Interview with Sarah Lotfi

What is the current project you are working on?

I'm in post production on Waking Eyes a short film that explores the overlap between fantasy and reality, as a son tries to reconnect with his mother before her passing. It's an artistic piece that explores time and space through the subconscious. In a few weeks we'll start submitting to festivals for a 2011-2012 run.

Did you always want to be a filmmaker?

Yes. Since I was a child. I was fascinated with how filmmakers pulled off their techniques, it was wasn't enough for me to know they were "camera-tricks" I wanted to learn how to create the same effects. Directing appealed to me because you get to have your hand in each department, conducting the collaboration of others into one vision.

What is the best thing about being one?

The meeting of minds. When you get the right mix of people together and their ideas flow or compliment your own, it makes for a very fulfilling production. You have dynamic behind the scenes and a very powerful project in the end.

What is the worst thing about being one?

Politics, drama, and competition. When ego gets in the way of art, it can really burn productions and set-back collaboration.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

About 20. I've been a part of 3 features, 3 music videos, 11 shorts, and 3 infomercials.

Who is is your favorite filmmaker?

I don't have any one favorite, I admire different filmmakers for different reasons. I am in awe of John Cassavettes for what he did for independent filmmaking. I look up to Katherine Bigelow for producing recognized films from genres that defy pre-concieved stereotypes for her sex. I like a lot of Ingmar Bergman, David Lean, Billy Wilder, Jean Luc Goddard, Frederico Fellini, and Alain Resnais.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

You have to persevere, yourself, no one can do that for you. A passion filled vision will speak volumes to the people who count. So do your homework and take a humble approach, but at the same time emanate confidence, and in the end the right people will take your side. A lot of people in the 'business' are movie-buffs to a certain niche - so geekery pays off in the end I think.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

What filmmaker from this day and age hasn't been awe-struck by the original Star Wars trilogy? Orson Welles' Citazen Kane. Ian Softley's K-Pax (2001), Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2008).

My favorite genre is the historical epic so classics like The Seventh Seal (Sweden,1957), A Man for All Seasons (UK, 1966), The Lion in Winter (UK, 1968), Grand Illusion, and Ballad of a Soldier have directly inspired my work. Coming from a Persian and Chinese heritage, I have really been impressed by Majid Majidi's The Color of Paradise (Iran, 1999), Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men (Germany, 2009), and Yimou Zhang's To Live(China,1994), and Kar Wai Wong's 2046 (China, 2004).

In television I'm most loyal to BBC and HBO. I was fortunate enough to intern on HBO FILM's Cinema Veritae: The Saga of An American Family (2011) last summer. I witnessed firsthand the meticulous care HBO invests into their product. They choose great content, from Band of Brothers, to Elizabeth I.

How would you describe your film education?

It's been a cross between practice, research and theory. When I was younger it was just what I could read up on the web, learn from featurettes, and gleam from filmmaking books. In college between my two majors I've had production classes to learn the technical skills, and courses on film theory to learn the context of how cinema came to the place it is today. Each project is an education, I don't think I'll ever stop learning about filmmaking.

How has social media changed the independent film industry?

Social media on one hand has made news very accessable on a global level, but at the same time there is so much information through it I think a lot of independent film is buried deep in. As a filmmaker social media is an exciting tool to use, but it takes so much time and effort to really make the most of it.

How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

Mainstream films are business ventures. They are productions invested in on the basis that such a concept has made money off in the past. More often than not, I find mainstream cinema in my generation to be recycled stories and themes. Independent films tend to be independently financed, and take more risks, garnered for festival exhibition and independent distribution.

You could go back in time and see any classic film being made. Which film would it be?

Fred Zinnamen's A Man for All Seasons. I'd have liked to been on set at all the locations and see Robert Bolt in his prime. Social activist, playright, and screenwriter Robert Bolt was a man of his time in the counter-culture movement of 1960s.

Thank you Sarah for allowing me to interview you. I'll be sure to tell people about your film . For more information on Waking Eyes visit the official site here.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/23534944]

Below are some production stills from the film.

[slideshow]