Writer, director, and producer Justine Bateman stopped by the Angelika Film Center in New York to discuss her new film, “Violet” (2021). She discusses the values at the core of the film, and the importance of living an instinct-based life instead of a fear-based life. She dives into the creative process for her writing and exploration of the subject matter of the film, focusing specifically on conquering your own internal monologue when it makes you doubt yourself.

Watch the Q&A here:

               A core aspect of this film is the ability to recreate internal anxieties externally, through a myriad of voices inside and out of Violet’s own mind, thus giving the audience a thorough view her life truly through her own eyes. These voices overwhelmingly shape Violet’s decisions, causing her to be fully anxiety-ridden, not allowing her to experience living outwardly as her true self. Bateman describes the ways in which she herself had experienced a transformation from fear-based living into instinct-based living, a similar trajectory to her character’s. Part of her journey had her begging the question: what if this weren’t me telling myself these things? Would I accept and validate this commentary and judgement if it were coming from someone else? And what she realized, evidently, was no, no she wouldn’t.

               Most often, living surrounded by this fear and anxiety creates an illusion of life-or-death results in much more mundane situations – irrational fears can take over your life. Living by instinct is described as a way in which we, as humans, as animals, can conquer those irrational fears and live our lives as our most authentic selves. Bateman describes how seeing something like this when she was younger really could have changed her life- stating “if I had seen it at 19 I would’ve become myself faster”. It’s a message that is so important to so many people, encouraging audiences of all ages to reconsider whether they live their life on instinct, or from fear.

About the film: There is a voice inside your head. It’s not the voice that tells you, “You can do it. Go for it!” It’s the voice that tears you down. You call it your conscience or your “committee.” It’s the voice that tells you, “Change that shirt. If you wear that to the party no one will talk to you.” Consciously or unconsciously, you register this worst-case scenario, of no-one-talking-to-you-at-the-party, and you change your shirt. You keep making those choices, trying to avoid this voice’s “worst-case scenarios.” You do it in your professional life, your romantic life, your social life, until you are so far away from being yourself that you start to forget what that is. VOILET is a feature film that follows Violet Calder, a 32 year-old film executive who realizes that The Voice has been lying to her. Her entire life. Written, directed, and produced by Justine Bateman.