What is Behind the Lens: Conversation with Two Project:Involve Filmmakers

American independent cinema of the late 80s and early 90s had a thriving yet cacophonous stronghold on the so called “identity film.” The children of film school and cheap independent cinema were born in this volatile and revolutionary changing of the guard and were often told in film school to start out by looking at their past and making a film about that. Filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jones, Ross Mcelwee and Gus Van Sant came from this school of thought and produced some of the most celebrated films of our times.

My home, Los Angeles, is a city with an identity crisis. The swirling, ever changing masses of creative minds moving in and out of the city may have something to do with it. Or, maybe it’s because it’s filled with people who are manifesting their identities through the strong medium of film. Media is what attracts most people to the city of angels and they all have to start somewhere. It seems that most start with where they came from, in essence, their identity. It’s from these backwards looking forward thinking filmmakers that so many great films come from.

Participants of Project:Involve, Photo Courtesy- Film Independent (www.filmindependent.org)

Identity and diversity’s role in cinema, particularly independent cinema, is what led me one warm evening to trek to downtown Los Angeles to see a screening of 6 short movies made by filmmakers in Film Independent’s Project:Involve. Film Independent was started 30 years ago, long before the so called “golden age” of indie film, which some would argue we are in the tail end of. Their mission states that, “Film Independent champions the cause of independent film and supports a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation, and uniqueness of vision.” Project:Involve specifically is “Film Independent's signature diversity program, the primary goal of which is to increase diversity in the film industry.” They take filmmakers from culturally diverse backgrounds and pair them with a one-to-one mentor from the film industry.  This year marked the 6th annual showcase of work. There were 6 films and 5 filmmakers in attendance who spoke on a panel after their films screened.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the films, and frankly I wasn’t too excited about the prospect of the films being all about personal identity and/or diversity [which of course have their own time and place]. However, each film captured a unique vision, came from a genuine place and were refreshingly poignant. I had the fortune to speak with two of the filmmakers from this year’s showcase: Eli Kaufman and George Reyes. I wanted to hear from both of them about their overall perception of identity’s role in film and specifically how their personal identity influences their work.  Below you will find excerpts of my interviews.

  Eli Kaufman: photo credit: Eli Kaufman
According to his biography, Eli Kaufman was born in San Francisco, lived in Japan, Iran and Belgium where his parents taught at international schools. He has a degree from UCLA and worked closely with the Polish Brothers on their film Northfork. The film he showed at the event was called “California King” a charming romantic story of a “mattress salesman who employs faux science to get female customers into bed falls for a skeptical insomniac who knows her science better than her heart.”  Kaufman got involved with Project:Involve after encouragement from his good friend and mentor A.P. Gonzalez who taught his first screenwriting class at UCLA.  Below are excerpts from my interview with Eli.

S: We’re talking about identity in film; can you define what that means to you as a filmmaker and talk about your identity as well?

K: Filmmaking is the expression of an individual worldview and all the insight and baggage that comes with it. My personal brand of filmmaking is a reflection of my particular perspective as a Japanese American guy with Eastern European Jewish heritage who grew up in Northern California in the 80’s, with public school teachers as parents and a nude beach walking distance of our front door. What is behind the lens directly informs what is captured by it. I think it is inevitable that my identity as a person is inextricably tied to what I deal with in my films. Which is cool to think about because it means that no two films made by individuals will ever be the same…on the other hand, corporations can and do make the same films all the time because the inspiration and execution of those films doesn’t come from a singular vision, rather they are made by a committee of voices that are so busy trying to agree with each other that they become generic

S: What did you learn about your own identity through Project:Involve?
K: I had the good fortune of getting Mark and Michael Polish as my mentors just as they were headed off to Montana to shoot their third film Northfork. Amazingly they decided to bring me along for the ride, which gave me the unique opportunity to participate in the making of a super low budget film. It remains one of the most challenging, humbling and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had on set. I guess the biggest lesson I learned about myself through this experience was how crucial it is for me to surround myself with like-minded folks who are just as passionate about filmmaking as I am. Five years later I’ve done just that by joining the staff at Film Independent as their event coverage producer, which is a fancy name for the work I do as their videographer/editor/archivist/web content producer. Meanwhile, I continue to work quietly to on my first feature, which I am co-writing and hope make (produce, direct, edit) in 2010.

S: How does your identity inform your work? Talk a little bit about “California King” specifically.
K: I tell stories about people and places I know, however, that is not limited to a particular ethnicity, race or nation…it has more to do with my particular take on that person, place or thing. The best stories whether they are about Mexican immigrants or a love story in outer space connect back to the individual who was inspired to say something about those characters and themes in the first place. My most recent film, California King is a story about two people overcoming the inertia of bad habits - a guy who is constantly on the move trying to bed as many women as possible meets a woman who is literally stuck in bed paralyzed by her fear of meeting anyone had nothing to do with the ethnicity of the actors I put in the film. So in spite of having cast Iraqi-Australian and Puerto Rican-American actors in the two leading roles, I made the decision to keep the focus on their character needs rather than on their ethnicities. Unfortunately, identifiers such as race, religion, class, sexual orientation etc. can distract from the core message of a film especially if the story is about a more universal human condition that doesn’t belong to a single sub-category of human experience.

