Documentarian Emily Sheskin has built her career showcasing stories of ordinary people who spend their time trying to spread kindness. The latest subject of Sheskin’s focus is Adele Tiffith, but perhaps you know her as ijustlovepuzzles on Twitch. Gma, as she’s affectionately called by her viewers, has found unexpected community in the world of puzzlers online. Livestreams with GrandmaPuzzles is Sheskin’s short film about Adele’s online persona, the importance of representation in all aspects of life, and the inherent joy of putting together a puzzle.

Ahead of Livestreams with GrandmaPuzzles’ upcoming Cleveland International Film Festival screening, Emily Sheskin sat down with Beyond the Cinerama Dome to discuss the making of the short film. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Beyond the Cinerama Dome: I’d like to start with your work as a documentarian. Something that more people are becoming aware of is the relationship between a filmmaker and a subject. Can you talk about how you navigate those relationships?

Emily Sheskin: Those relationships are really important for me. I was just talking about this with my producer, Ben [Kainz]. Something we're really proud of is, with all of our work, we want the experience to be really positive for our participants. We want them to feel like they're part of our team and they're included. Part of this starts with the first phone call.

When we do outreach, when our film is just sort of a germ of an idea and we have someone in mind, we set up a phone call. There's no pressure, there's no recording, and it's literally a space to talk about what our goals are, how we envision things, and then talk about what they're comfortable with.

It's there that we establish some ground rules. Things like allowing them to ask questions, encouraging them to take a break or a sip of water while filming on set, or simply choosing not to answer a question. That’s all okay. When the person finally does step onto set with us, we've had a bunch of these getting-to-know-you calls. Sometimes it's 30 minutes, sometimes it goes longer.

I recently did a feature, JessZilla, which is going to be out in a couple of months on VOD. That feature started as a short called Girl Boxer, which was a New York Times Opinion doc, and it was with a ten-year-old girl, Jesselyn, and her father, Pedro. We met up, I think, for two months before we even hit record, because it was really important for me, especially for a kid, to know that they can establish their own boundaries.

They can say, I don't want to answer that, or can we take a break? These things are really important, and it comes through in the final result because you can see that trust. Being on camera is a really vulnerable thing, so I don't do it simply because it's good practice. I want people to feel comfortable, but I also think that by doing the right thing, you make a better film because everybody wants it to succeed and you're all on the same page.

I was part of the Indie Awards documentary nominations committee and that’s how I came across JessZilla. It captured all of our hearts.

Thank you. We're excited to finally be able to share her story in a larger way. While making the film, Jesselyn got sick. That was a moment where I was like, this is not the movie we set out to make, should we keep going? And Jesselyn was the one who said when are we filming next? I said to her, when we started, this film was about you being a champion, now you have brain cancer, why do you want to keep filming?

We checked in every year to make sure she still wanted to film. When she said, I want to show people they can face hard things and they can fight and they can be brave, that became our third act.

Similarly with GrandmaPuzzles, Adele [Tiffith] is such a delight. She's such a talker. The first time we met, we had a 20-minute Zoom call because we didn't want to take up so much of her time. Then, an hour later, we felt like an old friend of hers. You're laughing, you're exchanging stories, and it’s a very different process, but in some ways very similar. By the time we stepped on the set, it felt like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited to meet Gma in person.

How did you find Gma? Do you use Twitch and you just came across her naturally?

No, this started out…since you’re familiar with JessZilla, you know that it was obviously a very difficult thing as a filmmaker. I set out to make a film about a champion, and she is a champion through and through, but getting that cancer diagnosis was not something we saw coming. It was obviously very devastating for everybody.

My producer was kind of tiptoeing around like, are we going to make something ever again? What would that be? And I said, I do want to make something, and I really want to make something that's joyful. Part of Jesselyn’s spirit was I think she was so positive and she saw the good in every day. She really lived every day to the fullest. I wanted to tell a story that embraced that sort of attitude while still addressing other things.

One thing led to another and I found the puzzle community. There's a film festival in Fargo, North Dakota, the Fargo Film Festival, which I love. I met a filmmaker there, Mike Schultz, who has a really impressive body of work. We became friendly, we were chatting, and I told him about how I was doing some research about these speed puzzle competitions. I found Wicker Kittens, which he’d worked on. He then said, well, my partner Val is actually the head of the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Association.

Mike told me there was this amazing woman who came one year, she's a grandma, and she streams. I was like, tell me more. Mike introduced me to her, and then going into that first conversation, Ben and I wanted to know who we were speaking to. We watched some of her Twitch streams and just kind of clicked around. I was like, this lady is incredible, I love her, so we got on the phone and went from there.

This is also your second documentary about a grandmother who’s finding a community and purpose through art, albeit very different communities, very different arts. Is there something about this demographic that continues to interest you?

You know, I didn't necessarily seek it out, but I think sometimes it just finds me. Something I do think is really important, especially as women, is that society at large tells women we have a shelf life. The second we’re not in our 20s anymore, we're not valuable. We can't discover new things, we can't contribute.

The Iron Grandmother and Livestreams with GrandmaPuzzles are about two women who are incredibly valuable all on their own, but then happen to find success in a way they didn't in their younger years. I think those are really important and powerful stories to tell people that, sure, it's great to find success in your 20s and 30s, but it's just as valid to find it in your 50s and 60s. You’re not past your prime or expiration. There's a lot of life that you can live.

