'Stucco' Exclusive Release on Hollywood Reporter
Photo: HollyShorts Film Festival
As the directorial debut of actress and musician Janina Gavankar with creative partner Russo Schelling, Stucco sets out to deal with guilt, anxiety, and mental health in an eerie, grotesque, and enthralling way. Her efforts to create a short film that evoked strong reactions paid off as it was selected in SXSW’s Midnight Shorts competition.
Growing up a child of immigrant parents from India, Gavankar was aware of the struggles she’d face working in entertainment. In an interview with Variety Mag, she tells “I’m in such a strange industry that if you don’t have that engine, you’re just not gonna make it. Also, I’ve been a brown girl my whole life. When I first moved to LA, there were no opportunities. There was really nothing.”
The 39 year old has been in the entertainment industry for over 15 years with her first recurring role being Papi on The L Word. She’s since been in multiple projects including Blindspotting, Apple TV+’s The Morning Show as Alison Namazi, and most recently in The Way Back alongside Ben Affleck. “One, I have a body of work that earned me the right to even audition. And two, finally, somebody like me gets to audition for a movie like that,” she tells Variety in reference to her role as Affleck’s ex-wife.
Gavankar is now taking her experience and putting it behind the lens with Stucco. The short film stars Gavankar as J, an agoraphobic woman with something bizarre lurking in the walls of her home. The short also stars Roby Attal, Rafael Casal, and Michael Ealy.
Photo: Alter
Funding for the film didn’t come easy. With help from a friend who alerted her about a competition from the camera lens makers Zeiss for a script showcasing their premium lenses, Gavankar and Schelling entered Stucco which helped procure Zeiss lenses and Red cameras for production. The remainder of the film, which had a total budget of $50,000 was earned by her work on The Morning Show. "Who has [thousands of dollars] to spend on their own film? Nobody!”, she told THR. “You know who does? Artists who are terrified of never being able to feed themselves [and] who are children of immigrants." 4WT Media was able to do our part in helping with the finished shorts distribution.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gavankar tells of her experience about being selected for SXSW’s Midnight Shorts. "The level of taste and the bar that SXSW sets for what gets chosen to compete is very high, and also, literally the motto of Austin, Texas, is 'Keep Austin Weird,' so they had a stake in the ground for interesting work.”
Stucco was also selected for HollyShorts Film Fest, Chicago International Film Fest, Sidewalk Film Fest, Orlando Film Fest, and St. Louis International Film Fest.
Watch the short below and check out the full story at The Hollywood Reporter.
