(gentle upbeat music) - [Alechia Voiceover] These are the stories that move us, the stories that guide us, and the stories that reflect our community.

Filmed in our neighborhoods and local haunts by those who call the city home.

These filmmakers are creating stories that show the life of our city in only a way we could imagine.

These are the stories that we tell.

This is, "Atlanta On Film."

(gentle upbeat music) - Welcome back to Atlanta on film.

I'm your host, Alechia Reese.

And tonight we're going to be watching some pretty creative films.

In our first film of the evening, a lonely vegetarian and an awkward cannibal sit down for a very peculiar type of date.

Will they be able to see past their plates and proceed with their arrangement, or will they walk away with empty stomachs?

There's only one way to find out.

Let's take a look at, "Eat Your Heart Out" by Giovanni Tortocini.

(film reel beeping) (gentle music) (singer vocalizing) (insects chirping) (singer vocalizing) (gentle music) (singer vocalizing) (gentle music) (birds chirping) (dogs barking) (birds chirping) (dogs barking) (steak sizzling) - Oh, oh gosh.

Grease in my gosh eye.

Ow.

Oh gosh, darn it.

(roller door cranking) - Munchygirl 67?

- I am she.

(Marceline laughing) She is me.

- Well, she has a lovely nose.

(birds chirping) (Marceline laughing) - So, Mr. Hungry Hippo.

(both laughing) Do we just go to your?

- I made dinner.

(footsteps thudding) Well, I'm making.

Oh, by the time you came, apparently I screwed that up.

Stupid.

But it's okay.

I'll be fine.

I'm fine.

And I think you will be really happy with the final product.

All I have to do now is plate it up.

I hope you'll like it.

It's really tasty.

And I'll have it ready to go.

How do you feel about veal?

- I'm actually vegetarian.

- Why?

- Well, I just went vegetarian years ago and it, I don't know, felt right, just makes me feel good.

- You don't eat any meat?

- I do not.

- Do you eat salads?

- Ones without meat in them.

- Hold on.

A vegetarian salad.

With no meat in it.

- Looks good.

Mm.

- Mm-hmm.?

- Mm-hmm.

The dressing.

- Yeah, the salad dressing is an old family recipe of balsamic vinegarette.

- I've always wanted to make my own dressing.

- [Harold] It took me years to get my hands on the right recipe.

- Yeah.

- The secret, you know, the secret to good balsamic is mixing olive oil and vinegar.

- Your secret family recipe is oil and vinegar?

- I almost forgot the most important part.

- Hmm?

- Pepper.

The key is in the spices.

I'm a big spice man.

- You're a spice man.

- Hmm, a big one.

(both laughing) - Well, you seem like a big spicy man.

- You look spicy.

Shoot, I can't believe I just said that.

Oh, with you eating salad and trying to enjoy your dinner.

Munchygirl 67, I will not say another word.

(cutlery clanking) - So where were you going to start on me?

- I thought I would start at your feet, then move up your legs to your thighs.

Pretty standard routine.

- What if you start at my thighs and saved my feet for last?

- Is that what you want?

I will go to your belly button, then hold you down so the only thing you can feel is my body on top of you, as I trail my tongue all the way up to your lips.

Then chomp your plump eyeball.

- Could you not eat my eyes?

- Well, shoot yeah.

Yeah, I can do that, for sure.

But the agreement was I would eat all of you.

- I know.

- I'm a cannibal.

- So I've heard.

- And the eyes, the eyes are just my favorite part.

- Listen, you can eat every inch of me.

It's just, well if you eat in my eyes, I won't be able to see anything anymore.

- When I eat all of you, you won't be able to see much.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

You'll be dead.

(singer vocalizing) ♪ Hunted for my ♪ (singer vocalizing) (gentle music) - It's just.

All my, it's all my skin.

(gentle music) All my organs, I.

- [Harold] Munchygirl 67.

- You don't even know my real name.

- Oh shoot, I'm Harold.

That's my real name.

- I'm sorry.

- Munchygirl 67.

(gentle music) (Marceline crying) (Harold thudding) - Crap, what the fuck, Harry?

- It's Harold.

- I have had a really long day.

Can you just get outta my way?

- Yeah, oh, oh.

I don't want to eat you anymore okay.

Can we just have a do over, just a nice dinner?

Not me eating you as my dinner, but just the two of us eating dinner together and then you leaving, with all your eyes intact.

(insects chirping) - [Marceline] Marceline.

- Ow.

- Oh.

- Ow, my God.

- Hold still, hold still, hold still.

Okay.

- That's your name?

- Mm-hmm.

You'll eat people raw, blood guts and all, but you don't like a little cut.

- Yes, Marceline, I do not.

- Oh.

- Me too.

- Well, you can't have me.

- Oh, I don't eat vegetarians anyway.

I bet you taste like Brussels sprouts.

- You eat Brussels sprouts?

- Sometimes it can be hard to find someone to eat.

So when the pickings are slim, you have to shop at Kroger or something.

- What's this?

- I want to introduce you to real protein.

You're hungry.

No vegetables allowed, only veal.

- I'm serious.

Mm, mm, it tastes like, tastes good.

- Kind of spicy.

- Yeah, it's really spicy.

Mm, what is this, an accountant?

Ooh, a taxi driver?

- Veal.

- What?

- Veal, it's a meat that comes from calves.

Calves as in baby cows.

- Yeah, I know that it's.

- That's not a person.

(both laughing) - I've been so lonely.

