SPEAKER_00 0:00

So what brings you to New Orleans? Music. And I just love it. Yeah. I um it's, I mean, it's a whole story, but like I just chose to live here because I really felt good here. And it's kind of a magical city that does that. Where like if you're I feel like if you're meant to live here, it kind of paves the path. And there's a lot of heavy energy here. It kind of also detoxes you. Like it kind of challenges you, like hazes you, I guess, when you move here. That's a theory I have about New Orleans. What? I feel like people who really want to live here, and then they do move here, like a bunch of bad stuff might happen, like for a while after you move here, and you kind of have to get it. Interesting. And if you stick around, then you're like You're rewarded. Because it's it's not an easy place to live. There's a really strong sense of community and friendliness. Like people are so nice here. And I remember when I I first moved here a long time ago and then left, and I've moved back now. And like the first time I lived here, I just noticed like all day long I was having positive interactions with people, and it just made me feel happier, like and more joyful.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

That's a really big plus.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah. I grew up in Los Angeles where I love it there so much, but like it's more challenging to live there than here.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

So that's awesome. That's really fun. Ten years ago, she made one quiet decision at a cinema bar in Sydney that most people would have forgotten by lunch. She switched their ticketing platform. It's still working. This year she's bringing that same platform to America for the first time. Welcome back to Ilse Will Say, the show for people who somehow end up running the room, the festival, the red carpet, the whole operation. Even when nobody remembers to put their name on the poster. Welcome to my brain. I'm Ilse, your host, the kind of person who somehow always has their QR code buried under four other apps, right when the line starts moving. My guest today has spent her whole career backstaged at the biggest nights in film. She was the one calling the show the night Christopher Nolan introduced a 70 millimeter print of Dunkirk. She helped turn a cemetery in Hollywood into one of the most beloved outdoor movie nights in the country. And most recently, she was mentorship director at Cinema Femme, pairing up-and-coming directors with people who've actually been in the room while still working Venice and Sundance on the side. Boy, does she know how to keep a room full of famous, nervous people exactly on schedule? Please welcome Veronica Mount. Very good. I had to cut it down a lot. I hope you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah, well, you you pick such great highlights.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Thank you. I was like, whoo.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Um the famous nervous people thing is epic. I loved that.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

It's true because I had to like I had to pare it down so much because you have done such incredible work. Um, how did that journey start for you?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

