Emily Jampel Is A Filmmaker You Should Know
portrait by Lila Lee
You can’t throw a rock in this city without hitting someone who identifies themselves on Hinge as a filmmaker.
Every directionless idiot in New York City who has seen Pulp Fiction and once heard the name Scorsese reckons themselves something of an auteur. They aren’t. They make nothing. Emily Jampel, though, the writer-director behind one of our favorite short films of the year, Lucky Fish, is not an idiot, is a filmmaker, and makes good things. Her cinematic output is often informed by real life experience, and touches on themes of youthful uncertainty, queerness, heritage, and the sincere perspective of young people navigating uncomfortable feelings in unglamorous ways.
For years, Jampel has worked within the independent film industry, most notably as a producer at a production company committed to green lighting projects with ambition and vision. Her first short, Lucky Fish, released in 2021, is a unique story of sarcasm, queerness, and teenage angst as two Asian-American teenage girls meet and share moments in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their families. Since premiering, Lucky Fish has garnered significant attention from critics and industry forums, receiving sprawling play at festivals around the world, at which Lucky Fish has received several awards including Best Narrative Short and Palm Springs Film Festival’s Young Cineastes Award.
Jampel’s intuitive eye, ability to write complex feelings into active dialogue, and unpretentious taste combine to instill her work with what is often missing in contemporary film: charm. These traits make her one of the more exciting young filmmakers out there working. We caught up with her mid-way through the editing phase of her second short, an as of yet untitled short based on moments of Jampel’s own youth, to ask how she’s managing to get her things made, the awkward dance of wrap parties, and the necessity of art.
How’s it going?
Just, my life?
Yeah , how’s the film career?
I think it’s okay, I’m like a week into not having a job. Feels great so far. I have some money coming from small things, I’m interviewing for a development consulting thing, but nothing is real right now.
I was just at your Lucky Fish release party last week at Mood Ring. Was great! A bit late, aye?
We shot it in peak Covid, right when vaccines had come out, so we didn't have a wrap party or gathering. Then when we had a New York screening, I was out of town. We never got to have a celebration so I thought it’d be a good excuse to throw a little party. I had never thrown a party, I’m glad people came. I probably spoke to about 7 people.
But way more than that showed up!
Yeah, but I only got to maybe 7. My party going style is to talk to the same two people for 3 hours and then french exit. So as a host that’s also what I did. I know you’re supposed to hop around to everyone, but I don’t really know how to do that. I’m not very good at mingling or jumping around.
That sort of communicative style is reflected, I think, in the visual language of Lucky Fish.
Yeah, I could see that.
It’s very you. In a good way. Do you think that your writing/directorial style is essentially just your personality transposed onto film?
Well, I know this is about Lucky Fish because it just came out, but you’ve seen both of the things I’ve made, and I think that they are stylistically very different, but both are me. My tastes and styles are kind of all over the place. Lucky Fish is one of the many things that I love. I am really into quiet, arthouse, indie shit, but I’m also into really indulgent young adult, teen-girl content, and I think that Lucky Fish is…
The middle?
Not the middle. More so me trying to elevate the YA stuff, but also leaning into the really indulgent, teen-girl movie. I do get a little self conscious when people only see Lucky Fish because they think that that’s what I’m about, and I am, but that isn’t all.
How would you describe your writing and directing style content wise?
I feel like I’m so bad about talking about this stuff because I’m close to it. I’ve also only made two films so I’m still discovering what I like, but I can’t see it when I’m in it. The further away I get from it, even in the edit process, I start to see what the shape of the thing is. We shot Lucky Fish two years ago so I can kind of see it, but when I’m in it it’s hard to really reflect on what the style is.
What do you like to watch? Or where do you think you draw inspiration from?
I haven’t actually been able to watch anything recently. Hmm…
Well if you had to pick some things that influenced Lucky Fish, what would they be?
Hmmm. It’s hard to say. I love watching arthouse movies at Metrograph, but I also love Euphoria. Season 1, not season 2. It’s tough because I’m here doing press for my first film that we made a couple of years ago, while currently working on my second film, it feels very far away. I’d be even more incoherent if you were asking me these questions while I was making Lucky Fish so it’s good I guess, but still difficult. I’m trying to remember what I was thinking about. I remember when I began, I was trying to make this arty piece of work, and I think Lucky Fish does have a lot of that in it, but it got to a point where I had to tell myself, ‘this is a teen-girl movie, get over yourself.’ One of the references was Carol, and there was a version of this that was shot in film and was way more sophisticated, and I had to sort of say to myself, ‘just make what it is.’ I had to say fuck it and lean into what the movie is actually supposed to be.
Oh, yeah, I can see Carol being a reference for sure.
Yeah, there’s this part in Carol in a toy store where two people are connecting silently and across space, and I really liked that. Let’s see, Romeo + Juliet was another reference. I’m literally just trying to think of what was in the [pitch] deck. A lot of the references were really sophisticated and then what we actually made was much more digestible. This other movie Water Lillies was a reference. Similar vibe of like, awkward main character with incel vibes, drawn to more outgoing person who is confident.
“I care so much about it because it was so close to me, but I have no idea if that’ll result in a better or worse movie”
That’s a common theme in your work.
Well that’s a common theme in a lot of coming of age content, but yeah, definitely in mine, too. You’ve also seen both of the things I’ve made and can see them a bit more clearly than I can.
Why do you think you’re making films? Why are you drawn to this, the least practical of mediums?
