Little Women Director Talks with PureFlix, Shares Important Message about Faith and Family
Clare Niederpruem sat down with PureFlix.com’s Billy Hallowell as a part of their Pure Talk interview series to talk about her directing debut film, Little Women.
The director, who started out as a Hollywood actress, was inspired by the story of Little Women as a child and after re-reading the book as an adult knew she wanted to create her own modern adaption in film.
Niederpruem was inspired by the timelessness of the story and the uplifting messages that it contains.
“I want people to connect with each other. I want them to see the film and realize that the most important relationships that we have are faith as well as their relationships with their mother and with the other females in their life, and that family is the most important thing, and that we really need to support each other, no matter what,” Niederpruem said to Hallowell.
The first-time director is hoping that the film can inspire the audience and have them walk away feeling as if they were able to relate to the character’s stories. She also hopes the film will portray a message that encourages people to be good people in society and to care for their family.
“The story of Little Women, to me, it’s about nothing and it’s about everything,” she said. “It’s about this family and growing up and these four sisters and the difficulty of hope, and dreams, and family, and love, and loss.”
Niederpruem wanted to pay homage to the original story which was written in the 1800s, so she took the original themes into account as she adapted the story into the modern era.
She said, “I grew up loving the story of ‘Little Women,’ reading the book and watching the film adaptations … but then I re-read it as an adult and I really related to the story today.” Adding that she started to wonder, “What would it be like to take this story and see this family in 2018?”
Niederpruem said she started working on the movie script to see if it could successfully be translated into a contemporary story and quickly knew the story was perfect for a feature film. Little Women tells the story of four sisters who unwaveringly support each other despite having different dreams.
As a female director, Niederpruem said, “it’s actually a very exciting time to be a woman” in Hollywood.
The young director acknowledged what it is like to work as a female director in a male-dominated industry, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Niederpruem said that the movement revealed some critical and important information but now we need to move forward and encourage others to learn from the mistakes of offenders. She continued noting that since the movement broke out there has been a shift in Hollywood, but women still have some barriers that they need to break through to achieve equality in the industry.
Niederpruem added, “Sometimes, the best people to tell women’s stories are women.” She continued, “We’ve had our wakeup call and now I’m very hopeful and grateful.”
Photo courtesy: Pinnacle Peak
Video courtesy: PureFlix
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