Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/760821
THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION H E F I L M S M A D E by Kelly Reich- ardt, with their wide-open sonic spaces, piercing landscapes, vivid character encounters and sense of menacing exposure to the elements— settle into your soul like a road trip experience in itself. So it makes sense to learn that long jaunts across the country have been key to her creative process—not just on her new fi lm Certain Women, but for most of her haunting oeuvre. This habitual criss-crossing of highways has served partly to maintain a life split between New York City, where she teaches, and Portland, Ore., where she feels creatively at home, and partly to indulge in the hands-on location scouting that all but consumes her during pre-production. "There are always months and months of me driving, either with my dog, or with a location scout or one of my producers," she says. "And it really informs what you come up with. You run into things you didn't expect, or B Y A M Y D AW E S FOR KELLY REICHARDT, HER CROSS - COUNTRY ROAD TRIPS INFORM HER CREATIVE PROCESS [ I N D I E V O I C E ] DGA QUARTERLY 69 PHOTO: SIMON MAX HILL