photo by Eon Mora
Conservative audiences have described Molly Hewitt and their persona ‘Glamhag’s work as “wacky, weird and crazy” but I think Glamhag is a filmmaker who knows who they are, who generously lets us into their dreamy, queer, huffing world. I was thrilled to speak with them about their film Holy Trinity a film that I can only describe, through extraneous and visceral grunting noises.
Laneikka: When I first saw Holy Trinity, I just thought this is what cinema should always be! I love seeing the work of filmmakers who don’t just create an interesting film but invite audiences into a whole new world. I felt like my mind had exploded and it made me so excited to meet you… I don’t think I’d call you an emerging filmmaker, I feel like you’re a pretty freaking established filmmaker!
Molly/Glamhag: Thank you! Honestly those words are so confusing, I feel like nobody ever feels established or emerging, it can be dependent on money, which I don’t want to base my success around. A lot of things change when you transition into making films for mainstream audiences, you lose a lot of control and I think I’m very aware of that. It’s weird talking about success I think it just depends on what you choose to believe it is.
Could you talk through the journey of becoming Glamhag and what this persona means to you and your work?
I came up with the concept of Glamhag seven or eight years ago, the root of it was in this idea of being a ‘glamourous hag’ and thinking about glamour and the multiple meanings behind that word. It was also about what it means to be a hag in terms of being this kind of unappealing elderly woman and the power behind that. I started performing in drag shows as Glamhag, and because I go by several other names like Molly, I felt like in the drag scene there was a level of disrespect because of me being an AFAB person, I wasn’t being treated accordingly. I was like “no, in this zone you can call me Glamhag”. I’ve wanted to embody Glamhag more and more as a way to explore my own gender identity and gender fluidity.
It was so lovely to see a queer film where being queer was not something that was stigmatised or made a meal out of; another stereotypical, tragic coming out story. Although these stories are just as important, I got excited to see queerness celebrated and normalised. What stories do you hope to tell and see on screen next?
I would love to continue telling stories that are interesting and fantasy filled, I love things that take part in dreamscapes where it’s not clear what’s reality and what’s not, I love science fiction and I would love to see more of, like what you described, films like a 1920 gangster movie where everyone is trans and no one talks about it. It’s so often that queer actors are having to play roles tied to their identity, and it’s like an actor is an actor, they can take on different roles. Obviously, my work will always be influenced by queerness but I feel like my experience is more transcendent, like the places queerness can take you rather than how difficult it is to be queer in a normal world.
On that, the word ‘unique’ does not even begin to articulate your aesthetic as a filmmaker, I would love to know what art has influenced your work.
I was obsessed with the Mighty Boosh when I was younger, it’s funny, very DIY and queer, incorporating music and stuff like that. I think I’ve felt reminiscent to this recently because of COVID restrictions but I miss going to basement performance art shows, seeing people making things out of paper mache, throwing around glitter, just like messy, raw, real performance art done by anybody who has something to say.
What made you want to become a filmmaker?
I went to art school and was doing a lot of performance and video and by the end of it I was just really inspired to tell a narrative story. Film allows me to include performance, costume and prop making, editing and everything all in one, doing something narrative also makes it more accessible and less of this like abstract, esoteric blah blah blah which I’ve just never identified with.
Have you ever been told no by conservative white old men? (Not given permission to make work, lack of funding) if so, how did you get around this?
Yeah, it’s sort of what I was talking about earlier, with DIY shows, you can do whatever you want but then when contracts, money and gallery spaces are involved, all these legality and regulations pop up, like you can’t use fire or get naked and stuff like that. I remember performing with some friends at a venue, it was me and a bunch of women on stage in bikinis and they were like if we see a nipple, you’re kicked out. Whereas now I feel like people in bars have realised you can’t censor one kind of nipple and don’t want to be on the wrong side of the argument. So now at places I perform, I could totally be naked, even if it’s not technically allowed because everyone would be down. Usually the more money involved, the less fun things you can do, but sometimes you just have to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.
I cacked myself so hard at the characters in the film, it felt like I was being flung between satirical cis gendered tropes, queer icons and oddball weirdos, were any of these actors, non-actors? And what was the process like forming such an ensemble?
Most people were not actors, a lot of them were performance artists so they’re sort of familiar with performing but not necessarily on camera or in a narrative way, but most of them were playing almost an exaggerated version of themselves. Theo Germaine auditioned, that’s how I met them and they’re-
Glam was instantly cut off by my own fangirl endeavours
What was it like working with Theo?!
Yeah when we were filming there was all of their stuff coming up but they couldn’t talk about it, then afterwards I was like, oh my god. What I loved about Theo was when we were auditioning, I had asked people to sing a similar song to the one Theo sings in the punk scene, I gave no instructions and wanted to see how they’d do it. Theo bought in a ukulele and did a great rendition of it and really got the vibe. I also think their past personal experience worked really well with the role. So yeah, it was really fun.
What was it like directing and acting in your own film? Even on a logistical level that sounds impossible!
It was a lot of the monitor facing me while acting, but sometimes I couldn’t do that or didn’t want to do that. My DOP, AD and production designer kind of fused into one mind and were sort of also directing. That’s the weird thing about making films, everyone has to wear so many hats and you’ve got to be able to trust your collaborators. It was really cool to be able to let go because I wasn’t the only person making the film.
What made you want to play Trinity?
I didn’t want to initially, I wanted to make sure I’d be able to direct and be totally attentive. But my producer assumed I was going to act and said I should because Trinity is such an involved character, she’s in almost every scene and finding someone who could be that available, who had chemistry with every single character would be really hard. We were also filming scenes while we were getting funding so there’s a lot of shots in the film that was just me and my dp, Greg Steven Ray, going somewhere, doing the lighting and everything together and shooting it. Honestly, I was cheap!
What made you fall in love with cinema?
That’s a good question because it’s not “What’s your favourite film?” I always say this film, but I guess I mean it; Brazil by Terry Gilliam. Unfortunately, Terry Gilliam is one of those old white men who’s not cool anymore which is kind of annoying but he was in Monty Python. I love this movie because it’s an 80s dystopian bureaucratic nightmare mixed with a dreamy love story. It started me thinking about every single aspect of filmmaking and realising how you could utilise these things to evoke different feelings and responses.
And finally, what would be your advice to emerging filmmakers?
Don’t wait for money, figure out how to do it or a version of it with what you have. You can raise money but make sure to have a realistic goal. Don’t wait for everything to be perfectly in line because there’s no reason not to make a movie now. Also, there’s a lot of pressure on artists to have this perfect product when I really think we should be looking at it as more of an expression of the moment, things are so heavily critiqued. It’s hard to read reviews and personally, I did not expect my film to start suddenly getting reviewed by the places it was getting reviewed. I agreed with some of the criticism and then sometimes I was like “you do realise I pulled this out of my ass right?” I’d never done this before! So I’d say make your films now, don’t wait.