How did Dan Schechter, filmmaker and former New School professor respond to conversations around “safe spaces” on college campuses? He made a movie about an adjunct professor’s busy week; a week where he finds himself in hot water at work at the same time that his grandmother is in the hospital.
“Safe Spaces,” written and directed by Schechter premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival on April 29. Justin Long stars as the main character, Josh. Josh’s mother is played by Fran Drescher of “The Nanny.”
“Safe Spaces” is Schechter’s fifth produced film. Previously, he directed “Life of Crime” starring Jennifer Aniston. In addition, his film “Supporting Characters” held its premiere at Tribeca in 2012.
Schechter taught a film class at the New School for a year. Schecter said he loved sharing his knowledge of film with his students. “I never had a mentor. And I always wanted to mentor people because I always like to learn from my own mistakes, which is a lot of what the movie is about.”
Schechter was inspired by events in his own life when writing “Safe Spaces.” The film is centered around a week where the grandmother of the protagonist, Josh, falls terminally ill. During the same week, Josh finds himself in trouble at his job as an adjunct professor at a university.
“Safe Spaces” is a love letter to Schechter’s family. His own family went through a week similar to what happened in the film.Schecter describes his film as a functional family comedy, “It was based on this really shitty, but in a weird way, great week with my grandma in hospitals. I was like ‘Oh, we’re a pretty good family, we’ve got a pretty strong core.”
Being a professor, Schechter became aware of issues surrounding sexual assault and harassment in a collegiate setting, which inspired the main conflict in the film.
In the beginning of the film, in his creative writing class, Josh pressures a student to admit what really happened to them in the situation they’re writing about for their assignment. This leads to the student talking about a sexually explicit encounter that they were embarrassed about. While it doesn’t bother the student relaying the information, another student in the class is severely triggered, as she was a survivor of sexual assault.
“I knew it was important that it was a victim of sexual assault. I thought it had to be something that everyone just acknowledges as trauma,” said Schechter.
The encounter leads to students refusing to attend Josh’s class, in support of the triggered student. Throughout the situation, Josh is convinced he didn’t do anything wrong, at least not intentionally. The incident ends with Josh’s suspension from work.
“Safe Spaces” brings Schechter’s two loves together, teaching and filmmaking. “I always wanted to do both,” said Schechter, “Because they feed into each other. You also have to learn your craft kind of better when you start teaching it. And it’s fun, because young energy is exciting.”
Schechter hired multiple New School students to be extras in the film. He also used the university as a set for many of the scenes in the film.
Bennett Melley, a senior studying Culture and Media at Lang met Schecter last year through his class and worked on the film. “He brought a lot of his outside experience into the classroom, which led to him talking a lot about the new film he was writing, ‘Safe Spaces’,” said Melley. “I was really curious to see how Dan would act as a director as opposed to a professor, but most of it really was the same. You can tell he loves making films, and is confident and comfortable in the role of director.”
The cast for “Safe Spaces” consists of well-known actors along with students who aren’t used to being in productions. “It was fun to work with people who I’m learning from because they’re far more experienced on set than I am. Then there was this other handful of, just super young, exciting actors. Sometimes you’re giving them their first role on film, and they’re acting with Justin Long and Fran [Drescher],” said Schechter.
“Fran Drescher literally lit up every room she walked into. She’s angelic,” said Melley.
Schechter says the students worked hard to portray an accurate depiction of college students in 2019. “They wanted to make sure those characters didn’t come off as any kind of parody of angry college students.”
“Overall, it was some of the hardest work i’ve ever done, but also the most rewarding,” said Melley. “Watching the film for the first time was sort of surreal. It was a simultaneous experience of remembering the day on set, but watching a different story take place there. The film was genuinely great. I laughed and I cried, and I never cry at movies,” he said.
Sammi Fisher is the former Editor-in-Cheif & Senior Editor of the New School Free Press. Prior, she spent a year as the Arts & Culture Editor.