The elevator-ish pitch of how I've gotten to this point in my career. I mean, where it is now is I've actually really recently realized my career is in film exhibition, and that's my passion. It's like that term I realized is like that's my industry. The the business of showing films is something I'm very passionate about. But it all starts with that I started making and directing films when I was 13 years old. Um, growing up in Los Angeles at a going to a public school in the Palisades, and I had a great teacher who had bought us all these like mini DV cameras and computers with Final Cut Pro. So at a really, really young age and also very early in the digital filmmaking kind of revolution, I don't know if I call it revolution, but time chapter of life, uh, I started learning how to make films, and everything I'm doing is still about that. It's like every choice I've made since that time has been a way for me to like make a living, be involved in film while in a way where I could learn about film directing um or make connections that help me as a film director. But it's such a struggle to still work and pursue that at the same time. So I mean the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Yeah. Fe festivals, film festivals are the bane of my existence. Like I I dislike, I like going to them. I dislike submitting my films to them. Like I just like, oh, create a strategy for your film. Oh, like uh why should our your film be featured in our film festival? They don't ask that, but like in my head, I'm like, yeah, because you gotta write an essay and you gotta do the whole thing. Um I j uh I there's something about it that I dislike so much because I think it sounds cheesy, but like art should speak for itself, right? Like, why am I writing three three, four, five paragraphs? Watch it, and if you like it, put it in. If not, don't, right? But there is an art form to it. Like you just said, like when you were eight, you would check the box office and then talk to your mom about it. Like, how do you find the inspiration for all that? I guess is it just innate?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I don't know. You're you're kind of getting me thinking about how I kind of look at the film industry in two buckets of like art form and the business. 100%. Yeah, and I yeah, and I think from growing up in Los Angeles, where everyone's parents worked in the business, mine did too. I feel like I'm Oh yeah, what did they do? Uh my dad was a very successful TV commercial producer in like the early uh late 80s, early 90s. He worked with this crazy uh TV uh commercial director named Joe Pitka. He worked on a commercial Michael Jackson was in. Not the one that he had his character cut on fire, but a different one. I got to like I got to see Michael Jackson once and he waved at me, which was really cool. That's crazy. But um, yeah, my dad was doing that, and my mom, um, the reason I grew up in LA is my mom went to USC film school uh for screenwriting. So everyone, you know, like, and then a lot of friends and stuff. So I grew up around the business side of it, and I grew up loving film for that reason and going to movies and like you know, just falling in love with random movies as a kid that other kids didn't like and stuff. But um, I feel like as an adult now, I have this kind of grasp about like, okay, that's the industry. The industry is about money and fame, or it's all about money, actually. Everything comes back to it.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Yeah, everything's about money.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, and so and then the you know, the art form is like you're a creative human being, and film happens to be how you want to express yourself. And so, you know, like the luckiest filmmakers are able to like live a life where they're blending both of those things into one, but and then you know, but then there's filmmakers who are just making it for the love of it and they're not really making a lot of money, but that's okay. And then, you know, there's everything in between. But going back to what you're saying about film, I understand about the frustration about submitting to film festivals because one, it's just like an opportunity to feel rejected like all the time, which always you know, so you don't like that, but um, I mean, I think just being yourself and making sure you do those things, like the marketing, does make people stand out. Because I think when I've looked at um, like when I was actually helping with selecting the mentees for Cinema Femme, it the people who had like, you know, director statements and a strong vision, uh, because I was not only just looking at how their film was, but also how they were managing the business of their career path. I guess that's what I'm getting at. It's like that's what that's in that's that's just as important because of how competitive it is. If you want your film to like, if you want your film career to get out there and you know, follow tracks of like getting distribution and getting offered deals and stuff like that. But you know, you also can live a career where you're not pursuing those things too. But it's like you gotta kind of like put up with the business side of it and learn how to navigate it or find people who to help you navigate it in order to be in it. And it's not just I'm I guess I'm saying this out loud because this is a lesson I've learned is like your talent alone is not gonna give you the career you want in the film industry, but your talent can get you, you have you can trust that your talent is worthwhile and getting you far into it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, and I know you wear a lot of hats. What are the most prominent hats right now?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

I'm really interested in I'm really excited right now that arthouse cinemas are kind of in this like renaissance where there's a lot more like attendance and selling lots of tickets to the you know, like I'm really happy there's so many great independent cinemas across the world and that people are going to them. That means a lot to me and it makes me really happy. And um, I'm also interested in films, independent, like how distribution is evolving right now, and how independent filmmakers are distributing films themselves. Um, I'm I helped a film do that before and I enjoyed it. And I'm talking to some filmmakers about helping them do kind of like theatrical runs, like almost like you take your film on tour, but you're just managing it all yourself where you're just like doing these bookings, and that's exciting to me, and it's something I'm kind of starting to dabble in more. And and kind of I've I've this past year or two, I've been really kind of like trying a lot of different things to see what lights me up, and that one I keep coming back to, and I'm always trying to find a way to like pay my bills and work on my own directing projects too. Um and working with a ticketing company like Ferve, um, which I can get into is like also a way for me to help these cinemas stay open and thrive, and the film festivals as well, because I kind of see the future of cinema going to be fueled by cinophiles and film festivals and arthouse cinemas. I don't see fueled by yeah, like big theater chains, I just think are gonna keep changing the technology and doing what they do. But I kind of feel like the cinema going is gonna shift them, or not towards like a museum type model, but to me, I almost like look at it that way. It's like it's gonna be preserved by yeah, like film festivals are a community of film lovers to come watch movies together in theaters, and that's how we're gonna keep people going to the movies, and um and then like yeah, independent distribution is also fueling that. And yeah, it's like because most people aren't going to the movies anymore, they're watching movies at home. So I just kind of see that's my prediction of the future is like it's gonna be in the hands of Cinephiles to preserve that experience. So, how do you engage that community and get them out to the cinema and like give them good experiences too? I'm really passionate about designing experiences across everything. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So, how do you get the audiences? How do you engage the audiences to get their butts into the seats?

