Award-winning film producer Heather Rae spoke on the Tempe campus Monday, calling for increased authenticity in filmmaking and explaining how she answers that call in her own work.

“Most movies are about people of privilege and people in cities and men, and when we explore stories outside of that, there’s always value,” Rae said.

Her film, “Frozen River” won Rae the Producer’s Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards and the film also won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress.

She spoke about the reception of the film abroad and how the film’s acclaim indicates a need for more realistic work.

She said “Frozen River” audiences in Europe appreciated a new, more realistic view of American life.

“The world having a better understanding of the issues Americans deal with on a day-to-day basis is really, really crucial,” she said.

“Frozen River,” surrounds the friendship of two women — one Native American, one Caucasian — who come together in financial desperation to smuggle illegal immigrants across the New York-Quebec border.

Rae said the critical reaction of the lead actress’s opening scene was a perfect example of Hollywood’s obsession with appearance.

Actress Melissa Leo’s scene involved her character without makeup on, teary-eyed and smoking.

“There was a small body of critics that criticized Melissa’s work for being so raw that she was physically unattractive,” she said.

As a filmmaker dedicated to social realism, Rae said she found these criticisms troubling.

In a question-and-answer session before her lecture, Rae said that though the characters in the film are fictional, outside elements were based on true events.

“It’s all very real,” Rae said. “When we were shooting, we could see that smuggling going on.”

Some backlash to the film came from the members on the reservation near the filming location, Rae said.

“After we made the movie, there was a small amount of people who had expressed dismay … that we were trying to do something about the smuggling,” she said.

Rae said a writer for a tribal publication felt the film was trying to “air out their dirty laundry.”

Meredith Moss, a graduate student of rhetoric, composition and linguistics, said films like “Frozen River” often hit chords in indigenous communities.

“Films, especially documentaries, can be very popular, but they can also be very controversial,” she said. “Many communities say these films are important in publicizing things they care about.”

Rae said she responded to that criticism with her commitment to keeping the tribes unnamed and unidentified.

“The story isn’t about smuggling,” Rae said. “It’s about two women coming together across cultural lines.”

That relationship, noticeably devoid of any male influence, is part of what makes the film unique, she said.

Cody Bales, a film junior, agreed that the independent representation of women made “Frozen River” more interesting.

“A lot of time, women will be shown as needing a masculine figure,” he said. “But neither women in the film do.”

One character in the film is connected to the tribe, but Rae said that woman’s Native American connections are only secondary to the unique friendship she finds herself in.

“I initially liked the script because its Native content was unapologetic,” Rae said.

Not intended to educate, the film’s native themes serve instead as backdrop to the women’s relationship, Rae said.

As a Native American producer, Rae said she does pause before taking on scripts dealing with Native issues, but she puts the same amount of consideration into non-Native scripts.

“I have gotten material that doesn’t reach deeply enough into Native issues, but that’s common in many scripts,” she said.

Rae said she gravitates toward films that hold a “social realism view,” seeking to explore the most truthful way of seeing things.

After 20 years working on independent, low-budget films, Rae said she’s turning her focus now to more commercial ventures — like “a lowbrow chick comedy” she described as a female Judd Apatow film.

That doesn’t mean Rae is shirking independent film work, however, as she is releasing a documentary later this year entitled “Family: The First Circle,” a clip from which she showed at the lecture.

The film explores issues facing the children of parents both suffering and recovering from methamphetamine addiction.

Rae said discussing her films with university audiences helps spread the work’s impact.

“This kind of free and open dialogue is encouraged by the education system,” she said. “It’s a matter of being part of a vital dialogue that is going on in our country.”