Making Maya

Well, well… this was a very welcomed surprise as the movie has an interesting story and most of all, shows how an outstanding performance can make the story and the film quite mesmerizing to watch. Perhaps the beginning is a little predictable and has a too common structure, but as the story unravels I couldn’t take my eyes from the lead Amy Minderhout that plays Maya, I got really interested in knowing what came next and how the story will end. This is quite unusual in a low budget production and merit is given to Rolla Selbak that wrote the script, produced and directed the film.

The story is the coming of age of Maya that after school graduation is faced with her future and she wants her future to be in basketball. But perspectives of achieving her dream seem not possible, as she’s not being accepted at any College she applied. But when she meets Samantha her life will take an unexpected turn in every sense of the word unexpected.

From the production values point of view, this movie looks and feels like a B-movie; but it is quite interesting for me to see how a nice story and a solid performance can make a B-movie become much more that what the label implies. This reaffirms me that you do not really need big budgets to make a good movie; you need great ideas, great performances and a good director that with whatever few resources can make something beyond her means and succeed. Very good!

I like the movie and I highly recommend it even beyond the lesbian interest genre and especially to my filmmakers’ readers, as I believe that the film is a great example of low production budget and good end product. But please do not have high expectations or think that this is a sports movie, as this is a drama that tells about a young girl, period. Also other actors performances are on the not so good side, but lead great performance makes the movie worth it.

Now I’m really looking forward to be able to see Rolla Selbak next film Three Veils. Unfortunately couldn’t find a trailer for Making Maya, but if you want to browse the directors’ site to check some pictures from the film, go here.

Enjoy!!!