I ask myself this often. I worked in film professionally a lot so I do understand the industry kind of well, and through that, there’s a strategic way that I can plan my career, but as far as making the things, once I get an idea, I almost don’t have a say in whether or not it gets made. I mean, I get kind of fixated and can’t not try to make these things. I’ll have a hard time thinking about anything else and it becomes a singular focus. Ideally it’ll line up in a strategic way career wise, but I’m not sure if it is.
What do you mean? What is the career strategy?
There’s a career trajectory that a lot of people do in indie films where you make a short, it does well, you premier it at a good festival, then you have a feature script that’s the longer version of the short, you try to sell that script based on the success of the short - that’s what producers look for and tell you that you’re supposed to do, but when it comes to making things, that’s not really always the plan. I don’t have a feature script right now, but within that trajectory, I’m supposed to. I could make one if someone asked me for it, but I kind of don’t know how to decide what I’m going to do next, it sort of chooses itself. I don’t know what I’m doing.
portrait by val schnack
You’re finding a bit of success regardless through the release of Lucky Fish, though.
It depends on how you define success. Did it do well at festivals? Yes and no. It didn’t get into Sundance, but it got into stuff that I didn’t expect it to and won awards, which is great. With Lucky Fish, I had no expectations, I was hoping to just make something that made some sense and no one gets Covid, no one dies, and no one did, and it got into some festivals, amazing. But I also haven’t made any money from it. Maybe it’ll lead to more directing jobs, but it hasn’t. I don’t need it to, but it’s all kind of relative.
Well people ask me about you. Other journalists?
What? Why? Who?
You know you’re doing an interview right now, right?
I try to keep my expectations at rock bottom. I don’t want to have to be so pessimistic but if you keep your expectations really high, you run the risk of getting really disappointed, and the things that I don’t think will happen end up being really nice when they work out.
That’s a theme in your work, I’d say.
Having no expectations?
Having low expectations, especially when it comes to personal success. Uncertainty, being unsure, not hoping for much and being happily surprised by what you get.
I mean, yeah, I could see that. That’s how I am in real life so that makes sense that it shows up in my movies.
How much would you say your creative output is a direct representation of you?
I think so far [the films] have been quite personal. Lucky Fish was very personal for me, at least at the time, but not in a literal way. Things were inspired by my family but the events were fictional, which made it a little easier to make. This latest film that I’m editing is extremely personal and real. I was like, ‘this is a mess and I am a mess and this could be the worst movie ever, but I have to make it.’ Slowly as I brought on more people, it got away from me a bit and it became easier to make.
“That’s one thing I’ve learned about myself: my capacity to be irresponsible. ”
Do you think that collaboration is important in that sense?
I think it is. Definitely if you’re making something personal, collaboration is super important. I care so much about it because it was so close to me, but I have no idea if that’ll result in a better or worse movie. Even in the editing process, the notes I was getting were like, ‘why is this in here?’ and, ‘this is not working for anybody else but you seem to think that it’s interesting,’ and I was wondering if the film even made sense. It’s very vague and very personal, so we’ll see if it makes sense.
I was told once that every shot and line has to be vital, but does it? Does every shot and every line in a film have to be able to stand on its own or contribute to moving the plot along?
I think that the more you can do that, the better a movie it’ll turn out to be. I think if you have enough of those that are good, you can get away with more stuff that is kind of just there because you like it. I think it’s hard for me to make something unless it is personal, because I sort of lose interest. Movies are so hard and expensive to make, that I have to be dying to make it in order for it to actually get done. I have to be obsessed with it.
You have to self-motivate. You also self-finance, right?
Yeah, I don’t think I can do that anymore because I no longer have a full time job and it’s really not smart in the first place, but if I didn’t do it then it would have never been made. I’d save up for them even though it’s really stupid to do that.
image by brandyn liu
Why do it then?
I have never loved anything enough to be so financially irresponsible and delusional, except for directing. That’s one thing I’ve learned about myself: my capacity to be irresponsible.
Well making any art requires being a little irresponsible. Art isn’t necessarily capitalist or utilitarian, and we live in those systems for the most part. Spending time and money making art requires the ability to be a bit fiscally irresponsible.
Really? I disagree, but that’s interesting.
I just mean, for example, I’m told by business-y types that my job as a writer is super disposable in a greater industry, and that the arts are super devalued. Like, within capitalism, we are forced to spend our time making money or making art, spending money on food or a painting - those things get equated and compared.
Those are baseline needs, but what about your emotional needs? I agree that housing and food are important, they are necessities, but - and maybe I’m just having to convince myself that it’s important - but without art or film, it’s like, why am I doing all this? What is it all for? Does that make sense?
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
So much, I don’t know where to start. Hmm. I’ve learned how to make a movie? Okay, I’ve got it. I think I’ve learned to trust my own instincts. That’s a really simple answer, huh?
Yeah but it’s a rare one.
Well when I started Lucky Fish, it was my first film and I was probably the least experienced person on set. My lead actors had acted in other things, my producer had directed some things. I brought on all of these people that were so talented, I had this mindset of, ‘the less I do, the better,’ because I don’t want to fuck anything up, but then I noticed that the moments where I was decisive about things - even stubborn about things - even though I didn’t know why I was being that way about that particular thing, those ended up being the things that I am happiest with in the end. I asked my producer for feedback when we were shooting Lucky Fish, and they said, ‘don’t worry about making the right decision, just make a decision.’ It’s better to go with your gut than waste time worrying about whether you’re making the right choice. That’s one thing I’ve learned. Just make the choice.
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