"The Floaters" Press Junket | The Latest WIth Maya

A conversation with Director Rachel Israel.❤️ See "The Floaters" in select theaters starting today!


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's a bit Rachel. I'm like looking at your background art and I see Maya's world. I'm like, oh, what's Maya's world?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Thank you. It's so nice to meet you. I'm so excited to be talking with you. Thank you. Yeah. So what do you hope uh people take away from watching the floaters?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Well, um, it's a summer movie, and you know, for me, summer has this like feeling of joy and opportunity for exploration and to kind of in in the floaters become someone new that you haven't been before within the framework of summer camp. And I hope that people get to just like live in that world and laugh.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, yeah. Um, so were there um any scenes that were particularly challenging to film?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Let's see. Oh god, there was a there was a scene. Yes, of all scenes are challenging in their own ways, but there was there was a scene. It's um, I won't, I don't want to give spoilers, but there's it's the ice cream scene. And for some reason, there was like one shot. It was it was chaos to shoot that scene. I don't know why. I think the scene itself captures a lot of chaos, and somehow our however we are plan for shooting it was just like there was action on you know all different angles and so many characters. Uh, it was there's just a lot to capture. Um and there was one shot that the whole shoot, we were like, we hadn't gotten it when our on our actual shoot day of the scene. And so then we were like, oh, we have to come back and get that shot. And it's like the the linchpin for the scene. Like, we need this shot. It's just a shot of our character Jonah standing under a tree and kind of like watching stuff happen. So it's a very simple shot, but we hadn't gotten it for whatever reason. And the whole shoot, we're like, okay, we're pushing, we're gonna get the shot on this day, and then whatever. Everything that you know could go wrong went wrong eventually on the shoot, and we all survived and have this beautiful movie, but we kept on chasing that shot. And I think it was like in the last week of shooting, a few days before we wrapped the entire production, that we finally got that shot, and it was like hallelujah, we have the film.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So it's one of those funny little things, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, definitely. Um, so do you have a special memory from your own experiences at Summer Camp?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

I didn't go to summer camp, so I don't have any memories of summer camp, but I did get initiated to the world through making this film. Um and I it's it's something I'd always been curious about and maybe you know experienced vicariously through whatever shows or movies. Um and it was great. We shot at an actual camp in the Catskills called Camp Tell You Huda. Um, and I stayed there during prep and and throughout production. So I feel like, you know, the kind of salty camp life and the whatever, the errant plumbing and stuff. I fully I got it. Yeah. I was at the time when we shot, I was um six months pregnant, and I had like one of those little tiny fans because it was like you know 90 plus degrees stuck in my bosom, just like oriented up to my face so I would stay cool during print all the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah, yeah. I um I used to actually go to camp in the Catskills, and so I remember it being really hot. Yeah. Yeah. Um so why did you want to be part of a movie about a Jewish summer camp?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Um, well, to me, the even though I didn't go to summer camp, the film was really about um community, and in this case a Jewish community. And it was something that I I felt like in the script I saw such beautiful things that I had always wanted to communicate about what it is to be Jewish. Um, you know, I love that I've always felt Jewish community is a place where we embrace difference. And this is The Floater is a film about a group of self-selected misfits and how they kind of find these friendships together, even though they hate each other in the beginning. Um and that's something that I love about being Jewish that uh that we you know accept difference, that we embrace argument, and um, I was really moved by that.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so what genre of movie would your life story be told as?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Ooh, well, that's a great question. Um, I mean, it definitely veers day to day, right? Some days it's it's a rom-com. Actually, many days I have a have a lovely marriage and uh beautiful family. So there's there's days in which I feel like it's rom-com. Um gosh. And I don't know, in the world we live in, there's a lot of horror being made for a reason, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

I don't think that's my life story, but I think that there's also, yeah, there's a lot of we make those films to wrestle with the darkness and and try to understand it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I don't know, a horror, a horror rom-com, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Oh, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

