Julia Coulter

Julia Coulter

From First Time Go by Benjamin Duchek

April 7, 2026 · 42 min · Season 4 · Episode 18

About this episode

Julia Coulter discusses her filmmaking journey and the artistic choices behind her narrative film that feels like a documentary.

Watch This Episode On YouTube Here's a challenge: watch the first few minutes of ROAD TO L'ETAPE DU TOUR (2026) and not get the sense you're seeing a documentary. Impossible because the film is that good about its comparison to real life. The logline: facing a turning point in her life, a woman with a congenital heart defect embarks on a journey to train for a famous cycling race. It's all narrative, but the heart of the film, just like all her other art, is from its director, Julia Coulter, who you can tell from this discussion puts her whole being into her art. The opening segment is Julia talking about her lighting decisions in BROTHERS (2021) , which you should watch. It is cinema at its highest level. Julia takes a couple of actors, a single location, and makes something that will stay with you for a long time. The film is linked below. I felt so lucky to watch her films and hear about how much love she puts into them, and I think you will feel the same way, too. In this episode, Julia and I talk about: why she made a narrative film that feels like a documentary in parts; how she came up with that brilliantly moving first scene, performing a stress test, and how that sets up…

People in this episode

Host: Benjamin Duchek

Guest: Julia Coulter

Topics covered

  • filmmaking
  • documentary
  • narrative film
  • artistic inspiration
  • cycling race

Keywords

  • Julia Coulter
  • filmmaking
  • documentary
  • narrative film
  • cinema
  • art
  • cycling

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: ROAD TO L'ETAPE DU TOUR, BROTHERS, cinema

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