Masturbation on Film: Karen Maine, Natalia Dyer & More on SXSW Standout 'Yes, God, Yes'

This week on the No Film School Podcast, we’re going to talk about one of the most largely undiscussed nuances of filmmaking: the portrayal of masturbation on film. Specifically. Of the female kind.

Yes, God, Yes is a film unlike any you’ve seen before. In it, a Catholic teenager in the early aughts discovers masturbating and struggles to suppress her new urges on a religious retreat. But this ain’t no American Pie satire. Writer/Director Karen Maine (who you may know as half of the writing team from 2014’s indie hit Obvious Child) truly brings us inside the mind of female adolescence. 

Much of this ability is due to the fact that she lived through this experience as a teen herself. As I learned when I sat down with Maine and her cast at SXSW earlier this month, however, it was the director’s openness to collaborate with her talented young leads that truly sealed the deal.

The cast is led by a standout performance from Natalia Dyer, who shows she clearly deserves more complex roles than the bonds of Stranger Things’ archetypal Nancy Wheeler can provide her. Dyer joins us on the show today, along with Timothy Simons (perhaps best known for his role as Jonah Ryan from Veep), and talented new comers Francesca Reale, Alisha Boe and Wolfgang Novogratz. We talk about building an atmosphere on set comfortable enough to avoid the pitfalls of the typical coming of age story.

For more, see our ongoing list of coverage of the 2019 SXSW Film Festival.

No Film School's podcast and editorial coverage of the 2019 SXSW Film Festival is sponsored by Blackmagic Design.