By Elizabeth Gracen:
Flapper Press ends the year with the announcement of a new series for 2025 that will highlight the art of the Short Film and feature the filmmakers who create them.
Regardless of your viewpoint in the value of short films in an age when almost everything we see on YouTube could be defined as such and anyone with a cellphone can film and edit with relative ease, the medium has always been and will continue to be a testing ground for the creative impulse to tell stories in the visual realm. For fledgling filmmakers, the short format film—whether live-action, documentary, animated, or experimental—provides a means to discover one's own abilities, personal vision, and unique voice. As the filmmaker moves though the process of bringing a story to life, skills are honed, collaboration finds its footing, and creativity takes flight. Although it comes with no guarantee of public recognition, nor does it provide financial reward for the arduous journey of making it, the short film is a creative sandbox where the only limitations are those self-imposed by the filmmaker.
In 2024, the Sundance Film Festival announced that over 17,000 short-films had been submitted for their annual event, and thousands upon thousands of short films are submitted each year to festivals worldwide. The short film is here to stay, and Flapper Press intends to honor the medium by talking to the filmmakers who create them.
To give you a little taste of what is to come, we thought we'd tease the series by turning the spotlight on talented filmmaker Rachel Annette Helson and her 2024 Oscar Qualified Short Film Good Daughter.
GOOD DAUGHTER: A small-time con artist rips off elderly dementia patients by pretending to be their daughter—until the con catches up with her.
Good Daughter is tight, tricky story well told about criminal behavior that impacts some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It's a short film, so I won't reveal much other than to say that I didn't see the twist coming. The running time is a little under twenty minutes, so I highly recommend that you screen it yourself and enjoy the performances in this well-crafted film.
Director RACHEL ANNETTE HELSON recently helmed her fourth feature film (an adaptation of the Bestselling novel The Air He Breathes), and Good Daughter is Oscar® qualified for the 2025 Academy Awards. With an acting background including credits for Full Circle, The Knick, and Law & Order: SVU, Helson is an alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and holds the distinction of being the youngest producer in Broadway history to be nominated for a Tony Award.
I recently reached out to Rachel to talk about her work, her goals, and her passion for filmmaking.
Please Meet Rachel Annette Helson!
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Elizabeth Gracen: Welcome, Rachel. Congratulations on your new film! Let's just get down to it and talk about Good Daughter. Tell me how it came about and why you chose this subject.
Rachel Annette Helson: It all came about because I was looking to make a short film, specifically. I wanted something that really felt like it was in my voice. I've worked a lot as a director for hire. I'm so grateful for those jobs, and I love the work that I've done on those films. However, I would say that I haven't really hit upon something in a director-for-hire space that really felt like me and the kind of stories I wanted to be telling going forward. So, I looked for a while, to be honest, for the right story. And I reached out to different colleagues of mine, and eventually to my friend Emily Carroll, who's a producer in Los Angeles. She introduced me to Jesse Harris, who's also from Kentucky. We had a Zoom meeting and talked about what we were interested in as storytellers. I feel very passionately about creating stories for and about women. Creating great roles for women. It's what I really want to do going forward. I'm also interested in the moral gray areas and the characters that live in moral grays—doing the wrong thing for the right reason. That's something that Jesse is also interested in. He thought about it for a few days and then emailed me just the logline of Good Daughter, which was, "A small-time con artist rips off elderly dementia patients by pretending to be their daughter until the con catches up with her." When I read that, it was like I had a full-body, eureka moment. Sometimes you just know, and I was like, I have to make this movie. This is going to be a big part of my life. Let's do this, exactly this. A month later, we were in production.
A similar "aha" moment occurred when it came to casting the seemingly morally challenged lead character in the film. Helson immediately latched on to the enigmatic face of actress Samantha Sloyan, who'd she'd seen as Beverly Keene in the 2021 Netflix series Midnight Mass. "Her character in that series was also someone who was very confident that her terrible ideas were the right thing to do, which is something she shares with Rebecca, who's the lead of Good Daughter."
