Kevin Hamedani [Interview]

I remember being about 7 years old and watching Back to the Future over and over again. I then started writing short stories around that time. So I’d say at a very young age I just knew, for better or worse, that I was obsessed with movies and wanted to make my own.

It was a great experience but also very frustrating. I knew very little about how a film set worked so I made a lot of mistakes. Luckily I had a wonderfully talented and experience DP John Guleserian who helped me make it through. One big lesson I learned from him was when I was blocking a scene and I had the actors stand close together like it were a stage play. That’s when the DP said: “This isn’t a play! Why are they standing next to each other!” That was a HUGE wake up call. I learned then that you can and should use the space around you because the camera will find the actor…big lesson.

My co-writer Ramon Isao and I were at the Austin Film Festival in 2009 for ZMD when we  met another filmmaking duo who had a similar  script they wanted to pitch to a big actor guest at that year’s fest. That planted the seed for JUNK. That and the fact I had done a year of film festivals and that world is bizarre, incredibly exciting and filled with colorful characters. I had yet to see a movie that took place at a fest so that was the final push to make JUNK.

Where you at all surprised about the backlash several film festivals gave the film by not letting it in?Yes, very. I did a private screening once the film was complete in Los Angeles,  A friend of mine, Scott Sanders (who directed Black Dynamite) took me aside after the screening and told me how impressed he was. That was big coming from him because Sanders is the most brutally honest friend I know. But then he said we probably screwed ourselves w/ film festivals by making a movie about it. I didn’t believe him but eventually I realized he was right. Even my hometown of Seattle rejected JUNK w/out so much as a rejection email. I think this movie really pissed some programmers off. That’s too bad. i thought they’d have a sense of humor but they take themselves very seriously. The ironic thing is that I made this movie with love for film festivals, but the reaction has lead me to really despise that whole world. So many great films fall through the cracks due to politics, lack of star power, etc…

It wasn’t fun. I will never act and direct again unless I have a bigger budget.

Music composing would be the only other job on a film that I could potentially do. I love music and play a little but I’m not very good so it wouldn’t be that great.

I am so happy w/ my cast. Leads and supporting. I managed, somehow, to keep my vision intact.  With the supporting cast and the colors they bring to JUNK, it resembles the crazy world I intended to create.

The Northwest has a beautiful, gloomy feel to it which is why I’ve shot both my features there. It’s a beautiful place with an underlying haunting, cold pulse that brings more layers to your work than you intended.

I have a few projects in development. I hope this family drama called Prince Ali moves forward. It’d be a great change to do something that isn’t a comedy

What was the last thing that made you smile?That’s a hard one….I don’t know.  I met Vince Gilligan recently and had a nice long chat with him about The X-Files, Breaking Bad, etc… I had a smile for a week after that….