SPEAKER_00 11:51

I think it starts with kind of like first knowing who the first audience really is for a film or or something, you know, like um thinking about who like who would definitely go see this movie, and then when they come to this experience, like what would be fun for them? Um just creating more than just the experience of going to the movie, like create an experience that will not only be memorable because you're doing something fun around it, but I think it's super important that you create a space after a film screening for people to like talk about the movie and how they felt about it and share. And I think that's really special.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So and yeah, I I mean I I understand that marketing side of it, and I enjoy it again. It's it's the film festival submissions that it truly baffle me. And I've heard from sales agents, we're gonna get we're gonna get a little controversial here. Okay, you ready? Um I went to AFM a couple of years ago. Yeah, hydrate for this question. Um and they all had uh different opinions on film festivals, and I belie I think that now there's just so many festivals. What what is the strategy that you sort of go into when it comes when when a project is presented to you? Um, do you try and get into as many film festivals? Do you target the big ones and then some local? Do you try what how do you kind of go about a strategy?

SPEAKER_00 13:25

It's such a good question. It's kind of like such a universal question. I know. I mean, and I'll I'll preface this by saying I I have opinions about this, but I haven't like tested them really a lot myself because I haven't had enough of my own experience navigating festivals. But what I've done is I've really, you know, worked with a lot of festivals, and I kind of see festivals ranging from their purpose. Like there's ones like, for example, Sundance and Tribeca in the US, where the purpose of that festival is very strongly to like get your film bought and distributed. But then on the other end of the spectrum, there's like festivals like the New Zealand International Film Festival that is a way for local cinephiles, local, like cinephiles in New Zealand to have access to watch films from all over the world that they that usually wouldn't get distributed in that country. So it's like a re that's a lot of these regional festivals are actually more of a way just to like give the locals access to watch really great films that they might not otherwise have a chance to see. So I think in the strategy, it's always good. I mean, of course, everyone wants to get into the big festivals because if you get into the big ones, that's where the sales agents are and the and press, and it's like really good for your resume and your film might get bought. Um, although short films, I guess, are a different story. Or like maybe your short film gets into one of those big festivals, and then that gets you some conversations with people who are like, Do you want to make a feature? Uh let's talk about that. But um kind of in the middle of that, I think it's nice to focus one, like all like I kind of said about the targeting marketing, like festivals with audiences that would like your film, you know, like uh like an easy one is if you're a female director, find festivals that focus on female directors. But there's you know, if your film has an environmental theme, find those things. Um, but then also I think it's good to kind of look out for festivals that attract press. So um your film might get written up. Like articles are so helpful to have. Like Cinema Femme does a good job of writing helping write articles for the people who are in the festival. So it's nice to just have that, you know, in your portfolio. Um, and then we always love festivals that have cash prizes.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Oh, yeah. Or like we'll fly you there. Those are more European.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah, totally. But I think like, you know, it always comes back to spending money on those submission fees. And if you get into one of the big festivals, you usually don't have to set spend that money because you usually get sometimes get asked, like if let's say your film gets programmed at Tribeca, like other festivals might look at that lineup and then program your film too. But um, I don't know, those are kind of all the things I think about it. And it's it's a hard decision because you're right, there's so many of them, but it's almost like find your people, you know. It's like if wherever you live, like try to focus on a festival there. Or if it's like maybe there's a city where a friend of yours lives, like submit to a festival there, because then if they invite you, you have a free place to stay and you can go to the festival. Because I think it's always such a nice experience going to a film festival. And and also maybe I don't know how to really find this out, but I guess talking to other filmmakers, like festivals get reputations of how they treat their filmmakers when they attend in person. So it's kind of like like, oh, that festival always treats you like a rock star.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Yeah. And I think also like for us in America, like, don't sleep on looking international festivals to submit to because your content could have a totally different impact somewhere else, you know, which is really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Chicago's best kept secret. It's not deep dish. It's Joel MySonette Photography. He's legitimately the best, and it's about time everybody knew. Actors, execs, LinkedIn Lurkers, book at mysanetphotography.com and thank me later. We're gonna go to hot cakes. They're like hot takes, but they stack up. We're gonna put 60 seconds on the clock. You ready? Yeah. Best snack to survive a 12-hour festival shift.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Baby tangerines.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

