“It Felt As If She Were Actually Speaking to Me About This Film”: Rachel Mason on Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna

Rachel Mason’s Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna makes its point crystal clear from the title: Halyna Hutchins, the talented DP who landed on American Cinematographer’s list of “10 up-and-coming directors of photography who are making their mark” in 2019, will not be upstaged by the celebrity who in 2021 accidentally shot and killed her (and injured director Joel Souza) during the filming of the western Rust. Which makes sense since Mason was a close friend of Hutchins, and was asked by her devastated widower to take on the project. And while the film is rightly a celebration of the Ukrainian cinematographer and her diverse body of work (over 30 features, shorts and miniseries), it’s also a search for hard answers. Through public records as well as interviews with the Rust cast and crew, Mason attempts to retrace the sometimes contested missteps that allowed for a real bullet to make its way onto a movie set in Santa Fe, taking the life of a beloved wife and mother. Or I should say bullets, as perhaps the most shocking revelation to emerge was that investigators found a total of six mixed in with the dummies. (Then again, as someone who used to live in Santa Fe, I admittedly have a hard time trusting the pronouncements of any New Mexico authorities, not always the brightest bulbs in the witness box. This assessment is evidenced by the prosecution’s Dr. Seuss-like opening statement that probably helped the shooter get off scot-free from the start.) So to learn all about filming a highly personal doc she hadn’t set out to make, Filmmaker reached out to Mason (Circus of Books, the HBO docuseries An Update on Our Family) the week of the doc’s Hulu premiere (March 11).

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.