Filmmaker Statement

Growing up, my big sister always wanted a huge family with lots of adventurous and boisterous older siblings. Unfortunately for her, it was just me—a shy, sensitive, fearful, little girl who needed her to take care of me. She always resented my vulnerability, and as a result, was relentlessly mean to me. She wanted me to learn that she would not be my protector, and neither would anyone else. Somehow, though, I never did learn, and always came back to her, time and time again, hoping to earn her love. Some twenty years later, my relationship with my sister is one of endless laughter, love, and deep conversation. We are finally sisters, in the truest and most profound sense. Growing up in a small town, I watched my older sister navigate the extreme drug and alcohol consumption that results from the unrelenting societal pressure of a conservative majority to abstain completely. In my town you were either “good” and abstained from drugs, alcohol, and sex completely, or you were “bad” and engaged in everything, to an often extreme degree. This was simply normal. Another norm for us was older men who pursued teenage girls. We thought nothing of it, and neither, it seemed, did the men around us. Visiting my hometown, and so many others like it, I see how little has changed in these two arenas. I am beyond thirsty to explore these observations on screen with Daughter of Wands, returning to my own hometown to do so alongside those who know it just as well as I do. Emma Hall-Martin Writer/director Daughter of Wands