Director Maria Allred speaking on a Sundance panel hosted by Grit Daily about the fine line between drama and humor. A topic she has many thoughts on. As she described during the panel, she used satirical melodrama with her debut feature, The Texture of Falling. She elaborates that she’s not sure to what degree of success, as many audience members did not know the intentionality of the style. It is a style she is excited to hone. A quote from Allred at the panel:

In some ways I think the fine line between humor and drama encapsulates the essence of life. There’s something so absurd about us even being here, in the middle of the galaxy, all with the same poignant fate, feverishly doing this and that. Sometimes we have those gems of moments where we just stop and look around and everything glows with the light of nowness, and for me, usually when that happens everything appears so comical. Life—it’s so serious and it’s such play. Art can truly embody and express that transience, that absurdity. The humor of the seriousness, the comedy of the mundane