The way we treat elders, there's a lack of respect a lot of times. There's a loneliness epidemic in this country, whether you're a senior citizen or not. When you get older and you have more health complications, that can potentially add to isolation. For better or worse, I really loved that this was about the internet doing something nice for once, which we all really need at this moment in time. All these things kind of came together in the short and I was really excited to tell this story.

I'm curious how you feel that Twitch, the world of streaming, online puzzling, and maybe even the puzzle championships, can create a sense of community, even though there’s a screen in the middle of things?

There's a documentary called Join or Die, and I met that filmmaker, Rebecca Davis, and she was lovely. I watched her film, and a huge part of it is about how Americans have joined clubs less and less, and we have less of a connection to our community.

Anecdotally, on TikTok I've seen things where people talk about how they thought they'd be invited to more parties. There was a piece The Atlantic did about how we should be throwing more parties, and people in the comments were like, I threw a party, 30 people said yes, but only five people showed up. We're at this moment in time where I think people are comfortable bailing on social stuff. We're not as present, we're not as engaged. Maybe that's a byproduct of being bombarded by news to the point that it's overwhelming.

Enter: the puzzle community. You have a community that’s centered around a mindful activity. There are no screens. It's very much about being present, about being in the moment. It's something you can share with another person. It allows for connection in a very low-stakes way, in the sense of, if you and I do a puzzle together and we don't know anything about each other, we don't have to force conversation. Puzzles can allow conversation to come at a pace that makes sense for both parties, which also attracts neurodivergent and introverted people.

The goal is to do a puzzle. It’s a nice, cozy activity. Even at these championships, I’ll watch people and they’re racing, but then someone beats them in it. Everybody claps. They all stop and clap for the person then they go back to racing. I can't think of the last time I saw something like that. It is so wonderful and kind.

To see that translate to Twitch was really interesting. It didn't surprise me with this community. Since I've met Gma, the more I've learned about Twitch, the more I see aspects and elements of it. There's a streamer, Saski, who also makes TikToks. Some of her TikToks are about men being completely misogynistic to her online, but a lot of her content is about sharing her following. She'll tell her followers to go raid their stream, which means she is essentially sending a huge audience to somebody who maybe doesn't have a big audience.

Those moments of kindness are happening on this platform and it was something that I didn't know about. Your question was originally about community and connection, and I think that these people and sites facilitate community when there's community to be had. I find that with somebody like Gma, who puts out this really sweet, engaging energy, that's what she gets back.

And so you've started to introduce her to the filmmaking community, which is also collaborative. What has that experience been like? Are there any upcoming festivals that you want to talk about that the two of you will be attending together?

You can follow us on our Puzzle People Documentary Instagram, but the ones that I'm allowed to talk about, which she won't be at, are Cleveland, Saint Paul, Florida Film Festival, and River Run this month. I think I got everybody.

I can tell Adele’s really excited about this whole experience. I can tell it makes her feel like the celebrity she is and the star that she is. In general, I just really love how excited she is about everything.

I can speak to the making of the film. The team behind this film is me, my producer, Ben, my director of photography, Joe [Victorine], and then a handful of other crew. It was really small. Of course, we want to make sure she's taken care of. We were able to give her a small stipend to pay for her transport and hotel. Obviously, we didn't want that to come out of her pocket. We got a few outfits for her and I could tell she felt like a celebrity.

Truly, it brought me so much joy working with her. When we email, I can tell she's so grateful and excited. To be honest, she does such a good job of making other people feel seen, feel safe, feel important. For us to give her just a little bit back of what she does for her community…it's been a really wonderful experience.

You briefly mentioned Puzzle People. It’s a larger feature documentary that you’re working on funding now, which is going to include Gma and some other speed puzzlers. It also includes your puzzle journey. I wanted to ask you about the hardest puzzle or your favorite puzzle is since you joined this world of puzzling.

I try not to shill brands, but Le Puzz has a very special place in my heart because they’re Bushwick-based. I'm in Brooklyn, they're in Brooklyn. Alistair [Matthews] has been really awesome. She's one of the people we've been speaking with. What I love about Alistair is that she’s a puzzle nerd in the best way.

She loves these vintage Springbok puzzles, and she tries to bring a little bit of that energy and reinvent it for a new audience of puzzlers. I think her aesthetic is so cool, so fun. There's a 500-piece puzzle of erasers. We had a whole conversation about her sourcing these erasers. It was one of the most fun conversations I've had, because I’m definitely guilty of going down a rabbit hole. When I heard about Alistair’s rabbit-hole journey and how it turned into a puzzle that I did, it was a total delight. Ten out of ten. Totally recommend.

There's another brand called Ordinary Habit that I also really like. I just think that art is really beautiful and the actual tactile puzzle pieces are velvety and nice, and it's just a really great experience.

I've never heard of a velvety puzzle!

Yeah! What's also nice about Ordinary Habit is these little travel puzzles. I’ll do them when I have a really long phone call and I'm trying to focus. It actually helps me focus. I can keep my hands busy and also talk.

Thank you so much, and congratulations on all of the festivals on the horizon. Please send my congrats to Gma!

Thanks for having me!

Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, & YouTube. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.

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