Culture

‘Influenca’ marks debut for Columbus-based Moonliner Pictures

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) – The regionally filmed mockumentary Influenca follows increasingly frustrated documentarians investigating the disappearance of Billy Sadler, a social media influencer who vanished on the cusp of his “big break.”

This plot summary, while accurate, misses the film’s rich thematic core, not to mention the wildly inventive methods Ian James Milheim and Justine Hope (Moonliner Pictures) used to stretch an almost non-existent budget.

In just under two hours, Milheim and Hope experiment with everything from puppetry to greenscreen to craft a story that constantly transforms, shifting from self-deprecating meta-commentary to a tender queer love story to an absurd comedy laced with existential dread. There’s a sense of playful neuroticism throughout – so perhaps it’s not so surprising that Influenca features a cameo from comedian Maria Bamford.

“Influenca” filmmakers Ian James Milheim (left) and Justine Hope (right). (Provided)

WOUB’s Emily Votaw spoke to Milheim and Hope about Influenca. Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.

How long have you been working on Influenca

Justine Hope: Five years in total. It was just the two of us doing everything – so that’s a lot of the delayed timeframe. We were saving to get new equipment, we were waiting for people to be available. Sometimes we were waiting for the seasons to change because a lot of the plot is tied to the changing of the seasons. So there were times where we were like, “well, I guess we’ll get that scene next fall.” But I guess that’s all just to say that it took five years. But it went faster than you might think.

Ian James Milheim: Yeah, if I was on screen, she was behind the camera. One other thing that lengthened the process a bit was my hard drive failed in January (2024). We were about a month away from being done when it happened, and in the end that doubled the budget, which had only been $2,000 up to that point anyway.

Maria Bamford. How did she get involved?

Milheim: We just reached out. She’s just fantastic with fans. She’s been my hero since early twenties. I messaged her explaining that we’ve been working on a film, and we were really hoping we might be able to get Maria Bamford in for a cameo. She was always the person in the script, and she was always who we wanted to get, if it was possible. I had no idea if it was going to happen.

I figured I might hear back from her assistant or something, but, no – I got an email from Maria Bamford herself and she just asked me what I needed her to do. I let her know, and she sent me the footage I asked for right away.

Why was she always written into the plot?

Hope: I think it’s more personal than thematic

Milheim: Yeah, and it seemed like it might be possible to actually get her to be a part of it. She interacts with fans a lot online, so she didn’t seem that out of reach. And I just was like, ‘man, I hope this works out. We’ll have to change a lot if it doesn’t.’ But there wasn’t really a backup plan if we didn’t get – we needed a cameo and she was choice number one. I don’t think there was a second option really.

Would you say the movie speaks to a specifically Millennial point of view?

Milheim: Not intentionally. I would say that it speaks to my point of view, which is a little narcissistic, I suppose. It is kind of blue and it’s silly and I don’t think it’s cynical at all. I think the characters can be, but I suppose that does read well into the modern viewing of Millennial culture. I wanted to tap into some of the same feeling that David Lynch does in Blue Velvet, that kind of small town malaise.

Hope: I don’t think it is specifically speaking to a Millennial point of view, I feel like it’s more about a specific place, the Midwest; and a specific age, which is a little bit older than you want be.

Please extrapolate. 

Hope: I feel like it’s impossible to not make a movie set in the Midwest appear very Midwestern. I grew up all over the place because my parents were in the Navy. I’ve lived in Ohio for the last nine years, and I do think it is a particular kind of place… I don’t think it was intentional. I don’t think it’s possible to make a movie that’s not very marked by the Midwest when you’re in the Midwest. But I do think it was kind of helpful because we were trying to tap into those feelings of being in a flyover state, of being in a place that wasn’t where everyone wanted to be, of being somewhere that might be a little bit off the beaten trail.