Writer-director Madison Young adapts her memoir 'Daddy' into 'By the Roots,' her feature directorial debut. Madison traces the adaptation process and the stages the script went through in transforming such deeply personal material into cinema.

We explore the casting process, from how much Madison overthought who would play her to the challenge of putting different stages of her life on screen together. Madison opens up about casting both her kid and teenage selves, navigating the complexity of seeing multiple versions of yourself embodied by other actors, and how those different ages and perspectives fit together as one continuous story.

Coming from over two decades in feminist porn as a director, performer, and advocate for ethical representation of sexuality on screen, Madison examines what intimacy coordinator Maya Herbsman brought to the table on a film where the physical is so central to the story. She considers how her background shaped her approach to depicting sexuality and intimacy, and what shifts when bringing those principles into narrative filmmaking about her own life.

(Photo: Courtesy of Empress in Lavender Media)