Dar Dowling of Greenwich Village, NYC, is the creative force behind a series of documentaries and scripted works that have made a strong impact at festivals in the U.S. and Europe and positioned her as a new, talented voice in the DIY film world. Her projects are off-center snapshots of the human condition that are alternately gritty, tender, quirky, and powerful unlike most things you’ll see on the big screen or small.
From the provocative docs Hey Mom, What’s Sex?, Double Take and Apocalection to scripted dramas like By Any Means, Dowling engages audiences in frank, moving discourse on what it means to be alive and engaged at this very moment, using wild, wonderful characters and a frank, unsullied film style to distill the essence of each conversation. At the moment, she is putting finishing touches on Hineni, a documentary that follows one transgender man’s conversion to conservative Judaism, and is in pre-production on a new film focused upon the stark reality of human trafficking.
Dowling is also a busy journalist from a spectrum of print and online media outlets and the Chief Marketing Officer of marketing firm Atlas Elite Partners, as well as CMO and executive contributor to Raver magazine. She hopes to inspire her audiences to think with both their heads and their hearts, and remind them that the world looks vast and kaleidoscopic through the smallest and least likely windows.
As one of the top emerging film directors in the country, what do you feel is the key to making a successful movie?
Whether I’m shooting a documentary, like Double Take, or a narrative like By Any Means, it is all about the story. Content is key, everything else is secondary in my view. Without a story that grabs people’s attention, a film is just an empty shell. For instance, in By Any Means, which is in essence a lesbian mafia daughter short, I included a story from my childhood to give it a dose of reality.
Also, since we were short on time, and down one actor, I jumped into the mix. When you watch that film, you might just see me being strangled. On the other hand, Double Take is all about a transgender man’s take on male privilege, and it includes the fact that he came out to his synagogue in a speech on male privilege.
Moshe, the subject of the film, lived 50 years as a woman and now ten years or so as a man. He shares the reality of his situation, which includes a very real upgrade in respect once he could pass as a man. It’s important to me to capture the heart and the grit of the story I’m shooting. The technical aspects are important, but capturing that is the most important aspect to me. Both Double Take and By Any Means will be released soon.
You have come a long way from your first film, Hey Mom What’s Sex? What would you say was one of your challenges from that time that you have managed to overcome with the new film productions you are creating?
Hey Mom, What’s Sex? is all about people’s sex talks with their moms. We managed to document 28 stories in 40 minutes. It’s a very fun whirlwind of a film. It was my first film and I shot it run-and-gun style in the streets of NYC. The city with all its grit, background noise, and wildness very much became a character in the film. Shooting that way has some innate issues, especially since we had a very small budget.
I learned that I love to shoot in this “boots on the ground style” because it’s very much in alignment with my personality. Recently, I have been on the ground shooting for a project we are developing on the protests happening across the U.S. And the lessons I learned shooting Hey Mom, What’s Sex? and my other film Apocalection, which is all about how the election of 2016 changed people, helped me manage shooting in real-time on the ground much more effectively.
All of your movies have a deeper meaning, both on the surface as well as deep into their layers. Why is staying true to your vision to produce such deep cinematographic art so important to you?
Well, for better or worse I’m a complicated woman, and my choices of film topics tend to reflect that internal trend. Sometimes I really resist certain topics but my heart doesn’t really listen to my head, which is what happened with one of my newest projects, a documentary on human trafficking.
I was up North in Canada, which in many ways has become a second home to me, and a friend invited me to a conference she was having on human trafficking. I love supporting my friends, so of course, I went. While I was there, I heard a woman speak on her experience of being trafficked, and it was very compelling. She now helps the police get other women out of that situation.
While she was speaking I kept thinking, “I’m not doing a film on human trafficking,” over and over again, like some kind of mantra. But by the end of her talk, I was already all in, and now that documentary is in pre-production. Most, if not all of the time, when it comes to my film projects, my heart wins…
What film projects are you currently working on and how has the Coronavirus affected those projects?
Yes, Covid-19 has put my film on human trafficking on a timeout since the border is closed, but it has also given us time to finish up the editing of Hineni, which in Hebrew means, “Here I am God.” This documentary is about a transgendered man’s conversion to conservative Judaism. It had been on a slow track to completion, and now it’s been fast-tracked since Ricardo Madan can work on it in his home office rather than in the studio. Ricardo is very often my partner in cinematic crime these days because he is an extremely gifted editor and cinematographer.
Last but not least, I’ve just put Apocalection up on YouTube. I made this film right after the election, and it was edited by the wonderfully talented Jon Morgan Jones out of the UK. With all that is currently going on, I think it’s important that people remember how we felt back then so we don’t repeat the past. It also has some killer animation by Tom Colleran out of Toronto, who is one of the best illustrators I’ve ever worked with. Last but not least the title song is by Cherry Hooker, a band that is destined for greatness.
When you are walking the streets in New York City, especially during this challenging time, what are your top three songs that help you get away from the realities of life?
I have a pretty eclectic playlist, which changes day by day. But today I’m about Avicii, Lana Del Rey , and Melissa Etheridge. So the top songs are “Wake Me Up” (Avicii), “Summertime Sadness” (Lana Del Rey) and “I Want To Come Over” (Melissa Etheridge)–all for very different, and personal reasons. Power to the people.
For more information on Darma Productions, check out the official website.
