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“Perhaps We Were Swayed Into Making Something a Little More Joyous” | Jim Archer, Brian and Charles
A still from Brian and Charles by Jim Archer, an official selection of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The last two years have prompted much contemplation and reconsideration of the reasons why we make our films as well as the ways in which we make them. What aspect of your filmmaking—whether in your creative process, the way you finance your films, your production methodology or the way you relate to your audience—did you have to reinvent in order to make and complete the film you are bringing to the festival this year?
There wasn’t much creatively that we wanted to reinvent with Brian and Charles, particularly as some of the main themes of the film are loneliness and isolation, something we didn’t realize would be as broadly relevant before the pandemic hit.
So while the script and story remained the same, I think our intentions for the film may have been focused more. Ultimately it’s a story of friendship and love and something that I hope will leave audiences feeling uplifted, which is perhaps more important to an audience now than it was previously. In the edit we found there were many different ways that we could leave an audience feeling about Brian and Charles’ relationship, but with everything that’s happened in the past couple of years perhaps we were swayed into making something a little more joyous.
