Writer/director Jacqueline Christy details the story behind her first feature film, Magic Hour, and working with an A list cast and crew.
Jacqueline Christy’s film Magic Hour proves it’s never too late to pursue your dreams, and she would know: It’s very loosely inspired by her own story.
“I decided to go to film school in my 40s,” says Christy, who comes from a theater background, founding Access Theater in Tribeca. “I had been procrastinating for decades. But like all our dreams, it kept pestering me.”
Finally, she applied to NYU and got in (“which was a miracle!”) and enjoyed her time there so much that she decided to write about it.
“I had a blast, but it was also really challenging. When your dream is not a dream anymore, all the reasons why you put it off come at you.”
Surrounding Herself with Award-Winning Talent
Start to finish, Magic Hour took about 7 years to make.
“Some people were like, is Jackie never going to finish this movie?” says Christy. “But of course, I knew I was going to finish the movie. It just needed to find its way. This was my first feature, so I was learning how to make a movie as I was making it.”
Luckily, she was able to assemble an amazing cast, including Miriam Shor in the lead role, as well as top-notch below-the-line talent like Grammy Award winner Carla Patullo to score the film (2024 Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album), colorist Elie Akoka (who worked with Claire Denis on 2018’s High Life), DP Lasse Ulvedal Tolbøll who worked on the 2024 Oscar-winning short film Knight of Fortune, and costume designer Desira Pesta, who worked on 2025 Academy Award nominee Sing Sing.
She was also able to nab Renee Taylor for a cameo role that becomes a turning point in the comedy.
“My producer on set Eva [Minemar], she knows Renee Taylor. I had a scene that didn’t involve Renee Taylor, and it wasn’t as funny. Then Renee Taylor comes along. There are so many things I could use in the movie, but she was so funny. She had all of us cracking up on set. She’s an icon. It transformed that scene.”
And then she also got to direct legendary actor, Austin Pendleton, in another crucial scene.
“[For his character], I told him, this might be the last opportunity for you to be in a movie — and you’re begging her not to fire you. And because he’s hilarious, he said, ‘Oh, I’ve been begging people not to fire me my whole life!’ Because of this, he gave us a much more vulnerable, intense performance. You have a masterful actor like that, you give them an adjustment, and you get something special.”
“Kindness Is Her Superpower”
While Christy says that Harriet is a heightened version of herself, she describes all the characters as some part of her.
“Harriet has the essence of a person who is self-doubting and internalizing the messaging that’s out there, which tells folks — nobody cares what you have to say. There’s a danger of women internalizing that message. In this character, I wanted to reflect that the worldview is that it’s a dog-eat-dog world. I wanted it to be about a kind woman in an unkind world, where kindness equals weakness. And then by the end, kindness is her superpower.”
Coming from the “lovefest” background of theater, Christy hopes that Magic Hour instills in audiences to put kindness first in whatever they do.
“The real world of filmmaking isn’t like that at all, but it doesn’t have to be this way. I know it doesn’t have to be this way because in film school we did it differently and in theater my whole life. You come at it in a way that brings people out. To me, that’s how good work happens. It’s a mission of mine that kindness does not equal weakness. It equals collaboration, strength, and leadership. If you are a bully, when something goes wrong, no one has your back.”
She also hopes to inspire other late-blooming Harriets to pursue their goals, no matter how lofty.
“Take your dream and go for it. That’s what I want! That’s been my hope all along.”
Magic Hour screens at the Miami Film Festival on April 9 and will appear at other festivals later this year.
