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    Filmmaker Spotlight

    Dallas filmmaker Rachel Shepherd knows the best things in life are messy

    Jessica Tomberlin
    May 16, 2014 | 1:19 pm

    For Dallas filmmaker Rachel Shepherd, storytelling has always been a part of her life. A voracious reader from a young age, she devoured the unpublished manuscripts of romance novels written by her mother.

    “She had this colorful way of describing things, and her stories always read so poetically,” says Shepherd, who recently celebrated the world premiere of latest feature film, About Mom and Dad, at the 2014 Dallas International Film Festival.

    Shepherd’s relationship with her mother — as well as her father — continues to influence her work today. This is especially evident in About Mom and Dad, a story borne from Shepherd’s own experience of coping with planning her wedding around the same time that her parents’ marriage was unraveling due to infidelity. Eventually her parents reunited, strengthening their relationship as well as Shepherd’s own understanding of love and marriage.

    “Nothing that’s worth anything comes easy,” says Shepherd of her latest feature film, About Mom and Dad.

    “I wanted to show that in a marriage not everyone is a hero or a villain, not everyone who makes mistakes necessarily does it to harm the other person,” she says. “A love story can be about the people and not the incident. The best things in life are messy. Nothing that’s worth anything comes easy.”

    Although writing is her first love — something she’s been actively doing since the third grade — Shepherd developed the courage she needed to pursue her dream of becoming a filmmaker as a student in the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, during a directing class. She had always wanted to direct, but it terrified her.

    “Being in that class and seeing what makes a really great actor, I knew I wanted to direct an actor to do those things,” she says. “The greatest fun in life is living your fear, so I have a great time directing because it terrifies me.”

    In 2007, Shepherd had completed her studies at NYU and was working in television in New York when her husband, a medical student, was accepted into a residency program in Texas, where they both grew up. They moved back home, and Shepherd enrolled in the master’s program for filmmakers at the University of Texas at Arlington.

    Despite later dropping out of the program to make her first feature film, Traveling, Shepherd made lasting connections during her time at UTA, including cinematographer Bret Curry, who worked on both of her feature films. Shepherd also counts Dallas actor and producer Farah White among her core group of collaborators.

    “As a director, it is your job to bring everyone together and create the look and feel, and it’s your words and it’s your vision, but you have to understand that it’s a machine,” she says. “You’re the key that turns the machine, but every other person is equally important.”

    ​“The greatest fun in life is living your fear, so I have a great time directing because it terrifies me,” Shepherd says.

    Shepherd learned that lesson the hard way, when she tried to do everything herself on Traveling. “With About Mom and Dad, I learned how to let go,” she says. “I turned a lot of things over to my producers.”

    The decision to premiere the film at the 2014 Dallas International Film Festival came more out of Shepherd’s love for the Dallas film community than her desire to promote the film it on the festival circuit. She premiered Traveling at the festival in 2011, so it has become almost like a tradition for her.

    “If the Dallas International Film Festival will have me, I will premiere every one of my movies there,” she says Shepherd. “They were the first festival to support me, and they continue to support and exhibit work that comes from the vibrant, deep community of filmmakers here in Dallas.”

    Although you may not have a chance to see About Mom and Dad on the big screen again anytime soon, Shepherd and her crew are currently pitching it to cable stations in hopes of releasing the film on television and later rolling it out to other video-on-demand outlets.

    “Our goal for the movie has always been television,” she says. “I don’t really see it as a film made for theatrical release. Some of my favorite movies are Hollywood movies, so I’m a huge fan of that system; it’s just not where my work will ever be.

    “But that’s the great thing about being a filmmaker: There are all these different voices, and when we sing together, it’s this crazy discord of unharmonious sound. But if we each get a voice out there, it makes a beautiful symphony, and I’m just so proud to be a part of it.”

    A still from the movie About Mom and Dad.

      
    Photo courtesy of Rachel Shepherd
    A still from the movie About Mom and Dad.
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Movie Review

    Ana de Armas brings John Wick-level violence to spinoff Ballerina

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 5, 2025 | 2:38 pm
    Ana de Armas in Ballerina
    Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
    Ana de Armas in Ballerina.

    The John Wickfranchise has been successful due to two things: The hyper-violence inflicted by its protagonist, and its star, Keanu Reeves, who has used a bare minimum of words to create a great antihero. Trying to capitalize on its popularity, Lionsgate - the studio behind the franchise - has made Ballerina, a spin-off focusing on a character inspired by another minor character from John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum.

    That convoluted set-up is the first of a variety of missteps for the film. An opening scene introduces the audience to a young Eve (Victoria Comte), who gets taken in by a criminal group known as the Ruska Roma after her father is killed. The bulk of the film takes place 12 years later when a now-adult Eve (Ana de Armas) is finishing her training as a ballerina/assassin-for-hire, led by The Director (Anjelica Huston).

    Hungry to prove her worth, Eve starts going out on various jobs. One of those jobs puts her in the orbit of the group responsible for her father’s death, and she dedicates herself toward finding the leader known as The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) and exacting revenge. Oh, and for funsies, the film - set between John Wick 3 and 4 - also brings in Wick himself to juice the action.

    Directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten (who’s written the last two John Wick films), the film is at its best when the filmmakers are going all-in on the action. Like all films in the series, the actual body count soon becomes negligible, with the film more interested in how inventively Eve can slaughter everyone in her path. And there are some creative methods employed, including ice skates, hatchets, and - most memorably - a flamethrower.

    What Wiseman and Hatten are not able to do, however, is make us care about Eve herself. The main John Wick films got increasingly complicated, but they were tolerable because of how compelling a character Wick was. There’s no such connection with Eve, and for all her personal tragedy, she might as well be a faceless person. A lack of explanation as to why Ruska Roma is training women as ballerinas - you know, the title of the movie - only underscores how little the filmmakers cared about creating a good story.

    Consequently, despite plenty of gory kills, the film is actually quite boring to watch play out. The film goes through the paces of having Eve take on all-comers, but the end result is never in doubt and most of the action runs together. The inclusion of Wick into the story feels like the afterthought, whether it actually was or not. It also has the unfortunate effect of comparing a character fans know and love to one who hasn’t been given a chance to establish herself.

    Although her character as a whole is lacking, De Armas shows that she can easily handle the physical aspects of the role. The 37-year-old actor is oddly asked to play a 24-year-old (or so), but she mixes it up with the best of them. Byrne makes for a so-so new villain, while Reeves, Huston, Ian McShane, and Lance Reddick (making his final film appearance after passing away in 2023) all reprise their roles well.

    Ballerina has the look and feel of the four previous John Wick films, but it fails to be as compelling of an action film as any of them. True, it has just as much violence as fans have come to expect from the series, but its lead character is one that never reaches the level of John Wick, and it doesn’t seem like the filmmakers even tried to accomplish that goal.

    ---

    Ballerina opens in theaters on June 6.

    filmjohn wick franchisemovies
    news/entertainment
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