Shana Feste Says Run Sweetheart Run

If you just known Shana Feste from soft-focus crowd pleasers like Country Strong, you might be surprised that she's the writer/director of twisted #MeToo horror Run Sweetheart Run. But it's less of a shock to anyone that actually knows her. "People who have seen the film or read the script say, 'This feels more like you than any of your other work."

After her first feature, YA melodrama The Greatest, played Sundance in 2009, Feste started being offered director gigs in that vein. She actually had a genre script about a family of bank robbers ready to go "but it wasn't getting any traction, so I made Country Strong." She enjoys melodramas, "and I was enjoying being a big-studio director," but she still wanted to get a genre project made. That ambition finally comes true with Run Sweetheart Run, but, she said, "The only reason I got an opportunity to direct it was because I wrote it, and I told them, 'I'm going to direct it.'"

Nashville hijinks are a far remove from the sinister sexual power dynamics of Run Sweetheart Run, when a rising but held-back talented young woman (Ella Balinska) goes on a business dinner with a client (Pilou Asbeak) that turns into a date that turns into drinks at his place that turns into a nightmarish sprint across LA, and a dissection of the roots of violent misogyny.

In her career to date, Feste said, "I've played by the rules. I've listened to what people told me I should be doing, I've used a very soft voice talking about love and fighting for love and family dramas, and I've really stayed in my lane as far as what people expected of me. And there was a point where I just realized it hadn't gotten me anywhere. I was not at the point in my career where I was really proud of that. And I think Run Sweetheart Run came out of that very painful moment."

And she credited Blumhouse with seeing that she could work outside of the box into which she had been shoved. With the films she had made before, she said, "They had no reason to greenlight this movie, but they took a chance on me, which was amazing."

If the name of the film sounds familiar, it's not a surprise since it debuted at Sundance in 2020. Feste, a UT grad, actually moved back to Austin and has been living here and immersing herself in the film community for the last 18 months: and like every other filmmaker at that year's Sundance, she found herself in pandemic limbo. The original plan was a release by Universal that May, but Feste said she quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. "They were holding all these big movies, and our movie was definitely not going to be put out theatrically any more." So the film entered a holding pattern, "then thankfully my husband was like, 'Streamers. Let's get this movie seen.'"

Enter Amazon, who acquired the film and release it today, after a two-and-a-half-year wait. "I feel really lucky that I was one of the ones that got out unscathed," said Feste.

Unscathed, but not unchanged. One perk of the delayed release and the shift in distributors was that Amazon provided a budget for reshoots. Her initial response, like that of any filmmaker, was a sinking feeling ("This is my baby! What are we gonna do?") but then she met producer Effie Brown, "and she's just a powerhouse producer. She said, 'Shana, this movie is so timely, and I know you want it to speak to all women, and right now I want it to feel more authentic to a Black woman's experience.'" This allowed Feste to work with The Good Fight staff writer Keith Josef Adkins and journalist/scriptwriter Kellee Terrell on a rewrite, "and we were able to elevate some of the themes and make it more authentic to a Black woman's perspective, and I think the film is better for it."

This meant more than just costume continuity challenges: scenes played differently, emotional beats altered, and some performances were completely reshot. "There might be a shot of [Dayo Okeniyi] driving in the car and it's a totally new reaction for Ella." She gave credit to the continuity and editing team for bringing the old and new elements together, but especially to composer Robin Coudert, "because he was able blend everything."

So the film had changed since 2020, but the world has changed as well - and not necessarily for the better. The original 2020 release would have been "right on the heels of #MeToo," said Feste, "and I was thinking, 'Well, are people going to care about that any more? Is it going to feel relevant any more?' And now, so many years later, I have less rights than I did when I took this movie to Sundance. And it makes me think my mother could have made this movie, my grandmother could have made this movie. I hope not, but it's looking like my daughters' going to be able to make this movie."

But there's one positive element that has remained throughout Run Sweetheart Run's long journey from first draft to the screen: Feste's love of dogs. "I'm a huge animal rescuer," said Feste, who started volunteering with Austin Pets Alive as soon as she moved back to the city. Her deepest love is for pitbulls, which she called "the most loyal, loving, wonderful dogs." That's why one of the heroes of the film is a dog she dubbed "Mamma Pittie. ... I'm glad that I got to use her in a way that was really true to me as a writer/director, to make this film feel really personal."

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Run Sweetheart Run is available on Prime Video now.