A stay-at-home mom’s domesticity takes a surreal turn in Director Marielle Heller’s horror comedy, Nightbitch.
Heller’s film tells the story of an artist who pauses her career to care for her young child. Seeking a new chapter in her life she encounters just that when her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.
On November 30, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Heller discussed the making of Nightbitch during a Q&A moderated by Director Ritesh Batra (Photograph).
During the conversation, Heller spoke about why she works with the same crew repeatedly.
“The great thing about working with people over and over again is that you know you can actually depend on them and know that they're wonderful at their jobs. I think it frees me up to be able to work on the unknowns and I know that I can really trust all the people I'm working with so completely. I think they all know that for me it's always character first, and story first, and that all of the artistry, and all of the craft and all of the decisions we're making have to kind of tie into somehow character and story. That that's always first before anything looks cool or would be a pretty shot or a pretty outfit or anything like that. It always has to be like what's this telling us about the character and how are we telling this story in as many layers as we can, but not making them seem heavy handed. I just feel so lucky that I keep getting to work with the same people over and over again and that they want to keep working with me. And then you get a shorthand with the people that you work with. I feel so much trust that I can explain a scene in purely emotional terms, and they can translate it to their technical expertise.”
Heller’s directorial credits include the feature films A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me?; and episodes of Transparent and Casual. She was nominated for the 2015 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for The Diary of a Teenage Girl and again in the 2020 Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials category for What the Constitution Means to Me.
Heller has been a DGA member since 2015.