In every film, there is the story that you knew you were telling, the story the audience perceives. But there is always some other story, a secret story. It might be the result of your hidden motivations for making the film, or, instead, the result of themes that only became clear to you after you made the movie. It might be something very personal, or it might be a story you didn’t even know you were telling. What is your film’s secret story?

Something that started becoming more and more apparent to me as I finished the movie was the director character’s loneliness. It contrasted so obviously with a lot of the couples and pairs we see throughout the film. And it almost became a theme unto itself – this desire for real human connection, a need to share your life with someone else. But then there is also one character who is the perfect parallel for the director’s loneliness. He’s a salesman in Argentina who owns a bunch of DVDs. Like the director, he also doesn’t have anyone to share his life with. But where the main character is sad and despondent, this other character has found some genuine happiness. The director feels alone because no one seems to care about his movie; but this other character doesn’t feel alone at all because he has found something he really loves in life: movies.

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, January 26 at 2:30pm — Prospector Square Theatre]

Sundance Responses 2016