New Orleans food you still think about. Weirdest thing a filmmaker has asked you for backstage. Oh gosh. No thinking. Go.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Um, just the light, the lighting to be changed.

unknown 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Worst note you ever got from a producer.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Um I got screamed at once.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

First movie you remember loving as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Oh, the great mouse detective.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Most starstruck you've been calling a show.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Natalie Portman.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Tuscany Film Camp, one word for it. Oh nostalgic. Sydney Cinema Bar or New Orleans dive bar. Pick your happy place.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

New Orleans dive bar.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Hollywood Forever Cemetery, haunted or just really well lit?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Haunted.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

For if your grandmother could see you right now, what's the first thing she'd say?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

My grandmother?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Oh. Um I mean, like any grandma say she'd be proud.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yo!

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yeah, thinks she'd love my colorful house.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Thank you so much for playing. Yeah. Oh, that's fun. Tuscany Film Camp?

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah. That was a big moment for me. Um, yeah. My uh, oh, I wish I had it with me. Okay, when I was in, I'll try to make this short. When I was in high school, that teacher I mentioned, his name is Mr. Paul McLaughlin, he taught us films. He did this really cute thing every year where he did a media, it was called Media Academy. He did a Media Academy Awards. So we literally did our own Oscars and we would rented out this little venue and he got plastic Oscars for us.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

That's so cute.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

So I won an award every year I was in high school, and when I was in 11th grade, I won Best Director. And then he surprised me by um bringing me out on stage and saying that this company that does these youth film camps in in Europe for American students, um, wanted to give a scholarship to one of his students, and he chose me. So I got a full scholarship.

unknown 20:09

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah. It was called the Young Filmmakers Academy, and they were going to this small, tiny medieval town called Pontremoli in Tuscany for two and a half weeks in the summertime.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

That must have been incredible.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

It was crazy. Like I it was life-changing. It was it was hard and it was great. Like it was also my first time traveling out of the country. I was really anxious. Um, and I had some weird experiences that actually weren't really that great. It was the first time I had like worked with other students who weren't my friends. And some of them, especially the guys, really like kind of instilled a lot of self-doubt in me when I was in the directing role. And it kind of messed with me when you're a 16-year-old, it's like not helpful. So it's like weird because it was such a cool experience, but it actually was like also negative at the same time. And you know, I didn't expect that. But what's really cool is last year me and my boyfriend went to Italy together and we went back to that town. It was the first time we've been there in like I don't know, I guess 23 years or something. Wow. But it was so similar, and coincidentally, there was like the biggest medieval festival in northern Europe was like happening in the town that weekend we went. So there's like and we went to the castle, and I like just remembered it, like I remembered exactly where everything was, and like it was it was healing to go back, and it was so beautiful there. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. And I always wanted to go back. So now I kind of want to try to make it more it feels like a little home for me now, is that that place? Because it was it was such a big deal to be recognized and be the only kid who got a scholarship, and that was like my talents being recognized, but you know, it's also challenging. my career path and in an interesting way I'm still working through.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yeah, yeah. And one of the I think when I was reading one of the most eye-catching things was that uh w the reason I put your grandmother in in in the hot cakes is uh you saw a picture of her on a street corner in New Orleans and then you went and tried to find that street corner and then you made a film about that. That's incredible. That's so fun. That's like following the joy in my opinion. Did you live in New Orleans prior to that or did that inspire you?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I did yeah I did live in New Orleans and I'm I lived in New Orleans in 2012. I made that film in 2018. So I made it during this era of my life where I really missed New Orleans and I wanted to yeah totally and I wanted that film to be like my love letter to the city and how I saw it and my experience with it and the journey of that character kind of to me follows the journey of coming to New Orleans you know and and discovering the beauty and and joy. It also follows the stages of the grieving process and I was I just made that with my sister my sisters who starred in it and I just kind of had put together a shot list and kept kind of doubting myself honestly when we were here but we were here for Mardi Bras and I as we were out I started realizing like oh I can get this shot right now and then I would see something interesting and and get another shot.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

I I shot it on my phone my smartphone so um I just ended up getting all this footage and realized it it made the story I wanted so that's awesome that's great um and in this podcast we get like a little weird with things um and we're already kind of in that track of like how did this picture kind of get you back into uh New Orleans but do you believe in anything woo-woo do you have any ghost stories? Do you have any paranormal stuff that you believe in?