California King Trailer from Eli Kaufman on Vimeo.

S: Were there any transformative experiences in your life that led you to film?
K: As I mentioned earlier my parents were teachers, which meant that I grew up at a dinner table where conversation was dominated by in-depth discussions about the students they worked with and how they had achieved or failed. Hearing about these characters night after night must have had some kind of affect on how I view the human condition, the challenge we face coming into our identities, and my desire to tell stories about them. But to answer the question, it really wasn’t one “ah-ha!” moment for me. It’s been the cumulative effect of a number of different experiences and influences that has led me to film.

S: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and I look forward to seeing you work in the near future. 
K: Thank you.

Kaufman currently works at Film Independent as an Event Coverage Producer. His full biography and list of films can be found here: http://www.elikaufmanfilms.com/

George Reyes’s film “The Apple is Delicious” is about his Columbian mother who “gives her children the hope of the American dream at the expense of her language and culture.” The film was shot on 16mm when George was 22 years old as an undergraduate student at Harvard. He completed it 4 years later after raising finishing funds.

I caught up with George Reyes on the phone the other day as he was driving to a film event.  He has all the symptoms of a documentary filmmaker—every waking hour filled with work, every spare moment spent editing, tweaking, planning. I can relate to this as a documentary filmmaker and so we spoke, the automated GPS voice interrupting us in the background and Los Angeles freeways roaring past, about film and identity. Below are excerpts from my talk with the very talented George Reyes.

  George Reyes - Photo Courtesy - George Reyes
S: Ok, we’ll start out with talking about how you got into film and what inspires you.
R: Well, I come from an immigrant family and worked very hard to get into Harvard for my undergraduate degree. It was a strange experience because you had all these wealthy Latinos, then you had the scholarship kids and then there was me, I didn’t really fit in anywhere. But I had a great teacher Ross Mcelwee whose whole thing was; you’re really young so you should use your own life experience on film. I was recently an adult and still trying to figure out my mother, which is why I focused on her in the film. I personally didn’t think it was that interesting, it was just my life, but people seemed to really respond to it and continue to. I submitted it along with my application to NYU and was accepted so someone thought it was interesting!

S: Yes, I really enjoyed it. You made this film a number of years ago when you were 22, what is it like to watch it now?
R: Well to be honest, I really don’t like watching it because I’ve grown a lot as a filmmaker. I’m also a teacher and when I watch this film I see all the things I tell my students not to do. But every time I see it I have this running dialogue in my head saying “be gentle on yourself, we all start somewhere.” I also think of all the things people commit to film that are…not good, this has a positive spin on it so I feel good about that. Part of me is also sad because it’s footage of my mother before she had a stroke, so that part is hard to watch as well.

S: That would be hard, but I can say that we all appreciate you putting yourself out there like that. It’s very compelling and poignant. So, how did you get started with Project:Involve?
R:  I used to work at Sundance and a good friend of mine there, a very talented Iranian-American filmmaker, suggested that I apply. I sent them three films and this is the one they chose. She told me that I should really take advantage of all the opportunity this project offers and so I did—I went to every screening that I could and really gained a lot of experience from it. It’s really designed for people at all levels from all different backgrounds so it’s really a great program.

S:  The word “identity” can be overused, especially in the independent cinema world; do you think it has a place in film? If so, what?
R: That’s true, it can be overused, and in fact it really became a whole field of study in the 90s in cinema departs. I made this film without really realizing it was an “identity film” which I’m glad about because I think people who are too aware of the genre they’re working in their work becomes stale and cliché. I like watching films that aren’t so obviously genre films, they seem fresher to me. 

S: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.
R: Thank you.

Reyes currently lives in Los Angeles and is finishing his documentary Muneca Fea [Ugly Dolls] about elderly sex workers in Mexico City.

Still from film La Muneca Fea (the Ugly Doll) Photo Courtesy - www.munecafea.com

Both Kaufman and Reyes echoed the sentiment that though identity is a hard word to pin down and at times is overused, it has an obvious and large role in film and media. Reyes’s portrayal was more salient in his film while Kaufman’s identity seemed to subtly influence his style. What became clear from speaking with both of them is that young, emerging filmmakers often begin their career by focusing on where they came from because it’s an obvious mine of emotion and passion. As they grow and mature as filmmakers that identity begins to move more into the background where it affects the film from behind the lens and inside the filmmaker. Reyes’s film and the documentary he’s working on now are two great examples of the evolution of a filmmaker. The first one is all about where he came from, footage of himself and his mother. It’s a beautiful mediation on identity. Now, the documentary he’s making takes place in one of the countries he identifies with, Mexico, but isn’t overtly about his identity. However, you can feel the emotion and connection to the place from how he approaches the subjects. 

As American independent cinema transitions out of the “golden era” and into the digital space it will be fascinating and important to see how identity moves with it. The Internet and globalization has exploded and fragmented our meaning of identity; can film be a cohesive way to reformulate it? I look forward to watching and participating as this generation of filmmakers, which Reyes and Kaufman are part of, comes of age in a new digital world.

Comments

Thanks for shining light on Project:Involve's terrific program and it's stellar filmmakers.