00:00Hi, and welcome into EOM Presents. I'm Thomas Manning, senior interviewer for Elements of Madness.
00:05And recently, I got a chance to speak with executive producer Emily Ruhl, talking about her work on the film Playland,
00:12which makes its debut at the Tribeca International Film Festival.
00:16Playland was directed by Jordan West.
00:18I really appreciated Emily's insight into her experience in working on this film and her production company
00:24and the stories she likes to share and the stories that she finds herself gravitating toward.
00:28So thank you so much for watching and listening once again, speaking with Emily Ruhl about Playland.
00:33Hope you enjoy.
00:34All right. Well, Emily, thank you so much for taking the time for this.
00:37Right back at you. Thank you.
00:39For sure. For sure. And so I'll get right into it.
00:41I want to ask about what kind of background knowledge you had at the actual bar in Boston prior to making this project.
00:49Were you familiar with any of that history at all?
00:51I actually had never heard of the Playland Cafe.
00:53Jordan West, our amazing writer and director, I believe, had found out about the bar when they were scavenging through the public library
01:02and kept coming across newspaper clippings and photographs.
01:06There weren't that many photographs, but I believe that they found a few exterior shots.
01:09And that's when the story of Playland was really born.
01:13And I think that the art department had a really fun time reimagining what that must have been like because of the time and being queer, not being accepted.
01:22There weren't a whole lot of photographs of the interiors.
01:24So I think that led to being able to have a really big imagination when it came to set design and costume design.
01:31And I know that for Jordan West, the stories that they're drawn to often deal with our relationships with time as human beings.
01:41So for you, how did that approach to this film and its emphasis on time impact your views on the themes you're working with?
01:49Well, what I really loved is to be able to follow several of those characters through the three different timelines from the 40s, the 60s, to the 70s.
01:56I thought that was really interesting, especially given the state of the world changing in that 30 years.
02:02I think that, you know, time is the one thing that we all can't buy more of.
02:06And I like to think of it as the most valuable resource.
02:09And I'm a big Richard Linklater fan, so I love stories that are told in long sections of time, so you can really see an arc of a character.
02:17So to be able to see how Jordan executed that was really, really wonderful.
02:21And I also just kind of love those periods in time.
02:24So I think it was super fun to see how the art department executed that.
02:28And what was your relationship like with Jordan prior to this project?
02:32Were you familiar with their work at all?
02:34And how did that relationship evolve over the course of this experience?
02:37I had actually never met Jordan, but we, so we EP'd the project through my company, Public School Pictures, and Zach Parker, who was my head of development, introduced me to Jordan.
02:50And we kind of became fast butts.
02:53I think they're incredibly talented.
02:56And Jordan and Russell together have been just such a pleasure to work with.
03:00They're kind of the standard, right?
03:02I kind of compare everybody to them.
03:04And I'm super stoked on the next thing that we get to work together on.
03:09And it's been wonderful to just watch both of them as artists and see their process, because everybody's a little different.
03:17But I feel like watching other artists really informs your own process.
03:20And that's been really special.
03:21And I know you have a production company, Public School Pictures, which, of course, produced Playland.
03:29So what specifically do you look for in the stories and the projects that you attach Public School Pictures to?
03:35Something that has soul.
03:37You know, we try not to be genre-specific because I think it's important to tell as many different stories as possible.
03:41What I loved about Playland is I think that it had a message of really protecting these queer spaces and how important they are to our communities.
03:50And I felt like that was a story that I hadn't seen yet that needed to be told.
03:55And I think that's the basis for us.
03:57It also was just so visually stunning.
03:59So something that's good with soul, I think, is the basic terms for us.
04:07Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the visuals.
04:09I thought the cinematography was just so innovative and so creative.
04:12So, you know, what did you learn in that respect from being on set and watching the cinematographer work?
04:18Was there anything that you picked up on that you were just really impressed by?
04:22I think just the specificity and the attention to detail is so significant.
04:28And I almost felt like the cinematographer's choices were also really impacted by the characters themselves.
04:35I feel like each character was shot really specifically.
04:38And that was something that was really fun to watch.
04:42And over the course of your film career, you've been a writer, a producer, a director, and an actor.
04:48So what have you continued to learn about yourself as a filmmaker in adapting to these different roles?
04:54And how did that manifest for you in working on Playland?
04:58Well, I think as far as adapting to different roles, there's definitely kind of certain parts of my brain that are for certain things.
05:05But I think it really just comes down to trust, whether it be trusting yourself, trusting your taste, trusting the team that you built around yourself.
05:13When you can do that, I think it really gives you the freedom to play.
05:16And so regarding the different storylines in this film and the different timelines from 1943 to 1965 to 77 to 92,
05:30was there one of these timelines in particular or one of these stories that you found yourself connecting with or gravitating toward in particular?
05:37Well, I really liked following the character of Lady because you get to see them as young and then older and then the grand kind of costume in the older phase of life.
05:48So that was my favorite to see.
05:50Awesome. And have you I know we talked a little bit at the beginning about you weren't really familiar with this bar at first,
06:00but at this point, you know, would how do you think if you went back to take a look at it now,
06:06how do you think your relationship with it would be having gone through this project?
06:10I think it would be incredibly special. And I think it should have a sign out front and be a historic monument.
06:17I'm super sad that it's a parking lot now that, you know, makes me really realize how important it is to preserve these spaces
06:25and how incredible it is that now the bar kind of gets to live on forever in the form of this film.
06:33Well, congrats on the film, and I really do appreciate your time today.
06:38And is there anything else you want to share about your experience on Playland before we wrap up?
06:44Just how incredible everybody involved truly is.
06:46I know people say that, but honestly, they were an absolute pleasure to work with.
06:50Well, thank you so much, Emily. And it was a pleasure. And hopefully we get a chance to speak again.
06:55Thanks. You too. Thank you, Thomas.
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