🎥 20 Questions With Nicole Betancourt – The Woman Behind The Unfixing

“When everything falls apart, the only way forward… is to never go back.”

Nicole Betancourt isn’t here to fix what’s broken—she’s here to unfix it. The Emmy-winning filmmaker, best known for HBO’s Before You Go and POV’s 90 Miles, returns with her most intimate and provocative work yet: The Unfixing — a poetic documentary that interlaces chronic illness, motherhood, and climate grief into a visual meditation on healing.

We sat down with Nicole to talk grief, lucid dreams, and how filming from bed helped birth her boldest work to date.

1. Let’s start with the obvious: What is “The Unfixing”?

“It’s a personal story that seeks joy and visual poetry in this beautiful messed-up world of ours.”

Inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower and shot across continents—including a stunning sequence of Nicole entwined in the Catalonian earth—The Unfixing explores what happens when healing isn’t linear, and the planet’s pain mirrors our own.

👉 Watch the teaser 🎬 Explore the project

2. From HBO to the healing arts — what shifted?

“This isn’t your typical production story. The film came through dreams, family, and challenges.”

For Betancourt, making The Unfixing wasn’t a career move. It was survival.

3. How many times did you cry making it?

“We don’t cry enough. Crying is fluid and restorative—it connects us to the Earth.”

Grief, Nicole explains, isn’t despair. It’s aliveness. It’s the pulse that runs through motherhood, climate loss, and the pandemic-era collapse of time.

4. Was anything too vulnerable?

“My stomach turns before every screening. But I remember this might help someone.”

That fear fuels the film’s raw power. And audiences are feeling it.

5. Were illness and climate always connected?

“I didn’t plan it—but it became a surprising tapestry full of hope.”

With collaborators like Fernanda Rossi and producer Rose Kowalski (Horizontal Films), Betancourt crafted a sensorial universe—where body and Earth echo each other.

6. How do you shoot something so internal?

“I’d ask my subconscious for answers. Then I’d wake up with a scene.”

Dream logic meets documentary discipline—it’s one of The Unfixing’s quiet magics.

7. Which scene still undoes you?

“It’s all still so real.”

Enough said.

8. Soundtrack of your doc life?

“‘Waters of March’ by Jobim—and my family sings it over the credits.” “But the real score is by my husband and composer, Bray Poor.”

9. Filmmaker or quiet revolutionary?

“I’m a filmmaker. But my purpose is to build bridges—between people, nature, and ourselves.”

10. Most surprising reaction?

“People have told me the film appeared in their dreams.”

After the Ji.hlava premiere, a mother and daughter tracked her down in Prague just to thank her.

11. What does The Unfixing mean?

“It’s an invitation to see differently.”

Soft, not didactic. Revolutionary, not forceful.

12. From grandmothers to food justice — how do your projects connect?

“We’re all soil, water, and stardust. It’s all one story.”

Nicole’s portfolio includes everything from Native water songs to food systems in Central America. Check out her broader work: nbetancourt.com

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13. Are you secretly Mother Earth?

“Aren’t we all? Let’s lift the veil.”

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14. What camera do you trust for intimacy?

“Honestly? My phone. And I love formats like Super8 and old video—it’s playful.”

15. What change do you want this film to spark?

“Stories change chemistry—and culture. That’s how movements begin.”

16. Best compliment?

“Someone told me I was in their head, making a film about their private thoughts.”

That’s the goal.

17. Advice to young healers with cameras?

“Be a seeker, not a preacher. The intimate reveals the universal.”

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18. What gives you hope?

“I see shifts in local communities everywhere. You just have to look.”

19. Ever dream of making a rom-com?

“I fantasize about music videos—but I’m not done with The Unfixing.”

The themes are just beginning.

20. Tagline time — give us a poster-worthy line.

“When everything falls apart, the only way forward… is to never go back.”

Or, if you’re feeling meta: “All change starts with a story.”

More Nicole Betancourt: 📸 Instagram: @n.b.patterns 🔗 Project Website 🎞 Watch the teaser on Vimeo