Here's a challenge: watch the first few minutes of ROAD TO L'ETAPE DU TOUR (2026) and not get the sense you're seeing a documentary. Impossible because the film is that good about its comparison to real life. The logline: facing a turning point in her life, a woman with a congenital heart defect embarks on a journey to train for a famous cycling race.

It's all narrative, but the heart of the film, just like all her other art, is from its director, Julia Coulter, who you can tell from this discussion puts her whole being into her art.

The opening segment is Julia talking about her lighting decisions in BROTHERS (2021), which you should watch. It is cinema at its highest level. Julia takes a couple of actors, a single location, and makes something that will stay with you for a long time. The film is linked below.

I felt so lucky to watch her films and hear about how much love she puts into them, and I think you will feel the same way, too.

In this episode, Julia and I talk about:

why she made a narrative film that feels like a documentary in parts;
how she came up with that brilliantly moving first scene, performing a stress test, and how that sets up the character for the film;
her hopes to inspire others through her film;
her start in filmmaking -- writing, directing, and acting! -- and how she figured out which to do in her first two short films;
did the classical acting education help her craft?
her lessons from casting films from an actor's perspective;
her deeply personal film, BROTHERS, and what she took away from that experience in making such a moving film with just three characters and a hotel room;
why we don't see more shorts like BROTHERS and HABIT (2022), which are so refined in run time, story, and cinematography?
her advice for people directing other peoples' writing;
whether it would be harder for her to give up directing or acting;
the financial hurdles of making her first feature;
the ending of ROAD TO L'ETAPE DU TOUR and the feeling she wants to give the audience;
whether actors as directors handle complexity better in a story;
why Cinequest and what she's looking for at a festival;
what's next for her and the film.

Julia's Indie Film Highlight: DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (2020) dir. by Kirsten Johnson; CLOSE (2022) dir. by Lukas Dhont

Memorable Quotes:

"It's something that we see very intense, like athletes doing, but never in the context of hospitals have I seen that on screen."

"I was very inspired by mumblecore."

"If I wanted to create something, then I could just go out and do it. I could go out and write it. And so that gave me the freedom that acting alone doesn't where you are waiting on somebody else and their opinion of you or their opinion of your skills."

"Do I have such a clear vision in my head when I write things that I really want to be the director? I think the answer to that is yes."

"I always try to center myself on what do I want to watch and what would I go and see and what would I be interested in feeling from seeing a film? That's what I think is matters in the end."

"Giving yourself constraints is actually helpful sometimes."

Links:

Follow Julia On Instagram

Watch BROTHERS (2020)