The three-day indie film production and marketing lab led by American producer Alix Madigan-Yorkin. Alix Madigan-Yorkin produced Winter’s Bone, directed by Debra Granik and starring Jennifer Lawrence, which was the winner of The Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic feature at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. The film also received four Academy Award nominations, including best picture, and won The Gotham Award for Best Picture and two Independent Spirit Awards.

Organized as part of the American Film Showcase in collaboration with Golden Ger International Film Festival, this lab brought together over 20 talented Mongolian filmmakers. We had a chance to having an interview with her about her experience, Mongolian film industry, furthermore Hollywood.

- What was your impression after came in Mongolia?

- When I arrived at the airport, I was taken immediately out to the National Park. What an absolutely stunning country this is with such diverse landscapes and tremendous beauty. So that was my first impression. And then I saw some beautiful sites like the Princess Monastery, which I really loved. So being able to spend two days in the country and kind of unwind for a period of time was really great. And then I came here and UB has been beautiful too. And I really enjoyed exploring the city. And I went to the Monastery with the 80-foot statue of Buddha, which was incredible to see. So, it's been wonderful.

- I’m glad that you came here during the summertime. Thank you for sharing your experience with Mongolian filmmakers. I was told that you are conducting a three-day American Film Showcase workshop about film producing, financing, selling, and distribution. How is it going?

- It’s really wonderful. I’m here under with the program American Film Showcase which is a State Department initiative. And in these sorts of workshops, it’s very much an exchange of ideas. It’s not really a class. I learn very much from these labs myself and I feel like I take away things that make me better at my job. More like interesting, innovative approaches into how to get independent films made. And so, it's always great to have sort of an outside perspective, because it is so hard to get a film made. We talk about the idea of the film and how to identify a story that you want to tell and then taking that story through how to turn that into a script, how to sort of package it with filmmakers, actors and then take it through how you put together the financing structure then overseeing production and marketing, distribution, getting your film out there. So, it's pretty much like taking the sort of the birth of an independent film to the finish and getting it out there in the world.

- I hope you already have Mongolian film industry information before coming here. Have you seen Mongolian movies?

- Yes, I have seen a few. And the ones which I've loved was The Story of the Weeping Camel which was a huge hit in the United States. When it came out, the name was Weeping Camels.

- I think it was nominated for Oscar.

- Yes, it was a huge hit. And then I also saw this movie that I loved, which was also a Mongolian documentary called The Cave of the Yellow Dog. And Eagle Huntress was also a huge hit. I have seen quite a few. And what I've been really struck by in the class as well is it's a great group and I love the participants in this lab, and they’re very varied of experience, but there is a tremendous amount of experience as well. And people have produced films here, local films, etc. So I think there’s a tremendous passion and desire to make really indigenous films that explore Mongolian culture and this beautiful landscape and specific stories.

- Now we /Mongolians/ have a huge ambition to develop our film industry. As a film producer, please share your advice and thoughts with us about what kind of opportunity we have.

- Yeah, I think it’s always great when there can be certain grants and government assistance in helping local filmmakers realize their films, because it does seem like there is a very healthy tax incentive here that allows for foreign people to come here and shoot, which is amazing. Because this country is so beautiful and has so many different landscapes that you could shoot beautiful film here.

But I think it's wonderful to have sort of indigenous storytelling that explores Mongolian stories, culture, current events, themes that are important to Mongolians and getting those seen. I think it's always like for the government to provide grants, equipment, any sort of thing that it can do. I know that you have a very sort of healthy Film Commission here, but to not only encourage foreign films to come here and shoot, but also to encourage indigenous filmmaking, I think is really important, too. So, I would love to see more films from this region specifically.

- As looking at big film festivals like the Oscars, Asian films, artists, and actors have recently become more prominent. So I think Mongolians have a chance. What are your thoughts on this?

- I completely agree. I think there is a great demand now for authentic storytelling that comes from particular regions that people don't know that much about. That was the amazing thing about the Eagle Huntress did give USA window into this part of the world that not that many people knew about and certain traditions like folklore of this region. And there is such fascination with Mongolia which is part of the world.

So to encourage filmmaking from this region that can be widely seen. For instance, in the U.S theatrical market for foreign films has definitely eroded. There just isn't that desire to see foreign films in theaters that much anymore, unfortunately. But I do have to say that I do think streaming, not only through Netflix, of course, but through streaming services like movie and all those other sorts of more specialized streamers that allow for people to see foreign films, art films, more specialty films from other regions. So, I do think there's a great opportunity for Mongolians to show their work in a more global sense. I do recommend, though, always playing the film festival circuit. I think that's very important because that's the best initial exposure I think a film can have.

- Please share with us about your work experience of Winter’s Bone movie. How did you work on it?

- It was nominated for an Oscar for Best picture. And Debra Granik, the director, who was really the creative and the force behind the making of that film. It was based on a book by a man named Daniel Woodrell. And essentially Deborah spent a tremendous amount of time in this very specific The Ozark region of the US., researching and becoming acclimated and getting to know families there. So, the film had a really tremendous sense of authenticity to it, although it's a very universal story. It's interesting, I saw this film at the opening night film festival here, which is called The Loving Cord, and it was about a young Mongolian man taking care of his mother who has Alzheimer's or dementia. And what so struck me about that film is it showed a great deal about Mongolian culture and traditions, and they lived out on the land etc.

