WXFF 2020: Kathryn Maccorgarry Gray
We spoke with Kathryn Maccorgarry Gray who is behind the kooky documentary/mockumentary film The Plant Collector screening at our upcoming Women X Film Festival. She tells us about her decision to add a fictional ending to an unbelievable story, the process of making a film during a worldwide pandemic and her plethora of current projects.
Tell us about yourself and the work you do
I’ve been making films since I was quite young. I had a habit of giving up on after school activities, but filmmaking stood the test of time and I never lost interest. I’ve always been curious about the things that frighten me, whether that’s physical threats, or insecurities. I’ve found most of my work to contain an element of the unknown or, in the case of my short documentary ‘The Wolf, The Ship, and The Little Green Bag’ confronting regrets and deep secrets kept bottled up inside for years. As my writing has developed, my films have become more female focused. I’ve grown and realised the stories I want to tell are rooted in personal experience. I’ve spent the last couple of years sound recording part time - I’ve learnt a lot from observing the other roles, and whilst I have the utmost respect for the sound department, I don’t have the passion. I’ve never been happier than when I’ve been directing something I’ve written. I can’t imagine not making films, so whether anyone will pay me for it or not, I’ll be working on something.
What is your proudest moment of your career so far?
The short documentary I made part way through my final year at the University of Westminster, ‘The Wolf, The Ship, and The Little Green Bag’ won a Grierson award. When I say I have stage fright, it’s the kind that shifts my voice about ten octaves higher. All I remember is how bright the lights were, and the one glass of champagne which I don’t even like, but just accepted out of politeness. As we moved around the room talking to people, the nerves joined forces with the champagne and for the first time in my life I threw up in an Uber on the way home. Thankfully I didn’t get any on the car, but I did get a lot on the award. So proudest, and maybe the most shameful moment of my career. I dread to think what the Grierson people would think of me making a documentary with a fictionalised ending though, and of course disrespecting their statuette.
What themes do you want to explore in your future work?
Every story I write is usually trying to process something that’s been playing on my mind, and very often it’s about the balance of friendships, particularly expectations, manipulation, disappointment and the social restrictions placed on women. Within these friendships - or sometimes family dynamics - is the idea of loneliness. I tend to write characters that cannot completely give themselves to the people around them and suffer because of this. This is where my love of horror comes in - something that can evoke feelings of fear and terror, to represent inner turmoil feels like the most effective way to communicate what’s going on inside.
What drove you to create a fictionalised ending for a film that is originally rooted in reality and is an upcoming documentary?
There are a few things going on here for me. I don’t like to get in trouble. So, when my friend Julia was telling me she hops fences into people’s gardens and takes plants, I’m horrified, but I admire it. So maybe somewhere in my mind I thought I could practice first, maybe when it comes to shooting the actual documentary, I’ll feel better about it. Then the worst-case scenario thoughts flood my mind, what if the killer is still there? I’m interested in exploring obsession and the romanticised idea of true crime. I wanted Julia’s desire to fulfil her collection to outweigh rational thought, as would a murderer's desire to kill outweigh the idea of life without parole. I’m very inspired by documentaries that question their own truth, that show the power of manipulation. As far as I have planned, the full documentary will play with these ideas.
How did you overcome COVID restrictions with your cast and crew whilst filming?
It was easy to keep social distance because it was just myself (behind the camera), Julia and her husband Riccardo, filming in their house. I made it as part of a lockdown challenge with a group of filmmaker friends. We filmed it in a couple of hours, that’s all the battery on my old DV camera could handle. Moments before the end, my partner turned up to find me balancing on a wobbly chair filming over the fence in the dark. So, there were risks taken, but COVID-wise we were cautious.
Has Julia ever come across a killer who hasn’t had any plants?
She hasn’t yet, she only enters gardens that she can see the plants from over the fence. She usually checks the places out on Google Street View beforehand. But she says that in the future if there aren’t any plants, she’ll take things that can be turned into planters, for example old mugs, cooking pots (preferably if these were used to cook human heads) and old boots or something - but always to be used to house the plants. I’m guessing she might have to break into the actual houses for that stuff, so hopefully there’s plenty of plants lying around outside.
Tell us three things you're grateful for?
Growing up I spent the weekends in Kent, me and my brother would reenact adverts off the TV, like Claims Direct ones, and we’d just remake sketches from The Fast Show. Eventually he outgrew it and was old enough to stay behind in London over the weekends. I was forced to go it alone, and I ended up never letting go of it. So generally, I’m grateful to the supportive people in my life, but also to the people who push me out of my comfort zones, whether they realise or not.
I used to think it was a huge regret, but now I’m grateful I went to an all-girls school. A lot of the dynamics I write about stem from being in an all-female environment, and how even in their absence, a male presence could be felt.
Lastly, I’m just grateful for all the filmmakers, past and present who keep working to make the films and TV they love, with every story I connect with I feel a little closer to understanding what’s going on inside everyone else.
What three things do you always have on your bedside table?
I always have a chapstick because I anxiously chew my lips at every waking moment. A book I always intend to read, but never do (usually some kind of short story collection) and then my sleep tapes.
What are you working on at the moment/next?
I am currently in post-production for a short film called ‘Deep Meaningful Conversation’ about two teenage girls who, after leaving a party early, have a one-sided conversation on a jetty. Whilst one pours her heart out over a boy, the other is distracted by a woman acting strangely across the pond. I’ve written a short called ‘Katbin ‘03’ that I’m looking for funding for. It's a semi-autobiographical comedy about a ten-year-old girl desperate to be part of her eighteen-year-old brother's clubbing life. With Mongrel Pictures, founded by myself, and collaborators Daniel Rands and Toby Lloyd, we have been steamrolling the production of micro-budget shorts with very limited crew, so far just this year we have made six shorts, one of which is ‘Peaking’, a horror that I co-wrote and produced. It’s very loosely based on my time as a sound recordist, overhearing some unpleasant things, and how those thoughts can manifest. It’s playing at FrightFest and Celluloid Screams this year. As well as this, I’m researching for a feature dark comedy drama script based around my dad and his siblings childhood growing up in Blantyre, Scotland, and working on a pilot for a television series expanding from a feature mockumentary ‘South African Spook Hunter’ I co-created.
