Olivia Hunter Willke is a film writer, programmer, and analog filmmaker. Originally from Texas and currently based in Chicago, Willke has written for Ultra Dogme, Little White Lies, Tone Glow, the Chicago Reader, and more. Her film writing focuses on lived experiences and avant-garde cinema. She has programmed at the Music Box, Davis Theater, and UChicago’s Doc Films. Willke has a film with Joe Swanberg forthcoming, and agreed to talk with me about what it's like to make films, program them, and write about them, and her process for each.
Julia Hathaway: How is the film scene in Chicago?
Olivia Hunter Willke: I think, for the most part, it's lovely! More open-hearted and less clique-ish than, say, New York. Wonderful experimental/avant-garde programming. Space to grow! Wish people were willing to take more risks and strayed from the shackles of academia and those with wealth a bit more! But, I moved here specifically for the film scene, and I don't think I've ever regretted it. It was the best decision of my life. Of course, like with anything as you age into it and spend time in it, you become jaded by what's changed or what hasn't changed. That's natural. I'm thankful for the Chicago film scene.
JH: When did you start writing?
OHW: I've always loved words and writing. I started writing about film specifically around 15, on a terrible blog that I hope to god has since been deactivated! But wasn't "officially" published until 2021/22. I always feel that if I had hustled, hadn't gone through natural disaster displacement, hadn't been severely mentally ill, etc. maybe I could've made this a career, but that's probably wishful thinking with the state of modern writing. I technically started late. I didn't have the privilege of higher education or class connections. I kind of clawed my way up! And perhaps now have hit a wall.
JH: How did you get into programming?
OHW: It was total happenstance, really. I was at a small private screening of a 16mm print of the William Wellman film, Track of the Cat, and my now good friend Brian McKendry was talking about a porn series he was spearheading, Smut Sundays. He had someone to program/introduce the gay porn, but no one for the straight porn and asked me! I still think it's a huge honor that someone saw that potential in me, one I hadn't really considered before.
JH: What’s your programming process like?
OHW: I always like there to be a reason I show something or put together a program. Whether that's because it's a rarity, or communal experience, or a personal one. Oftentimes, that reason is I just want to see it myself! I want to see something on print and want to present the opportunity for others to see it in a theatrical environment. I don't think that every program needs a deep thesis and essay to go along with it. I think that type of thought process leads to bad programming. "This has to fit inside this little box." No!
JH: What was a movie that you programmed, for your first watch, that you immediately HAD to write about?
OHW: I mean, the avant-garde programs always stir my soul. I felt a real connection to James Benning when putting that program together, I found him easy to write about. His work just made sense to me, touched me. I wrote a lot after watching a few Hollis Frampton films. He puzzles me, so I think I was trying to work them out in my own way.
JH: What was the easiest film you've written about and why?
OHW: My first piece I ever "officially" published was about First Reformed. I rewatched it on MDMA during an all-nighter with a friend (what prompted that pick, I'll never know). It was a striking experience. I jotted down a poem during, and the next day an essay just poured out of me. Tapped into my life-long climate anxiety and semi-doomerism, I suppose. The drugs awakened me in a way, and I finally felt I had written something worthwhile. And, anything I've ever written about Michael Bay has also come from a feeling of deep understanding. I simply get where that monkey-brained man is coming from, for better or worse!
JH: What’s your writing process like?
OHW: Sporadic. I am not disciplined, so I do have to be intentional. Force myself up and out to the coffee shop with my laptop. I wish I were the type of writer that got up at 5am everyday to get some writing done, but alas. It's often why I don't write more. I should write more!
JH: You have a new film coming out with Joe Swanberg, how did that come about?
OHW: I had done a few (for lack of a better word) "studio" porns. In short, they were terrible experiences. But, I was in a position and had the desire to play with the form. I was in a creative rut overall and needed something, a new project, a collaborator to help pull me out of said rut. Joe was a friend of a friend and I had met him, we were acquaintances. I knew, just from his filmography, that he was an explorer of sexual subjects and had filmed unsimulated sex. We met up and I pitched him the idea. He had just been filming a feature on 35mm, and Kodak had accidentally sent him 16mm but let him keep it, so he was just sitting on like 4 100ft reels. I think it was kind of kismet, we were both at a place in our career where we wanted to take a risk and make something bold. He told me to come up with a few stories to choose from and he picked the one he liked best, the rest is history.
What we have filmed currently is a short. We very much want to do an anthology feature. Three more vignettes and we'll have it.
JH: You mentioned still wanting to be creative as a core part of making your film with Joe, do you feel analog stifles or encourages your creativity?
OHW: Analog takes time. Having a film edited on a Moviola takes time. So it imbues you with a kind of patience. You have no other choice but to wait and go through this extremely methodical process (shoutout to our DP and editor, Zack Parker). It also lends you a better understanding of film as a tactile thing, an actual material medium. That inspires. It does cost money, which means you can only have so much of it and you can only work with it when you can afford to. That frustrates. But, I wouldn't make this film any other way. I don't think any of us would.
JH: Who are your top four filmmakers, and what are your favorite movies from them?
OHW:
Michael Bay - Pain & Gain
Catherine Breillat - Romance
John Ford - The Long Voyage Home
Gosh, Stan Brakhage is up there. So is Atom Egoyan, Cronenberg, Altman... If I were to cheat, I would do one more narrative filmmaker and one avant-garde filmmaker, but I am nothing if not honest...
Gonna go with Nathaniel Dorsky - impossible to say, but for the sake of uniformity, Song and Solitude.
JH: What was your favorite childhood movie?
OHW: I used to tell people my favorite movie was Austin Powers when I was, like, 4 years old, to the chagrin of my embarrassed parents. Big Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fan as well, I used to jump from the couch to the love seat and chairs, pretending they were treetops with a wooden samurai sword. In 2007, I was 12, and that year There Will Blood, The Darjeeling Limited, and Michael Clayton came out. Those movies changed how I thought about film. Permanently altered my brain chemistry.
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Julia Hathaway (@startofsvmmer) is buried alive in Devin Morgan’s backyard. She enjoys dunking on people and writing about film.