From Our Soundbooth | November 21, 2017

On this episode of The Missouri Review’s Soundbooth Podcast, we spoke with writer and director Rachel Lambert about her film, In the Radiant City, which closed out this year’s Citizen Jane Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri.

Rachel Lambert received a BFA from Boston University, with further education at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, she worked as Sales Coordinator for HanWay Films under Thorsten Schumacher, while continuing to write and produce theater at the Battersea Arts Centre, Finborough Theatre, and the National Theatre. Since returning to New York, she has written three feature films with her writing partner, Nathan Gregorski, including her directorial debut In the Radiant City, and also directed a feature documentary, Mom Jovi, for Sequitur Cinema in Nashville, which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in 2016.

Part of the premise of In the Radiant City was based on Rachel’s reflections after reading a New York Times piece about the White family, wherein a sister turned in her brother for a series of murders. She writes, “As a result, this family seemed plagued with an uncommon kind of pain, one that frustrated my natural inclination to assign the players with either ‘good’ or bad.’ That ambiguity seemed potent and I knew I had to take it further.” The result is a film as rich, moving and enigmatic as its characters and setting.

TMR called Rachel in Los Angeles to speak about the paradox of emotion in her film, its honest, multifaceted characters, the rare beauty of the female voice, why she doesn’t believe in creative permission, and what’s next on her expanding agenda.

Interview conducted by TMR Audio Intern Emily Standlee.