DIRECTOR: ANNA ANDERSEN
PRODUCER: KATIE ROSE VAUGHAN CINEMATOGRAPHER: NILU AMIN
EDITOR & GRAPHICS : ERIN MCGOFF COMPOSER: JOEY REDA
SOUND DESIGN: NOTES PRODUCTIONS SECOND CAMERA: CRISTINA BEVIA
SPONSORED BY FUJIFILM
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
It’s a rare opportunity to be able to make a film about one of your closest friends. I met Violet Oliphant-O’Neill six years ago when I first moved to Brooklyn. At the time, I was doing a photo project about strong women in the arts. We were introduced and decided together to take her portrait in a cemetery and have her pour blue paint on herself. We’ve been friends ever since.
Soon after that, I started going over to Oliphant studio and I stepped into the incredible world that Violet; her mother, Sarah Oliphant; and the rest of the Oliphant team had created. The studio is lined with large windows that send sunlight spilling across the multicolored floor. Paint cans are scattered in organized chaos; tools hang by nails on the wall, and over 3000 canvases and backdrops are stacked in the basement, each painted, repainted, repurposed, and well-loved over the years.
Helming the studio is Sarah, a generous and candid artist from South Carolina who started her career in New York City forty years ago with just a few hundred dollars in her pockets. She began in set design and theater, then expanded into creating photo backdrops. Enormously talented and dedicated to her work, she soon built up a reputation that reached far beyond New York, eventually finding loyal clientele in the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Mark Salinger, Steven Meisel, and Patrick Demarchelier. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Hollywood Reporter, Vogue, Broadway, HBO, and SNL to name a few. As of today, she is one of the most prolific artists you’ve never heard of because, as she puts it, "[I’m] not the it, [I'm] the behind the it."
After six years of close friendship with Violet, I found myself uniquely situated at the heart of this story and began to notice the fascinating nuance of Sarah and Violet’s relationship. Violet worked as an apprentice under her mother for years, but she grew restless—often feeling the weight of living under her mother's shadow. Looking toward the future, she realized that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
The story of Oliphant studio extends far beyond the backdrops and canvases rolled up in the basement. It is ultimately an exploration of the bond between parent and child, and the tension between family legacy and staying true to oneself. This film will always be special to me because it’s a love letter to both Violet and Sarah. It’s a testament to their love for each other and for the work they create alone and together.