Late last month I reviewed the film, Open Window, which is available on DVD. You can view my review here. Not too long after that, I was given the opportunity to ask the Director and Writer of the film, Mia Goldman a few questions. Below are her answers and after you read this, don’t forget to go get your copy of Open Window.

When you were creating the film, did you know that you wanted it to reflect your personal experience or had you thought about creating the film from a general standpoint?
When I began writing the film I knew that it would be a story that came from my own life, but I wanted to universalize it because I feel that trauma is something that almost everyone experiences in their life in some form. I wanted to reach out across the chasm of alienation to those who have experienced this kind of trauma and what they feel – that includes death, the loss of a loved one, cancer, the loss of a limb, a house burning down etc. Any act that is irrevocable results in a sense of loss that makes one feel there is no hope. I wanted to help change that a little if I could.

Is Izzy a total reflection of you before and after the sexual assault?
Izzy is a character informed by who I am and what I experienced. Many of the things that she experiences in the film, such as flashbacks, a sense of profound loss, alienation from loved ones, wanting to forget everything etc., are emotions that I experienced. The before and after portrayal was also something that was influenced by my experience.

What about Robin Tunney and Joel Edgerton made you realize that these were going to be your main characters?
When I first wrote “Open Window” I had Robin Tunney in mind for the role of Izzy. Her honesty, raw emotion, intelligence and fearlessness as an actress, were all qualities that made me feel she would be perfect for the role. I was very happy when she said yes because Izzy was already imbued with who I thought Robin was. Joel, in a sense, was a more challenging situation in the casting, because although very experienced and successful actors were interested in playing Peter, I think they ultimately found themselves afraid of the character. Robin knew Joel through Andrew Dominic, a wonderful Australian director.

Simultaneously, Joel had also read for Midge Sanford, one of my producers, and she passed a tape of his work on to me because she was enthused about his work. I was stunned by, once again, an honesty and fearlessness in his work. Joel also lent a deep sensitivity, which was absolutely key to the interpretation of Peter’s character. When I met Joel I knew he would be perfect for the role and of course I felt extremely lucky that he wanted to do it. I think one can see the range that both he and Robin expressed in the finished product.

Did you always know how you wanted the tone of the film?
Yes I did. I had been looking at films made by Bergman, Kieslowski, Louis Malle, Woody Allen etc. I knew I wanted the movie to express the deep, unspoken emotion that comes out of silences and the landscape of the human face. The directors I mentioned are people who mined that territory before I came along and they inspired me.

Where was Open Window filmed, how long was filming, and were there a lot of rewrites?
“Open Window” was filmed in Los Angeles and with the help of my producer Tom Barad, we scouted every location and negotiated every deal. He was amazing!

Our schedule for shooting was 20 days, our first 4 days were exteriors and it was raining – so we got one extra day. Tom pulled a rabbit out of the hat on that one.

I probably did 40 drafts of this script. I knew that I wanted it to be tight and I thought that if it was overwritten, I could end up ruining it. Selling a script is the hardest thing to do, so that took a lot of rewrites. I also knew I wanted to have a little humor in it. Funny takes extra work.

In 2006, when the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, do you remember how you felt that day, sharing such a personal experience with so many people?
Yes, I was a little tense but not because it was a personal story. I had kept that fact to myself, pretty much. I never discussed it with any of the actors. When we went to Sundance, I decided I would be honest about the source of the movie, because that’s the truth. I thought it would be easier to tell the truth rather than to hide. Of course that added a dimension of anxiety in the sense that I hoped that people would like it or understand my intent.

Have you considered doing a tour around colleges and high schools to screen the film and have panels?

What a wonderful thought! Paula Silver, who was our marketing guru, had done “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” with me, (I was the editor) and she had done something of this sort for that film and wanted to do it with “Open Window”. Her grass roots results are always extraordinary. Unfortunately, in going over the numbers, Tom, Midge and myself felt that the money needed to do it right, might bite into our very small (at that time) returns.

We did however do a shorter, faster, cheaper version of the idea ourselves. We went to Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, UCLA Medical School, USC, Columbia University and other colleges. But of course I am always eager to talk about the movie, especially with young people, who seemed, at these colleges, to become ignited by the issue. Many of them, and I include men and women in that, had been touched personally by the experiences of either a friend, or a relative, or they themselves might have also experienced an assault. You’d be surprised by how many men came up to me because either they had been raped or they had a friend whom they loved or a sister who had been raped. This issue crosses all ages, classes, genders and cultures and that is why it is so endemic and so important.

Out of editing, writing, and directing, which do you find to be the most challenging?
They are all challenging in different ways. But I think of all of them, the one I love the most is directing. It’s so much fun to make something with all those wonderful talented professionals around you, helping you to realize your dream. Working alone is something I enjoy as well, but not as much as collaboration.

What are your upcoming projects?
I have started to adapt a novel called ”Anything for Jane”, which was written by Cheryl Mendelsohn. It is the third in a trilogy that takes place in New York City. The first is called “Morningside Heights”, the second, “Love, Work, Children” and the third is “Anything for Jane”. The novel deals with many issues that I am interested in and I feel very lucky to have found it.