What about you?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah. Oh, I I I want a a musical rom com for my life story. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, that's nice.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Thank you. Yeah, those are two of my favorite genres.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So what are some of your favorite musicals?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Oh, um, oh, there's so many. Uh well, for movies, I mean, I love the prom on Netflix. Um, and uh there's so many, and now I'm blanking on them, but uh like Hamilton on Disney Plus, I've watched that so many times too. So yeah, I have so many um favorites. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Um, yeah, so many. You know, and a lot of like musicals that I love, I don't even first think of them like the sound of music or um Grease. I don't always first think of them as musicals. I just like they're just such great movies, and the music arises from like this deep emotion emotional place. And so it's like you feel that music had to happen versus I'd say in any way paste it on, right? It's just like this the emotion of the story is so strong that music must come. Annie, the 19, is it 1980? Annie was a film I watched like dozens of time times in the theaters when I was a kid, and my mother just kept taking me to it. So I think Annie is embedded in my soul.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh, I love that. Yeah, yeah. I think I think um the prom is like is as you said, embedded in my soul because I've seen that movie so many times, I've lost track. So I think I know all the words to all the songs by now.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah. Dirty I don't know if dirty dancing is considered a musical. I mean, music is so strong, it's it's probably not unless they're singing, but yeah, yeah, but I love that movie.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah. Um so if you um had a warning label, what would yours say?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Oh if I had as an individual had a warning label, yeah, what would mine say? Uh I don't know. Oh god, that's a fun question. I'm just like I have uh five children between the ages of nine and two, so I'm pretty roughly used, so I don't know. But I think like after once we hit like nine o'clock and if and and no one's in bed yet, and people stay up pretty late because it's summer and so it's still light out late, I start going like gotta get to bed. So maybe gotta get to get gotta get to bed.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I like that one.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

What about you?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Oh, I I think I have multiple ones. Um, I think the big one would be prone to anxiety, don't overload. Yeah. Um, so if you uh could give someone in your life a star on the walk of fame, who would it be?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

My husband.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah. Kurt Enger, my husband. Um, you know, I made, I think as I mentioned, I made this film when I was six months pregnant, and then I made another film, Influenced, which is in theaters now, like four months later, like basically back-to-back films. Um, and uh yeah, he was, you know, taking care of at the time four kids. So um, you know, without complaint. And uh we're both uh filmmakers, and I think you know, the like we have this beautiful thing where we make movies and we've made this this family, and so having a supportive partner, um, even if we didn't have children, but just someone who um loves you and sees uh the best in you is yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

I love that. Yeah. Um so uh if you had the opportunity to put a message on a billboard for everyone to see, what would that message be?

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Oh, this is so emotional. Um uh I'm not a poet, but my first thought was like, you are enough. Um it would have it'd be something very Mr. Rogers. And he would he had I forget exactly what his phrasing was, but it's just like you are there's never been anyone like you, and there never will be anyone like you, and you are just who who you're supposed to be. It's it's sort of it's what I tell my children.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

I love that. Yeah, I I want to see that billboard. Yeah. Um, so what subject could you give a TED talk on, even though you were totally unqualified on that subject?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Oh, oh god. Um I mean what are the let's see. I could give a TED talk, but I'm unqualified, meaning that I could just sort of like riff on it. Yeah. I mean, probably just like movies. I mean I'm not I'm not unqualified to give a TED talk on movies. Um yeah, I um what do I love to talk about? Movies, I love to talk about food. On the floaters, the DP and I, Danny, we both have spouses who are really good cooks. Um, and so when we were shooting the floaters, you know, we're in the cat skills, and it was really hard to come by like restaurants that were open on like regular hours. And so it was just like hard to find food, and we um wound up talking about like just food fantasizing. So if we weren't talking about movie making and you know, whatever the it was like during prep and then through the movie, and then we actually worked on back-to-back movies together, so it kind of then went to the next film. We were just between takes talking. If we weren't talking about the film we're making, we were talking about what we wanted to eat. So I could probably talk about food endlessly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh, I like that one. Yeah, yeah. Um, well, thank you um so much for taking the time to speak with me. I've loved talking with you, and um, I can't wait for everyone to see this movie. I loved it, and yeah, I'm so excited for everyone to see it.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me too, Maya. It was really a delight, and your questions were so fun.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you.