Listen & Watch: Josh and Benny Safdie on Life Mirroring Art in 'Heaven Knows What'

Josh and Benny Safdie at the Walter Reade Theater. Photo by Julie Cunnah.

Listen to the press conference with Josh and Benny Safdie at the Walter Reade Theater, moderated by Kent Jones. Scroll down to view the discussion.

The Safdies took to the stage at the Walter Reade Theater following a pre-NYFF screening of their latest film, Heaven Knows What, which will have its U.S. premiere at the festival.

Heaven Knows What follows Harley, stunningly played by Arielle Holmes, and Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones), who are madly in love. They are also addicted to heroin. They are ostensibly heavy-metal rockers but actually spend the majority of their time wandering around New York looking for a fix, all the while preying on each other and their “friends” in search of that high.

The script is based on a memoir by Holmes, who Josh Safdie commissioned after meeting her by chance while doing research on another project. “I met her in the Jewelry District [in New York],” said Josh Safdie, who was there selling fake Rolex watches and the like while developing a separate film. After spotting her, Safdie was urged by a producer to ask her to take a part in the film, but their meeting would eventually lead down a very separate path.

“I was very nervous because it’s a very romantic gesture to ask someone to be in a movie,” he said at the NYFF press conference. Safdie goes on to say that he met with her in Chinatown to discuss a role. At the dinner she confessed to being homeless and that she was an apprentice in the Jewelry District. After finding her a ‘high-paying’ job on a music video through a friend, Holmes disappeared. Some weeks went by, then she called Safdie and told him she was in the hospital. Her dramatic real-life story poured out about a traumatic love interest and bouts with addiction. The Safdies, meanwhile, were having trouble with their project and, at the urging of a friend, the filmmakers commissioned Holmes to tell her story. “[The pages] came fast and furiously,” said Safdie. “They were very cinematic and blew me away.”

In Heaven Knows What, Holmes plays Harley in a part that roughly mirrors her past. Listen to the audio from the press conference with Josh and Benny Safdie, in which Josh recalls the full story of meeting Arielle, in addition to other highlights.