#I feel like etho is just a runner. things start going wrong in his life and he packs up and leaves

[hiding-under-the-willow]

Rens body wandering off is really funny. I wonder, is Martyn a ghost too somewhere? Or is Doc around?

I can't decide if I want to have had Martyn died alongside Ren or if he died somewhere else later. If he died at the same time as Ren then obviously it's safe to make the assumption that he's fully not around as a ghost. If he died off somewhere else we may never know. I kind of like the idea of it being ambiguous in the same way what happened to Havers is ambiguous in the show. We never learn where he died, when, what he went on to do after Cap's death, if he's a ghost somewhere. I like that idea for Martyn and Ren.

Idk though maybe there's a fun plot to be had somewhere where Grian runs into Martyn's ghost somewhere off in town and recognizes him from Ren's incessant talking about him and we get Grian having to act as like a go between for them to communicate. I'm not making that officially canon rn but it's a fun idea to think about.

I do want to have Doc around as one of the living characters, I think in some way connected to Etho's past. Whatever Etho was running from when he moved way out to the middle of nowhere in England by himself, Doc was involved. They were really close friends, and Doc has been looking for him ever since he fell off the map. Doc finally manages to hunt him down after ten years, probably through Grian and Joel's involvement. Maybe something to do with the ghost hunting gangs videos. Either way Doc shows up at Etho's door and has some fucking questions. Such as: "Where have you been for the last ten years" "Why did you just fucking disappear?" "What happened to your face did you get mauled by a fucking bear??" "Why do you keep talking to the air like a crazy person?" "Did you know you are a fucking terrible liar?"

I like to think this is like just after Etho and Hels have started to make peace after a bit of intervention from Grian and Joel, but then Doc, who has actually been surprisingly chill up until this point about the ghost stuff since he figured it out, puts together the puzzle pieces of what happened and is like "A GHOST DID FUCKING WHAT TO YOU?? AND YOU'RE STILL LIVING HERE???" and now Etho who was just starting to get comfortable again has to deal with both his past with Doc and with Hels at once.

[thecoddaughter]

Pearl, Gem, & Lizzie as The History of Man by Maisie Peters

Tale as old as honey

Pearl being created, surrounded by watchers

A moment everybody knows

The moment turning into the stainglass style of big moments 

Yeah, I'm sure there was heartbreak

Each of the victors standing in front of their glass

Inside the walls of Jericho

Zooms out to see the exterior of the Hall of Memories floating in the Void 

I couldn't believe it

Younger Pearl floating through the Void, staring down an elder Watcher

How you could just stop wanting me?

Being exiled to Evo

You burnt down Easter Island

Evo building up to the entering the End together

As if it wasn't sacred, as if it wasn't sacred to me

Being forced to fight the Dragon alone, floating in the Void alone

I've seen it, in the poems and the sands

Exiting the End, with the Watcher’s reading out how Grian joined them again, landing on an isolated beach

I've pleaded, with the powers and their plans

Her finding her way back to the Void and convincing them to send her somewhere

I tried to rewrite it but I can't

Sitting in her tower, aware Grain had infiltrated the Empires Realm risking it all 

It's the history, the history of man

A portal opening and her getting access to the Hermit Realm

She stays up, he's sleeping like a lamb

Pearl working hard to figure things out, Sausage asleep nearby

She begs him, he says he doesn't understand

Pearl’s “death” in the Empires Realm and King Sasuage’s death 

She loves him, more than anyone ever has in the history, the history of man

Saint Pearlo being founded 

It's the history of man (yep)

Sausage of Santuary dedicating his life to Saint Pearlo

You didn't even falter

Gem looking at Fwhip after he destroyed the Empires Realm

Didn't look back once, did you?

Escaping with him, only to take a portal one day and not return herself

So Samson blamed Delilah, but given half the chance I

Gem watching all the Hermits having these strange pre-determined friendships no one can’t even explain

I would have made him weaker too

Her looking at Pearl and feeling that unexplainable friendship 

Sirens sounded, trumpets blaring

GeminiSlay being titled, fight scenes and whatnot

You walked out oh, without sweating

Spinning around Gem altering forms, unknowingly teleporting most nights

I've seen it, in the poems and the sands

Gem landing in Secret Life feeling something off

I've pleaded, with the powers and their plans

Gem unknowingly picking a former victor and a runner-up place for her team

I tried to rewrite it but I can't

Her staring confused at her gibberish spellbook next to her secret book

It's the history, the history of man

She fiddles with the Watcher charm Pearl gave her while staring at the secret keeper

