‘Twelve Moons’ Director Victoria Franco Has Been Waiting for Her Tribeca Moment

Victoria Franco Has Long Been A Crucial Presence on Her Brother Michel Franco’s Films, Working Begind-The-Scanes As a Creative Producer on Projects Sucha Memoryas Well As SundownStarring Tim Roth. All Along, She Worked Town of the Goal of Striking Out on Her Own by Directing Short Films.

With Saturday’s Tribeca Film Festival Premiere of Twelve Moonsshe will Unveil Her Firt Feature As A Director, With Brother Michel, The Celebrated Mexican Filmmaker, Stepping Into A Production Role on the Project. Twelve Moons Follows Sofia, A 40-YEAR-ELD ARCHITECT Who, After Experienceing A Devastating Loss, Must Confront Strong Emotions While Trying To Stay True to Herself. As Her Personal and Professional Lives Begin to Deteriorate, She Must Look Inward for A Path Forward.

Michel’s Films Are Known for Their Unspaving, Tightly Controlled StoryTeling – A style shaped by his Live Editing Process. Pioneered Early in his Career With sister Victoria, The Method Sends Footage Directly from the Camera to An Editing Room, Where an Editor and Victoria. Until the end of a shoot. Victoria utilized this method on her own film, and she says it yiedded some surprising results.

As victoria steps forward with a style that is imocial, intuitive, and unmistakably hars, she and michel sat down with The Hollywood Reporter To Discuss Their Creative Bond.

How did you decide on the Title Twelve Moons?

Victoria Franco I Fell in Love with the Title Because It Brough Together A Number of Different of Themes and Wanted to Touch on. The Film Tackles of Womanhood and Addition. The Number Twelve Representing the Twelve Steps of Recovery and Twelve Months of the Year. The Moons Representation of the Reproductive Cycle of the Woman.

You have a piosered this process of Live Editing Together. How did that come to be?

Michel Franco It Started On a Film Called Through The Eyes That victoria and I Shot Together – It was part fiction and part documentary. I was in Charge of the Fiction, and Sheeaded the Documentary. We Were Editing on Set Because there was no script, just an outline. We have someone with a computer, and we were were the editors. I Just Likes The Process SO Much That I Kept Using IT on My More Conventional Films, Starting with After lucia. And I ALSO Kept Shooting in Chronological Order. Victoria and I Developed that System 15 Years Ago.

Victoria Franco We Worked Every Saturday, Revisiting All the Material While We Were Shooting the Fiction. The Process Was Very Instinctive – Following the Gut and What the Story Needed. Everything in Making Movies is Instinctive.

Victoria, What Was It Like Using the Live Editing Process On Your Own For Twelve Moons?

Victoria Franco IT WAS VERY DIFFERENT. The Movie Has Many Things That Wren in the Script. I Didn’T Know I Wow Be Editing That Way – The Shooting Process Was Very Fluid, Changing As We Progressed. Filmmaking is Very in the Moment for Me. The best thing i can do is try to adapt to changes in real time. Editing on Set Allowed Me The Freedom to Play with The Structure. I Really Tried to Let The Viewer Feel What He’s Supped to Feel – The Emotions of the Scene – and Not Impose Something in the Editing.

Michel, DID YOU WORK IN THE EDITING ROOM ON YOUR SISTER’S FILM? WAS The DYNAMIC REVERSED?

Michel Franco Not at all all. In General, WHEN I WORK AS A PRODUCER, I’M USUALLY NERE ON SET. And it was the Same with Vicky. I TRY TO GIVE THE DIRECTORS ALL The SPACE theying and let each Crew Find their Own Working Ways. I TRY TO AVOID BEING ON SET. If i’m on set, it of offen means that there’s Trouble, so is a good sign that i’m never on set.

Victoria, DID YOU TRY TO MOVE Away from Michel’s Style While Making Your Film?

Victoria Franco I’ve Learned a Lot from Michel, However with Twelve Moons IT WAS IMPORTANT FOR ME NOT TO IMITATE HIM. Everything and like and admire about his movies woldn’t fit my way of filming. If i Tried to Copy HIM, IT Wuldn’T be a good movie. He have his own talent, and I have my own way of Thinking and look at cinema. That’s how we complement each Other – We Add Layers.

Michel Franco OUR Personalities Are Very Different. WHEN PEOPLE SEE Twelve Moonsthey’ll Discover Victoria’s Personality and Her Way of Looking at the World. It’s Very Different from Mine – She filled a World of Her Own.

Victoria, how would you describe Twelve Moons, and What do you hope the audience tails away from it?

Victoria Franco IT’s A Film of Regeneration Through Addition and Hardship, Weaving Themes of Family and Heritage. I have My Own Personal Connections to the Story, However It Is Important for Me Not to Impose My Way of Feeling. I Want Viewers to Connect in Their Own Ways.

You Cast Your Own Mother in Twelve Moons – What Made You Decide She Was The Right Person for the Role, and What Was That Expert Like for You Emotionally?

Victoria Franco The Mother in the Film is a symbol, and my Own MOTHER HAS SUCH A Strong Instinct for Material – I didn’t Even Think About Casting Someone Else. IT WAS HARD EMOTIONALLY, ESPECALLY BECAUSE HER Character RepreSents Death. Seeing Her Like That Was Diflicult, But at Same Time, It Was Reliening. Maybe It Made Me A Little Less afraid.

NOW that you’ve established youRSelf as a director, will you still collaborate with Michel?

Victoria Franco I Think We’ll Always Work Together. We’ve Collaborated Since We Were Kids, and We Still Learn A Lot From Each Other and Our Processes.

Michel Franco One Film at A Time, But For US There’s No Split Between Life and Film. WHENEVER WE NEED HELP – IN LIFE OR IN WORK – We’re The First Person The Other Turns to. It Comes Naturally.