The September Issue Part 2:
Ramona meets Tuscan's mom in the middle of an epic meltdown...
I have been teaching playwriting and screenwriting at NYU for six years, and mostly, my students write and shoot short films. At festivals, shorts are often bottom of my list because I see so many great ones as part of my day job. But for whatever reason, I wandered into a block of shorts at the awesome Florida Film Festival last April and was utterly charmed by You’re Invited to Tuscan’s 5th Birthday Party! I’d written my own kids birthday party horror story/satire years earlier when attending them was a weekend staple and now, firmly on the other side, my son well out of preschool birthday-party territory, the memories came flooding back.
Meet Lee Eddy, the writer, director and star of this amazing short.
BB: Lee, tell us about you.
LE: I’m a 40-something lady who just made her first short film. It's a comedic valentine to the chaos of parenting.
BB: You started as an actor and improviser?
LE: I’ve been acting since elementary school (in Louisiana) .… in college (in Austin, not UT) my first improv group FatBuckle was formed. We performed regularly on campus and in small comedy clubs in Austin. FatBuckle evolved into a sketch company, The Think Tank, and, as influenced by Mr. Show, we incorporated short film pieces as transitions between our sketches.
After graduating, I did lots of live theater in Austin – if it had a part for a tall gangly lady, I'd do it… I started working on some projects for Rooster Teeth [a production company based in Austin] doing voice work for some of the animation series and later, live action streaming shows they produced. I found myself part of a great mix of young filmmakers, local stand-ups, and theater and improv folks.Those backyard parties and frequent collaborators are what I guess would be my entryway into “The Industry.” One of those filmmakers was my dear pal Steve Collins, who shot his first feature in Austin, Gretchen. It was on the set of Gretchen that I met my husband, Macon (Blair)...
We dated long-distance for over a year when I decided that I was going to move to New York to see what it was like to be a comedic performer in a bigger pond. (And to see if this funny and adorable long-distance love was worth the risk—Spoiler: it was.)
Being in the bigger pond of New York and watching how Macon hustled to get acting and writing jobs was a big eye-opener. I instantly found a desk job at a non-profit that made media production accessible to communities. So during the day, I was learning all these aspects of production, then catching a train to perform at The People’s Improv Theatre (where I was on a couple house teams) at night. On the weekends, I’d do shows with The Story Pirates.
When my first child was born, the cost of child care in Brooklyn wasn’t feasible on our desk job salaries, so we moved back to Austin… and we had a second child.
Macon’s career took off right when we moved to Austin and… we had a second child. In 2018 and 2019, I got cast in some pretty good back-to-back projects in film and television. It felt like “oh yay! It’s happening for me…!” Then Covid hit. And the strike.
I’m over 40 now, and I’m SAG/AFTRA in a right-to-work state, so roles don’t really come my way as often as I’d like. With that in mind, I decided it was time to shift my skills to getting behind the camera. Hence, TUSCAN.
BB: How has your identity as an artist changed since having kids?
LE: …I have found that, with age, it’s harder for me to create my own pieces, harder to consistently access that community of creatives the way I did in my 20s. Our priorities have shifted.
I feel like my mid-life role is that of a fulcrum, making sure my family is safe and cared for and pinpointing my always-shifting long-term goals (wait, save for retirement??) Throw in the film industry being in a really strange metamorphous. Again: Hence, TUSCAN.
BB: I loved Tuscan’s Birthday Party.
LE: I love that you loved Tuscan’s Birthday Party.
BB: Tell us about where it came from:
LE: My two kids are now ages 11 and 7. After my second child was born, I was diagnosed with postpartum anxiety. So, I began therapy. (Yay…?) I learned the term “disenfranchisement grief” in a session -- it’s “when you feel a loss that is not supported by society as something to publicly grieve -- and was inspired to tell the story of my own Mom-Life Crisis.
The idea to use a children’s birthday setting was a no-brainer –I’ve had many a “being a parent is hard” thoughts at children’s birthday parties. And when I sat down to write TUSCAN, the words came out effortlessly, because at its heart, TUSCAN is a confessional. It … healed me?
BB: What was the process like?
