KUNM
Pajama Men alum returns to NM with a film about a man, a woman and a monkey
The Santa Fe International Film Festival is underway and among the films is one featuring Albuquerque native Shenoah Allen, formerly of the improv group The Pajama Men. He and comedian Nina Conti wrote and star in “Sunlight” which they describe as a nihilistic comedy love story between a man and a woman who doesn’t want to come out of a monkey suit until she is truly loved.
SHENOAH ALLEN: As ludicrous as it might seem, to have a movie where you're watching a monkey for most of the time, it's kind of grounded. I hope we're trying to make characters that people relate to and feel an emotional connection with.
NINA CONTI: I mean, I should say it's a woman in a monkey suit, not in an actual monkey yeah, there's a woman who doesn't want to come out of a monkey suit.
KUNM: Nina, you are a ventriloquist, and Monkey is a hand puppet who would say things that were crass or taboo or transgressive. Now, with your character in this film, you are Monkey. Why did you want to go further into being Monkey?
CONTI: I suppose, in a way I found myself to be the artifice and the Monkey was the much truer version of myself, because it was unfettered with, you know, worrying about how he came across. And truth can be spoken behind that mask so easily. So I thought I would get rid of the woman who's there, who's sort of sold herself too many times to the wrong decisions, and maybe this Monkey might have a little bit of integrity that she couldn't manage.
KUNM: Both your characters are kind of lost. Shenoah, your character, Roy, begins as suicidal. Nina, in the Monkey suit, your character stops him, but you remain in the suit, and the woman inside is hiding from a bad relationship and from herself. So Shenoah’s character has to enter that world and interact with you as Monkey. Why do these two connect?
ALLEN: I don't know. I mean, you could look at it as maybe a Rorschach test that Roy is able to read what he wants to in some way looking at that implacable face, but somehow the Monkey says it like it is. And Roy has kind of been lied to his whole life by his parents. He's been in kind of an abusive situation. He's depressed, and he feels like his life is sort of a lie. So he meets Monkey at the right time, I guess a person that is, while hiding, willing to sort of show it all.
KUNM: That implacable face. I was going to ask you about that if acting with that was difficult.
ALLEN: Strangely it feels completely normal, I think because Nina inhabits it so fully, I feel like I know Monkey, and even though I know it's her, there's a slight difference in the relationship that I have with Monkey. Even though they're the same, as soon as she gets in the suit, it's like, “Okay, hey man, what are we doing?” And it's, yeah, it's really interesting.
CONTI: It's a liberating thing. It really does allow me to speak more truthfully. I mean, it's a fun way to be. And the chemistry was kind of tested because we got thrown on stage together once, and I was dressed as Monkey in a long improvise thing, and we were just had to improvise together. And the chemistry worked so well that after that, I sought out Shenoah and said, “Do you want to do some gigs, you know, as your character and Monkey?” So we did some gigs together as Monkey and Roy, and the chemistry really, really sung. I mean, some of that is beyond knowing how, why, -- it just works. It's one of those things that's just worked. So we built the film around the chemistry, in a way.
KUNM: Is that how you guys started this? And I saw you in 2019 at the Tricklock [International Theatre Festival], and you were doing kind of a beginning version of this.
ALLEN: That was definitely it. You and the 50 other people that were there saw that show.
CONTI: We hadn't written that show. We found that show on that night.
KUNM: So that was the beginning?
ALLEN: Yeah, that was pretty close to the seed of it all.
KUNM: What made you want to bring it from stage to film?
CONTI: I wanted to do it. I wanted to work with Shenoah. I just thought he was amazing. So funny. I'd never seen anyone improvise like that. I'd never seen anyone improvise better than the best actors. And I think his performance in the film was just astounding. And so Monkey wanted the best.
KUNM: Monkey wanted the best?
CONTI: Monkey wanted to make a film, and knew who he wanted to make it with.
KUNM: Why did you guys decide to shoot it here in Albuquerque, in New Mexico? I mean, aside from you being from here, Shenoah. Was that the main reason?
ALLEN: I suppose that is the main reason. But at the same time, not.
CONTI: Well, not being from there, to me, it looked like full of personality, stunning visually, the right mixture of wily and trashy. And I just, I really enjoyed the kind of the spectrum of everything that you can find there,
KUNM: Wily and trashy. I like that.
CONTI: And stunning with a good beating heart, you know?
"Sunlight" will screen at 1 p.m. Saturday at the New Mexico History Museum as part of the Santa Fe International Film Festival. Find out more and buy tickets online here.
By Megan Kamerick
Comedian Nina Conti as Monkey on a road trip with Shenoah Allen in the new film "Sunlight," which is screening at the Santa Fe International Film Festival on Saturday.