Cinematography has truly saved my life, director of photography Julia Swain says in the opening minutes of the documentary. Directed by Swain, the movie charts her journey to find and connect with other women who are working in her chosen and beloved profession a career, she notes in her narration, that has helped her navigate overwhelming personal tribulations. The resulting documentary features archival material as well as more than 20 new interviews with such cinematographers as Anette Haellmigk, Autumn Durald, Cybel Martin, and ASC members including Natasha Braier, Reed Morano, Amy Vincent and Joan Churchill the latter of whom shares a story about her union card that provides the documentary's title as well as Local 600 national executive director Rebecca Rhine, Marvel Studios' executive vice president of production Victoria Alonso, and others. In presenting their stories, the documentary showcases powerful examples of women overcoming the motion-picture industry's barriers to entry, offering a vision of hope that Swain describes as a love letter to young cinematographers.
Swain partnered with cinematographer Teodora Totoiu to shoot Lady Cameraman, which they did over the past few years, all the while building their careers and shooting a range of projects for other filmmakers. Panavision provided most of the cameras and lenses for the documentary, and the final grade took place at Light Iron's Hollywood facility with senior DI colorist Corinne Bogdanowicz. Panavision recently caught up with Swain, Totoiu and Bogdanowicz to discuss the project, which premiered at the 2020 Camerimage International Film Festival.
Julia Swain.
Panavision: What inspired you to make this movie?
Julia Swain: I was getting ready to graduate from film school, where we had all these amazing DPs in residence, including Bradford Young [ASC], Rodrigo Prieto [ASC, AMC], Guillermo Navarro [ASC] and then we had Mandy Walker [ASC, ACS]. Seeing her made me realize that she was this one woman shooting at that level. So I set out to meet more of these heroes and learn about the pioneering women in cinematography.
Did the shape or the focus of the project evolve over the course of its making, or is the final movie essentially what you first imagined?
Swain: This film has evolved immensely. It is not the film that I thought I set out to make in the beginning. I started this film just looking at where these women come from and how they light, but when we watched that cut, it was lacking something. By nature, I'm not one to seek out conflict, which is probably why I had been taking a very gentle approach, but clearly there was a reason why it was all these women in my film, and to make the strongest film I could, I realized I had to dive into what that meant. I wanted to talk about the problems women have faced and the immense amount of time it's taken for women to rise up in the industry, but without it going into total darkness. So I brought some of them back for a second interview, and I talked with them about being a mom and a DP, and what this life looks like specifically from a woman's perspective.
Teodora Totoiu: I think that really added to the film, because it suddenly became less about, This is how you become a DP and this is what you do technically on set,' and more about, this is how you feel when you're doing it.' That change helped a lot.
Teodora Totoiu (left) and Ellen Kuras, ASC.
Teodora, when and how did you become involved in this project?
Totoiu: Julia was one of the first people I met when I interviewed for graduate film school. She was a year above me, and she made me feel so calm before my interview. We became friends, and then during my third year, she mentioned this project. I loved the idea, and that's how it all started. When we started shooting, I was in my final year and Julia had just graduated.
What did your shooting schedule actually look like?
Swain: There were long gaps. I joke that DPs are the hardest documentary subjects because there's not a lot of footage of them, they don't like to be in front of the camera, and they're super-busy. [Laughs.] We'd be trying to plan the day before a shoot, and I wouldn't be sure that they would be able to come to the interview because and I knew this our schedules change day to day. But we were lucky, and we did have days where we got to shoot three women in a row because they just happened to be in town.
It was a long process. We'd edit, and we'd get feedback, and then we'd have to go and get something else there were a lot of repetitive steps. Knowing who this is for and the amount of amazing people who are involved kept me motivated to keep going.
How did you find and connect with everyone who's interviewed?
Swain: I had friends and mentors like Johnny Simmons [ASC], Dagmar Weaver-Madsen and Bill McDonald, who knew I was setting out to make this project, and they would help me with introductions to the cinematographers I didnt already know.
How did you approach framing and lighting the interviews?
Totoiu: We wanted to keep the lighting consistent overall but introduce some visual distinction through color. One thing we talked about was, Are there any colors we associate with their films or shows?' For example, when we shot Ellen Kuras [ASC], we were thinking of blue inspired by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and for Autumn Durald we thought of pink because Palo Alto had recently come out. That was a fun way to distinguish them a bit while still keeping the interviews cohesive overall.
Were you able to have two cameras for each interview?
Swain: We always tried to have two cameras. One would be a static tight eyeline to me, and then the B camera would be on a slider or a dolly, tracking back and forth. The A camera might
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Cinematography has truly saved my life, director of photography Julia Swain says in the opening minutes of the documentary. Directed by Swain, the movie charts her journey to find and connect with other women who are working in her chosen and beloved profession a career, she notes in her narration, that has helped her navigate overwhelming personal tribulations. The resulting documentary features archival material as well as more than 20 new interviews with such cinematographers as Anette Haellmigk, Autumn Durald, Cybel Martin, and ASC members including Natasha Braier, Reed Morano, Amy Vincent and Joan Churchill the latter of whom shares a story about her union card that provides the documentary's title as well as Local 600 national executive director Rebecca Rhine, Marvel Studios' executive vice president of production Victoria Alonso, and others. In presenting their stories, the documentary showcases powerful examples of women overcoming the motion-picture industry's barriers to entry, offering a vision of hope that Swain describes as a love letter to young cinematographers. 
