Hidden behind the walls and windows of Gannett Hall, a filmmaker works among journalists.
Teaching at Missouri School of Journalism in the fall semesters, LeeAnne Lowry is a filmmaker from Kansas City. Lowry has firmly established their roots in Columbia’s vibrant artistic community, and they are currently working on a short film entitled “The Treadmill Switcher” — a project that is personal to them.
Lowry is the press and marketing manager for Ragtag Film Society, the nonprofit that oversees Ragtag Cinema and the True/False Film Festival. Being a longtime fan of cinema, Lowry understands the importance of establishing an emotional connection between the audience and the screen.
“I kind of fell into it [filmmaking], that’s how we learn about the world … through movies and the screen,” Lowry said.
Lowry’s passion for film was influenced by their brother when they were in high school. They found their way to video production classes, which led to a realization that they wanted to make movies for the rest of their life.
After graduating high school, Lowry pursued their love for filmmaking through higher education. They obtained a bachelor’s degree in digital filmmaking in 2015 and a master’s degree in writing for film and television in 2019, both from Stephens College.
At the CoMo Shorts Pitch Contest in 2021 — a film festival in Columbia in which the strongest pitch is awarded with funding, equipment and other resources — Lowry won with a pitch guided by a script they wrote for their planned comedy television series, “Hard Work.”
Lowry knew their ambitions and winnings would begin an uphill path to the silver screen. Using the resources they obtained from the CoMo Shorts Pitch Contest, Lowry began production on “The Treadmill Switcher” during the 2022 fall semester, both directing and writing the piece themselves.
“The Treadmill Switcher” takes place in Columbia and mainly stars transgender or nonbinary actors. The plot centers around a woman who walks on the same treadmill every day at her local gym, enmeshed in her own routine, when one day she notices someone running next to her who uses the treadmill in a unique way, causing her to question normalities in her own life and her own everyday routine.
“She’s kind of dealing with her own limitations and her own insecurities about her pace,” Lowry said of their short film’s main character. “She sees this person who is breaking away from routine in a way.”
Lowry noted that “The Treadmill Switcher” is also an exploration of themes like gender.
“It’s very much about how women are seen on screen and the roles women play on screen,” Lowry said. “The camera is intentionally the male gaze.”
In film, the “male gaze” objectifies women in an attempt to cater to straight, male viewers. Each shot in “The Treadmill Switcher” was precisely chosen by Lowry to demonstrate that the audience is watching the events unfold through the eyes of a lurking male figure.
Producing “The Treadmill Switcher” took planning, communication, patience and coordination, Lowry said. Lowry described the various challenges they had to navigate while shooting the film.
“Films don’t want to be made in general, and our first day of shooting was just awful,” Lowry said. “My car broke down, the call sheet didn’t get to one of our actors in time, someone got stung by a bee on set and the person giving them first aid started bleeding.”
Holding their crew and their set together, Lowry said they were able to get through production swiftly and successfully, utilizing their problem solving skills to push forward and get the shots they needed.
“So basically it started to feel real when I had to put out a lot of fires … When all of these things were going wrong, I felt really calm, and for me that’s when I knew it was clicking,” Lowry said.
The filmmaking process allowed the cast and crew to learn a great deal about the energy required to make a movie and capture a creative vision.
“Working with LeeAnne was a dream,” said Dakota Hommes, a fellow video creator and writer who also played the lead role in the short. “They were willing to try a lot of different things and ideas that worked well with the film … It was a fantastic experience working with LeeAnne, and I would love to do so again.”
The team is putting its finishing touches on “The Treadmill Switcher” and is eager to release the short into the film festival circuit by the end of February.
“I really love a bold choice when I watch a movie,” Lowry said. “I want it to be the film they talk about when they leave the theater.”
Edited by Savvy Sleevar | ssleevar@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Sterling Sewell and Grace Knight
Jonathan Asher • Feb 10, 2023 at 7:53 am
Ooh, I’m really looking forward to seeing this film!