LE: Scary. I cried a lot. Lots of self-doubt about my abilities to pull it off and many sleepless nights because of the amount of savings used to make it… But I cried less as we got closer to Day One because I truly had a Dream Crew behind me. Also, because of my anxiety about pulling it off, I really over-prepared. I had like 50 Pinterest Boards going at all times with my Production Designer (Yvonne Boudreaux) and Cinematographer (Taylor Camarot). My storyboards were exact, and I knew my material like a mantra. I rehearsed and blocked every scene a weeks prior to shooting, and had great support from my co-producers (Macon and friend Christopher Shea) and DP, all of whom patiently waited for me to watch what was shot, make changes and do it all over again.
I *loved* post-production. I’d worked with my editor, John Valley in an acting capacity on one of his features, and he was my first call. We laughed way too much in the four weeks we spent editing the first 30-minute cut into just under 14 minutes. My brothers-in-law are composers, and I got a sweet rate from them for an incredible soundtrack. And my post-production house is a local spot called TBD Post who were super generous with their time and energy.
What have you learned sharing the film with audiences on the festival circuit?
LE: THAT I’M NOT ALONE IN FEELING GUILTY ABOUT SOMETIMES NOT LIKING BEING A PARENT. Every screening I’ve had, there has been at least one parent that comes up afterwards, grabs my arm while making intense eye-contact, then says, “This! This is what I feel too!”
Welcome To Tuscan’s 5th Birthday Party! has screened at: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France), Florida Film Festival (Special Jury Award for Excellence in Narrative Short Filmmaking), Maryland Film Festival, Hill Country Film Festival (TX), DeadCenter (OKC), Palm Springs ShortsFest, Perth Revelation International Film Festival (Australia), HollyShorts, DIFF Shorts Film Festival (Dallas) (Best First Time Filmmaker)
BB: How has being a mom changed you as a creator?Do you find your subject matter changing in any way?
It’s made me pickier about what projects I work on for others and what projects I pick to do on my own. There’s a new value that I ask when something is presented to me: “Is it babysitter worthy?”
I also am more kind with my material. In my early 20s, a lot of my comedy was more how far can I take this without completely offending people, and now that sort of humor feels almost cruel. I see laughter more as the ability to make an audience let their guard down, and then they trust you’ll reward them with more laughter… I don’t want to squander that opportunity. I want to make you laugh but I also want to make you feel *something* good about being perfectly human… Since having kids, I strive for heart in what I make.
BB: What do you think other filmmakers should know before heading to a festival?
LE: Research the festivals you’re applying and going to. What you may remember as being a good festival back in the 2010s may have evolved into something completely different. (Reddit has the tea, ya’ll.)
If you have a film at a film festival and it’s programmed at the same time as a end-of-the-day party, be prepared for a somewhat empty audience. (This happened to me and I got to watch my film with 9 people in a beautiful 480 restored classic movie theater. Luckily all 9 were great laughers.)
Drink water. Have a big bag of trail mix or cashews or something because you’re going to forget to eat.
Don’t forget to eat.
Take a risk and go to a block of film that you’d not normally go to. I’ve seen and learned so much because I didn’t get into a screening I wanted to and just popped into a nearby theater that had open seats. (My favorite thing about having a badge at a fest.)
Suck it up and introduce yourself to a stranger that also has a badge. I’ve made some sweet film fest pals simply by saying, “Hi, I’m Lee. These lanyards are itchy, right?”
BB: THAT is great advice! What else are you working on?
LE: I just wrapped season 2 on Netflix/A24's comedy series, MO. It's a good show; won a Peabody! The creator and star, Mo Amer, really nails the comedy-with-a-heart genre. I feel pretty dang luck that I got to be a part of that one.
Yvonne Woods (Ramona) on festival life:
I appreciated all the coupons in Florida (FFF really provided for its filmmakers!) I loved the Lebanese couple making food at Wraps Delight Cafe, amazing food in the lobby of a random office building. I’m still mixing the loquat jam I bought from them into my yogurt.
I loved walking around that garden in Indianapolis (Newfields, one of the venues for Heartland Film Festival) and going to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville. Obsessed with Milck ( Yvonne and I experienced the blessing that is a Milck performance after the screening of her incredible doc I Can’t Keep Quiet at Bentonville, 2023… ) and how gorgeous of a human being she is, the way she breathed and took in the audience and invited us all to breathe together, casting a spell over the room…
Trailer for I Can’t Keep Quiet here:
Coming up next, Meghan Ross (also based in Austin, TX!) and filmmaking duo Hudson Phillips and Jordan Noel of Guacamole Yesterdays.
See you next week!
Brooke