TIFF is very committed to emerging filmmakers and personally, it's where my heart lies: encouraging and nurturing fresh voices in order that they might be supported as far as their creativity and ambition can take them. I am very proud to present this year some of the most compelling and fascinating new voices of independent film, so in order to enhance the viewer's understanding and enjoyment of these films, we'll be posting interviews with the directorsof these films over the course of the festival. Today's interview is with Alan Jacobs, the director of the much-buzzed about US indie DOWN FOR LIFE.

Q. There’s and interesting back story to the genesis of DOWN FOR LIFE. Can you explain?

A. I read and article in the New York Times about a 15-year-old girl in South Central who was running a Latina girl gang.  My oldests son was the same age at the time, going to school only about 15 miles away – but it seemed like two different countries.  I bought the rights to the girl’s story and the New York Times article and found a Latina writer to work with me on the story, because it was immediately clear this girl wasn’t going to tell me anything (though today we talk all the time!).

 

Q. How did you assemble your cast? What were you looking for? I’m thinking more of your supporting cast –

 

A. Trina Calderon (my co-writer) and I went to great lengths to tell the story authentically, not the Hollywood version.  When it came time to direct the film, I continued that notion – we shot at the school and in the neighborhood where the story took place, and hired former gang members to consult.  For about 60 seconds I considered casting trained young actors in the lead and supporting roles, but quickly came to my senses. Inspired by the Italian Neo-Realist cinema – especially “Bicycle Thief” and “Open City” – and more recently “City of God”, I realized that amateur actors can carry a film, if you cast well.  So we set out casting at the toughest schools in Los Angeles.  We publicized the casting calls with the help of the school but no one showed up. They must have though it was a scam. So instead, we stood out in the school yard with the school’s permission and grabbed kids at lunch time.  We looked at a few thousand girls and put about 300 on tape, before settling on our final five. Actually there was a sixth girl who was supposed to be in the film, but one day she stopped coming to rehearsals.  The school said she hadn’t been in school for a while and there was no sign of life at her house.  A police officer friend of ours checked and found that her parents were discovered to be illegal aliens and deported. Though she was born here, they’re not allowed to separate kids so they put the entire family in a van and dumped them in Tijuana.  One day she’s coming to rehearsals with a bigt smile, the next day she’s south of the border.  The girl we cast in the lead, Jessica Romero, was standing on the lunch line at Manual Arts High School, waiting to buy a blue Gatorade. We yanked her out of line and put her on tape. There was never any doubt that this was the one. Its always that way for me with casting.  You see a lot of people who you like and could be good and then one that gives you that “aha” moment.  Jessica was that one. We showed up at her house the next day with a script and a blue Gatorade.

 

Q. How much time was there between the inception, I.ew., the ‘birth of the idea’ to your premiere here in Toronto?

 

A. We wrote the script four years ago, then I developed it a little more and sent it around town for financing.  Almost every financier that ready it though this was a movie that someone should make, but just not them.  After about a year of that, I made a Nyew Year’s resolution. That was New Year’s Eve, 206/2007. I decided that in 2007 I would get this film made. At that moment, before the clock struck midnights, I had just three things: the script, the director (me), and a glass of champagne.  To make it even more challenging, I resolved not to work with anyone I’ve ever worked with before to insure that I made a film unlike anything I’ve ever done. When Locke High School opened a day later, I asked when was the soonest we could film there withough interrupting classes and they said June 15. So I said we’re going to start filming on just 15^th.  I put the word out and one thing led to another and before we knew it we had raised money and the production was coming together quickly. We pushed the start date a little later so we could have more time to prepare and got the script to Danny Glover. He said yes immediately but that he had only one week available and if he was going to do this film we would have to start filming with him on …June 15. So I did keep my New Year’s resolution, of getting into production by June 15^th and not working with anyone I already knew. But As they say, be careful what you wish for. We had to shut down the production half way through filming when a big piece of our financing suddenly fell out.  We spent the better part of two years scraping money together, filming guerilla-style on weekends whenever we could, about 7 weekends in all, and editing as we went.

 

Q. What is the primary/central theme the film addresses? What do you want the viewer to take away?

 

 A.  I don’t write with a theme or a message in mind. That would be the kiss of death. I was inspired by the notion that kids are actually living like this, not in Baghdad or Beirut, but in my school district.  If the film is any good, it will open people’s eyes but everyone will take away a different lesson.

 

 

TIFF is very committed to emerging filmmakers and personally, it's where my heart lies: encouraging and nurturing fresh voices in order that they might be supported as far as their creativity and ambition can take them. I am very proud to present this year some of the most compelling and fascinating new voices of independent film, so in order to enhance the viewer's understanding and enjoyment of these films, we'll be posting interviews with the directorsof these films over the course of the festival. Today's interview is with Jason Lehel, the director of the much-buzzed about US indie GAIA.