With the help of longtime associates from her early years working as an intern in NYC casting agency The Telsey Office, Helson reached out to Sloyan. "Thankfully, she read the script and said yes!"
EG: You filmed the short in Kentucky. I didn't know there was such a vibrant production industry there. What's it like to make a film in your home state?
RAH: Early on I knew that I wanted to direct films, so I was looking for any opportunity for someone to let me direct a feature. I made a short film to begin with, and then I looked on IMDb Pro at any place and every place that had a production company, and I sent out my short to try to get a meeting. Nobody responded. I had heard about a production company in Louisville called Stargazer Films that made Lifetime movies, and they responded to my email and asked for a meeting. I met with them and said, "Hey, I made this great short. You loved it. Why don't you hire me to do a feature?" And they were like, "Well, we're not going to trust you with that much money. That's like half a million dollars, but let's continue talking. Maybe if you write something, then you can direct that." I said, "Well, I'm not a writer, but I'll try." So, about every two months I'd send them different ideas for movies that I could potentially direct. Eventually we created a relationship. They were terrible pitches, by the way, but I tried my best! Eventually, I made another short, and they said, "Okay, you can direct something. We know you now. You've made another short, and we feel like you have a good handle on this."
As luck would have it, during the dreary days of 2020, early in the pandemic, Helson and her husband decided to ditch their tiny LA apartment for her family's farm in Kentucky. When Stargazer realized that she was now in the state, they reached out an offered her a directing gig. "So, for my very first feature, I got to shoot in my hometown with the same people I'd grown up and gone to theater programs with. It was the greatest thing of all time."
"My first feature film was The Girl in the Window, which was retitled You're Not Safe Here for Lifetime," said Helson. "It's very Lifetime-y in the best way if you love those kinds of movies. I adore it. I always say it's like the movie Misery, but with a baby instead of a book."
Like so many states that offer tax incentives for film and television production, Kentucky is a right-to-work state. Even though this type of "runaway production" has become more than prevalent in the ailing Hollywood entertainment industry, these productions provide training and development for local talent to hone their skills and become part of bigger projects. It has also afforded Helson the opportunity to grow her résumé and create strong bonds with local crew and writers.
"That first film did really well, and I ended up doing a second film in Connecticut, followed by a third film, once again shot in Louisville," said Helson. "I ended up developing this big basic crew, and to be honest, they're my favorite people because . . . well, they're just my people."
When it came to helming Good Daughter, a comfortable shorthand had already been established between Helson and her crew. Her early years as a theatre kid in Kentucky, developing a deeply ingrained sense of community and comfortable creative "play," fueled her desire to continue to create films with her Kentucky collaborators. "I'm very inspired by Steven Soderbergh, who I got to work with on The Knick and Full Circle. He's the director that really made me want to be a director. The fact that I've gotten to work with him twice is the greatest thing of all time, in my opinion. Soderbergh has his Louisiana Mafia—people he always pulls from Louisiana, where he grew up. He's used a lot of the same crew throughout his entire career. I totally get it now, and I would like to do a lot of that same thing, because I think that when you have that much fun behind the scenes, it shows on the screen."
The world of making short films usually comes with a limited budget and resources. One has to be passionate, on-the-spot creative, resourceful, and extremely determined. It can also be a lot of fun. "Honestly, I love indie guerrilla filmmaking, when you strip things to their basics. That's when I have the most fun as a filmmaker. Where we only have a crew of ten people and we are all working together. It's me and my buddies making a movie in my hometown of Louisville. I had to beg for sets. Like, please, please, please let me come in for like two hours," laughed Helson. "I pulled in all my favors. The place where Earl dies in the film is literally a plastic surgery center. I was like, can we make this work? . . . I think this will work . . . We'll make it work . . . We'll make it work! There was a lot of good hometown vibes around the movie."
