Isaiah Zagar from In a Dream

Jeremiah Zagar

(continued)

Interview by Alyce Wilson

Did it ever lead to any difficulties with your family or especially with your brother? When I think about how you captured him at a point — it almost might have not been a point when he would have been particularly proud of what was going on.

Yes, I think it could have in a different family, but not in ours. In our family, they're so open and it's what they believe in, you know? Their belief system is grounded in this idea of art for public consumption. They don't believe in having secrets. They don't believe in hiding. Like, even if my brother felt uncomfortable about it at first, or ever, that changed, because ultimately his belief system is grounded in the idea of exposure, of being transparent. I think transparency is a really, really important thing, in culture. I think it's something that we don't see as important or really value, but it should be valued. Secrets are what destroy people. I think that's part of the message of the movie: when my father kept secrets that's when the family fell apart.

Yeah, exactly. And [when he was] honest about it, [that] was when they knew, "Well, this is what we're dealing with; let's deal with it."

Right.

I was struck by how supportive they clearly were with you when they stood up at the Q&A with you at the Philadelphia Film Festival. It was clear that it was your moment.

They are, they are. They're so supportive of the film. And I think also because they feel like it represents them correctly.

Yeah, right. Now you debuted at SXSW and you got the award for Best First Film at Philadelphia Film Fest. What's next? Are you taking it anywhere else?

Yes. The other one is a Full Frame award. It really meant a lot to me. I don't know if you know what that festival is, but it's the biggest documentary festival in this country and getting the award for emerging artist there, [...] that meant something different. It's important to understand it meant my peers liked the movie, too. The people that make documentaries, the people that I revere, that they care about it. And that really means a lot. So those two awards you mentioned are good, are really important, but this one was even more somehow. The South By Southwest award was unbelievably important, and the Philadelphia Festival was unbelievably important, too. It's funny: seven years I've been thinking that all that matters is the process. It's not! Now I'm like, a little recognition is nice, too.

Exactly.

Now I'm working on a film with my executive producer and producer, Jeremy Yaches and Ross Kauffman, some editing in it. It's a film about a boy who did disappeared 20 years ago, in Kashmir, India.

It's sort of like an Into the Wild but from a mother's perspective. It's less about a boy's spiritual journey or a boy's need to leave, as it is about how that affected the people around them and what that means and how that opens up cross-cultural divide.

Is that also a documentary, or is that fictional?

It is a documentary but it's really done in a very similar way to In a Dream, with very stylized recreations. I'm also writing a feature film about that man, or developing a feature film about that man that I told you about in India. And I'm doing a short. I'm loving the idea of getting back to doing shorts. I'm going to go cross country [this summer] and shoot a bunch of super 8. I'm just excited about the idea of traveling again and like exploring and shooting things for the fun of shooting them.

That's great. Are you still also working on [the] script called Olive that you were working on?

hat film I'm not working on right now, but I love that film, but I'm not working on that anymore. It's funny, because it was years ago and it's a beautiful script, and the person I wrote it with I'd still love to work with. It just feels like without changing it, it just feels like a long time ago.

Yeah, yeah. That happens. I think the average number of novels that most better-known authors have written, before they get one that actually sells, is something like three. I don't know if it goes that way for screenwriters, too.

Are you going to be taking In a Dream to any other film festivals or looking for a distributor?

We are. We're going to be at Rooftop Films in New York, and I think we're going to do one in Philly, too. And then we're going to do Maui. And then we just had it submitted it to a bunch of others, just recently. The thing is we didn't get into any film festivals initially, except for South by Southwest, Philadelphia and Full Frame, because the movie wasn't done. The movie was finished just before South by Southwest, the night before. That people loved the film there was very surprising to me. I didn't think anybody would really like it.

Yeah. I saw an interview with you there and you said that, that you were tired because you were up literally finishing the film.

Yeah, totally. It was so bizarre.

Are you still teaching filmmaking to high school students?

I just did a seminar at the Apple Store for high school students...

The Tribeca Film Institute?

A couple things with Tribeca. Yeah, yeah. So I do it sporadically now. I can't do it fulltime anymore, but it's something I love. It's something I absolutely adore doing. I'll do it for the rest of my life. I'm doing a course this summer, too.

What do you enjoy about teaching?

Honestly, filmmaking, which is what I love to do, I don't think it's necessarily a noble profession. It's selfish in a little bit of a way. You're making it for other people, but you're basically doing it because you have this drive to do it. But teaching makes me feel like you're actually doing something for someone else. And that feeling is something I think everyone needs; it's really important. I've always adored my teachers, and I just loved when somebody was good at telling me something that they loved doing. That I love doing. It makes me so happy when I feel like I'm good at that.

Right, right. Sharing that.

Also, I love seeing their films. They make the most incredible films. This kid made this movie Zombie Attack two, three, four, over and over again. He has creativity just pouring out of him. It's really beautiful to watch.

That's great. And when you spoke recently with the Tribeca Film Institute students, you spoke about how your work has changed over the years. How would you describe your aesthetic and your goals as a filmmaker? Because that was the topic.

I think my basic aesthetic is to film the — I think we touched on it before, it's like to film the things that people don't normally want to film in life, but also to combine the real and surreal, is what I really get excited about. How you combine the hyper-real and surreal? I think that's one thing that's evident in everything I've done.