Interview with Janicza Bravo, director of Zola

The much-anticipated movie starring Taylour Paige and Riley Keough opens June 30

Dear Last Thing I Saw-ers,

I’ll send out a full dispatch soon but I assure you I’ve been busily working to give you the finest in podcast journalism! Here’s the latest: an interview with Janicza Bravo, director of the hotly anticipated film Zola.

You can listen to our interview here.

It was a lot of fun talking with Janicza about this unpredictable comedy (shot on 16mm!). Here’s a little summary:

“Directed by Janicza Bravo, Zola follows a Detroit waitress/dancer (Taylour Paige) as she joins her new friend Stefani on a trip to Tampa, Florida. Stefani (Riley Keough) says the plan is to make some money stripping, but things get increasingly messy and shady and dangerous. It’s a comedy with a crazy energy that crashes into bleaker moments as Zola keeps a cool head in Stefani’s raucous world. Bravo brings a sense of vibrant visual invention and careful tonal modulation to the movie, adapting the unpredictable story and its complicated and thorny gender and racial dynamics from its Twitter thread source. I was delighted to talk with Bravo about how it feels to see the movie out in the world, her directorial decisions, early days in New York, and her next project, about a book editor and writer who’s a compulsive scammer.”

Zola opens June 30. Here again is the interview.

Thanks for listening!

Nic