She stays up, he's sleeping like a lamb

Gem staying over at Etho’s, questioning why something feels wrong about him being her brother

She begs him, he says he doesn't understand

She her charm symbol scratched into Scar’s floor and asks but he won’t tell 

She loves him more than anyone ever has in the history (history)

Images flickering between Fwhip and Etho

The history of man

Gem lingering in portals longer than safe

He stole her youth and promised heaven

Pearl fighting with the Watchers 

The men start wars yet Troy hates Helen

Grian get punished with being in charge of the Death Games, but still Pearl gets the short end of the stick

Women's hearts are lethal weapons

Gem going through the effects of the Boogieman Curse

Did you hold mine and feel threatened?

Her kneeling bloody in front of Pearl 

Hear my lyrics, taste my venom

Gem floating through the void and losing her memory again

You are still my great obsession

Gem finding Pearl and staying close to her

I've seen it, in the poems and the sands

Lizzie washing up on the beach in Empires Realm as the Ocean Queen

I've pleaded, with the powers and their plans

Lizzie falling through the Void after dying, meeting the watchers

I tried to rewrite it but I can't

Flashes of Jimmy dying soon after

It's the history (history), the history of man

Lizzie trying to hold onto her memories as they flash before her

I stay up, you're sleeping like a lamb

Lizzie waking up in SOS Realm [there may not be lore, but there is always lore]

I beg you and you don't understand

She tries to explain it to Joel but his memories are too blocked

I hold on, I try to hold your hand

Them holding hands but Joel looking distant

I save you a seat, and then you say you wanna stand

She watches him as he mindlessly portal jumps

So you'll lose me, the best you'll ever have

Lizzie sitting alone on SOS Realm

It's the history, the history of man

Flashes to Pearl and Gem feeling like they are missing someone

[letterboxd]

Helpers.

“I feel like after you have kids, everything else seems like it’s for f—king pussies. Everything else is f—king bullshit. You and your brunch—f—k you!”

Filmmaker Kestrin Pantera talks to Letterboxd about family, karaoke, improvisation and her new film Mother’s Little Helpers.

Of the many films that premiered at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, Kestrin Pantera’s Mother’s Little Helpers, which played in the Narrative Spotlight section, had perhaps the most classically Austin feel about it.

As well as taking place in the Texan state capital, the film is heavily informed by a certain kind of bohemian nostalgia that permeates Austin.

Pantera also co-stars in the film as Sadie Pride, one of four adult siblings called home to Austin when their mother Joy (former Saturday Night Live cast member Melanie Hutsell)—an ageing folk rock hanger-on whose one claim to fame is taking the photo that adorns an iconic 70s album cover—is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Sadie’s siblings comprise the scattershot Julia (played by UnReal scene-stealer Breeda Wool, also a producer on the film), doctor-to-be Lucy (Milana Vayntrub, highly memorable in shows like Love and This Is Us, and to be seen as Squirrel Girl in Marvel’s New Warriors, if that ever happens) and wayward Jude (Sam Littlefield), who’s on house arrest.

Not one of the four siblings wants to be there for their mother, and they all still bear the very visible effects of being raised by a “cool” parent, one who isn’t done messing with their lives, even though she’s at death’s door.

‘Mother’s Little Helpers’ writer, director and actor Kestrin Pantera.

Pantera has a long history with Austin, having performed there in bands in her twenties, and through her business the RVIP, (a “mobile karaoke lounge housed inside of a customized RV that serves as equal parts transportation and entertainment—it’s called transportainment”), which would come to Austin regularly.

That local familiarity informs Mother’s Little Helpers to no small degree. The film is an authentic character dramedy that captures the contradictory frustrations of family relationships.

Pantera sat down with Letterboxd in Austin soon after the film’s SXSW premiere, and proved as cool in real life as her name sounds. Very few people could seamlessly drop into conversation that they used to play the electric cello, but with Pantera, it made perfect sense.

Mother’s Little Helpers concerns a topic that has made for some fascinating ensemble performances on film through the years—how modern day grown-ups interact with their parents. Kestrin Pantera: I think it’s so fascinating—how do you deal with a parent that wasn’t really a parent, more like your friend’s drug dealer? I remember the first time my mom said “cool”, because parents didn’t used to say stuff like “cool”. When my parents started talking like me when I hit my 30s, it was so weird. My husband’s family, who this film was inspired by, they were cool. My parents aren’t cool. What is it like having cool parents? Well, it’s a mixed bag.

