With the ever-increasing tensions between mainstream American society to maintain traditional family values and underground subcultures that are determined to be equally as accepted, daring filmmaker Amanda Kramer is presenting stellar satirical insights into both sides. In her two latest movies – the musical comedy thriller ‘Give Me Pity!’ and the musical drama, ‘Please Baby Please,’ which she wrote and directed – the filmmaker is delving into her characters’ – and America’s – previously unexplored desires. As a daring genre filmmaker, she isn’t afraid of leading society into questioning the confines the status quo

Kramer showed off her emotionally and visually venturesome storytelling ability when ‘Give Me Pity!’ and ‘Please Baby Please’ screened during a subversive Primetime Double Feature Spectacular at last summer’s Fantasia Film Festival. ‘Give Me Pity!’ had its North American Premiere, while ‘Please Baby Please’ presented its Canadian Premiere, during the festival.

After screening at Fantasia, ‘Give Me Pity!’ is now streaming on digital platforms, including Prime Video and Apple TV. ‘Please Baby Please’ was distributed into theaters on October 28 via Music Box Films. The movie is now streaming on digital platforms, including Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube.

In ‘Give Me Pity!,’ Sissy St. Claire (Sophie Von Haselberg) has one dream: to make it big! She hosts an extravagant variety show, full of gossip, glamour, vanity and a creeping sense of disillusionment. To top it all off, a hooded man lurks in the wings, threatening to shut it all down.

‘Please Baby Please’ follows newlyweds Suze (Andrea Riseborough) and Arthur (Harry Melling), who are a picture-perfect Beatnik couple. Proud bohemians, they go through life with the certainty of their convictions… until they encounter the Young Gents – a leather-clad gang of greasers that terrorizes their neighborhood with pocket knives and genderbending ways. Soon, the couple begins questioning their sexuality, and ultimately their relationship.

Kramer generously took the time to talk about scribing and helming ‘Give Me Pity!’ and ‘Please Baby Please’ during an exclusive interview during Fantasia. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed what inspired her to pen both movies, how she approached directing and casting the two projects, and what it means to her that the features screened during the festival.

The conversation began with Kramer explaining why she was inspired to write ‘Give Me Pity!’ “I always wanted to write a one-woman show, but I never thought that I would. It’s quite difficult, but very fun,” she revealed.

“I have a theater background and it’s a huge interest of mine. So I just started writing monologues, sketches and jokes. I have friends who are composers who were helping me, and they wrote song interludes,” the scribe continued.

“The script came together almost like diary entries. I was thinking about female vanity and performance style, so I was writing everything that was on my mind,” Kramer also divulged.

The filmmaker also shared that while she was penning the comedy’s story, “The great freeing process was that I didn’t have any producers telling me that I had to change the script. So everything I wanted to be in it could be in it, so it was just a writing free-for-all.”

Kramer then delved into how writing the screenplay helped influence the way she approached helming ‘Give Me Pity!’ “I was very excited about the challenge to create something that looked like an old television special. So we used three cameras and were able to use some exciting set pieces and lighting design,” she shared.

“It was a great opportunity to not hold back. I always think of filmmaking as a delicate balance between indulging yourself and making work for an audience,” the director noted. “You have to keep in mind that people will be watching something, and they don’t all have your exact taste,” she added with a laugh.

“But I really didn’t hold back on this one, though. I spent my whole experience working on it just doing what seemed exciting,” Kramer revealed. “I found colors and I would say, ‘This looks amazing!’ We would get camera angles and I would say, ‘This looks fantastic!’”

“Sophie was so fantastic that I felt the shoot should be just as fantastic. So it really was a directing delight without any drama or problems. It really was a blast,” the filmmaker added.

Further speaking about Von Haselberg, Kramer then delved into what the casting process was like for the thriller. “I know Sophie through a mutual friend, Nicole (Delaney), who’s a filmmaker in her own right. I saw Nicole’s short film (the 2017 comedy, ‘YOYO’), and Sophie was in it. It was a delight to watch her in that, so I wanted to cast her, and I was fortunately able to,” she explained.

“Then everyone else are friends of mine. Cricket (Arrison) and Annie (Kyle) play supporting roles. They’re people in my life who I love,” the helmer continued.

“Then the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company came in and loaned me three wonderful dancers and an incredible choreographer,” Kramer also shared. “So it was tight-knit set with a lot of friends who I love.”

Once the actors were cast, the filmmaker cherished having the opportunity to rehearse with them during the production. “Sophie rehearsed fairly rigorously. I wasn’t there for most of it, as she lives in New York and I live in Los Angeles,” she divulged.

