A father-daughter relationship finds eventual catharsis through conflict in Marina, writer-director Eva Steinmetz’s MFA thesis film completed during her studies at Temple University. The titular character (Grace McLean) struggles as the sole caretaker for her mentally and physically declining father (Peter Friedman). Indeed, their shifting roles has caused quite a rift in their relationship—and even rehashes past resentments—causing both parties to simmer with perpetual frustration. With the help of an ice cold Klondike bar, the two are able to enjoy each other’s company for the first time in a while; a moment so uncanny that it takes place during an fantastical underwater sequence.
Marina is one of five winners of the 2025 Student Short Film Showcase, a collaborative program from The Gotham, Focus Features and JetBlue that is available to stream via Focus Features’s YouTube channel and offered in the air as part of JetBlue’s in-flight entertainment selection.
Steinmetz and I conversed over email, touching upon her pivotal collaboration with Josephine Decker, how her team accomplished a striking underwater sequence and the several theatrical productions she currently has lined up.
All interviews with all of the sixth annual Student Short Film Showcase winners are published here.
Filmmaker: What inspired you to pursue an MFA in filmmaking at Temple University?
Steinmetz: I’ve been interested in filmmaking for most of my life. In fact, I attended Bard College with the intention of double majoring in theater and film, but the buildings are two miles apart. I didn’t own a car and the logistics of schlepping equipment and making it to classes on time became enough of a hindrance that, after taking two years of wonderful filmmaking classes, I decided to move forward as just a theater major. Then, in 2013 I met Josephine Decker at a summer clown intensive and had the great pleasure of being in her film, Madeline’s Madeline (2018). That experience reignited my love for filmmaking and, when the pandemic hit and theater disappeared, I decided it was time to pursue my own practice.
Filmmaker: How has your background in theater influenced your filmmaking practice?
Steinmetz: I think the biggest influence has been on my orientation to the actors. As a theater director, I develop blocking and physical imagery in collaboration with the performers––I like to create choreography and build scenes around their intuitive physical impulses. In the film world, the camera is often the one to determine movement quality and the editor gets to decide when people enter and exit. I’m still learning how all the different elements speak to each other, but my tendency is to prioritize collaboration and include the perspectives of the actors whenever possible.
Filmmaker: The two actors in the film are incredible. How did you cast them and were there any necessary steps to conjure the oddly volatile chemistry we see in the film?
Steinmetz: Ohhh, they’re such extraordinarily sweet, generous, talented humans! In this case, I think the secret to the strangely volatile conflict on screen was joy and mutual affection off screen. I know Grace McLean from the theater world––we co-wrote the book for a one woman musical, Penelope, in collaboration with a dear composer friend named Alex Bechtel. I love working with Grace so, early on in my screenwriting process for Marina, I asked her if she’d be in the film. When she said yes, we started to talk about who might play her father. Since it’s such a specific and intimate relationship, I knew we would all benefit from the two actors having a pre-existing relationship and shared trust. I essentially gave Grace permission to choose the other actor, if she knew someone who’d be right for the part. She said she’d reach out to her “buddy Pete” and I said, “Yeah, sounds great––ask your buddy Pete.” It took me a while to realize that her buddy Pete was Peter Friedman and I still truly cannot believe I got to work with him.
Filmmaker: Tell me about orchestrating the incredible underwater sequence in Marina. How did you, your cast and crew pull it off?
Steinmetz: None of us had ever filmed an underwater scene before and we were working with a humble student budget, so this became the collaborative challenge that we all rallied behind. What we learned is that you can do almost all of it practically. We used thick haze, fans behind the curtains, a projector playing water textures, and we reflected a light off mylar to create caustics. We puppeted objects on fishing wire and filmed it all at 40 FPS, which our DP Rick Cook calls “the underwater speed.” After doing a lot of research and talking to a lot of people, we determined that the only thing we couldn’t do practically was Marina’s hair. Even if you blow fans at the hair and film at a high frame rate, it won’t look right. So, we put Grace in a wig cap when we filmed and asked a VFX animator named Anthony Mercanaj to make some hair for us (while he was at it, he threw in bubbles and fish for good measure). We all had a lot of fun figuring out that final scene.
Filmmaker: Can you discuss the project you’re currently in production on? If not, are there any details about upcoming film or theater projects that you’re able to share?
Steinmetz: This year, I’m directing a couple productions of the solo musical I co-created with Grace McLean. It’s called Penelope (centering Odysseus’s wife who waited for his return for 20 years) and is a musical love letter to those who wait. It [played] at Theatre Horizon, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and will be at Ancram Center for the Arts Sept. 19-28. Come see it! We’re talking about turning it into an experimental concert-film!
I’m also in the process of writing my first feature film. It’s about a woman who’s navigating a strange, hyper-privatized maze of bureaucracy in order to formally register her Heartbreak and gain access to government benefits after losing her home in a wildfire. It has elements of magical realism, as a symptom of her grief is sudden exhaustion, which causes her to fall asleep and become immersed in the earth. Oh, and it’s a love story! This last January, my hometown of Altadena, California burned down in the Eaton Fire and this writing project has been a wonderfully soothing and healing outlet for my own sorrow.