“The longer I live the more I mistrust
theatricality, the false glamour cast
by performance, the more I know its poverty beside
the truths we are salvaging from
the splitting-open of our lives.”
ADRIENNE RICH
“Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember.”
RAINER MARIA RILKE
“We are not garbage collectors. We are thieves. We get away with loot from the most beautiful, or the most scary, or the most spectacular.”
WERNER HERZOG
Hannah Rosalie Wright didn’t grow up loving films, let alone making them.
She spent her days practicing her violin or perfecting her manga art behind closed doors and her nights up late crouching near a light reading mystery novels or scribbling melancholy poetry. There were, though, three movies she remembers sticking with her. The first and most profound was Hayao Miyazaki’s 1989 masterpiece, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, which she religiously checked out from her local library. The second was Terence Young’s THE CHRISTMAS TREE, a moving and quiet 1969 French-Canadian film her family had on VHS. And the third was THE STRANGER, a 1946 film directed by Orson Welles, a movie she and her siblings would watch on DVD in their family van on road trips to Florida.
And then there was her Critical Theory class at Drake University. They viewed CAPOTE, a 2005 film directed by Bennett Miller. She doesn’t remember much about the movie (besides the stunning performances). But it was the first time this nerd realized you could watch a movie like you read a book!
However, it wasn’t until she’d already graduated that she decided to take a chance on her interest in documentaries. She signed up for night classes in video production at Des Moines Area Community College in the fall of 2016.
During one of those night classes, she also discovered an affinity for writing and directing. Her films have screened at Filmapalooza International Film Festival, Snake Alley Festival of Film, Alternating Currents Film Festival, Sioux City International Film Festival, Kansas City Underground Film Festival, Iowa Independent Film Festival, Spring Grove Caledonia Film Festival, Eagan Art Block Short Film Festival, among others. Her film, Labor of Love, was a finalist for Best Short Film at the Twin Cities Film Festival 2022. She was a 2021 recipient of the Greenlight Grant through the Iowa Arts Council, supporting her project, DAUGHTERS.
Whether it’s through poetry, photography, music, filmmaking, or a conversation over a good cup of coffee, she hopes to share stories that mean something to her for the rest of her life.
Talk of Iowa interview
MediaMakers interview
Cinematic Heartland interview
below, from left: Ursula’s mural from KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989), dir. Hayao Miyazaki; THE CHRISTMAS TREE (1969), dir. Terence Young; THE STRANGER (1946), dir. Orson Welles; CAPOTE (2005), dir. Bennett Miller
