Roxanne Benjamin Talks About Her Midnighter Film Body At Brighton Rock – SXSW Filmmaker In Focus

Roxanne Benjamin's feature directorial debut Body At Brighton Rock world premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival in the Midnighters section. Read our interview with Benjamin below and catch Body At Brighton Rock in theaters and On Demand on April 26.

In your own words, what does this film mean to you?

Roxanne Benjamin: This was my first serious attempt at suspense and mystery. It's a genre I want to explore more of. This film was sort of a test.

What motivated you to tell this story?

RB: Spending a lot of time in the national parks! And the challenge of how to get an audience to connect with the emotional journey of a single character with little dialogue for the majority of its runtime — it's a film set in this vast wilderness, but ultimately its about one girl stuck in one place trying to overcome her own hangups as much as the impossible situation she finds herself in.

What do you want the audience to take away?

RB: Weirdly, I hope it's a fun and empowering experience to go on this somewhat horrific adventure with this character, and that the audience can see themselves in her in some way.

What were you doing when you found out you were coming to SXSW?

RB: I was in bed! I got a string of texts from my co-producer and begrudgingly woke up to check them — then saw they said "Congrats!" and got really confused, haha!

What made you choose SXSW to showcase your film to the world?

RB: I've been here as a producer but never as a director, and knew the SX audience likes to champion films that don't fall into neat little boxes and indie films in general, so I was beyond stoked to learn my first solo feature film as a director would premiere here!

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World Premiere of Body at Brighton Rock - Photo by Jon Currie