Director and writer Alexandra McGuinness talks timeliness, genre, and gender in She’s Missing

Writer and director Alexandra McGuinness’ sophomore film, She’s Missing, explores the power of female friendship, loneliness, and love in a dangerous America.

It’s not particularly often a movie comes along that is viscerally challenging, emotionally taxing, and politically resonant. It’s probably — even statistically — less frequent that these movies are allowed to be made by women, about women. In Irish writer/director Alexandra McGuinness’ second feature film, She’s Missing, best friends Heidi and Jane live in an increasingly lawless land that doesn’t always seem interested in taking care of them. Over the course of the quiet, poignant movie, we watch as Heidi takes it upon herself to do the care-taking, even when the people around her, the world at large, and the unwritten rules of being a young woman aren’t always on her side.

Ahead of the film’s release, Culturess was lucky enough to speak with McGuinness about her inspirations, the IRL cultural shifts that impacted her filmmaking, and the influence of the female gaze.

Culturess: Almost every element of this movie seems impossibly timely. What was the timeline of this movie’s inception, creation, and production?

McGuinness: I started writing this film in 2013. And it had one false start in 2014, where we started filming with a different cast and the money fell apart. We eventually shot in 2017, and here we are in 2019. All movies take a long time. And the world has changed a lot since 2013. Most of the aspects of the script were there from the beginning, but they morphed as time went on. It’s true the film does seem a lot more relevant now. When Trump was elected, that added another surreal element to the story. The film was now set in a border state in the rural America that voted for Trump. We don’t deal with it directly in the film, but I think the influence of his presidency, the chaos that surrounds it, the sexism and the misogyny, is definitely there in the background.

Culturess: Was this an idea you’d had and amended to more accurately reflect our world, or did it spring from the current climate and cultural landscape?

McGuinness: A bit of both. In the 2013 drafts, there was the rodeo queen, the ICE agent, the talk of detention centers, but I think over the years, the idea of these two women seizing their power in different ways came more to the fore. When we shot in 2017, Trump had recently been elected, and because the film is set in a version of the world but not totally the real world, I had a line about people going and getting work building the wall, because at that time it seemed something kind of sci-fi, but now it’s totally plausible, and so the line is gone.

Culturess: What inspired you to write it?

McGuinness: I wanted to make a film in America about different aspects of America that interested me at the time I was writing — the rodeos, the desert, the highways, the dangers and the beauty of the landscape. I was inspired by a town I visited in California. I noticed there were lots of missing posters in the town. It was eerie. All missing girls, all last seen along a stretch of the interstate highway. There was one girl in particular whose name I wrote down. When I got home, I started reading about her case. There’s nothing recognizable about her in the movie, but her story was a seed to the film.

I also wanted to tell a story about these two women and their friendship — and Heidi, in particular, her aloneness and strength and love for her friend Jane.

Culturess: How would you classify this film, genre-wise. Can you talk a little about the multi-genred elements of this film?

McGuinness: I think it’s a drama with some magical realism elements. I wouldn’t call it a straight thriller, but it has the essence of a mystery.

Culturess: I basically only want to watch women be friends, work through their traumas, generally figure stuff out together or because of each other, and I feel much safer when I know a woman is behind the camera or the page. Are you aware of the “female gaze” when writing and/or directing? How much so?

McGuinness: A lot of my favorite filmmakers are women, and most of my favorite writers. The stories I’m interested in telling are mostly about women, because it’s where I’m coming from; it’s recognizable. I feel aware of the female gaze in people writing about film particularly. This film has been really positively reviewed by women, and the reviews by men have been mostly negative or mixed.

Culturess: How much of what you write is intentionally gendered?

McGuinness: I think when I wrote Heidi initially, she was quite a different character, someone whose loneliness brought her into dangerous situations with men, [and someone] who was sloppier and flirted with strangers. When Lucy Fry was cast and started to recreate Heidi, a lot of that didn’t make sense. She brought out her strength and loyalty. She gave her this lower resonant voice and an awkwardness in her physicality.

Culturess: The women in this film are best friends, though there’s clear sexual curiosity that underlies their intimacy from the get-go, especially in Heidi. Can you talk about that layer? How much was written in, and how much was just the nature of two women sharing deep intimacy?

McGuinness: I think it’s definitely there. I think Heidi loves Jane, and Jane doesn’t want to be loved by Heidi — or is made uncomfortable by the strength of Heidi’s feelings for her — at the same time she wants to bask in it. I don’t know if it would ever go further than friendship and what Heidi would even do if Jane returned her feelings.

Culturess: What about the filmmaking process and/or art form of filmmaking keeps you motivated and engaged?

McGuinness: I love making films. I love being able to tell stories in a visual way. It’s difficult, and there are so many different skills to employ in the course of making a film. Some parts I feel more comfortable with than others. I love being on set and running around, I love being in the edit — and knitting it all together. I like working with creative people who are experts at what they do. I find it difficult to talk about the film when it’s done. Some people are so good at that. I find I’m much more articulate in the writing and making of the actual film than in an interview.

Culturess: What’s the main thing you hope viewers take from this film?

McGuinness: I think your reaction to the film, and the thoughts and questions you have had about the film, are an ideal reaction. I hope that people watch the film and can see their own journeys in Heidi and Jane, that they enjoy the visuals and music and that it stays in their minds for a bit.

She’s Missing is available on digital and in select theaters now.