How Sew Torn Director Freddy MacDonald Made His Feature Debut at 24 — With Advice From Joel Coen

Some dads teach their sons to catch a ball or tie a tie, and we're sure Sew Torn director Freddy MacDonald's father taught him those things. But he also taught him to make movies from a very early age.

"My dad used to run an animation studio, and he taught me stop-motion when I was nine years old," says MacDonald. "When I wanted to animate little balls bouncing and stuff, he was like, 'No, no, no — you don't do that. Do something with a beginning, a middle and an end — and an ending that subverts expectations, like a joke.'

"And I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't just start doing stuff. I have to think about it before I do it."

A commitment to thoughtfulness and craft are evident in the endlessly inventive Sew Torn, a Switzerland-set crime thriller involving lots of thread that is now in theaters after debuting at SXSW last year to widespread acclaim.

We talk with Freddy MacDonald in the latest episode of the MovieMaker podcast, which you can check out on Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, or here:

MacDonald's dad, Fred MacDonald, was the CEO of the animation company Olive Jar Studios, and worked with Disney and Dreamworks, among others. He co-wrote the 2019 short film "Sew Torn" with his son, who submitted it as part of his application package for the American Film Institute.

Freddy MacDonald was accepted, but maybe overshot the mark — the film was such a sensation that he also ended up getting a meeting with Joel Coen, representation from Coen's agent at UTA, and a deal with Searchlight Pictures to show the film in theaters ahead of the horror hit Ready or Not.

Sew Torn Director Freddy MacDonald on Meeting Joel Coen

Meeting Joel Coen was especially gratifying because "Sew Torn" was inspired, in part, by Joel and Ethan Coen's Oscar winning No Country for Old Men — especially the setup in which Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) stumbles onto a drug deal gone awry.

MacDonald remembers the meeting with Coen in great detail.

"He was just sitting in a coffee shop with a notepad, planning his next movie, and no one was around him. And I was like, he's a legend, just sitting there, and he's just the most humble person.

"And the first thing he told my dad and I was, 'You guys have to keep working together. If it works, to work with family, do it. It's the most special thing. Sometimes you're going to want to murder each other, but that's part of the process. Just keep, keep working with family.'

"And then the second thing was, 'Turn this into a feature.'"

The MacDonalds took the advice. But turning the short into a feature was a years-long process, full of stops and starts.

Also Read: Watch a Seamstress Pull of the Perfect Crime in a Sew Torn Exclusive Scene

The short version of "Sew Torn" is about a seamstress using her sewing skills to pull off the perfect crime at the scene of a botched drug deal along a beautiful, isolated road in Switzerland.

The feature Sew Torn (our house style is quotes for the titles of shorts and italics for features) starts with a reproduction of that jaw-dropping sequence, but follows three different scenarios in which the seamstress (Eve Connolly) takes the money, calls the police, or just keeps moving.

Freddy MacDonald and his father worked out the feature idea on one of the long walks they regularly take to brainstorm. They ultimately realized that the feature needed to be about choice.

"She's there at this road, and she has to make a decision, and she's torn. I mean, as corny as it is, it's in the title," he says.

The seamstress in the film, Barbara, has inherited her mother's mobile seamstress business, and doesn't necessarily like it. Freddy MacDonald is also following his father's career — but has never felt pressured into it, he says. He recalls hours spent in the family's dark garage at their home in Santa Monica, and his dad making sure that's what he really wanted.

"I don't feel trapped at all," he explains. "I think the reason it's such a big theme in the movie is because it's something my dad and I talk about a lot. And growing up, he was very self-aware about it. He would say, 'You really don't have to do this film stuff... you can do whatever you want.'"

While his father was instrumental to the film, his mother and sister were, too. His mother is a Swiss sculptor and photographer, and her country of origin explains the film's setting. And his sister loves sewing — so much so that her sewing box is the one Barbara uses in the film.

"She's still so pissed that I used it for the short film and then the feature and dirtied it up," he says. "She's like, 'I don't even want it back anymore, because it looks doesn't look the same.'"

Sew Torn is now in theaters, from Sunrise Films.

Main image: Eve Connolly as Barbara in Sew Torn. Sunrise Films.