QUESTION#1: What excited you the most when making this film?: The film grew out of some footage and interviews my late husband and I shot in 2009. We were making a movie about truth in documentary and it would include some of our personal backgrounds, Iving’s being that of a young child whose family escaped Poland and the Nazis. Irving died in 2012 of ALS before that film could be finished and during my grief I wrote and directed my first narrative on the subject of grief and desire in old age. I always wanted to return to telling Irving’s dramatic story. It has been exciting to tell this film in a creative way using a child narrator, family interviews and archival footage mixed with children’s drawings that move with animation.

QUESTION#2: What was the most significant film you've seen AT THE THEATER in 2024, and how did it influence your filmmaking?: Actually, there were two documentaries that I saw this past year that will influence the way I perceive material presented to me on screen. The films were We Will Dance Again and No Other Land. They both tell each side of the attacks in Israel and Gaza. The horror and innocent bloodshed brought on by both. Viewing the two films gave me a more complete picture of the current events, the historical significance and the need for the world to come together to make permanent peace.

QUESTION#3: What's an obvious and not-so-obvious question someone might ask about your film?: It may seem obvious to ask why was The Ship That Turned Back made when the subject of the holocaust has been visited on screen often. Irving’s story is of his family’s escape from Poland when he was seven but as we began work on the project, we realized it was a refugee story of children all over the world today. Parents trying to protect their kids and get them to safety. A not-so-obvious question one might ask is how expensive was your budget because you use archival footage throughout. Some archival footage is more than one hundred dollars a second and some is free. Sometimes expensive footage could be found less expensive so our archivist really searched for shots since we were self-funding and had very little money.

QUESTION#4: A magic movie genie is giving you an unlimited budget for your next production! However, you're only allowed to use it on either "above line" or "below line" resouces. Which do you choose and why?: I have only dreamed of making a movie that has an unlimited budget and would choose “below line” resources if ever given the chance. Sound, camerawork an experienced technical crew result in the very best film making. In 2017 we went to Vancouver to shoot Any Wednesday and I always wished I could have had the budget to pay the hard-working production folks more. It would be wonderful to have a budget that pays those professionals well for their efforts to carry the director’s vision to completion.

QUESTION#5: What is it about your current movie that will influence your next film?: If I could make another movie I would return to narrative film and direct another of the 4 short scripts I wrote of which Any Wednesday is a part. Since I am now 89 years old the subject of grief and desire in old age is relatable. Stories that revolve around older people tend to be slighted in the film world and yet as our population continues to age our stories are fascinating as well.

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5Q's w/: Allie Light "The Ship That Turned Back" Director