The Way I See It: Ellen Kuras

As kids, we were always in New York City, even when we were very young. I remember being 11 years old and taking the bus by myself into the city to go to the opera with my brother. We had this great relationship with the city and its culture, especially through music and food.  

My father was an engineer and travelled a lot, so we had plenty of exposure to the world at large, but my cinema knowledge growing up was limited. Living in a small town, there was only one movie theatre. Oftentimes the same film would play for six weeks.  

My whole life turned around when I took a photography class at the RISD. I fell in love with it, and I wanted to quit my studies and go to art school. 

Early on, I was really interested in history. I went to school to study ancient history, particularly Sumer and Mesopotamia in Egypt. I went to Brown University, which is in Rhode Island, and in the same town was a very famous art school called the Rhode Island School of Design, or RISD. They were always showing international movies at the RISD, and I became obsessed with European film.  

Above: Rhode Island School of Design.

My whole life turned around when I took a photography class at the RISD. I fell in love with it, and I wanted to quit my studies and go to art school. My parents, of course, wouldn't let me, but I was able to continue doing photography.  

I became interested in how we can create meaning, which led to a deep interest in propaganda, particularly during the interwar periods in Germany, Russia and Paris. That led to my first exposure of Lee Miller. 

 I had to make a thesis, so I started making this documentary film.

I ended up going to France for my third year of school to study what was then called ‘La semiology’, the study of signs and symbols. I was reading Freud and Kant and Derrida in French. It was a very intense year, but it really changed the way that I see the world.  

Above: Kant, Freud, and Derrida. 

I never intended to become a cinematographer, but I took some night classes at NYU to get my Masters degree. I had to make a thesis, so I started making this documentary film. I didn't want it to be docudrama, which was popular at the time. I knew I wanted to make it poetic and honest in the spirit of the truth.  

I didn't own a camera at that time, and I started shooting and experimenting and trying to see how the camera influences the way that you would tell a story. 

I was the director, and I hired a cinematographer to shoot it. I tried to tell him the kind of stories I was looking for and the kind of connections I wanted between the characters. When we got the dailies back, they were interesting shots, but they didn't tell the story to me. They didn't have meaning, so that's when I picked up the camera myself to explore how I could create meaning.  

Above: Official trailer for Lee, directed by Ellen Kuras. 

I started from ground zero, really. I didn't own a camera at that time, and I started shooting and experimenting and trying to see how the camera influences the way that you would tell a story. I realised that the camera can be used to create metaphors. People started seeing what I was shooting, and I started working as a camera person. That's how it all started, really. People in New York always knew me as a cinematographer. 

Society tries to funnel you in a certain direction, but I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker

I turned to documentary filmmaking because there were very few women who were working in the industry at that time. Most women went in as producers or editors. There were certainly very few female directors, and even fewer cinematographers. 

Society tries to funnel you in a certain direction, but I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, and documentary was the way that I was able to step into the industry. I decided to work as an electrician on set for a while too. It was really interesting to know what it takes to light something, and to know how to light it, and to know what everything's called. That made me a much better DP later. 

Above: Official trailer for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry and cinematography by Ellen Kuras.

The idea of being able to shoot something was so far out of reach for most people when I first started. You can shoot a movie on your iPhone now, but before, it was much more esoteric and limited to certain people who were in that field. For women especially, to get an opportunity to shoot was rare.   

Commercials and television were a great proving ground for me to be able to direct with actors and shape my vision.

I was very lucky early on in my career, because the first documentary I ever shot, which was set in Cambodia, won 25 international awards including the student Academy Award, and the jury award at Sundance was established for that film, so I was on the map early on.  The first dramatic feature that I ever shot, Swoon - which was a black-and-white period film - won the Best Cinematography at Sundance.  After that, I won Sundance for Best Cinematography three times. 

I started directing in the commercial world after I finished my thesis film. It took a long time to finish, partly because I shot lots of films in between, but mainly because I couldn’t get to Laos, which was a closed country, to shoot one pivotal interview. When I finally got that footage, the film premiered at Sundance in 2008, and I won the Emmy. I thought, ‘alright, now I'm ready to go and direct’. 

Above: Play is Your Superpower for LEGO, directed by Ellen Kuras.

Commercials and television were a great proving ground for me to be able to direct with actors and shape my vision. I directed two episodes in the first season of Ozark, I worked on Umbrella Academy, and then George Clooney invited me to work with him on Catch-22, and Noah Hawley invited me to Legion.

We marvelled about who had sat at that table; the surrealist artists of the time... 

Lee is my directorial feature debut, but I've been directing since 2010. I was nominated for an Academy Award for my directorial documentary feature debut, and I won the Emmy for that too. People like to tell the ‘cinematographer turned director’ story now, because of Eternal Sunshine, but I always tell publicists, ‘Please call me a director cinematographer’, because that's what I am!  

The story of how Lee came about goes way back. I had known of Miller for many years through her photography, and also through her work as a surrealist artist. I had given Kate Winslet a book about Lee Miller, because I noticed how much she resembled her.  

Above: Reach for Delta Airlines, directed by Ellen Kuras.

It wasn't until years later that Kate bought a table that had belonged to the Penrose family, and she called me up, because we had remained friends since working together on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. We marvelled about who had sat at that table; the surrealist artists of the time, Picasso etc. Five years later, Kate had been trying to get a script written about Miller, and she asked if I’d like to direct the film.  

One of the key questions that doesn't get asked enough in making movies is, what's the point of view?

Before Lee, I had been working on a project about Emily Dickinson. It really prepared me for what was to come. Because Emily is a historical figure, the script had taken a lot of liberty with her life. And I just thought, ‘no, we can't do this’.  

