Q&A with India Donaldson
The LA-based writer-and-filmmaker India Donaldson has been making short happy-sad films over the last few years, demonstrating a preternatural control of her medium and an acute sensitivity as a storyteller. From the hilarious, albeit strange, investigation of intimacy in Medusa (2019) to her graceful study of a woman and her dog in If Found (2021), Donaldson has developed a unique cinematic language that trades in visual specificity and emotional clarity. One of the best independent debuts of the year, her new feature Good One (2024) expands upon these sensibilities with its intimate representation of the 17-year-old Sam’s uncomfortable — to say the least — backpacking trip with her dad and his close-friend.
Good One is now playing in U.S. theaters.
Q. The middle-aged men in this movie talk a lot, and Sam (Lily Collias)—being young and a woman—is tasked with listening to them. What inspired you to explore this kind of overlooked emotional labor in Good One?
A. I’m really fascinated by conversation and how the ways that we engage in it reveal so much about who we are. I wanted this movie to elevate the act of listening, and show that it’s an integral part of conversation and communication, a meaningful way to participate. The guys in the movie talk at or across each other, or talk just to fill silence. Sam is always engaged and attuned to the subtext of what is being said and I wanted to suggest the power in her quiet observation. The guys don’t listen to her but I think the camera does.
Q. There’s a natural tension behind working with a trio in narrative filmmaking. In Good One, you’ve balanced the presence and interiority of its three main players in a very organic fashion. How did you approach writing each character?
A. A backpacker friend told me of the adage “you pack your fears.” Each character’s relationship to their gear was my way into understanding them. On a trip like the one depicted in the movie, the stuff you choose to carry on your back for three days says so much about your priorities and needs. So I imagined what they would all bring, and why. Chris resents being overburdened by others’ needs and he tries to protect himself against it — he’s got efficient, newer, lighter weight gear, and he has conditioned Sam to share in these values and be incredibly capable. Matt is stuck in the past and his priorities are his comforts — not practical stuff. In writing the rituals of a trip like this — preparing food, setting up or breaking down the campsite — I started to understand each character, where the tension would emerge, and how going through mundane actions could push subterranean conflict to the surface.
Q. The way you film the forest in the film suggests a deep level of familiarity with the terrain you’re in. Had you hiked the trail depicted in Good One before or did you grow to know it as you were filming?
A. I’d spent a lot of time in the area, but we shot the majority of the film on a piece of private land that had no formal hiking trails on it. We scouted it several times, in different seasons, and got to know it. We invented the path as we filmed, and crafted it to suit the story. Anyone familiar with the area will recognize the remote lookout in the film is about 20 paces from a parking lot in Minnewaska State Park.
Q. If you were given the chance to make a film anywhere you’d like, where would you go?
A. The Alps.
Q. Have you ever been influenced by a filmmaker or artist in a way that surprised you?
A. When we were prepping the shoot I was showing my son his first Miyazaki films — Totoro, Ponyo, Kiki’s Delivery Service. I love the quiet frames in those films that let us sit with the natural world without any big movement or action. When writing the script I was so focused on the rhythm of the dialogue and it wasn’t until we started shot-listing that the importance of the natural setting really became clear for me. It’s a constant presence that is indifferent to the interpersonal drama playing out. It was there before, and will exist after the characters have passed through.
I will also say I love Mike Leigh. I always feel that he respects and loves his characters no matter how they behave, and in retrospect I think his work inspired me to approach the characters with the same attitude.
Q. What’s the first time an actor’s performance made an impression on you?
A. Seeing Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures when I was a teenager.
Q. What have you been listening to lately?
A. My son is obsessed with The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack so that’s on repeat.
Q. What image would you like to end this interview with?
A. One of the producers of Good One, Diana Irvine, found some sprouted oak tree acorns during one of our scouts in Pine Hill, New York. She brought them back to LA, and a year later she has nurtured them into saplings.
