“If you want to make history and be part of the world premiere of the first Puerto Rican feature fiction film to be selected in SXSW, go watch our film. Olivia, who suffers from OCD, finds in David, the dealer selling her illegal pills during Christmas Eve, an unexpected connection and the beginning of a healing process.” Filmmaker Juliana Maité Irizarry on WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION which screens at SxSW 2022.
Welcome to SxSW! Is this your first SxSW experience? Are you attending in person or doing the virtual fest?
We are attending in person and it is our first time in SXSW!
How did this whole project come together?
Marietere was diagnosed with OCD 6 years ago and wrote this film as part of her healing process, trying to show the world what OCD is really like. During two months of intense pre production, 11 days of 8 hour rehearsals with actors, and a microbudget to work with and during covid we shot in a small deserted town in the mountain region of PR: Barranquitas, for 12 days. Being a co production with Mexico thanks to Ibermedia Funds, the color correction, sound design and mix, and finishing of the film was achieved in Mexico City.
While working on a project, what’s your creative process?
I got totally obsessed with the story, the characters, creating a shot list, finding the perfect locations and cast, and focusing on every single detail. Shooting the rehearsals with the DP was essential to the process and being open to the depth that each crew member and talent brought.
What was your biggest challenge with creating this feature, and what was the moment where you realized “Yes, this is IT!”?
Finding the funding was the biggest challenge and also directing an actress who really suffers from OCD. The this is it moment was when we were accepted for our world premiere in SXSW.
I am a tech person, so I would love to know about the visual design of the movie from the cameras to the formats used and how it was made from a technical standpoint!
The movie was shot on a Canon C300 Mark III, with just one Cabrio zoom lens 19-90mm that give a special look that we felt accurate with the story, also as a mental statement and narrative, particularly for the quantity of windows and back light from the main location that is also a character, the dynamic range of the camera let us have detail on the background to be able to maintain the rain texture. 95% of the movie is hand held, with mostly long takes, playing with a thin line between fiction and cinema verite.
What are you looking forward to the most about showing your movie at SxSW?
How people are going to react to such a raw and personal story and also starting the mental health conversation.
Where is this title going next? More festivals or a theatrical or streaming release?
All of the above!
What is the one thing that you would say to someone who is wishing to get into making movies, especially now as the world is changing at such a fast pace?
Don’t compare yourself and your craft to anyone esle, focus on your own thing and tell your stories the way your gut tells you.
And final question: what is the greatest movie you have ever seen at a film festival?
MEDEA, a film from Costa Rica at the Icaro Film Festival.
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 11-20. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!