When I came to the Lee Miller script, I saw that it had similar qualities to the story about Emily Dickinson, meaning that it was a series of events, and it needed to have a stronger structure. It needed to have a story that was a beginning, middle and the end, within a movie that was just not the events of her life, and that also showed the other side of her - the darker side of her. Kate and I enlisted the help of writer Liz Hannah, who really helped to structure the story. 

Above: Kate Winslet and Ellen Kuras speaking at the Women In Film Awards, October 2024.

One of the key questions that doesn't get asked enough in making movies is, what's the point of view?  In my experience as a cinematographer, this is where the camera can really inform that perspective, change the point of view, and keep it very precise. 

Lee Miller was a model. She was objectified. She was photographed a lot as a child by her father. I think that at a certain point she felt like she didn't have the power to control her image.  

Women were doing the work, but they just weren't allowed to be on the front lines. And that's where Lee Miller, to her credit, defied conventional boundaries.  

There was a beautiful photograph of Lee that was used in an advertisement for sanitary napkins without her knowledge, and that tanked her modelling career. In those days, the 30s, people didn't want to use a model who was attached to women's sanitary napkins. That also just goes to show the extent of how women were seen in culture back then.   

Above: Photograph of Lee Miller (left), and the Kotex advert featuring her stolen portrait, which affected her modelling career (right). 

We were determined to set the lens differently on this film. Typical war films look at what happens to men in combat. What made Miller unique is that she looked behind the scenes. She was looking at what happened to the women. She really enabled us to see the fringes of war, what happens outside the frame of combat. Her and Audrey withers, her editor at Vogue magazine, published war stories in a fashion magazine, a women's fashion magazine, which was unheard of at the time, and very bold and daring. 

We're on the cusp of a huge political change and upheaval, the same as at the end of the 1930s.

When you think about advertising, this is completely out of the norm. Yet their philosophy was that Vogue is a magazine that's being read by women. They wanted to let women know what was happening, about the effort of women, which was huge even in places like America.  

The war machine wouldn't have happened without women. You have the women and female pilots who are ferrying bombers back and forth between the bases in England. Women were doing the work, but they just weren't allowed to be on the front lines. And that's where Lee Miller, to her credit, defied conventional boundaries.  

Above: Official trailer for Ozark Season 1, of which Kuras directed two episodes. 

Through the film, I hope people can dive into the life of Lee Miller and see her legacy, be informed by her choices and her boldness and fierceness, and her dedication to finding and telling the truth, as well as her commitment to women and justice. 

I think the changes we’re seeing in the industry are kind of heading in the direction we've all feared - the takeover of the corporation.

There are so many more layers to the film that connect to what's happening in our world now. We're on the cusp of a huge political change and upheaval, the same as at the end of the 1930s, because then, too, people were unaware of what was right around the corner with the rise of Hitler and authoritarianism in Europe, and they didn't suspect that it would infect all of Europe.  

I think it's a lesson for us to open our eyes to what's happening in the world, we all must be very aware and speak out about what's going on. Being able to shoot was once the domain of a very few people who could grab a camera, like the Maysles brothers. But now everyone can shoot, and they should, whether they're a cinematographer or not. Citizens can be documenters of the world. They're witnesses of what's happening.  

Above: Ellen Kuras with cast members of Lee; Andy Samberg, Kate Winslet, and Andrea Riseborough.

I don't do social media. In the very beginning, when I read the fine print, I knew they were data gathering. They want to peer into our lives under the guise of providing a platform for people to communicate and connect, but it's a money machine. They own all your images once you put them on their platform. And, as we've seen, social media has turned on its heels to become devastating to people's lives.  

You're working 12-hour days, you don't see your families, you don't have a normal life, so people are questioning that commitment now, and that's really unfortunate. 

I think the changes we’re seeing in the industry are kind of heading in the direction we've all feared - the takeover of the corporation. As we've seen bigger streaming giants taking over cinema, they're dictating what the content is. I find that dangerous, because it stifles the independent voice. The industry itself has changed a lot. Films are no longer made in the studios run by movie moguls, now the studios are owned by corporations.  

A lot of the people making decisions in the executive offices aren't even filmmakers. They don't know how to make a film, so it becomes more difficult for the people on the ground.  More and more crew people I meet are becoming disillusioned with the work. Because, you know, they're interested in making good films and good content. 

Above: Official series trailer for Catch-22. 

I remember being shocked when I was doing a preliminary scout for a film, and my travel itinerary was sent by GE (General Electric), and not a studio. That was shocking to me, because I thought I would never work for GE, they're just the evil empire, but here we are. 

 Kate was very determined that Lee would have an independent voice, that no one was going to influence the content...

Working in film is a huge commitment of your life and time and energy. You're working 12-hour days, you don't see your families, you don't have a normal life, so people are questioning that commitment now, and that's really unfortunate. 

This is why it was important for Lee to be an independent film. The financing was put together from many different sources. It wasn't as simple as just having Netflix give you millions of dollars. We worked so hard to put together the puzzle pieces to get it on the screen. Any film that gets made is a miracle, in my opinion, having worked on many. 

Above: Kuras on set. 

Kate was very determined that Lee would have an independent voice, that no one was going to influence the content, and that there would be freedom to be able to tell the exact story we wanted to tell. 

Making a film is a huge commitment of time and energy, of life and heart and soul.  

I'm currently developing another film, which will be an original script that would take place in upstate New York. I've been reading a lot of books to find another story. 

There are plenty of scripts around, but I look for real precision in the way things are written. Being as picky as I am, I’m not going to jump into something that I don't want to do. Making a film is a huge commitment of time and energy, of life and heart and soul.