VIFF Podcast

'Shiva Baby' Writer/Director Emma Seligman on the organised chaos of indie film making

Emma Seligman

In this episode, we’re revisiting a conversation with Canadian writer-director Emma Seligman, about her debut feature – the darkly comic, utterly chaotic coming-of-age story, Shiva Baby.

Based on Seligman’s 2018 South By Southwest eight-minute short, Shiva Baby finds twenty-something Danielle (played by Rachel Sennott), dutifully attending a shiva for a family friend, where she spends her time lurching from one potentially catastrophic encounter to another, navigating spilled drinks, wailing babies, an embittered ex-girlfriend, and the appearance of her sugar daddy. 

Speaking to VIFF’s Associate Director of Programming, Curtis Woloschuk as part of our year-round virtual Indie Spirits series, Emma gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the claustrophobic comedy.

This conversation was recorded on April 12, 2021. 

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This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the x
ʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

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This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the x
ʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.