Meet Victoria Haynes | Filmmaker & Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Victoria Haynes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Victoria, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I started out as an actor, and one thing they always say to you as a young actors is that if there is anything else in the world you think you could be doing, you should quit acting and do that. That idea never sat quite right with me because I’m interested in a lot of things.

After I got married and had kids, I started working as a film editor. I would cut short films and documentaries while breastfeeding a baby on my lap, so there was only a “work-life balance” in the sense that somehow the projects got edited and my children got fed, but “balanced” is not how I would describe any aspect of that period.

When the pandemic hit, I was in my home state of Maine for what was supposed to be a long weekend, but then we ended up staying in my childhood home for two and a half years. I wanted to make a film, but life with kids at home was so hectic. So I found myself using any pocket of quiet I could find, like driving to the grocery store, to daydream, and then I’d start making notes in my phone. A couple years later, I made those notes into my first short film and realized that I was meant to be a director.

I liked that the way I wrote the film – in little bursts in between doing pickup and making dinner – ended up helping express something about the disconnect between the disjointed nature of family life and the bigger emotional waves sometimes going on underneath. I’m excited about the idea that the way I have to approach process as a primary caregiver can actually contribute to the content of the films I want to make. Since I can’t run away to a cabin to write, I have to find a way to keep my creative life very close the surface while I’m going about daily life. My hope is that my ability to harness the chaos might actually be a superpower rather than a liability, and it might help me say something truthful about the way women move through the world.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I always wanted to be an actress. I went to NYU Tisch and studied at the Stella Adler Studio. When I was trying to work as an actress, I think I was often coming from a place of anxiety because I thought you were supposed to be completely moldable and able to express anything that a director wanted you to express. I now know that I want to tell stories because I have point of view.

When I became an editor, I started watching films in a more analytical way. Then during the pandemic, I started having the nagging thought that I wanted to direct something short, just to see how it felt. I didn’t think of myself as a writer, so I told myself I was just putting something on paper so I would have an exercise to shoot. I just started talking about the film as if it was real. At some point I had told so many people I was making a film that I knew I would be really embarrassed if I didn’t follow through.

The week of pre-production and shooting was so intense and fun. The night before Day 1 I thought, What am I even going to say to people? But somehow in the moment I knew which elements were important.

What is so exciting about this moment of life is that I’m realizing there is no such thing as wasted time. It was so easy to be disappointed in myself in my 20s for not being able to parlay a small film role into a bigger opportunity. Now I know that working on those sets was hugely formative for me, just not in the way that I thought it would be. I was absorbing lessons about how the onset experience you create as a director influences what you see onscreen.

Likewise, I try to see the time I’ve spent at home with my kids as part of my learning process. I don’t think we talk enough about how much overlap there is between mothering and directing. You have to keep a sense of playfulness even when things are stressful, and you are trying to gently guide people to solutions without making them feel pushed. And a lot of it is just making sure there are enough snacks.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and I could spend a week just bopping around bookstores and coffee shops. My favorites are Community Bookstore and Books are Magic – I like when there is a strong editorial hand influencing what is on the shelves. I love sitting at Kos Kaffe or Il Posto Italiano to write or people watch.

I love living so close to BAM. Some of my favorite theatergoing experiences of all time have been at the Harvey Theater, and I love going to that cinema. Fort Greene has a lot of great dinner spots – Miss Ada is a favorite, and there is a really good Japanese speakeasy called Karasu that is behind Walter’s. My favorite thing is taking a long walk home after dinner and looking in the windows of brownstones for interior design ideas. Atlantic Ave is great for home design and antiques, and there is a Maison Kitsune just off there as well.

I also spend a ton of time in Prospect Park alone and with my kids. I love it so much and it has given us so many family memories. The zoo is so cute and perfectly small, you can do in an hour and then go ride the Carousel next door. But my all time favorite spot is Metrograph on the Lower East Side. It’s my go-to place to take myself on artist dates to see old films, eat fancy Japanese candy and browse the cool film books in the gift shop.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My female friendships have always been such an important support system, and only more so as time has gone on. My best friend from college, Annarosa Mudd, where we were both acting students, is now a producer and produced my first short film. To be able to bring all that history to bear on our work together is deeply rewarding. I have another dear friend named Aly Schwartz, whom I met when we both had tiny kids at the same preschool, and she is just my biggest cheerleader as I shift from actress to editor to filmmaker, and she is going through her own transition from lawyer to midwife.

When I made Come Stay, my first short film, it was important to me to make the experience of the shoot an opportunity to get all these amazing women together – Annarosa, as well as my lead actresses Mary Cavett and Mackenzie Meehan, and it worked a treat. Working together and living together during the shoot was the most fun I’ve ever had.

When women get together, we are able to hold all the darkness and the beauty and the silliness at the same time, and I think that’s so cool about us and I find it so nourishing.

Website: https://victoriahaynes.com

Instagram: @velizhaynes