Episode 95: ‘Heathers’ with ‘Jawline’ Director Liza Mandelup

Episode 94

29th August 2019

Liza Mandelup is an award winning film director from New York residing in Los Angeles. Starting her career in photography, she graduated from New York’s School of Visual Arts and embedded herself in fascinating communities for photo series that culminated in two photo books. In 2018, Liza received the prestigious Sundance Documentary Fund grant for her film Jawline, following a handful of online teen heartthrob boys to chronicle the curious rise of a burgeoning yet fleeting economy. Jawline premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker. She was also named by filmmaker magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema in 2018 and one of 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch by Variety.

The movie that Liza chose to discuss ties-in effortlessly with her own film Jawline – that would be 1988’s dark comedy Heathers. April and Liza discuss the nature of being a teenager and just how serious everything feels. Liza talks about interviewing all these wannabe influencers for her film Jawline and how, no matter the place, everyone looks the exact same. She also discusses the effects of “Follow Culture” and how that is demonstrated in both Heathers and Jawline.

Episode notes

Heathers
Liza Mandelup is an award winning film director from New York residing in Los Angeles. Starting her career in photography, she graduated from New York’s School of Visual Arts and embedded herself in fascinating communities for photo series that culminated in two photo books. In 2018, Liza received the prestigious Sundance Documentary Fund grant for her film Jawline, following a handful of online teen heartthrob boys to chronicle the curious rise of a burgeoning yet fleeting economy. Jawline premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker. She was also named by Filmmaker magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema in 2018 and one of 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch by Variety.

The movie that Liza chose to discuss ties in effortlessly with her own film Jawline – that would be 1988’s dark comedy Heathers. April and Liza discuss the nature of being a teenager and just how serious everything feels. Liza talks about interviewing all the wannabe influencers for her film Jawline and how, no matter the place, everyone dressed the exact same. She also discusses the effects of “follow culture” and how that is demonstrated in both Heathers and Jawline.

You can stream Jawline on Hulu now.

And if you haven’t seen Heathers yet, watch it now!

With April Wolfe and Liza Mandelup.

You can let us know what you think of Switchblade Sisters on Twitter or Facebook.

Or email us at switchbladesisters@maximumfun.org.

Produced by Casey O’Brien and Laura Swisher for MaximumFun.org.

In this episode...

Guests

  • Liza Mandelup

About the show

Switchblade Sisters is a podcast providing deep cuts on genre flicks from a female perspective. Every week, screenwriter and former film critic April Wolfe sits down with a phenomenal female film-maker to slice-and-dice a classic genre movie – horror, exploitation, sci-fi and many others! Along the way, they cover craft, the state of the industry, how films get made, and more. Mothers, lock up your sons, the Switchblade Sisters are coming!

Follow @SwitchbladePod on Twitter and join the Switchblade Sisters Facebook group. Email them at switchbladesisters@maximumfun.org.

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