But there was such universality to that story because we all have elderly parents who were taken care of. And one of the things that I was so struck by it was the realization in Mongolian tradition for the youngest in the family to take care of their elderly parents. And I thought that was so beautiful, and that was not something that I was aware of. Unfortunately, in the United States, we don't do that. We’re very much opposite. We do not take care of and respect our elderly. So, I thought that was such a beautiful thing to bring up in a film. But I learned so much about aspects about Mongolian culture, and difference between city living and people who made their living on the land, too, and the dealings with animals. So, there was so much I learned from that one film, and that's the beauty of filmmaking that you can expose culture, storytelling and a way of life to different nations.

And so, with Winter's Bone, the story itself was universal is about a girl wanting to keep her family together. But it was set in a very sort of specific region that even not that many people in the United States know that much about.

- By the way, how was working with Jennifer Lawrence? Because she's my favorite actress. Especially I like her sense of humor.

- She does. She’s very funny. When we were working with her, she just turned 19, actually. She was super young. She's playing a 17-year-old. And I think the thing with Jennifer is, sometimes you realize certain people are just going to rise to the top, or they just have such a creative they just have like a spark and a talent, and your eyes are just drawn to them. She was so super young then. It’s just so funny to see the tremendous star that she became. And I've never really seen that. I’ve never really worked on a movie where that’s happened, too, is that you're working with someone and then all of a sudden there's huge Jennifer Lawrence’s. But yeah, it's very deserving. She’s incredible and remarkable actress.

- And what kind of movie are you working on right now? I think Dust is upcoming this year?

- I think Dust will be released probably in October. We’re in post-production now. Dust is a horror film that's set in the 1930s Oklahoma region about these horrific dust storms that happened. It stars Sarah Paulson as the mother and taking care of her two children. It was a hard film to shoot and had a lot of visual effects, which is a new thing for me, too. So, it's been a challenge. But we're hopefully rounding the curve and heading towards release sometime this year.

- How was the film industry during the pandemic time in Hollywood?

- Such a good question. The film industry really had incredibly strict mandates about COVID and COVID testing. If there was COVID, and positive case, shutting down production etc. We really took that to great lengths. And the film, as a result of the film business, was really kind of shut down for a period of time because it just became so incredibly expensive to shoot a film.

So, like little, tiny ones like the testing and the quarantining and all that stuff, it was just hard. Fortunately, we have emerged from that, so there’s not the required testing anymore. But it did hinder the film. It did definitely hinder really good questions. Definitely shut down the film business for a while.

- My next question is about Artificial intelligence. AI development has been rising in recent years. Once actor Tom Hanks said that he could appear in movies after death with AI technology. What do you think about this?

- It's such a good question, and I think it’s really interesting that you're asking about this. Right now, the writer strike is going on, which is we have unions in our business that protect the writers, the directors, and the actors. We have all these sorts of unions, and they protect salary and health, safety, etc. And right now, the writers and actors are going to be on strike, too. The main points in negotiation for the writers is controlling the use of AFI /American Film Institute/ in their craft. And what they're nervous about is, for instance, a studio will come up with a story idea and feed it into an AI machine and tell the story in the vein of this person, a famous writer, do it in this person's style, and an AI will be sophisticated enough to write an entire script in the style that this famous writer would have written it in. And so the writers are really nervous about that happening understandably. Or conversely, like, can a script be generated by AI, and then they hire a writer to work on that script. So it's really wanting to protect their own way of life and their own creativity and their own talent in a way, too. And the years that they have worked on perfecting their own talent and their craft. So AI, I think, needs to be legislated in that way, but I think it's going to become increasingly more utilized, which is nerve wracking, for sure.

- There is some news about the actress’ are paid lower than actors in film industry. What do you think about this issue?

- I think it's such a great thing that you're bringing that up. For me, it all boils down to the perceived value that actors have. And the white male actors they’ll always be perceived as the most valuable, which is so annoying in terms of foreign sales. So, if I'm trying to raise money for a film, if I have a white male actor who is of note attached. I’m going to have an easier time finding financing with them. So that's why they're paid more, usually, until really, we change our perceptions on what is perceived value. Are there people of color out there who are equally as valuable? Are there women, female actors who are equally as valuable?

We’ve seen so many examples of films doing really well, which have female leads and who have people of color in their leads, too. But that's what's really driving, I think these disproportionate salaries are the perceived value of a very specific type of actor. It’s completely unfair.

When I'm working on a film, I will make sure that the male and female actors, their colleagues, are always paid the same. I would never create that disparity. But the good thing is when these salaries emerged, there was this one film where they were doing reshoots of the film. There was a famous actress who’s doing in a famous actor, and the famous actor was paid almost ten times than famous actress was paid, and she found out about it. Rightly, she fired her agency who are the male actor should have also pushed for that, too. They are her advocates. So, it must be like an industrywide effort to make sure that salaries are equal.

- Thank you for your time with us!