BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Singletary lived most of her life in New Orleans, LA. She was heavily active in the theater community, especially on the Northshore, from 1997-2002, often working on overlapping productions.
From 2004-2006 she worked nights as one of the founding members of the New Orleans Carnival Kings and co-directed their original musical review, "Tainted Love" at the Saints and Sinners literary festival in 2006, benefiting the NO/AIDS Task Force.
She took over a decade off from the arts before returning in 2017 with the publication of her novel, "The wolves within our walls", published under her pen name L.E. Flinders.
In 2020, she decided to switch to the more collaborative process of filmmaking, starting her production company, "Cipher Cat Films" in 2021. Her first film "11:11" has received multiple awards and screened in both Los Angeles and New York.
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Q. Hello Lisa and welcome to the "Madrid International Movie Awards"! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
A. There’s not much that can be quickly summarized beyond my online bio. I'm kind of all over the place. But, my name is Lisa Singletary. I write under the name L.E. Flinders. And I run "Cipher Cat Films". And I have a new short film coming out this February titled “Walking in the Wrong Direction” which I’m excited to have released.
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Q. How was born your passion for the world of cinema? And what was your first movie?
A. I love combined forms of art. And cinema, so far in my experience, offers a unique way to combine multiple forms of art (writing, music, theater, photography, coloring/design, costume, makeup, etc), all to make one final product. I enjoy that.
My first film was “11:11”(short), starring L.A. Williams and Fadhia Carmelle Marcelin, a story about the importance of emotional support systems, specifically in the context of addiction, but not limited to that. It’s currently available for free on the "Cipher Cat Films" website in the videos gallery and on the YouTube page.
Q. What can you tell about “Walking in the Wrong Direction”? And what inspired you in how you went about this project?
A. The base premise is ripped from events that happened to me in my early 20s. From there, I changed everything to better fit the message and ambiguity that I wanted to actually convey and incorporate things I’ve learned and experienced since that time.
I wanted people watching to feel the importance of speaking up about your feelings, directly, whenever the opportunity presents itself–the positives and negatives of it. First, because we’re only here on this planet for a remarkably short time. And second, it’s going to come out, even if you’re a non-drinker, which I am now. It always comes out. So if you get the chance to tell someone how you feel directly–which you don’t always, it’s important to do it. Because at some point it’ll be too late, or it’ll come out in a way that drives you apart. One of those two things will always eventually happen. Death or division is inevitable, usually both. All we can do about it is to be honest with each other and allow people to make their own choices from there.
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Q. What was the most difficult part of the process of working on this film? And the most fun portion of this entire production?
Actually, the part of this project that was the most fun directly caused the part of this project that was the most difficult. I had two incredibly talented actors in my lead roles. I’ve been really lucky with that on both projects. But because of that, I wanted the performance to feel as real and natural as possible for them, even if it meant stepping on one another’s lines, and moving freely without strict blocking, or improvising freely when they felt the need to do so in the moment. So we were able to really play with the scene each time and get fresh, beautiful, genuine performances.
Unfortunately, for both editing and sound editing continuity purposes, some of our best takes and shots ended up unusable due to this. And we were heavily limited by what could be spliced together and what couldn’t be separated. Luckily, I had already planned to use mostly close-ups for Claire as a way of making her seem trapped and vulnerable in the conversation. So it was mostly about us starting from there and building around that. And I enjoy puzzles. But even with having such a complicated post experience, I still prefer the way that we did it. I think for this project specifically, it needed to be that way.
Q. What is, for you, the main difficulties to make a short film?
A. The length is the main difficulty. Creating a full, engaging story, with relatable characters while also trying to keep the runtime as low as possible is still a big challenge for me.
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Q. What is a quote that summarizes everything you’re about as a filmmaker?
A. This is going to be an odd answer at first. But there’s a line at the end of my favorite movie that served a lot as inspiration for this current project because it just hits at such a deep level with me every time I hear it. I’d say it’s even loosely referenced in this one, largely because the Claire character is so heavily based off of me and has so much focus on her. The specific line is that, “I feel like I’m in the wrong world… There are parallel universes out there where this didn’t happen… And whatever universe that is, that’s the one my heart lives in”. Life can make you feel like that. Or it makes me feel like that, at least. Like there’s something off, a glitch, like we’re in the wrong reality. I don’t know why it feels like that. Maybe it’s just our brain’s way of coping with our desires not matching our reality, we manufacture a disoriented feeling of "wrong-ness" to explain our pain. Or maybe we do shift around, energetically, and sometimes end up in the wrong place. Or at least, have awareness of a different place. But that's all a very long way of saying, that everytime I create something, I use that line as a sort of compass, and I try to create the universe where my heart lives, to sort of course-correct. Because the more I bring that universe into this one, even in works of fiction, the more alive I feel.
Q. What are your favourite films?
A. I mean, the first is obviously Comet by Sam Esmail, the source of the quoted line in the previous answer. No other film that I’ve ever seen measures up to how that film feels to me. It takes realistic, imperfect characters in ordinary, ugly, situations and turns it all into something ethereal, and perfectly expressive of the true emotion behind it. I could watch it a million times. Because it really is just like looking at a moving painting that makes you cry every time you see it.
Beyond that, ironically, most of my favorite films are the exact two genres I struggle with writing most, horror and dark comedy. It was what I watched the most as a kid, and nostalgia just has a strong grip on me, I guess. It’s probably better that way, though. If I watched a lot of the same type of stories that I tend to write, I’d be too intimidated to create anything of my own–which is likely the exact problem I have when writing both horror and comedy.
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Q. Who most inspires/influences you currently and why?
A. I don’t often find inspiration in specific people. I’m more often inspired by the things that people do, say, or create. It’s more solid to me. Because it exists independent of the person.
Q. What advice would you give an aspiring filmmaker?
A. I would say to do what feels right to you, and create what feels right to you, in whatever way you can, regardless of what anyone else has to say about it. Because no matter how much you may want someone else’s advice, on any subject, especially art or life choices, you’re the only person who will ever know what’s truly right for you and what your next steps should be.
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Q. We’re so glad to have you here. Do you have anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up?
A. We’re so glad to have you here. Do you have anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up? Just thank you for your time and interest. And if anyone reading would like to follow "Cipher Cat Films" for future projects, you can find all of our info on our website.
Thanks a lot Lisa! We can’t wait to see what you do next.
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