This is the first in a series of interviews I’m going to publish about local, emerging talent. I’m looking to highlight creative types—artists, writers, and filmmakers—who have a lot to offer Orlando. If you know of anyone who deserves a closer look, shoot me an e-mail to let me know.
The following interview features UCF graduate film student Sam Torres, an aspiring documentary filmmaker. Sam and I go way back, and his work first caught my eye a few years ago. Despite his humility, Sam is truly talented; he has a knack for exploring identity, family, and cultural heritage.
First, let’s talk about you as a filmmaker. What kind of themes or styles set you apart from other directors?
The thought hasn’t even crossed my mind, honestly. At this point, I feel silly even calling myself a director, because I am still in the middle of…basically doing everything on my first feature-length film.
That being said, I’ve been making some conscious decisions regarding my approach with the subject matter. Since it’s a really personal film, I wanted to avoid using tripods and traditionally framed documentary “talking heads” shots. As a means of dealing with the ramifications of delving back into the past, I am also revisiting the inspiration for this film–which were my mother’s home videos she shot of her four children–and I plan on incorporating them into the narrative and structure of the film. At one point, I even thought about tracking down the camera my mother used to shoot those movies (mostly in the 80s) and shooting my entire film with it, so it would match the footage and draw visual parallels to emphasize one of the themes of the film–the fact that I feel trapped in my past.
When you make a film about your life or your family, does it ever feel narcissistic?
My main reason for making this film is entirely selfish; I’ll just admit that right now (even though I think it’s fairly obvious). I am not thinking about whether or not I will make money with it, nor am I terribly concerned with how many festivals it gets into. I just have to trust my gut and my instincts as a filmmaker (and especially as the editor of the film) that this is not only going to be relevant for me. I’m more concerned with coming across as whiny than narcissistic. I constantly remind myself that this cannot be a film about me complaining about my family–because I know plenty of other people have had it worse, and it would not make for a very compelling film.
The film you’re working on involves your family–sometimes not portraying them in the most flattering light. Do you fear any backlash or retaliation for this?
So far, I have asked some pretty serious questions to a few of my family members, and they have sobbed or vented on camera…but there hasn’t been too much of a backlash. But, to me, backlash would not come in the form of resentment or anger. Right now, I am still unsure of how to get some of my family members to sit down with me for a few hours to record some interviews. I have spoken to them about the film, and they said they would help me out however they could–but I can tell they’re incredibly uncomfortable. Part of the difficulty is living with my mother and my brother right now. When do I just tell them, “Okay, so mark your calendar, on your day off I want to sit down and reminisce about the past and make you feel like shit for 2 hours…”?
Walk us through your creative process. What kind of preparation do you need to do once you have an idea for a film? How much of documentary-making is improvised along the way?
I have struggled with this. I cannot be a spokesperson for documentary filmmakers and how they go about things, I can only explain my process so far. A few summers ago, I decided to go to Puerto Rico for a few months to interview my dad for the film. No footage was shot in the first week I was there. I was very adamant about this, because I wanted to gain my dad’s trust with the project. I wanted him to start asking ME questions about what I was doing first, so he wouldn’t clam up and refuse to speak when the camera was on. My father is an incredibly stubborn person, so there really was no way of predicting how he was going to react to the whole concept.
I shot 8 hours of footage in the month that I was there. Right before I shot the last tape, my father told me “I thought about this a lot last night, and I think I know what you want from me now…start rolling…” I hardly even ask him any questions in that last hour of footage. The hairs on my arms were standing up while I checked the focus and the audio levels. It was incredible. To most people they’ll see that and say “Your father is very eloquent and frank”–but it’s my responsibility to emphasize just how rare it is for my father to open up the way he did for this film. That relationship I have built with him is absolutely integral to the film–but I can’t really say how much of it is planned or improvised, so much as I can say that it just feels natural.
How do you work with other people when making a movie? Do you tend to see yourself as the visionary, or do you thrive off of the creative energy of a group?
I am not working with anyone else on this film so far. Truth be told, editing the bits of footage I’ve cut so far has been emotionally crippling. The film is going to be displaying me at my most vulnerable, and I’ve recently decided that I will probably be bringing in select few people who I trust to help me edit. They don’t have too much (or any) editing experience, but they know me really well. And, as cheesy as this sounds, this film is basically just…me.
I’ve been showing bits of footage to people here and there, and I notice that they just feel really uncomfortable afterward and never know what to say. This film was basically going to be impossible for me to shoot with a crew, and it defeats its entire purpose. How can I expect my dad to give me that last awesome tape while there’s some guy he doesn’t know holding a boom mic and another guy with a bounce board, making sure he doesn’t have raccoon eyes?
Describe your wildest failure with a film?
I used to write a lot of scripts and shoot a lot of videos when I was in middle school and high school. There was a script I wrote that required a grocery store for most of the film. I tried for over a year to try to shoot that movie and get permission from a grocery store–but they just never budged. I shot some of the footage, and it’s still incredibly depressing for me to go back and watch now.
At one point I also started writing a feature about a spontaneous road trip. Then Little Miss Sunshine came out and I thought it was too similar, so I abandoned it after writing 54 pages. I was in a funk for a really long time, until I started making these personal films that forced me to get my shit together. I made a short where I transformed myself into the Puerto Rican stereotype, as a means of making light of my struggle to find a cultural identity. I didn’t have to count on a good actor or a good location. The film relied on me, and I was in full control of its success, or failure. Looking back now, given the depressed state I was in at the time, it was a pretty huge gamble-but it turned out well and it motivated me to continue doing film…in a more controlled state with documentaries.
What titles do you recommend for someone who wants to get more into documentary films?
I mean…it really just depends on what you’re into. If you’re interested in reflexive documentaries, you can’t go wrong with the work of Ross McElwee. He’s best known for Sherman’s March, but my personal favorite of his is Time Indefinite. I also saw a film at the Florida Film Festival a few years ago called Prodigal Sons that was absolutely stunning to me. King of Kong is an amazing little movie that I wish had gotten more recognition. But then there are also the films of D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles brothers. I have a soft spot for rock-documentaries, myself.
Do you see Orlando growing as a film-friendly city? Where is the US film industry growing besides LA and New York?
Orlando has potential, but Florida needs to have better tax incentives to offer the industry before you’ll see drastic growth. New Orleans has been thriving as a film-friendly city because they have amazing tax incentives to offer. I just read that they might even be shooting part of the new Batman movie over there. I thought I read that L.A. was actually struggling for a bit there because of other cities offering so many incentives and Schwarzenegger had to create a new budget, offering better incentives for the city. It’s pretty crazy now that L.A. and NYC are not the only options anymore for filmmakers looking for work, though they’re still the most consistent.
