00:12well yeah it started with me um i really wanted to write a story that sort of portrayed teens the
00:19way that i knew them through my daughter aura and our other daughter molly um and it sort of
00:26struck me that that the things that i was seeing on on tv and films in terms of ya stuff
00:31they're just
00:32different than what we saw in our house and with their peers you know they they strike me as a
00:37a
00:37very sort of um contemplative slightly sad anxious bunch who is very aware that the american dream
00:46that we have taught them to strive for is dead and they don't know what to do about it um
00:52and i thought
00:54man if i could give sort of a dignity to that persona and and give them room to think and
01:03breathe and talk the way that when i saw before sunrise when i was 17 um that would be like
01:08a
01:09really interesting challenge but i'm also a 48 year old person so i don't know if i can do that
01:16so i want to build a really solid story and then sort of pass the baton on to katie who
01:21has much
01:21more of that lyrical direction and kind of set the environment so that they can improvise and give
01:28them the time to find it and also empower aura and chosen and say look i wrote this to the
01:33best of my
01:34ability but there are going to be things that i just didn't get right so please re-say this and
01:39make
01:39me look good on set um and find your way so that was kind of how the how it started
01:44yeah i'll also say
01:45there was maybe an altruistic side of us making this movie at the very very start of aura's career
01:54and you know chosen's been working for a while but you know as a new adult and sort of entering
02:01in the
02:01business where it is right now in this time and the way the business is right now um that we
02:09sort of
02:09had this hope of showing them what mark and i got to experience 20 years ago making the puffy chair
02:15which was just this very pure intimate raw experience and it was very unfussy and it was
02:24very you know that we had for the puffy chair we had a um a crew of three and mark
02:28and i were included
02:29in the crew um and we got up to 12 on this one it was big we expanded our crew
02:36to 12 on their town
02:37but i did really love the idea of sharing with these guys how simple making a movie can be
02:44um when things are really hard and scary out in the world and maybe someone isn't giving you the
02:48permission to do it um to get together with your friends and and make a movie the way we used
02:54to
02:54um it felt like a found yeah a fun foundation and as a gift to them of like hey just
03:00so you know
03:01it can be done and it can be really really fun i was nervous for sure i mean any actor
03:08is nervous
03:08doing their first big project but um i was really excited and passionate about the specific you know
03:15the the story and i feel like this is such a side of teenagers that just isn't shown on tv
03:22and you know
03:23it's a lot about like the weight on parents that like a parenting a teenager and how it affects them
03:29and whatever but then like teenagers just being angsty and bored and annoying and i feel like just
03:34seeing that they actually have these deep mature real views and feelings is so important to see
03:45because i always you know i was like oh maybe i just don't like vibe with people my age if
03:50i'm
03:50watching those things where i'm like i don't feel like that like i you know and there's something that
03:55i like to you know think about which is people always say like you're young you don't have to
04:02think about that right now like i wasn't thinking about that at my age but like in this day and
04:07age
04:07you do have to think about it like we do because things are so terrible right now in so many
04:12ways
04:12and so it's like you do you're forced to think about those things and it's shoved in our face all
04:17the time with social media and the news and you know everything like that it's so much more accessible
04:20to us so i think yeah you're forced to think about it and you're forced to grow up a little
04:25bit faster than other people might have had to and so i do like seeing that you know 16 17
04:34year olds in
04:34this movie have to think about that and they talk about it and they have their feelings about it and
04:39that was the major like obviously i want to make a film with my parents but that was the real
04:43like
04:43selling point to me on the film was like i really want to you know convey this message and do
04:49this
04:50and see myself in a film like see myself in a character like that where i'm like see myself in
04:55a film like see myself i want to be on a screen no but like see see parts of myself
05:00that i don't see
05:01conveyed on screen and so that was really almost therapeutic in a way to also do that and i'm just
05:06so excited to get it out there and you know working with this guy and everyone was just so great
05:12the script's phenomenal i think kind of just repeating what they've been saying there's so
05:18many times you turn on tv and of course there's aspects of the young adult experience that are
05:24displayed but i think there's a whole side that's untapped where it's it's of course it's about
