Andrea Bosshard & Shane Loader - The Great Maiden's Blush - co-directors' exclusive interview
Exclusive Interview
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Louise van Rooyen - Beamafilm
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01/12/2022
We are delighted to feature an exclusive interview with Andrea Bosshard and co-writer/director of The Great Maiden's Blush, Shane Loader. Bosshard and Loader have worked together for more than three decades, crossing over into feature filmmaking as part of a plan to create contemporary stories for a broad local audience. Bosshard grew up in the coastal Canterbury, NZ town of Akaroa. Her parents ran the local film society, which enabled her to watch and critique many international film classics whilst growing up. She studied film and political science at Victoria University and film studies at Melbourne's Swinburne School of Film and Television. Co-writer/director, Shane Loader has credits as editor, cameraman, producer, and writer/director and, after editing a run of documentary projects, has crossed into directing and distributing feature-length dramas through the filmmaking initiative Torchlight Films.
Bosshard and Loader, also real-life partners, began collaborating on films in the mid-1980s including a number of experimental Super 8 works. They sometimes share directorial credits and sometimes not (these days when they're on set together, Bosshard says she tends to concentrate on performances, while Loader decides how scenes will be constructed).
In the floral world, a Great Maidens Blush is a striking heirloom rose with large fragrant blooms in various different shades of pink. In the movie world, The Great Maiden's Blush is a striking New Zealand film about two new mothers from largely different backgrounds who must both confront their various inner secrets for their lives to come into bloom. One mother is a girl racer in prison for manslaughter who plans to adopt out her baby while the other is a failed classical pianist whose baby is due for a risky operation.
Beamafilm is pleased to feature this exclusive interview with Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader about the making of their deeply evocative movie. The Great Maiden's Blush is the pair's third feature film and it won the Best Self-Funded Film award at the 2017 NZ Film Awards with Miriama McDowell also taking the Best Actress award. While for some this film may be a little challenging to watch at times, we aim to shine a light on the driving forces behind this important and profoundly impactful New Zealand film through our exclusive directors' interview.
Watch 'The Great Maiden's Blush' on Beamafilm now!
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When Bunny and Aila face the challenges of new motherhood, they develop a precarious friendship leading each to confront her past and come to terms with the paternity of her...
Beamafilm's Louise van Rooyen interviews co-writer/directors Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader about The Great Maiden's Blush, including their creative approach and what inspired them to make their award-winning drama.
BEAMAFILM: Kia ora Andrea and Shane, thanks for agreeing to this interview with Beamafilm today. Can we begin by asking you about the multi-layered and quite personal themes within The Great Maiden's Blush?
Bosshard: All the films Shane and I make are used as an opportunity to explore the human condition, and to put a microscope on the hidden or off-the-radar stories that are part of every community. A fundamental part of this is to create characters who have a truthfulness to them, even for the smallest of roles. We attempt to create characters that are layered, complex and contradictory and, above all, authentic to our audiences.
The theme of new parenthood is central to the narrative of The Great Maiden’s Blush. Given that it is a universal experience, it is surprising that so few films are made about it, and then, more often than not, as comedies. Our film is about giving new motherhood the profundity it deserves, and audiences, particularly women but men as well, respond to this on a very emotional level. 
Renee Lyons as Aila
BEAMAFILM: Can you talk to your specific inspirations that led to the writing and making of The Great Maiden's Blush?
Loader: The Great Maiden’s Blush had three inspirations. The Russian novel The Women’s Decameron by Julia Voznesenkaya, where a cross-section of new mothers locked in a maternity ward during a pandemic pass the time by telling each other stories of life, love and heartbreaks. Then there was a local newspaper article about a ‘girl racer’ who was participating in the illegal drag racing occurring regularly throughout New Zealand, and finally, there was our own experience with a newborn baby, both the incredible feelings of love and the overwhelming sense of responsibility and self-doubt.
BEAMAFILM: Fascinating, and so entwined within the story. What was it like working with the film cast, and how did you get them interested in the project?
Loader: We were extremely lucky to get such a stellar cast, but it wasn’t easy. We had all our contacts in the acting fraternity on the lookout. We don’t do a conventional casting process, preferring to trust our friends' and contacts' recommendations, followed up by meeting and talking with the actor to get a sense of what they could bring to the character. Being independently funded (as opposed to state-funded) meant our budget was very small, so it required a cast (and crew) prepared to work for a small stipend and a points system. We did have some supporting actors drop out at the last minute because something higher-paying came along and they couldn’t in the end afford the commitment we needed. But as an independent film, with no one pulling the financial strings, we were able to schedule three weeks of 'rehearsal’, where the actors rehearsed not the script, but improvised their backstories - the film before the film - so to speak.
As a result, all the actors were able to come on set fully inhabiting their characters, which made each one of them an absolute joy to work with. Miriama McDowell, who plays Bunny, created a character that was much more vulnerable and complex than we had originally written and envisaged.
Miriama McDowell as Bunny
BEAMAFILM: We love your approach where it's the backstory vs. the script that is rehearsed so the actors can improvise and bring their characters to life in a natural and spontaneous way. Is it more challenging to direct the shoot this way?
Bosshard: As we have matured as filmmakers, we've gained the confidence and understanding to see a script simply as a blueprint, a map of a possible route to telling a particular story. Like making a cake, it’s how you combine the ingredients. And the fundamental ingredient we work with on a film set is our actors and eliciting an authentic performance from them. Having worked extensively with British filmmaker Mike Leigh’s improvisational methods to develop character and narrative, we have come to see (and deeply appreciate) that the filmmaking process is much more organic and malleable than slavishly following a script. As one of our DOPs, Waka Attewell said, let’s shoot the story, not the script.
