'Shiva Baby' Writer/Director Emma Seligman on the organised chaos of indie film making

In this episode, we’re revisiting a conversation with Canadian writer-director Emma Seligman, about her debut feature – the darkly comic, utterly chaotic coming-of-age story, Shiva Baby. Based on Seligman’s 2018 South By Southwest eight-minute short, Shiva Baby finds twenty-something Danielle (played by Rachel Sennott), dutifully attending a shiva for a family friend, where she spends her time lurching from one potentially catastrophic encounter to another, navigating spilled drinks, wailing babies, an embittered ex-girlfriend, and the appearance of her sugar daddy. Speaking to VIFF’s Associate Director of Programming, Curtis Woloschuk as part of our year-round virtual Indie Spirits series, Emma gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the claustrophobic comedy. This conversation was recorded on April 12, 2021. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival. Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), the year-round programming of the theatres at the VIFF Centre and the online streaming platform, VIFF Connect. See what's playing now. As a nonprofit cultural organization, VIFF relies on community support to help make everything we do possible. You can show your love of cinema by making a tax-deductible gift to VIFF. goviff.org/donate This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival. Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.