 

There's an interesting back story to the genesis of GAIA. Can you explain?

I've always been fascinated by the question ‘where does art come from'?. Does it come from the intellect, instinct, the "sea of universal unconsciousness"? Likely all.  However, having had 30 years of "commercial" film making, where the artistic expression is so thought out, planned and controlled, I was more interested in exploring the latter. I wondered, if we took a camera, a tiny crew, one or two actors, to the reservation, with no script, would stories and ideas start to manifest, from the land, from nature, from the local inhabitants and most important, would they all be part of one story that would work as a film? 

The ‘Gaia theory' states that the planet is likened to a vast self-regulating organism. If we're all part of this organism, and I "let go" enough, I believed, this "organism" would express its self, through us all and onto film. So, considering we had no investors to answer to and I had an overwhelming desire to escape the controlled art of commercials and other "business" artistic expressions, (commercial features), it made total sense to explore this journey. 

John and I agreed and that was it, we would make a movie, by the end of the year, (2008), by gathering whatever funds we could, whatever crew and cast found themselves being drawn to the project and head off to the reservation and make a film, with as little ‘control' as possible, using my experience to be in service to a greater creative force, rather than the other way around.

Both nervous and very excited, we set off late November, no script,  one actress and only 4 days prep. It wasn't easy, that's for sure, and I had to use every ounce of all my experience of thirty years in films to get through each day but that wasn't the hardest part;  the hardest part was living in the paradox and letting go, and I mean, really letting go, no shot lists, no notes, no safety, just trusting that magic would occur out of our intention; the more I did, the more the magic materialized.

Gaia, the earth personified as a goddess, daughter of chaos. Our film was made in a way that kept us close to the elements, to the natural rhythms of the earth and those who live upon her and certainly, what was born, was born as much out of chaos as out of hard work and determination.

 

How did you assemble your cast? What were you looking for?

With the mandate, above, I trusted that once we were on the path that the right young woman would find us, rather than us finding her. So, we set up several casting sessions, where we met many young women. They were told there would be no fee, no script, they had to be prepared to be naked and simulate sex and they had to come out to Arizona with two total strangers and make a film... a tall order! Surprisingly, we had more than a hundred applications and we met nearly all. I tried not to "think" to hard about what I exactly wanted, but rather trust that when she appeared, I would just know.

Unfortunately, my mind did get in the way and I ended up with two choices.  After much "thinking", (which was a mistake), I selected one of the women. I made the call but as I did, there was something in her voice that concerned me, especially when she said she wanted to meet and go over a few things. An hour later, we met and catching me totally blindside, she expressed all her concerns and fears about every detail she had previously agreed to and more than that, wanted me to consider changing certain aspects of the role requirements. I was totally shocked. I asked her to think hard about her journey thus far and what she was asking. When I got home, I said to my wife, "If we end up with the other young woman, (Emily),  then this truly is divine intervention"!

The rest is history. This always was Emily's role, and clearly, there was nothing I could do about it and thank god, because she couldn't have been more perfect. The lesson; that if I stop, listen and learn how to interpret my inner voice, rather than "think" too much, then I would be less likely to wonder from the path, the path of this film, set in motion from our intention.

Once we got to Arizona, where we cast just about everyone else from local, mainly non actors, I used this lesson to guide me.  So, to answer your question, what was I looking for; "authenticity" and the methods seemed to be paying off.

 

How much time was there between inception, I.e., the 'birth of the idea' to your premiere here in Toronto?

Almost exactly one year, though in some form or another, I think aspects of the idea had been floating around in my mind for many years.

 

What's the primary/central theme the film addresses? What do you want the viewer to take away?

Despite the films strong "surface" and what would appear as a more obvious theme,  for me, the film's central theme is about choices and specifically, making a choice of action, rather than passivity, even when the the outcome is not certain, in fact, more than that, where the choice is a leap of faith and you have very little data to even support your choice, other than a gut feeling.  I find that in most cases,  if there are two choices regarding the situation, one to do something, the other not, that the potential, perceived and ultimate risk of both, is often the same,  yet one is about action, and has growth and the other is about passivity and for me, physiologically,  more about a death. Take for an example, my choice to make Gaia. The risk of making it, the way we did, was to end up broke, with nothing worth showing anyone. The risk of not making the film would be I would end up broke, with nothing to show.  Both had the same perceived risk, yet one had potential for growth, the other was static, was what I knew & felt safe with.

I'm a strong believer in taking risks and stepping out of our comfort zone and my experience is the more I do, the more my life blossoms.  I think this theme is pretty much buried within "Gaia" but I also believe it's a theme that people will "feel" more than intellectualize, which, considering this is how we went about making the film, makes absolute sense.

What I want the viewer to take away, is an "experience" rather than knowledge, and experience, of pain as well as joy; an experience of life.