MOVIEMAKER.COM SPRING 2020 21HOW THEY DID IT
OLA DIRECTOR
Janicza Bravo doesn’t
stop with an OK
movie, or a fine
movie. She pushes
it until the film is the best it can
ever possibly be. In the beginning
when you start off on the journey of
watching Zola, there are a few red
flags, but as an audience member,
for the most part, the first 15 to 20
minutes are fun, and you’re excited.
You’re like, “Oh yeah, let’s go.” And
then as you see the situation has
changed, you’re like, “Oh, this is not
OK?” You are taking in the film and
realizing how grave the situation is.
Janicza loves to make her audience
uncomfortable. So what may be fun
and fast-paced in the beginning,
towards the end, we linger and sit
with situations so you understandZ
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BY JOI MCMILLON,
AS TOLD TO CARLOS AGUILARZola is based on a Twitter thread
about a road trip to make as much
strip-club money as possible—
fast. Zola editor Joi McMillon tells
us how she and director Janicza
Bravo took the story to the screen.the impact of what’s taking place.
You understand how scary the situ-
ation actually is.
Back in 2017, Janicza and I had
just screened Lemon at SXSW. She
mentioned Zola to me, but at the
time, she was still trying to get on
the project—it wasn’t hers yet.
Later in 2018 when she was at-
tached to it, she shared the script to
get my initial thoughts on the story.
I gave a few comments and spoke
to both her and Barry Jenkins—
who’s another director I work
with. Early on, I’m mostly getting
a sense of how the director wants
to approach the storytelling of the
film and giving any ideas I have
about transitions or the best way
to handle a particular scene. But
I’m not too hands-on—for the most
PHOTO BY ANNA KOORIS / COURTESY OF A24 part, I start working on the project