Lucy Mulloy
Writer, director Lucy Mulloy was extremely lucky to have Spike Lee as a mentor and sounding board for her debut film, Una Noche (One Night), which tells a story few audiences have seen of Havana Cuba and its young people.
This is a really good story with characters you can identify with. How did you cast this movie with novice actors?
We did a huge casting for actors and I met over 2,000 young people in Havana. After the castings we would walk down the street and people would greeting us “Hey, UNA NOCHE”; we met so many people. Word of mouth in Havana is very powerful. We printed up a lot of casting fliers and as we went giving them out everywhere you would find young people — concerts, parties, beaches, schools, everywhere possible. I met a lot of people with raw talent, but the three main actors fit the characters completely and we started working together, workshopping and improvising to develop their skills. It took over a year to train them.
Talk briefly about being a female director in a male-dominated industry?
My personal experience has been very positive, but this is because I was lucky enough to make Una Noche entirely on my own terms, for my own company. I surrounded myself with amazing people who were really supportive. This is what I think a lot of female directors do to get their films produced. They simply are not part of the mainstream industry. I hope that this is changing and that the industry realizes that they have to embrace different voices. It is very important to me to see work by various people. It is not interesting going to the cinema and seeing the same type of movie, by the same people, with the same actors, again and again. Everybody wants to see something fresh and new, and in order for that to happen the industry has to accommodate different cultures and different people and that clearly includes women. There clearly is a demand for this. I had never seen Cuba depicted in film, which was one of my main motivations for making Una Noche; to represent a voice that was not being heard and to tell a story from a different point of view.
What was it like having Spike Lee as a mentor?
Spike Lee is the artistic director at New York University. I applied to New York University because I knew that Spike was teaching there, which is why I ended up moving to NYC. He has been incredibly supportive, which is a great inspiration to me. He read the script and we got the Spike Lee grant toward the production of the film. He was my mentor. When I returned to NYC with footage, he sat with me and went through multiple edits and gave me really helpful advice. He came on as presenting the film, which I really appreciate. He is someone I respect very much.
Una Noche, released by IFC opened Friday, Sept. 6 and runs through Sept. 12, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. facebook.com/unanochefilm
