbian. Why do you need to talk about lesbian women of color?” First of all, I know that what they’re going through is very universal; I understand the feelings of loneliness and growing up.

So despite these very different characters, there’s still a universality that you can really bring to the table and that your audience can relate to.

Yeah. I think those first two, I made with a young audience in mind. Because Emily talks the way they talk, she swears a little bit, she’s a little irreverent. A little silly. I want people to feel like this is a film where they understand this person. “I know this person, she could be my friend, and it feels real.” I want them to see this amazing, authentic, fun, hard, true life of this person and think, “Yup, that reminds me of what I’m going through.” Because that’s why Emily and I did the whole thing. I didn’t pay her--in documentaries, you don’t pay your subjects. Why would someone open up their life and share all these interesting things about their family and sexuality? A lot of people would think that’d be horrible. Emily really did it because she wanted to help other people not feel as alone.

My final question is this: If you could come up with a motto for filmmaking, what would it be?

I got this motto from my fabulous executive producer, Sara Sackner, and it is “Onward!” That was kind of our rally cry. No matter what happened, when things go wrong. It’s always with an exclamation point. We email it, we joke about it…[As a filmmaker,] you have to have the word “Onward” with an exclamation point etched in your eyelids.

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