ALLI HAAPASALO

This week, I had the pleasure to speak with Alli Haapasalo about her feature film Girl Picture. Directed by Ms. Haapasalo, this film explores themes of sexuality, girlhood, and love. What stood out to me the most was the depiction of different kinds of love on screen, whether it was the love between a mother and daughter, the love between friends, or romantic love. I also appreciated the portrayal of the exploration of love and sexuality as well as queer love, which didn't center on the fact that it was queer or the issues related to queerness, but rather on love and exploring love as a young adult. I saw pieces of myself and my closest friendships on screen: the messiness and chaos of those relationships and the unfiltered essence of girlhood as these 3 young women navigated their lives full of spontaneity, love, friendship, and family.

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I read on Wikipedia that you are the daughter of lawyers, and were initially interested in pursuing a career in journalism.

What inspired you to make the change to directing narrative films? 

My real dream was to make films. But graduating from high school (in 1996) I hadn’t yet realized it was actually possible for me to become a filmmaker. I got into university to study journalism, with the goal of becoming a documentary filmmaker. But already a year into the program I realized that this was not my path – it felt very news oriented and uncreative. I escaped to Sweden and studied journalism there for a year as an exchange student, but really I studied life and independence. When I returned to Finland, I was mentally ready to apply to film school and say out loud that I would become a director. I did my BA in Aalto University’s film directing program, then decided to head back abroad for further education.

I know you received your MFA in filmmaking at Tisch.

How did your education at NYU and living in NYC affect the stories you want to tell? 

I think it’s impossible for me to quantify concretely, what influence Tisch and living in NYC (for 10 years) had on me as a filmmaker. But honestly I think the work we did at NYU and after graduating affected everything in my creative thinking – the stories I got interested in, the way I see the world, the way I work, pretty much everything in my thinking. The thing I loved the most was the diversity of my class. And the school’s ideology of learning from and with your peers. When you watch 32 rough cuts of short films, made by people with very different backgrounds, cultures and worldviews, you get to have this amazing artistic dialogue not just in the classroom, but also inside your head. The choices my classmates had made in their filmmaking that I hadn’t even thought of – whether I liked the choices or not – were some of the most educational and memorable discoveries. I remember Tisch as a very respectful and attentive environment for artistic exchange.

I loved your film Girl Picture and like many of your other films, it centers around women, more specifically the female experience which is a theme that particularly resonates with me. What draws you to explore the female experience in your films,

and how do you approach capturing the authenticity and complexity of women's stories on screen?

I was studying at NYU when an actor friend told me that she thought I had a “wonderfully poetic and feminine aesthetic” as a filmmaker. I was initially take aback, when she said it. Feminine style didn’t sound great 15 years ago in my ears, as I – like probably most female film students – I had adapted to the thinking of that time, which was that the more you could be like “one of the guys”, the better chance you had of being taken seriously. My thesis film On Thin Ice was a story of a mercenary and a taxi driver becoming fleeting friends on Christmas. The film wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test, as the only female characters are there to support the story of the mercenary! And I think that I chose this story (inspired by true events), because it was “legit” – you know, masculine is important, right? (In retrospect, despite its very masculine characters, I think the film has a strong feminist undercurrent. It depicts the mercenary as the loneliest man looking for connection, and it looks at the fleeting friendship between the two men as something possible, real and even tender.) 

After making this film I had a kind of a wake up call: why had I wanted to make a film that was so far from my own experiences? Why not write about something more personal? Why did I not embrace my actor friend’s comment about my feminine aesthetic? In a world full of masculine filmmakers, wasn’t that an asset?! It might be hard to understand this from the point of view of 2024, because right now female stories have some momentum and are no longer looked at as something less important than male stories. But in 2009 (when I graduated from Tisch) things weren’t like this yet.

I think my need to make feminist films started from a kind of anger, when I was asking myself these questions. Questions like why could I only name a handful of female directors in the whole world or why are most Finnish films directed by men, even if film school has just as many female students wouldn’t leave me alone, and I got a lot of strength from them. My first feature was a very female and a very feminist film, and since then I have really focused on the female experience in all my work.

I gave this long answer, because I think it’s important to note that exploring authentic female experiences in film hasn’t been nearly as evident as it has been for male filmmakers to explore the male experiences. The importance of the male experience is unquestioned – a male experience is always worthy of a film, whereas women have always been told that their experiences are not as interesting or as important. And this whole thing is the very reason I’m interested in the female experience: I want to out it out there. I want to say it’s important. I want women to have identifiable stories and characters. And I want men to see better films about women.