So the real life elements of this story come from your husband’s family? We had been doing RVIP events in Austin for ten years, and [my husband] Jonathan’s dad, he was our runner. That was how I formed a relationship with this dude, he sang karaoke and helped move our shit in a truck. He would come to Burning Man with us, he was like this awesome cool dad. But then when he got sick, there was a lot of reluctance from his kids to come home, and I was like, “What the fuck is wrong with you? He’s awesome!” And then I was like, “Ooooohhh, maybe if he’s not your dad he’s awesome.”

Is that why the film is set in Austin? It was [also] inspired by when I had real life experiences in Austin. I used to tour in rock bands. In my 20s I would bring my electric cello out here and play shows and drink all day and party all night. There’s a fun charm to it. And my family’s from the south as well, so for me, homecoming and dealing with extended family lives in the world of the south. And it’s got that outlaw-country Willie Nelson vibe and ethos. Austin has just got that soulful vibe, it reminds you of the Allman Brothers, or Lynyrd Skynyrd or Tammy Wynette or Wanda Jackson.

Your co-stars are credited as co-writers on this film—is that to reflect the degree of improvisation? That’s a convention in filmmaking that I think I would like to democratize a little bit. It is really cool to just be like, “I wrote this—a Kestrin Pantera show”, as I did with my first movie [2014’s Let’s Ruin It With Babies], but that movie was improvised and everyone made up all their shit and I just took credit for it. Any movie that has improvised performances, the editor is really the writer. I wrote it, because I edited the pieces together.

I think every actor really wants to have input into their dialogue. So why not just have really good actors and let them say whatever the fuck they want and also give them credit for that? I wrote the outline, I wrote the story, I wrote the characters, I wrote their back stories, but then we all came together as a team and filled it with their own lives. Also, I conned them into doing a movie for very little-to-no money, so why not be generous with credit? I feel like improvisers should get a little bit more credit for the writing that they do. It’s not a manifesto, it just felt like the polite thing to do when these people were giving everything to me.

The cast of ‘Mother’s Little Helpers’ at SXSW 2019.

How smooth was the process of discovering the dialogue with the other actors as you went along? In my mind, I knew what was happening because I was thinking about the edit. And the actors were generally confused because they didn’t have that picture as clearly in their mind as clearly as I did, even though everyone had the outline and everything. Most of [the improv] happened on camera, and if someone said something that was wrong, I would just be like, “No, no, no, this way.” I would just side bark. We would shoot a really sloppy first take, 300 percent too long and everyone would be figuring it out as they were going along. But then we’d figure out the shape of the scene in that first take, and be like, “Keep that, keep that, lose this part.” I would always just be thinking about that master sequence in my [Adobe] Premiere timeline. People were really flexible.

Did you have existing relationships with all the actors? Everyone was my friend, except for Melanie, who I’d met once. Breeda and I would go to parties together. We all sang karaoke together in the RVIP Lounge, so that was our core “patient zero” relationship. Milana and I would do excursions with one another, we took a class together, Breeda’s just one of my favorite, weirdest people. And Dave Guintoli [who plays Sadie’s husband], I was in an acting class with when I first moved to Los Angeles. It was literally just having the balls to call the most talented people I knew and just hope that they didn’t laugh in my face.

A press release for this film stated the “production was helmed entirely by women”—was that by design? It was an accident. It just happened that way, and I loved it. It was directed and written by a woman, the camera department was led by a woman, all of our producers and production team were women, our post-supervisor, up until the home stretch, was a woman. Pretty much everyone behind the camera in any leadership role, was a female.

Hiring moms I think is the smartest thing to do because moms are really good at multi-tasking and keeping zen and dealing with big emotions while showing up on time, and like, delivering the shit. I feel like after you have kids, everything else seems like it’s for fucking pussies. Everything else is fucking bullshit. You and your brunch—fuck you! Obviously I wouldn’t be biased against hiring someone based on whether or not they have children. But I noticed that the moms were the most responsible and effective and showed up early and actually anticipated the needs of everyone in a way that I’d never experienced before.

‘Mother’s Little Helpers’ is currently seeking distribution.