A small lie about her abilities spirals a young woman into a surreal life in Director Anu Valia’s comedic-drama, We Strangers.

Valia’s film weaves the story of Rayelle, a quick-witted housekeeper in Gary, Indiana, who finds herself in an odd new position of power after impulsively claiming that she can speak to the dead.

On September 6, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Valia discussed the making of We Strangers during a Q&A moderated by Director Janicza Bravo (Zola).

During the conversation, Valia spoke about preserving actors’ performances during the editing process.

“You really owe the actors, when you’re editing, to protect their performance, to protect what they’ve done. You know when you cut to them slightly too early and now it feels like they’re acting like a hair earlier than they actually did. You are manipulating people’s performances in an edit. They were so generous with their performance. You gain a different tenderness to everything they did for you when you’re editing. That’s also very spiritual. The act of making it with the actors and then our editor it felt like a [small breath] little blow. We’d [Valia and editor James Codoyannis] get very weepy with each other because it was just a very trusting exchange of energy.”

Valia’s other directorial credits include the feature film Brooklyn Love Stories; and episodes of And Just Like That..., Adults, Based on a True Story, A Man on the Inside, The Afterparty, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Never Have I Ever, Generation, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, Mixed-ish and First Wives Club. She has been a DGA member since 2018.