Producers in Front of the Camera: KATIE CORDEAL & COLLEEN HAMMOND

Video Interview

When Colleen Hammond, who at the time worked in development at Tribeca Film Institute, approached Katie Cordeal, an experienced production accountant, to make their first feature together, they couldn’t have known that it would go on to compete in narrative competition at SXSW 2019.

The bricks for this partnership were laid many years beforehand in the mid-west town of St. Louis, where both attended all-girls Catholic high schools and struck up a friendship. Fast forward to now, and that same upbringing serves them well with their feature, YES, GOD YES which centers on fifteen-year-old Alice who has always been a good Catholic girl until she suddenly finds herself obsessed with masturbating. 

In this interview we explore how their personal experience with the story became a through-line during the development process and how strategically making a short film version of the feature started a snowball of connections and opportunities which led them to receive pivotal funding for the film.