A podcast interview with writer-director India Donaldson on her first feature Good One, an exploration of masculinity through the eyes of a teenage girl who goes camping with her divorced dad. This is also a film for fans of Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy.
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Writer-director (and Seventh Row fan!) India Donaldson joins us on the podcast do discus her debut feature, Good One. Inspired by Seventh Row favourites Kelly Reichardt and Joanna Hogg (we wrote the books on both of them!), Donaldson’s film is a quiet story of a teenage girl who goes camping in the woods with her self-absorbed divorced father and his father’s best friend. We observe her as she observes the adults who don’t quite behave like adults in ways that are often quite hurtful to her.
In our interview, Donaldson tells Alex about adjusting her expectations to get her first feature made, working with her incredible cast, telling a story about a child of divorce, shooting outdoors in a remote area, and more.
The film premiered at Sundance before screening at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar.
The film is now in theatres in the US and Canada.
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Show notes
- Good One would make a fantastic double feature with Philippe Lesage’s forthcoming Comme le feu (Who by Fire), which is also about teenagers observing the disappointing adults around them in the woods. Read Alex’s interview with Lesage here.
- Learn more about Kelly Reichardt’s films, including Old Joy. We also wrote the book on her work.
- Learn more about Joanna Hogg’s films. We also wrote the book on her work.
Related Podcast Episodes to Good One
- 25. Kelly Reichardt’s men: Old Joy and Night Moves (Members only)
- 140. Mapantsula: An interview with director Oliver Schmitz: The story of another first feature that was even harder to make (FREE)
- 118. Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II (FREE)
- Discover all of our Kelly Reichardt podcasts
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Credits
This episode was edited, produced, and recorded by Alex Heeney.
Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.
Follow Alex Heeney on Twitter and Instagram.
An AI-generated transcript for the episode is available at the bottom of the page.
