Marielle Heller quotes:

In some ways the nudity really makes people feel more uncomfortable because it's not nudity that is just making bodies look like sexy little pieces of body parts stuck together. It's much more blunt and real and there is not a sexy soundtrack behind it all.

Seeing yourself reflected on screen is a very important part of being human. It makes us feel less alone, it make us feel more connected to humanity. Women, gay men, and trans people for a long time have not seen themselves represented, so being able to show the complexities that we all have - just as complex stories as a heterosexual white male - is crucial for us to feel more human and have other people see us as human beings.

Showing a real human body and a woman who is looking at her body without shame - that alone is a radical notion. Showing a young woman who is honest about what she is experiencing and letting us into her most intimate, darkest thoughts, all of that is just promoting something that we don't get to see about young women.

Things like pornography perpetuates this idea that women are just there as objects of male desire and are not complex people with their own sexuality and humanity.

My advice for anyone wanting to direct is that nobody is going to hand you an opportunity. You have to create your own opportunities and not take no for an answer.