“Magic Hour” is a comedy according to Jacqueline Christry, the filmmaker but … “Magic Hour” is also a drama. “The greatest challenge, you know all the way through, was getting everybody—the actors, the designer, the colorist, the composer — to understand that specific combination. It’s comedy but grounded in reality. A lot of it is funny but it breaks your heart.”
“Magic Hour” is Christy’s first full length feature film and will premiere at the Alexandria Film Festival on Nov. 14.
She says that Miriam Shor, the lead actor, got it from the beginning. “It’s funny. She asked had I written the film for her. She connected with the character on a lot of issues. I wanted to be able to break your heart and make you laugh at the same time. Miriam understood the power of kindness in a world where some think kindness is a weakness.”
“Magic Hour” is written partly out of experience. Christy says it is about a woman in her 40s who decides as her life falls apart to pursue her dream of going to film school. “She keeps going back to the idea of being a filmmaker and she decides to go for it.“
As you might expect, she finds herself a fish out of water with most other students being half her age. “But she finds a place friendly and close with her new artistic family. She is in a bubble of love.”
However, as the plot unfolds she gets a huge professional opportunity to work on a real set in a big studio. It turns out not to be what she had hoped for with the professional environment snarky and with people out for blood. “Her dream falls apart, bursting her bubble of love.”
Christy says this, her first full length film, has been a long time in the making. “I started it at the end of my time in the NYU film program in 2018, and post production took all of this time.
“Honestly I had such a great time after putting off my long dream, going for it even if it is not the right time. You only live once. I felt motivated. Funny things happen. People relate to that.”
Christy says there are a lot of challenges to making a film. “Stuff is real. I’m currently fundraising to get the film out into the theatres. This next stage is very exciting. A lot of people want to know why I am fundraising since the film is finished but you have to pay for travel, the trailer, the booker, advertising for the next step.”
She says, “The cast was so great with many accomplishments already behind them. Christy explains the process of attracting them was lucky. “Patrick Green was a friend of a friend and when he read the script and agreed to be in the film, it gave the film enough street cred to interest others. One anchor of someone so well regarded gave the project some legitimacy so others agreed to read the script.”
Christy says her love of the arts came from her parents. Her father was a director and her mother was a music teacher. “They used to take me to rehearsals instead of getting a babysitter, and I’d watch the same show over and over. Sometimes I’d have a small part. It was magical. I could watch it again and again.”
She says she started her own career by setting up a space for other artists to perform but realized she was an administrator and wanted to go out on her own. So in 2012 she decided to step out of the shadows and went back to school. “The story that I wrote in “Magic Hour” reflected the emotional part of my dreams, my own struggle.”
The next step is well under way. She has written her second film and early next year will put together the cast and the crew. She says she got the idea from a real life FBI plan to capture a huge smuggling ring with the challenge of how to get them all in the same room. The plan involved two undercover agents posing as the bride and groom and inviting all of their criminal friends to the wedding. “It’s a true story. I took the premise and made up the details. It’s a cops and robbers wedding comedy.”
“Magic Hour” is scheduled at the Alexandria Film Festival on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 9 p.m. at the VTech Auditorium. The film will be followed by Q&A with Christy.
The Alexandria Film Fest, celebrating its 20th year, will be held Nov. 13-15 at five venues throughout Alexandria. For more information: alexfilmfest.com