“So she would rehearse on her own, and then we would FaceTime on our phones. She would then rehearse some more, and I would watch her do it. That was our very modern process of rehearsing,” Kramer noted with a hint of a laugh.

“Then when she got to Los Angeles to finally shot the film, we spent a couple of days together, just going over everything. I sat on her couch, and she performed the entire show for me,” the director recalled.

“We did a couple of notes, but she was so locked in that I didn’t have much to do there. She knew exactly what I wanted,” Kramer further explained.

“As far as the dance rehearsals, my choreographer brought the dancer and worked with Sophie, who’s quite a talented dancer in her own right. So there were a few days of learning the routines,” the filmmaker said while praising von Haselberg.

“Then everybody showed up and rehearsed all together. But we also improvised in a way because there were no restrictions. So I think a lot of the performances were just as wild as possible,” Kramer added.

The filmmaker then delved into what inspired her to also scribe the script for ‘Please Baby Please.’ “That film is sort of a love letter to 1950s films and greaser gang movies with Marlon Brando and James Dean, and even up to Rock Hudson,” she shared.

“I’ve always wanted to write a ‘50s film, and have an edgy feeling to it. I did this interesting thing that when I went to write the script, I didn’t do any research on ‘50s movies; I tried to just remember what they felt like,” the writer admitted with a laugh.

“I tried to sit in my memory. I think that’s why the dialogue is so strange at times because I tried to see if I could get at a memory of a film from the past,” Kramer explained.

“I was going through some weird issues in my relationship at the time, so I was also trying to write about a relationship falling apart and coming together,” the filmmaker also shared.

“So it was an art project. I always wanted to take a journey with these types of characters. It was about finding oneself, which is such a large, difficult theme to explore in a film. But it’s about being who you are and appreciating that,” Kramer added.

The filmmaker then delved into how she also approached helming the drama. “This was a difficult film to direct,” she admitted. “We were in Montana in the winter, so it was very cold. The cast was larger and came from all over the country, and sometimes out of the country.

“So we had to put a lot of puzzle pieces together to make sure that we got everyone in and out on time. It was also a lot of costumes, make-up, lighting and locations,” Kramer admitted.

“But it was a joy to challenge myself like that, and really stretch my imagination. The set is somewhere that I hope all of my actors feel like they can also explore and play. So my job on that film was to really encourage everyone to really push themselves and have a grand time,” the filmmaker added.

Further speaking about the actors, Kramer divulged how she approached casting the performers for ‘Please Baby Please.’ “This was a long casting process. There was a lot of meeting and talking to people. Of course, there are some actors who you have always wanted to work with, and some who you’re just meeting for the first time,” she noted.

“Each casting selection was different. Obviously, I’m a huge fan of Demi Moore, so I was very fortunate to be able to work with her. That was a stroke of luck,” the director admitted.

“Andrea (Riseborough), Harry (Melling) and Karl (Glusman) are three actors who I admire so much, and I was so excited when they said yes. When they said yes, it finally felt like I had a movie, and I could start to picture the heart of the movie,” Kramer continued.

“Everyone I met I had fun talking to, and I immediately felt like we were old friends…Casting was a long process, but a really exciting one,” the filmmaker added.

Once the actors were cast, Kramer cherished having the opportunity to work with them in building their characters. “We had long conversations before we arrived on the set. With every person who was cast, we would talk for awhile. We would talk about my aesthetic and filmmaking choices, as well as their character design. So everyone knew what we were looking for,” she revealed.

“When we got to set, it was immediately apparent that they weren’t going to be in a regular ‘50s movie; it instead was going to be quite strange and surreal. I think they realized that once they were in their hair, make-up and costumes,” the helmer admitted.

“As soon as they stepped onto set, I think that’s when the characters started to grow. They started to understand how they had to act and perform,” Kramer divulged.

“I was lucky to have cast actors who I could trust. In the casting process, it was like they already knew what they had to do. I like to think that I had less to do with shaping their performances than they did,” the filmmaker added.

Kramer then divulged how she feels honored that both movies screened during Fantasia. “Film festivals are such an amazing place for independent filmmakers to connect with audiences and be appreciated on a very immediate level. It’s wonderful to watch your film with an audience,” she noted.

“Fantasia in particular is a film festival that I feel very fortunate to be a part of because it has some of the best programming with really eclectic films of every style. They’re really smart films from around the world that are far reaching,” the director continued.

“I like being approached and accepted by a genre community. I don’t make scary movies, and I think a lot of people think that if you don’t make scary movies, you’re not a genre filmmaker,” Kramer pointed out.

“But they see something in me; maybe it’s fantasy or surrealism, but the audiences here are willing to go along on the journey with me. So I feel very lucky to be at Fantasia,” the filmmaker concluded.