SPEAKER_00 24:05

I mean you live in New Orleans so I feel like you have to is there any one story that's like whoa let me tell you about this um I mean the the haunted stuff I don't really believe in I'm I feel like I have very scientific brains so I don't really believe in actual ghosts but I do kind of believe that when someone passes away the energy doesn't die with the body. So I think New Orleans which has such in America in the land of North America has such a deep history there's so much energy that has been left behind here. And um I think that's what people feel and tap into here and in in like I said it's heavy but that doesn't mean it's all bad. It's I think energy is actually like kind of yin yang it's both. And it you as someone who maybe like I've heard the phrase like your antennas up like you might be someone who's more easily tapped into energy um I think you can easily tap into the positive and the negative energy in in a place like this. So there and there's a lot of bad stuff that has happened here, you know so like I think there's parts of the French court in particular where there's you can feel the heaviness of it. Oh yeah baby and feel the or like I don't know for example my block a block away from me is a plantation house that's still standing and it's very small but it's a was a part of a plantation that was here. So you know you can feel that here as well and New Orleans is such a complex interesting history with the slave trade and there's just like there's so much that's happened but also so much beauty and the culture of New Orleans also comes from the darkness that that's happened here as well. So yeah like the Yang you're talking about yeah and so that's why like I say when people move here I don't know it really challenges people like I've seen people who move here like if you move here and you have maybe like an addiction problem or like some stuff you really got to work through you might get sucked into this vortex here that's not good where you're just like drinking or doing drugs all the time like that's the city might pull you into that or if the city thinks you need to leave it might make some bad stuff happen that make you want to leave you know like I love how you're like the city decides it's not it's an internal council uh energy vortex you know and I have a friend who does ghost tours and I remember when he first started doing this job he was like yeah some of them are like pretty legit stories and some of them are you make them up but I I did one of his recent tours and he it was actually really fun just a group of friends for someone's birthday we just like hired him privately to do a tour for us. That's funny. And what he did is he actually told us a lot of true crime stories which felt like haunted stories because it was like human beings really did this really messed up stuff you know like so that was that was spooky to like hear what humans does that ever seep into your work I feel like it kind of did with your with with your grandma not not like spooky stuff but it's like yeah the meanties you know yeah I mean I think that's one of the things I love about film is when you watch a film you're able to kind of watch very closely how everything happens for a reason. Because when you make a film you're creating that everything happens for a reason to lead through the story. Yeah so I believe that and I I really like that like I'm working on an idea right now for like a trilogy of short films about solo traveling and there's one that's set in New Orleans and I'm trying to really capture the magic of the live music experience and how healing that can be but also how it can like challenge you and guide you and um the character goes through like a a challenge that makes her forced to make a decision about evolving I guess as as as a way. So yeah that's awesome I believe I do believe everything happens for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah I think so too I think so too. Well thank you so much for being on the podcast this is so much fun. Where can folks find you um and like see this journey of yours unfold okay so I'm on Instagram VeronicaLM Veronical I've also started like a social media account about New Orleans called Live from Nola that's also on all the platforms including TikTok and um I also have a website veronicamiles.com that's amazing awesome well thank you again for being on the podcast this was so much fun you're welcome this was fun thanks for inviting me that was so much fun and very informative uh Veronica has done it all man it truly takes like a a a specific mind to really enjoy all of the backstage the film festivals the getting it everything up and running um and honestly the industry couldn't do it without them so thank you so much Veronica for being on the podcast so much fun the vibes were there um yeah thank you so much if you liked uh this episode if you giggled if you learned something new please like subscribe do all the things and I'll catch you on the flip side bye Ilse will say is an Intrepid entertainment podcast produced and edited by Jacob Kagel music by Eric Facus and photography by Joel Mysenet and I am your host Ilse Sacharia Rivera. The views and opinions expressed on Ilse Will Say are entirely those of the host and guests and do not reflect the views of any employers, sponsors or innocent bystanders this podcast is for entertainment purposes only nothing said here should be taken as professional advice, expert opinion, legal guidance or a reason to DM us you conspiracy theories we're here for the laps y'all carry on.