The same applied in the editing room. It was a time to leave the script behind altogether and consider what the performances and imagery were actually communicating to us, not what the script instructed they should be communicating. It was an exhilarating and liberating editing experience with Annie Collins who has the ability to hone into the emotional realm of the footage in front of her.
BEAMAFILM: If you could nominate a scene in the film as your favourite, which scene would it be and why?
Loader: The Great Maiden’s Blush covers a wide expanse of themes from drag racing to opera and so it is hard to pick a favourite scene. I do like the opera and the subsequent scenes with Bunny and Aleksander, where her car is compared to a finely-tuned orchestra.
Drag racing scene
BEAMAFILM: Such great scenes, and a perfect analogy for connecting them. We love the use of visual metaphor that's woven throughout the story such as blossoming flowers and insect pollination. Can you elaborate a little on your creative processes and the importance of these scenes for reinforcing key themes within the film?
Bosshard: One of the terms I really dislike on a film set or in an editing room is ‘cutaway’. I have always felt it diminishes the power and impact that such shots can add to a film. Too often on a set, once the dramatic material is shot, the cutaways are filmed almost as an afterthought, and often without the same rigour that is applied to performance. These are often filmed in an environment which is noisy as gear is being packed away and a crew is near the end of a long working day.
We really wanted our ‘cutaways’ to be evocative and add another dimension to the narrative. Our French first AD said in France, they call these ‘spirit shots’, which rightly credits them as an important aspect of film language and an important storytelling tool. We don’t set out to film particular images, it is rather we assemble a ‘library’ of such shots, not necessarily knowing which ones will work emotionally and visually until we are in the editing room. And so Shane and I spent a lot of time separate from the actual film shoot, capturing imagery of insects, flowers, leaves, and car engine parts - essentially putting together a substantial collection of non-narrative imagery for editor Annie to work with. Realising the often intangible power of spirit shots, we also used them in our latest film, the feature documentary Kobi (2017) to add another layer of emotion to the narrative.
BEAMAFILM: Compelling and truly effective. Are there any standout behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the film that you can share?
Loader: We have loads of behind-the-scenes stories to keep our dinner guests entertained. There are two contrasting stories that come to mind. The ‘boy racer’ scenes were very difficult to get permission to film as the local council administrators were extremely averse to giving consent to anything associated with illegal car racing. Having finally succeeded, we were about to film a ‘burn-out’ when the car involved blew a clutch during the rehearsal. We didn’t know if we would get re-permitted to film it on another night. We were working in an industrial area and producer Jeremy Macey had noticed, in a garage nearby, someone was working on a car which looked a bit like a ‘boy racer’ vehicle. With cast and crew waiting, Jeremy approached the chap and mentioned our predicament. Turned out his car was specially designed for ‘drifting’ and he happily came and performed the ‘burnout’ for our cameras. The film gods certainly smiled on us that night.
Another story is about filming newborn babies. Legally, we had limited time with them on set, I think it was about one hour per day, and we couldn’t afford an unsettled baby. So when a baby turned up, everyone took off their shoes and began tip-toeing around and speaking in whispers. It was an incredible vibe on set, so quiet, calm and focused, and I think this reverberated throughout the rest of the shoot.
Miriama McDowell as Bunny with her newborn baby
BEAMAFILM: Amazing, the film gods must have been smiling. Can you tell us how audiences have been responding to your film? Are there any conversations you've had with audience members that you can share?
Bosshard and Loader: The response from audiences has been extremely positive. Here are a smattering of examples of some feedback.
“What I like most in the film is its emotional temperature. There is so much love, compassion, forgiveness, tenderness, and respect to human life with all its imperfections, mistakes, and hopes for better.”
“Up there with the best all time NZ films ever. So beautifully crafted, acted and well told story. Emotionally charged from beginning to end. Visually sumptuous.”
“I think this film takes New Zealand film to another level”
“Bosshard and Loader take the film into a spiritual realm, but not divorced from the reality of everyday life.”
BEAMAFILM: Sounds like the film has resonated. Are you currently working on any new projects you can tell us about?
Loader: As for making our next film, Andrea and I have a number of ideas we would like to see fly. I am currently editing a feature-length documentary, directed by Gerd Pohlmann, on the life of the left-wing politician, the late Jim Anderton. 
We were early adopters of digital technology, which is how we were able to finance our films independent of the state-funded New Zealand Film Commission. While this meant serious budget constraints, it did come with 100% creative control with no interference from those controlling the purse strings. This was a time (unfortunately short-lived) I call the ‘golden age’ of digital cinema. The means of production had become relatively cheap and digital projection opened up the possibility for self-distribution.
Self-distribution is essential if there is to be any meaningful financial return, and the only way an independent filmmaker (as opposed to the state-funded filmmaker) is able to go on and make another film. For a few years, there was, at any one time, a handful of filmmakers (for better or worse) going down the path of independent dramatic features, but today there appear to be none. The big distributors and state funders have been able to re-establish their hegemony and have successfully shut down the independent voice. The first big hurdle facing us as independent filmmakers is not ideas or scripts, but finance, even on the small budgets we work with. The other huge hurdle is trying to distribute a film the powers-that-be do not want to see succeed, and in our experience, go out of their way to impede. Making the actual film is the easy part.
Co-writer/director Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader
Thank you, Andrea and Shane. As an independent distribution channel, we are proud to feature the work of independent filmmakers. We are honoured to include your multi-award-winning movie, The Great Maiden's Blush, on Beamafilm and appreciate the insights you've shared with us today.
Watch 'The Great Maiden's Blush' on Beamafilm here!
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