Interview with Brea Grant and Ed Dougherty of SXSW's "Grind

This week saw the kickoff of South by Southwest 2026! Dozens of films made their public debuts to audience members from around the world in beautiful downtown Austin, Texas. One of those films was horror anthology Grind by Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty, and Chelsea Stardust. This week I was fortunate enough to sit down and talk with Grant and Dougherty about their film. Together, we discussed the current state of the US, this year's festival, and just how this movie came to be!

Rua: "First of all, congratulations to you both I just finished Grind, it is so topical and creative, it must be such a joy to have it premiere at SXSW. This concept is such a harsh reality for millions of Americans so I was wondering if any aspect of this story is autobiographical for either of you?"

Grant: "Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head! At one point I sort of looked around, and the thing that all of our friends were talking about and everyone was worried about was the economy and how to make ends meet. More so, how to be able to buy a house without working five jobs and that felt like an interesting and fertile ground for a horror movie, especially an anthology because you can tell multiple stories within that, that idea."

Dougherty: "I feel like it's autobiographical in many ways. Just to focus on the content mod vignette for a second, I'm no sicko, but I've seen horrible videos, and it's kind of a weird world we live in where you can see these horrible things and continue living, you know. I feel like, especially in Hollywood, sometimes people never say no to you. So I've had situations where people would offer you like a job and they're so nice about it but it ends up just being a complete illusion. So being set up and then just realizing it's actually a horrible scenario is pretty autobiographical."

Rua: "Interesting. Now, I mean this in the best way possible but how did this project get greenlit? Because a class-conscious horror anthology in a world full of sequels, reboots, and blockbusters seems like a very risky move. So while I'm extremely grateful this film was made, how did it come to be?"

Dougherty: "We greenlit it ourselves."

Grant: "We are the owners of this movie, no one else would've made this movie. You're the first person to ask us this by the way. This is a self-financed movie, we have no bosses, we are trying to sell it. But no one in their right mind would've said 'yes' to this movie."

Dougherty: "You know, it's a class-conscious movie, and it reduced me about five classes. with all of my savings. That's my daughter's college fund that we're watching. But yeah, I feel like anthologies actually have more value than they're given credit for, but if you try to pitch an anthology, people are like, 'what?'"

Rua: "I mean I can't help but admire your ambition and the risk you took in making this. On that note, I would love to know what it means to you to have this film that is such a personal labor of love premiere on a stage as large as South by Southwest?"

Grant: "We were honestly pretty surprised that they said 'yes!' Obviously, we think it's fun and it plays great with an audience. We have shown it to a few people, but this will be the first audience that is not our friends watching it, which will be very exciting. For me, it's bittersweet because I was supposed to have a movie at SXSW 2020, but it was canceled so I did not get to come. So this is really fun to get to be here with my friends, and everyone who worked on this movie, we're all close. So to be here is honestly great, we're stoked!"

Dougherty: "The filming of this movie was one of the best experiences of my life, and also one of the worst. There's a huge level of stress that comes when you're self-financing a movie on a whole other level. So then to get into SXSW is kind of hacking through the jungle, and we see an oasis rather than more jungle."

Rua: "Does it feel validating at all?"

Grant: "It does but it shouldn't. I'm a firm believer that art for art's sake is worth it, and who cares what people think? But yes, it's incredibly validating to be welcomed into the South by Southwest world."

Rua: "I mean, you two are living the dream! In addition to co-directing this you two also worked with filmmaker, Chelsea Stardust. So I'm curious if having three directors made production easier or more challenging?"

Grant: "I think it's way more challenging, but this is my first time working on an anthology. Directing is such a solo job, so in some ways it's great because you have other directors there to bounce ideas off of. I love putting directors in my movies, I love having people who have a technical knowledge of what's going on. But in other ways I think it's way harder because you have a lot of people coming together with big ideas who are used to getting their way.

Rua: "I'd imagine it would be like having too many cooks in the kitchen, so that's fascinating. Lastly, I was wondering if there are any films you look forward to seeing at SXSW this year?"

Grant: "When I was supposed to go to South By in 2020, my friend Chelsea DeVantes also had a movie there. She had a short film that she made a feature of it called Basic, and it's playing this year!"

Rua: "Im so excited for that one!"

Grant: "I am really excited. It's so funny because Chelsea and I are both book podcasters who made feature films that are going to SXSW that did not get to go to in 2020. We live very parallel lives.

Dougherty: "I'm excited to see American Dollhouse by John Valley! When I first started directing music videos in Austin, he was the AD on these videos I did. So I've worked with him a lot. He actually met two of the cast members on set of one of my videos. So, it feels like, 'oh my God we're all in SXSW together!' It feels like a nice homecoming. I'm very curious because John Valley is like a total filmmaker who can kind of do it all. I'm very curious what that movie's going to be like."

Rua: "Well thank you both for speaking with me today and once again, congratulations on your movie, I can't recommend it enough!"

Grant and Dougherty: "Thank you!"

We'd love to thank Grant and Dougherty again for appearing on our publication. Grind premiered this week at SXSW so keep an eye out for a hopeful wide release in the coming months! Thank you for tuning into Cinemasters.net and remember to never stop watching!