Good Daughter was shot in three days, with two company moves per day, utilizing various locations to serve as three separate onscreen Alzheimer's care facilities. "We were really hustling," said Helson. "I felt like we had to use one actual care facility and at least one exterior of a real one. That way we could sell the other spaces so that the audience would be along with us for the ride." With quick creative set-dressing changes and a Craigslist purchase of a $150 medical bed, they created the illusion of different spaces. "We had to use key cards to keep opening all the medical doors between takes when we actually shot in a care facility, but the hardest part was the montage sequence. The character Rebecca has to hit her alarm button over and over for each day. We wanted to show her as a workaday woman, so she'd hit the button. We'd cut. She would quickly change shirts to do it again. Day two. Day three. There was never a trailer or dressing room. She'd just have to pop into the bathroom, change and come back as they reset. The wardrobe department got the brunt of the work on that."
For a pro like Samantha Sloyan, a LA-based actress from a family of actors, the run-and-gun approach was taken all in stride. "She was unfazed by it all. Just so cool. She even brought donuts for the crew on the third day. She's very impressive and has a lot of fans because of her work with Mike Flanagan. I feel like she should be everywhere. I want people to cast her in everything!"
Even with impressive acting credits with illustrious directors on her resumé, Helson's focus remains on filmmaking. She had no hesitation when I asked if she preferred being behind the camera. "Times a million! It's so much more personal for me. Every film is so dear to my heart, and I sweat over all of it. It feels personal when someone loves it and when someone hates it. When I send off that director's cut . . . my palms are sweating just talking about it because I'm so invested. That's the most fun for me—to be able to love something that much. I never loved being in front of the camera that much."
Still, it's hard to turn down an opportunity to work with Steven Soderbergh. "When I did Full Circle, it just came out of the blue. I had stopped acting a while ago, and I had reached out to Steven about something, and a few weeks later I got an email from the casting director of The Knick asking me to audition for a part. I auditioned, and I got it, and it was some of the most nerve-racking few months ever being back in front of the camera. I was with all these great actors like Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, and Timothy Olyphant. They're all really wonderful performers, but I was rusty and knew that I had to hold my own in a scene with them. I feel like acting is one of those things where when you push it, you get worse. And so the more nervous you are, the worse it gets."
EG: Which begs the question: do you consider yourself an actor's director?
RAH: Absolutely. That is exactly how I consider myself. And I love actors, truly. I know what it means to be in the trenches and to audition for those things and to film those scenes and to need the preparation. I try my very best to figure out what every actor needs and guide them in a way that is most effective for them to get the best performance, because I want them to look good. I want nothing more than for them to shine in the piece. And it's my job to make sure that they're comfortable and that I can be there when they need me. I want to
create a safe space for them on set. I think that if the performance is there, then there's something compelling. I just have to catch it on camera.
EG: So, for all those film creatives out there who might need some inspiration, why should they consider making a short film?
RAH: First of all, I think short films are an art unto themselves. But if you're first starting out, you don't want to start with a feature because it's such a big thing. And my philosophy is start with the basics. You can do that on a short film. You can really hone your skills as a filmmaker and build a community. Shorts are great for that because they are lower cost of entry in terms of financing than a feature. They are not inexpensive, but they are not the most expensive. So they allow filmmakers to test things out and be creative and find their voice. Just like I was saying that I was looking for something that was my voice. It's a lot easier to start with a short than it is to start with a feature.
But also, I think that with a short film you have to learn to communicate something very efficiently and grab people right off the bat. Those are skill sets that you will take with you into the world. In terms of career, I think they're a great calling card for you as an artist. You get to figure out what kind of stories you want to tell, what kind of filmmaker you want to be. From a practical sense, they are great if you're looking for an agent or for a piece to show where you want your career to go. From a producer's standpoint, if a producer is looking at you to finance your film, they're going to want to know that you have some experience on set and that you're able to tell a story. They'll be able to see very quickly if you know how to direct actors, if you know how to move the camera, if you know how to tell a story and then edit. I think those things are very clear in your short film. And then you can do multiple short films so that you can practice. I love that they have these 48-hour film festivals where you create a short film in 48 hours with a whole group of people. I did one of those. That was one of my first shorts. It was the Women's Weekend Film Challenge, and I got to direct a short film in 48 hours. It was nuts, but you meet a lot of people. You learn to make quick decisions, which you have to do on set as a director. Plus, you get to tell an interesting story and add something to your demo reel.