05:29romantic relationships which are there and we have that somewhat in our film but really when you
05:33think about your childhood you think about the friends like i think even as i get older you think
05:37more about those friendships that lasted and that kind of cultivated you and shapes you and
05:43also we have this theme in our film of being regular or special and oftentimes we're pushing
05:48special special special and that there is something special about being regular and i thought that was
05:52such a great message especially today you know where there's so much expectation to be like hey
05:59everything that is special is regular and there's a beauty in finding that and everybody should find
06:03that specialness in the regular that they love so i just love that it's exciting mark you alluded to
06:10sort of the death of the american dream what about the indie film dream like you know uh a lot
06:16of people
06:17including me grew up on your films people like joe swanberg who's also here um what do you feel
06:24what do you both feel about the this moment for any film versus when you were coming up i think
06:28it's a
06:28challenging moment for sure but um i think that making stories is possibly more important than ever
06:35uh and giving dignity to these thoughts um that um in a post-truth era are going to have a
06:42hard time
06:42being seen i think is really important um i think that the financial prospects are quite different now
06:48um but i think that um you can almost look at um filmmaking and storytelling as a form of of
06:55a vocation
06:56or even prayer um and you get together in creative community with people that you love um you get to
07:02travel around you get to show your movies and maybe it'll make some money but maybe it won't
07:07um but at the end of the day um you got to keep telling your stories so um i'm still
07:12i'm still in favor
07:13of the ecosystem you just got to go on a little more clear and i think historically we watch we've
07:19watched it in the past you know our business contracts and this is sometimes where diamonds
07:24are formed and i think this year for filmmaking has been such a cool year there's been a lot of
07:31really interesting movies that felt very singular to the directors who made them um and so i'm hoping
07:37that you know as art always has um sort of blossomed out of really challenging times that we're maybe
07:46gonna feel that in the next couple years and and hear some of these voices and um that's why festivals
07:53like this are so exciting um to get to see the new films and meet the new directors and and
08:00and new
08:01and new faces and these beautiful new faces and some old ones yeah i think that i try not to
08:10give
08:10too much advice um because it doesn't go that well and i spent a lot of time trying to give
08:15aura
08:16a lot of a lot of advice um and i think that um look the truth of the matter is
08:22is the best thing you
08:23can do as as aura's character abby does in the film when when matt starts to express some really
08:29complicated things to her um i just love it it's the best thing which is um i don't know what
08:36to say
08:37i'm so sorry that must really suck and don't go anywhere and just stay i think that this is what
08:45we need more than ever right now um is for you to be a posts in the maelstrom and in
08:50the storm for
08:50the people that you love um so that's about all that's about all i got to offer at this point
08:56the thesis of the movie for me really is i see you and i'm gonna let you see me
09:04and that is terrifying but i'm not going anywhere and that to me feels like the ultimate gift like i
09:13know people have gone places before like but i'm not in friendship in love in family like to say
09:21i love you and i'm not gonna leave i got you even in a deadline interview to be like i'm
09:27on this couch
09:28i'm here for 10 and we're not going to leave guys we're not guys we're right here and we've got
09:35you
09:35we're not gonna leave okay i would say you're not going anywhere but in six minutes we are actually
09:44gonna leave but i would say for advice for young people would be um kind of in a way a
09:50theme of this
09:51film is abby and matt would have never interacted had it not been for this play in the specific
09:57circumstance for the play um something that i learned you know going to high school and having
10:04not a great experience and you know graduating early and finding my people in you know ucb classes
10:11improv like film festivals is find your people but most importantly find your weirdos that relate
10:18to you and that see you and i think a lot of kids my age have a lot of pride
10:24and like who they choose
10:26to hang out with but like if i think your definition of cool but if yeah if i didn't take
10:31that jump i would
10:32not be as much myself as i am right now and i just think the major thing is if you're
10:38not happy with
10:39your life and how you are and how you're feeling and how you're being treated as you haven't found
10:43your people and it might happen later in life but just know that it will if you really like look
10:49look
10:50for them and seek them out and that's important so
10:53you
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