A Conversation With 'Gets Good Light' Production Duo Alejandra Parody and Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner

A nominee this year for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Short Form (Live Action), Gets Good Light tells the story of, in director Alejandra Parody’s words, “solidarity in the face of oppression.” With help from a hard- and honest-working citizen, a family being targeted by immigration enforcement takes refuge in a luxury condo. The film is a haunting, though much-needed, portrayal of what it means to be Black and brown in an America that is saturated in—and, by extension, founded upon—white supremacist rhetoric and ideals. In turn, the film raises the ultimate question of what it really means to be a citizen of a country.

Production partners Alejandra Parody and Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner—self-dubbed as a “creative power couple,” according to their website—serve as the director and producer-composer, respectively, of this short. The pair met at NYU’s famed Tisch School of the Arts, and thereafter founded Teddy Tracker Entertainment, a Brooklyn-based production company with a focus on, in Phillipson-Weiner’s words, “centering women and people of color.”

I had the opportunity of asking the production duo some questions. For a glimpse into the creative minds of two independent artists on the road to revolutionizing the silver screen and film industry at large, read on. They talk about the production process, what it means to use art to combat authoritarianism, and the magic of their post-production fairy godmother, The View’s Sunny Hostin.

Hi, Alejandra and Elizabeth! I hope you’re well. Thank you, first of all, for taking the time to answer some of The Nerd Daily’s questions.

Congratulations on the film and its success so far, most notably the NAACP nomination for Outstanding Short Form (Live Action)! I loved the film; I thought it was a really powerful presentation of one of America’s current, and most pressing, sociopolitical issues. What does this film—this story—mean to you? What inspired you to tell this story?

Alejandra: Thank you, we’re so glad it resonated with you! Daniel Solé –the writer of Gets Good Light– reached out to me about whether I was interested in directing a short film he was writing about immigration in America. This was some time in 2017, when the 2016 election loomed over us. The widespread appeal of white supremacy in the U.S. was a sobering reality we had to contend with, and the fear of what else the then-new administration would do to exploit said appeal was constant. There was a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness. I think a lot of us felt that way, and as artists, the tools we have to reclaim some of that power and sow back hope is our craft. It felt necessary to tell a story that spoke to the moment, that shed a light on the humanity of people who were often bearing the brunt of right-wing populist rhetoric: undocumented immigrants, especially from Latin American.

So in many ways, Gets Good Light is a reaction to a moment in history that felt particularly ominous and un-American because there was an active force trying to homogenize “Americanness” in an oddly nativist way. And as an immigrant myself, I couldn’t help but keep wondering, wasn’t this a nation of immigrants?

The film, to me, operates within a space that presents new notions of citizenship—or, at the very least, presents the notion of revisiting the definition of citizenship—without overtly illustrating what is “right” and what is “” The film, in fact, ends with a lot of questions left open and unanswered. Was this a conscious choice? How did you navigate the different emotional themes, topics, questions, etc that this story represents?

A: There’s only so much you can explicitly explore in the span of a short film, so you really have to consider what the crux of your story is. To me, Gets Good Light was always about solidarity in the face of oppression. Authoritarianism needs dehumanization to flourish– that’s why people crossing the border have to be demonized as thugs, aliens, rapists, etc. to justify separating them from their children. In the film, one of the ways this dehumanization is briefly explored is indeed through the narrowing of what it means to be an “American” and by extension, a total rejection of anyone deemed not American. The way to counter authoritarianism, then, is to remind ourselves of each other’s humanity, to be stubbornly empathetic of one another.

For Alejandra: The cinematography was, for me, one of the most impactful elements of the film. The way, for instance, Manny and his family were framed in the very linear (and very rigid) confines of the condo really emphasized the tension between life and luxury. How did you approach the relationship between the visual and narrative elements of the film?

A: There is a unique pleasure in finding the visual language of a narrative that not only reflects but expands on the themes of that story, and working with Soren Nielsen, our profoundly talented Director of Photography, made this process even more enjoyable, so I’m very glad that it was impactful to you!

The approach was one of juxtaposed realities, which initially came from the way in which Daniel had written these two parallel main characters whose worlds collide one night. Those parallel realities play out explicitly in the film, but we looked for ways in which they might be implicit in the world of Gets Good Light. I really wanted to highlight a society that likes to present itself as healthy, successful and pristine, while at the same time constantly pushing all its flaws and issues under the rug to hide them, creating a gross, rotting base that is just out of sight. In many ways, that translates to “grimy with a pretty sheen to it,” so that’s what I wanted visually. It’s also a society of polarization, of extremes, and in that vein, the conversations, not just with Soren but with all department heads, revolved around a neo-noir style: deep contrasts in color and in shot sizes, a sense of foreboding, sharp edges, that type of thing.

For Elizabeth: The score is both beautiful and haunting, really bringing to life the interiority of two ordinary, honest-working people who just want to continue doing ordinary and honest work. What was the process like in terms of finding, and ultimately capturing, the tone and sound of film’s score?

Elizabeth: Thank you so much! Being the producer of the film as well gave me a lot of time to sit with these characters and their stories and figure out what they sounded like and how we wanted the world to feel. In the score I wanted to evoke the feelings of the world Alejandra was building – one that from far away looks pristine and desirable but with something rotten underneath. I built the sonic world around Manny and Andrell’s perception of New York and the spaces they occupy within the city. For many people, New York is a gorgeous place, full of opportunities – but for an undocumented immigrant, the city becomes insidious, there is no guarantee of safety at any moment. I used a cello technique called portamento – which creates a long sliding effect to evoke the sounds of sirens covered up in a beautiful way to convey the level of anxiety both Andrell and Manny face when society decides they no longer belong in the spaces they’ve been occupying. I wanted the score to convey that this world, while superficially beautiful, can turn on marginalized people at a moment’s notice with devastating consequences.

The View’s Sunny Hostin served as the Executive Producer—how did she initially get involved with the project, and what was it like to have her onboard?

E: Sunny joined our team at the beginning of post-production. Our associate producer, Kelsey Klimara, works at The View and asked if she could show a rough cut to Sunny – of course we were thrilled about that! After seeing the film Sunny jumped on board as our Executive Producer and has been a huge supporter and spirit guide. It means so much to us that she came on board. Sunny’s social justice work is incredible and we feel honored that she recognized our art as a form of activism and wanted to be involved.

You both founded your production company Teddy Tracker Entertainment on the principle of “fostering diversity of thought, culture, race, sexual orientation, and ability.” What does that look like for you? Are you hopeful that the film industry at large is moving towards sharing this principle?

E: This principle is essential and it is the drive behind how we choose our projects and how we conduct business. There has been a massive shift in the amount of diversity we see in front of the camera in the film industry, but behind the scenes and industry-wide, the demographics remain largely unchanged. It’s important that the equity we’re seeing doesn’t stop with the actors portraying characters, but with the storytellers and crew members who bring the stories to the screen in the first place. That means centering women and people of color in leadership roles at every step of the filmmaking process. That also means a focus on stories told from new perspectives that expand our collective empathy and understanding. What gives us hope is that the general public is taking on this issue and putting pressure on the big players in every industry. People are pushing back in a bigger way than ever before against the status quo and demanding change. That is really exciting.