EG: I know several filmmakers who use the short film as a proof of concept for a feature film. Do you have feature film plans for Good Daughter?
RAH: Yes, this short film is a proof of concept for a longer feature film, although it didn't start out that way. It really started out just as a short, but once we finished it, we kind of looked at each other and said, "There's more here, right? There's just more story to tell." I do know a lot of filmmakers who have a feature film script that they cut down to use as a short—either specific scenes or they create the short film to establish the tone and feel of the feature—sort of a mini story of the feature. A lot of filmmakers create the short so that a financier can see if the bigger idea works as a concept. So, I really think that short films are a great tool to help a filmmaker to show people why your film should be made into a feature-length project.
I love short films. I know that they're not everyone's favorite, and certainly in the Oscar race, no one cares that much about them. That's what I learned. Everything has changed so much with streaming that I find it an interesting category. To me, it's more about working things out and working storylines. It's more of a creative endeavor in terms of just figuring out your craft. But that's just me.
In an ever-changing world and a constantly shifting business model within the entertainment industry, Helson's mission to create relevant, powerful stories that portray the complex lives of women of all ages. "I think that complexity needs to be reflected on screen. I think that women get more interesting as they age. I love stories about 20-year-olds, but I've seen a lot of those, and I want to tell stories about women that are 40 plus and all the good, the bad, and the ugly that goes with that. I think that there has been a tendency in the past to just portray women as grandmothers, but there's so much more going on in their lives. It's very interesting subject matter that I have not seen on screen nearly enough. Those are the kind of stories and characters that I connect with. I hope that writers in the industry see what has happened and as a result will try to counterbalance that and give women more opportunities. I hope that they lean in to giving women a space and a chance to tell our own stories. Women are hungry for that. We're over half of the population, we would like to see ourselves reflected on screen. I hope that there are brave individuals out there who will give us opportunity, because we really do need opportunity. But in lieu of that, I know a lot of female directors, and I know that regardless of the outcome, that we will continue to make our own stories and that we are self-starters and we will find a way to do it, whether we are given a platform or not. So that's what I hope will happen."
Good Daughter utilized the Roxy First Looks Oscar Qualifying Program, which supports filmmakers in their Academy Award quest. The program is a theatrical release initiative at the nonprofit Roxie cinema in San Francisco that showcases a selection of short films (under 40 minutes) from various genres that provide the films with the necessary screening run of seven consecutive days in order to meet the criteria for Academy Award consideration. "We didn't win any of the Oscar-qualifying festivals, but I felt like our film was deserving of a chance to be seen by the Academy members. So, we decided to take the 'four-walling' approach and work with the Roxy First Looks Program," said Helson.
"For those not familiar with the term four walling—it’s when a filmmaker pays a theater to screen their film. Typically, the theater box office will sell tickets. The proceeds can either go solely to the filmmaker. Or, proceeds can be split between the filmmaker and the house. There are no absolutes when it comes to four walling." — "Four Walling for Independent Filmmakers," videomaker.com
For Helson, the process reinforced her belief in her project and in her ability to tell the kinds of stories she will continue to make in the future. "What's funny is through speaking with the Academy members that I've now met, specifically those that have done short films, many of them did not qualify their films through film festivals either. In fact, I spoke to one that was rejected from all of them except for two, and four-walled it to get in, won the Oscar, and then was invited to several festivals that they were initially rejected from. So that says to me, be confident in your film. It just needs to find the right opportunity. Keep fighting for it."
Elizabeth Gracen is the owner of Flapper Press & Flapper Films.
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