John Cho

It is too late to call Hannah Marks a “promising” young director. She has more than delivered on the promise and quality of her first two films, After Everything and Banana Split with Don’t Make Me Go, starring Mia Isaac and John Cho as a teenage daughter and father on a car trip. Marks again demonstrates her exceptional skill in working with actors and in cinematic storytelling. In an interview, she talked about making New Zealand stand in for Southwestern USA, why road trip stories are an enduring theme, and telling a story about characters who are not talking to each other about what concerns them most.

Don’t Make Me Go is an extraordinarily smart, uplifting and heartfelt movie that combines coming of age tropes with unusual roadtrip elements as it revolves around a truly loving father and daughter relationship that’s put under severe pressure because of health issues. Mia Isaacs plays the teenage daughter of single parent Jon Cho, and their family chemistry shimmers on the screen as they drive across the US. racing to forge a plan for the future. AWFJ’s Pam Powell, who cheers this film as her favorite of the year, claimed the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Marks and Isaacs to discuss the film and the highlights of making it.