In regards to capturing authenticity and complexity of women’s stories on screen, that starts from really really really knowing the characters of any film you’re working on. No character is just “female” – they should be a very specific and authentic person, whatever their gender. I think it's also very important to really study the questions of representation you’re putting on the big screen. In Girl Picture, my artistic team – cinematographer, production designer, costume designer, makeup designer, music supervisor, editor and sound designer – spent a lot of time dissecting the representation of young women in cinema and media. We spend countless hours analyzing the semiotics of everything, such as the color pink and what it would say to use it.

Girl Picture focused on the interconnection between sexuality, girlhood, and love. I loved that this film was so relatable and captured the essence of girlhood while also embodying feminist themes of empowerment, sisterhood, sexual agency.

Are there any influences or inspirations, whether personal experiences or other works of art, that shaped your approach to depicting these different kinds of love?

Additionally, how did you utilize these depictions to convey broader feminist themes within the film?

 

Thank you for this wonderful comment, I appreciate it. And first of all I have to mention the two screenwriters behind Girl Picture, Daniela Hakulinen and Ilona Ahti. We had a very long development process together – I read their first treatment in 2014, and the final draft of the film is dated in May 2020. So the very first influences and inspirations for me were the countless conversations I had with them, and the memories and experiences we shared over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw in an interview where you talked about how Maria Maggenti’s film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love is almost like the 90s version of Girl Picture.

This was so funny to me because she was my instructor for the Columbia Pre-College Film Program I took last summer.

Are there any filmmakers, artists, or mentors who have had a profound influence on your career, films, and approach to cinema?

It was actually Maria Maggenti herself who said so – in a lovely Q&A with me when Girl Picture opened in New York! I loved that comment, and I loved her film too! I think The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love is a great example of how many female stories are easily forgotten or don’t become as widely known as make stories do. Here I was traveling with Girl Picture and calling it a radical film (due to its take on girls being free of danger, shaming and patronizing, as well as its queer love affair being not about coming out or being gay but simply about love), and Maria had made a totally radical queer love story almost 30 years earlier! Why didn’t I know about her film in the 90’s, even if it had done well? Why is feminist (film) art history so sporadic, so “stop-and-start”, and why are we – even female filmmakers – so ignorant about the history?

 

In terms of filmmakers, artists or mentors, I haven’t had one individual in my creative life who’s been a profound influence. To me, the most profound influence has come from my artistic collaborations. Working together with my actors, artistic team and screenwriters is unbelievably and endlessly exciting. A discovery! I love it and I thrive in it. And even if a director’s life can be somewhat lonely due to the (power) position they’re in, I feel a strong connection to the community of filmmakers. That feels very influential as well, and I don’t consider them competitors, but my people.

Do you see any major differences between American and Finnish cinema?

How does the storytelling differ and what aspects of each do you incorporate in your work?

American and Finnish cinema are very different. (Though I guess there are many Finnish filmmakers who aspire to make their films look and feel as American as possible.) Finnish films are generally made with a lot less money than American films – in Finland an average budget is around 1,5 million Euros, and a 2-million Euro film is already a big budget film. I hate to lead with money, but in film it is a major player and something that affects everything. What it means the most, is that Finish films are shot quite fast. There is never enough time to do everything you want to, so directing is often about prioritizing and compromising. Which is of course part of the game – but it shouldn’t become your aesthetic strategy…

I’ve been told that the way I use pop music in my films is something that comes from American storytelling. That’s probably true as I have always loved the way music is used in American film. 

I know that films can take years to make and that you need a solid team around you.

When times get tough, what women in your life have inspired and/or supported your creativity and artistry as a filmmaker?

Who truly supported you every step of the way?

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For me, the truest support has always come from my good friends. You know, the kind of friends who believe in you, when you say that you are working on your first feature film – even if you’ve already said this for three years, and really there are no guarantees that this will actually turn into a feature film. When I was writing my first feature (and it did take four years!) I went on these long walks with a good friend of mine in Prospect Park I Brooklyn – she was writing a book and I was writing my film, and we were both in need of pep talks. Never once did my friend doubt that my film would be made. That was crucial. I personally wasn’t sure at some point if I was a filmmaker writing at home, or an unemployed person calling myself a filmmaker. But she knew. Everyone needs validation, and before you get it from, say, an A-list film festival, you need it from the people who truly know who you are. Aspiring filmmakers have no use for doubters.

What advice do you have for individuals aspiring to work in roles similar to yours in the film industry?

Always be yourself. Sometimes it’s hard to know what that means, so try to listen to yourself and find out. Have mercy on yourself. I have never met a filmmaker who wasn’t hard on themselves, but tried not to be too hard. Don’t compare your life and career to the lives and careers of others – everyone peeks at a different time. You need to love the work, not the potential success. Filmmaking is mostly hard work, and very little success – and honestly, the work is way more fun than the success. Be kind to others. That’s key. I think that probably about 90% of being a good film director is trying to be a good human being.