Horsegirls is an independent film centered around Margarita, a 22-year-old autistic woman navigating early adulthood portrayed by autistic actor Lillian Carrier. As her mother Sandy (played by actor Gretchen Mol) grapples with an uncertain health diagnosis, Margarita reluctantly takes on new responsibilities.
While navigating the demands of a new job and her mom’s illness, Margarita discovers the world of competitive hobby horsing — and it becomes a surprising lifeline to help her find her footing and grow into her independence.
When producer Alix Madigan came across the preliminary draft for Horsegirls, she was immediately drawn to the project. While the film includes many themes such as coming of age, bullying, cancer and the culture of hobby horsing, what stood out to Madigan the most was the mother-daughter relationship.
"I really fell in love with [the script]. You know, as a parent I think no matter how our kids turn out there's always a little bit of that tinge of fear [of] what's gonna happen to them when we leave this Earth? And sometimes, regrettably, that happens way sooner than we want it to and sometimes the kids we leave behind ... need us maybe more than other kids do or other humans do," she explains.
Horsegirls is a dramedy that makes sure authentic representation doesn’t just happen on screen, but in its entire filmmaking process. The team behind the story is also very interconnected — Lauren Meyering directed the film and her best friend Mackenzie Breeden first wrote the story loosely inspired by her family and is a co-producer.
"This story hews very close to life, to Mackenzie's actual story. Her mother Sandy was struggling with cancer for many years, and actually did pass away during the shoot of the film, which was incredibly tragic. The character of Margarita is very loosely based on [Mackenzie's sister] Marguerite [Breeden]," Madigan explains. "And Marguerite is just a wonderful woman. She has such a positive outlook [and] has a great sense of humor. It was really wonderful getting to know her in this process, but that's sort of how the story originated and how the true life aspects were the underpinnings of the script itself."
While Horsegirls centers around Margarita, who's an autistic young-adult, the word "autism" is actually never said in the movie itself. Madigan notes that the whole cast and crew were very intentional and determined to portray this story in the best way possible to avoid the negative tropes that can happen in films where a neurotypical actor portrays an autistic character.
"We were very determined that we do not fall into that trap. The good news is that there has been such a striving for authenticity throughout the past, I would say, eight or nine years [in film]... and I think it's incredibly important," she says.
The script for Horsegirls was vetted by Disability Belongs, who gave helpful notes and associate producer Alex Plank, who's autistic, also served as a consultant according to Madigan. Additionally, actor Lillian Carrier's twin sister Chloe Estelle was the Autism Sensitivity Coordinator on set. Madigan says that authentic casting was crucial, and they only auditioned women who had autism for the role of Margarita. "It never occurred to us to not hire in that," she notes. "It was very much of a learning process for me... All good stories are researched, essentially, and this is just part of that."
While Madigan has worked both in independent film and big picture studios, she believes that independent film is "always championing unique voices and stories."
"Independent film I think will always center itself around having voices and stories that are really not ‘mainstream’ be heard and realized," Madigan adds. "I love independent film... my heart is always in helping, because as a producer you're really the person sort of pushing the rock of a very steep hill so many times. You just have to have such a deep-seated belief in the story that you're trying to help realize. That's I think the main soul of what independent producing is."
Horsegirls will be playing Aug.17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Oriental Theater as a part of Milwaukee Film’s Cinematic Sisterhood series. Producer Alix Madigan along with actor Jerrod Haynes will be in attendance for a talkback after the screening. You can find tickets and more information here.
