Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Emma Seligman's Shiva Baby is exclusively showing on MUBI in some countries starting June 11, 2021 in the Debuts series.
INSPIRATION #1
Memories of family events
I grew up in a large extended family that I saw every month, sometimes every week at weddings, shivas, bar or bat mitzvahs, bris’, Jewish holidays, summer cottage weekends, etc. My sister and I (along with our cousin Jackie) were the youngest of our generation by far, so most of my social life growing up was populated with middle-aged Jews. When I got to university, I suddenly realized I had no Jewish community and struggled to find it in other spaces. As I’ve gotten older, my family has become so big that it’s hard to host everyone together and it’s splintered off a bit. Though we are still close, I think I almost made Shiva Baby as a way of recalling memories of attending family events so frequently as a kid.
INSPIRATION #2
Transparent
Before Transparent, I had only seen modern reform Jews on screen in a couple early 2000s romantic comedies. Most Jewish characters I saw were either atheist/agnostic like in Woody Allen movies or they were orthodox. Joey Soloway changed that by creating a nuanced, complicated, funny, guilt-ridden, neurotic, needy, toxic and loving Jewish family that I think many people could relate to. Season after season, I felt like I was watching my queer Jewish confusion and inherited family trauma play out in real time through my computer. As an aspiring filmmaker, seeing this show experience such massive success with a wide audience of people, was very encouraging. I realized that there were a lot of people who weren’t Jewish who also related to these characters and wanted to watch stories like this. Though the show has had serious controversies and has received much criticism, it still remains to be the most influential Jewish piece of art for me and I would never have made Shiva Baby without watching it.
INSPIRATION #3
Marc Chagall
There is still so little I know about my ancestors who lived in the time period Chagall referenced in his paintings. Looking at them makes me feel connected to that distant part of my family history in a mystic way that’s hard to describe.
INSPIRATION #4
Leo Fuld and The Barry Sisters
When I first started writing Shiva Baby, I listened to Leo Fuld and The Barry Sisters on repeat as I typed to put me in the mood. I don’t understand Hebrew or Yiddish so I liked that I didn’t get distracted by some of the lyrics.
INSPIRATION #5
Rachel Sennott
Without Rachel, I wouldn’t have had the strength and persistence to make this movie. She set weekly and monthly goals for me to complete in order to perfect the script, she set a timer on the movie so that we had to shoot it in the summer of 2019 whether we’d raised enough money in time or not and she let me cry to her every night over the phone as I panicked about not being ready to do this. Actors are obviously supposed to lean on directors but I leaned on her for two years. She held my hand through the stress and exhaustion of making this movie and talked me off the ledge when I had thoughts of quitting. Rachel is capable of achieving any goal she sets her mind to. She is a positive force to be reckoned with in addition to being an inspiring collaborator and in general, just a remarkably special human being.