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“Actualize a Dream We’ve Had Since Our Early Twenties” | Pasqual Guttierez and Ben Mullinkosson, Serious People

A pregnant woman is sitting on a table in a doctor's office while a man sits next to her on a chair.#image_title

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?

Pasqual Guttierez: To me, the most memorable aspect of this film was not one specific scene or shoot day. It was the collective experience as a whole. The film features my wife, my best friends and myself, and we play versions of ourselves. While the film was always set to be a comedy, I do think that our own truths bled into each character a bit and navigating that during the process was truly a unique and rewarding challenge.

Ben Mullinkosson: On the last day of production, we all went to eat Chinese food together. Pasqual started crying during the meal and we all reminisced knowing that this might be the last time we come together in this way. Ten years prior Pasqual, Waju (the sound man/composer of the film), Teddy (the producer) and I had all lived together in a house near downtown LA called Stacks. We spent our time dreaming of making something together, but we never had the narrative nor the resources.

In a lot of ways this film was a way for Pasqual to say goodbye to his pre-fatherhood adult self. And in a lot of ways, it was a way for us to actualize a dream we’ve had since our early twenties before our friend Pasqual traversed the void into his new life as a father. The film came together so rapidly and every day we shot anything it was a small miracle. In that way, Serious People embodies the spirit of independent filmmaking and will always stick in my memory as a film we got to make with a group of friends about a group of friends.

See all responses to our annual Sundance Question here.

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