Hannah Sperling confronts sexual assault and isolation in her personal, coming-of-age short film Meek, featured in the Montclair Film Festival’s Fresh Perspectives program, with hopes of sparking meaningful conversation and self-reflection among audiences.
Hannah Sperling loves filmmaking and proves to be a brilliant filmmaker on the rise. The NYU student studying film and television has a new personal and emotional short film, Meek, that hopes to start a conversation. The film follows an eighth-grade girl, Hailey (Tatum Grace Hopkins), who steals her first bra as she gets more than she bargained for when she is sexually assaulted. She made the short coming-of-age story when she was just a sophomore in college. Her short film was selected for this year’s Montclair Film Festival, which will showcase it as part of the Fresh Perspectives program. We had the chance to connect with Sperling about how this film is based on a disturbing experience, how she developed the character and much more.
Kristin Ciliberto: How did you develop the film concept, and why was this story important to you?
Hannah Sperling: This concept was driven by my own experience. I could only remember the graphic scene, so I took what I could remember of the sexual assault and built an entire story around it. I was sitting in my sophomore dorm room with my roommate as we were talking about the concept of sexual assault. We both had experienced it and talked about how isolating the experience felt. I started writing the first scene and built the whole story around it. Wow, it’s a therapeutic way to get it all out there.
KC: I’m sorry that event happened to you. I want to thank you for your bravery in telling the story, conveying your emotions, putting your heart into this, telling something meaningful, and getting a message out that starts a conversation that this form of human interaction is never okay. Thank you for sharing that with the audience. This is also a coming-of-age story. The film Eighth Grade by Bo Burnham reminded me of this film.
HS: I think it was in eighth or ninth grade, but I remember seeing it in the theater and being scared. This is scarily accurate. They shot in Nyack, New York, which is the same place we shot. The coordinator was the assistant director of that film, and she only came on because she loved Nyack and liked the script.
KC: How did you develop Hailey’s character? You said it was based on you, so how did you develop this character further?
HS: That’s a great question. I think the word meek describes her as a quiet, shy person. I think that I kind of took the story of my sexual assault and made it this whole other character. I don’t think or feel we are similar at all looking back. I think I developed her more and more as we continued pre-production. She became this shy character who couldn’t speak up for herself whether it came to friends, with her mom, or with this guy. I think she was this shadow of a person who lived in other people’s shadows. I think this was her story of how she got a voice, but also how she pushed down her voice even more. I think that’s kind of how I would describe her. I know it’s sad, but that person in the friend group is kind of invited, and they just have to be there. It’s not like, “Oh, my God, she’s so fun, I want to invite her”. It’s more like, “oh, we must invite her”. We can’t just leave her out. I feel like that’s how she felt and how she was seen. The story first looks at, you know, your innocence. She steals the broad beginning of the film and then eventually turns very, very dark.
KC: What was the most challenging scene for you to film?
HS: I think what you said about the sexual assault scene, but we only did four takes of it. We kept it very short, but we also rehearsed. I mean we rehearsed, of course, 15 hours. I think that was one of the hardest scenes to get down. When we were on the third round of shooting it I went in and was like, “Okay, this is the last time we’re going to do this” because they both looked emotionally drained. I was like, “I’m not going to put you through any more of this”. I think that was probably the hardest. I had the intimacy coordinator, Evelyn Fogelman looking out for and watching me to ensure I was okay with the actors and me, so it felt like a safe space. We only had four of us in the room, so it was a safe space to go into, but it was the hardest to watch and to be a part of because you’re watching your trauma recreated in front of you.
KC: Do you have plans to develop this into a film? This could be a great story if you want to explore it more, but it is a serious subject matter. Do you want to explore it more or take this on a different route?
HS: I haven’t thought of that. There’s something about leaving it with this sad note and making it short. If it was longer, I don’t know what direction it would go because I don’t know where I see her going. I think it’s something at that age we don’t realize was an issue. I think it would have to be like 10 years later, or like five years later, when she realizes it was sexual assault and I just got sexually assaulted, right? I had made a joke in another conversation that she could murder everyone. I honestly don’t know what direction I see it going. If I were to make it a feature, it would turn into another version of Eighth Grade, but a little darker. Standing alone as a short was all I wanted it to be, but that’s a great idea.
KC: The film is about 16 minutes long, and the story is very effective. What do you hope audiences take away from it?
HS: I hope it’s no joke for everyone who watches it in either a dark way or a happy way. I mean, I want survivors to look at themselves and also look at the people who are responsible for those actions. The film is meant to be very uncomfortable. I don’t want to offer a happy ending because I don’t want to leave audiences with a sense that it’s okay that this is happening. I want it to feel not alright when you step away. I hope it encourages people to reflect on themselves and others who have done the same and realize how they can change that outcome. We can teach more people when we’re younger that this is not okay and what the definition of sexual assault is because I didn’t know until a couple of years later what had happened to me and what was wrong. I wish we were educating people not to do this or what that action is.
KC: The film is showing at the festival. What does it mean to you to have this film shown at the Montclair Film Festival, and do you plan to take it to other film festivals?
HS: We have gotten into a couple of other film festivals. Montclair was such a great thing to happen; it’s in New Jersey, and I’m going to school at NYU, which is so close. I went to opening night, and I loved it. It’s a beautiful town and seems like a happy community. They’re bringing stories that are personal to people and talking about real experiences, which is important. There’s no other festival I would rather show this at for the first time, and I’m grateful we got in. In the future, I plan to have an LA premiere for my friends and family back home and then an online premiere to show it and get it to as many people as possible. I want it to be seen and spoken about because it’s an important subject that needs to be talked about.
We are delighted to be reporting live from the 2024 Montclair Film Festival, running on October 18-27, 2024.
