The prominent cinematographer, a Cambridge native, has directed her second film, “Love of Your Life.” She talks about filming in her hometown, how Ryan Coogler feels like family, and why she didn’t go to CRLS.
One of the most powerful women in filmmaking is Cambridge-bred Rachel Morrison, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose movies include “The Black Panther” and “Mudbound.” Morrison has moved to the director’s chair, making her debut in 2024 with the female boxing biopic “The Fire Inside.” Cambridge Day caught up with her as her new movie, “Love of Your Life,” opened at AMC Boston Common this week; it streams on Prime Video starting October 14.
In a universe of funky coincidence, it turns out Morrison played Cambridge youth soccer with Sian Heder, who directed the Oscar-winning, North Shore set, “CODA” (2022). Heder, whose mother Mags Harries created the “Glove Cycle” sculpture in the Porter Square MBTA station, went to Cambridge Rindge and Latin.
Morrison did not go to CRLS, which was my first question to her. She grew up on Hawthorne Street not far from the Charles Hotel, where we met, and attended Concord Academy because she wanted to play ice hockey (CRLS didn’t field a team then). Morrison was a shutterbug from a young age and at Concord Academy started to get interested in the moving picture. She studied both as an undergraduate at New York University, but in the real world knew she had to choose one over the other. “It took me a minute to realize that they’re completely different careers.” Morrison said. “You really can’t take a photo portfolio around by day and film reels around by night. There’s just so many hours in the day.”
She picked the storytelling and emotional impact of the longer form. “An incredible photograph would have a power over me. But nothing compared to walking out of a movie and feeling, transformed — and it was the imagery that was speaking to me.”
Morrison began working on documentaries and small independent films (“Palo Alto” in 2007, her first), and forged an in with the Sundance community, through which she was introduced to Ryan Coogler who was looking to make “Fruitvale Station” (2013) wanted a handheld, documentary look to his film about the tragic and unnecessary death of Oscar Grant (a George Floyd scenario before there was George Floyd). Morrison herself was interested in drama that had something to say and could have an impact.
Of their collaboration, Morrison said, “When Ryan and I met, it was just like family. It was the brother that I’d always wanted. We had an incredible synchronicity. He became my person.”
They worked together again on the superhero blockbuster “Black Panther” (2018), one of the few Marvel Universe entries to have true social context imbedded into it.
One of the movies she worked on in between was the 2017 movie “Mudbound,” Dee Rees’s post-WWII contemplation on racism, for which she became the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Cinematography.
The transition to the directorial seat came though happenstance when Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) sent her the script to “The Fire Inside.” “Barry had wanted to direct it, and I would have happily shot it, but he wanted a female director and wanted me to direct it,” Morrison said. “And as somebody who doesn’t shy away from a challenge, I was like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’”
Moviemaking as homecoming
“Love of Your Life,” is set in Boston during the pandemic and stars Margaret Qualley (“Dog Stars,” “Honey Don’t”). The movie is a deeply felt contemplation on grief, loss and guilt. Morrison, 48, knows well those first two sentiments, as she lost her mom at 15 and her father when she was 30. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer before she was in elementary school and was also a catalyst for Morrison to pick up the camera — she used her mom’s old Olympus to take pictures of her family. “I also think I probably got into it as a way to sort of freeze time, the sense that we were losing her, and I was trying to kind of preserve what I could.”
In the film, scripted by Julia Cox, a Boston native who also wrote “Nyad” (2023), Qualley plays Maya, a Boston nurse who falls in love, gets married and then shortly thereafter has her life upturned. She disconnects with her identity in the now and goes underground in Portugal. “Love of Your Life” also stars Gabriel Basso, Aaron Pierre, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Catherine Keener.
There are many scenes in Cambridge and Boston that only locals will get. One scene in the script called for the swan boats at the Boston Garden. This gave Morrison pause, she said, and she told Cox and crew, “It feels a little tropey. Can we look for something that still feels iconic Boston, Cambridge, but maybe not, like, the tourist version?”
The crew decided to move the scene to the Mount Auburn Cemetery, where Morrison’s parents are buried, “a complete coincidence,” she said. Local folks will also quickly deduce that “Boston General” is really Mass General.
Morrison and her partner, Rachel Garza, currently live in Los Angeles and have two children, who attend public elementary schools. As to her next professional step, she’s reading scripts looking for something with a social angle to it. She’s also working on commercials.
She still gets behind the camera, usually doing some of the intimate handheld work. When we met at the Charles Hotel it was early in the morning, the rising sun pouring into our meeting room. I went to take her photo and mentioned the tricky lighting. Morrison said, “I can help with that.”
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