Sasha Waters Freyer will be joining us with her film Garden of Stone. Here are some questions to let you get to know more about her!

What is your connection to the South?

I can trace my father’s family in Sampson County, NC, as far back as the birth of Richard Watters in 1684. Family legend claims we are descended from William Waters, one of the 116 English settlers on Roanoke Island in 1587–-known today as the Lost Colony. And: I teach filmmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Where did you get your inspiration for this work?

A Sicilian lover when I was 20. Andrew Marvell’s poetry. The films of Peter Greenaway. 1980s mixtapes. Kitsch meets the Late Baroque in the theatre of the street.

How did you start making films?

I picked up a 16mm bolex. Then the films started making me.

Did anything interesting or funny happen on set during the shooting?

The set was a city of 24,000. 24,000 interesting and funny things happened I’m sure, but in Italian, so I didn’t understand them.

What do you look forward to the most during Indie Grits?

Visiting Columbia and seeing the work of Jesse Kreitzer, Meg Stein, Georg Koszulinski, Deon Kay, Roger Beebe, Kelly Gallagher and Josh Yates, as well as the new feature from Bill and Turner Ross!

Why should someone see your film?

Sicilian men. Sicilian girls. Andrew Marvell’s poetry (in Italian). Possibly obscure formal reference to Peter Greenaway. A 1986 song by the British synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Kitsch meets the Late Baroque in the theatre of the street.