Every time I love someone, I love them with everything I have.

They don't give me anything.

Jesus, could someone be vulnerable, just, that's all I ask?

(Marceline laughing) I guess it took the thought of chewing human between my teeth to finally feel real.

Do people taste better than this?

- People taste kind of like that.

Veal.

But that's not all I taste in people.

I can feel traces of their desires and passions graze my tongue.

Everything they've lost.

Everything they've won.

And in that moment, I am one with them and I'm keeping them safe.

- Can I eat you?

And I want you to eat me.

We'd just take at each other's senses and bathe in each other's breath.

(gentle upbeat music) I trust you.

(sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) ♪ One was an infant ♪ ♪ Two was a regime ♪ ♪ Three was hard to believe ♪ (gentle upbeat music) ♪ Four was plenty ♪ ♪ All I'd ever need ♪ ♪ I ♪ ♪ Was the beginning of infinity ♪ (gentle upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (gentle upbeat music) (singer vocalizing) (gentle music) - I am here with filmmaker Giovanni, the creator for the, "Eat Your Heart Out" film.

Now, first of all, this one was incredibly creative.

I mean, incredibly creative.

So if you had to define or describe exactly what your film is in a brief synopsis, what would you say it's about?

- So I would say it's about someone navigating a first date with unexpected circumstances.

- Mm.

- If that's vague enough, I don't.

- Ooh, no, I really like that, I like that.

Because it is kind of telling of the story in that on the surface it looks like it's a woman who's going on a first date.

For me, it's really a story around people finding someone who's so much like them that they can feel safe enough to share.

Is that the main theme or message that you wanted to get across?

- Yeah, I mean, the inspiration, I don't really remember where it came from, but I remember being really fascinated by this idea of what cannibalism could mean on a metaphorical level, because it's very, cannibalism is gory, it has such a basis in horror.

And so I really wanted to kinda bring that into the romance vibes.

And so, so much of what both of these characters are going through is they're navigating their own vulnerabilities through their interactions with this other person.

I'm hopefully kind of posing this question of, you know, what if being vulnerable is as scary as getting eaten alive?

- Mm.

- And just, you know, what kind of emotional baggage do people bring to relationships and dating.

- Yeah and two, as I was watching the film, it made me realize that every single person, no matter how well put together, because they both looked like they were well put together, like they had, you know, things going for themselves, but they also seemed as though they were exhausted with having to wear all the masks that they had to put on and wear.

- Yeah, so we worked with the actors in a rehearsal process of about five days.

So much of our conversations were revolving around, you know, if it is a push, pull of vulnerability, when are the characters pulling away, when are they, you know, kind of pulling each other in?

Because it kind of, it changes as the story goes on where the guy is the cannibal and he's like, okay, so, you know, he kind of has everything set out ready to go.

But then our heroin starts finding out that she does kind of want to become a cannibal.

So what does that look like?

And then in her kind of figuring out her own being within that cannibal world, he is then surprised by how he reacts to that too.

So it's kind of, yeah, there's this push, pull.

And so much of the rehearsals were kind of figuring out those moments.

- So I felt like the overarching theme, in my belief, was one of acceptance and acknowledgement, acknowledging who you are, and then finding those who will accept you as such.

So, was that one of the overall themes?

And if so, are there some that we maybe missed as an audience that you wanna let us in on?

- Yeah, I mean, my hopes are, like, so much of this film, there's a lot to interpret.

And so, you know, I figure if, you know, we're kind of bringing in our own ideas of where our own vulnerabilities in life can be difficult.

We were going through this monologue and part of this monologue after she eats the veal, somewhere in there, she says, "I feel so free."

She like pointed that line out and she was like, "What is this line?

"Like, I don't understand what I'm like free from exactly."

Yeah.

And I had a difficult time answering that.

And I was like trying to figure it out for myself.

- Yeah.

- And so we ended up cutting the line.

- Okay.

- A couple years down the line, the more that I've spent time away from this film, and then I'll come back to it every now and then, I realized so much of like what I was processing with the writing of this film was being bi and not being out and kind of trying to like position myself in my clear identity without like fully.

- Outing yourself?

- Yeah, yeah, fully, fully outing myself.

And so, yeah, like looking back on it now, it's like, oh my God, that's what this was for me, you know.

- Yeah, that's what that line meant.

That's literally what it meant.

It's amazing too in that you becoming free allowed you to be able to tell a story in its most creative way, to tell a story that simply highlights what it feels like for someone to hide who they are for so long that they're so exhausted from that process, that they're just ready to kinda die in a sense.

- Yeah.

- So.

I wanna talk about when it comes to, you had what, prosthetic arms in there, there was the imagery you used, just the things that you incorporated as far as the technical aspect goes and deciding like what the cinematography was.

What was your vision when you were crafting and designing that piece?

What was that like for you?

And how did you get the two arms at the end to come in?

Like, what was that?

- Yeah, with that piece, we had a huge kind of wooden frame that we built on site.

My DP was helping to build it in between like shots, our art department, like every, everybody was on it, trying to get it done in time for the next day when we were gonna shoot it.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so yeah, we ended up doing like some wood planks that were tied to make it look like it was a bed frame.

- Okay.

- We draped a sheet over it, cut holes in the sheet, and then we had our actors basically like lying down on the ground, poking these poor hands outside of the sheet to kind of have them holding hands.

- Yeah.

- And then we put a prosthetic on their elbow to make it look like they, you know, had their arms taken off.

- They've eaten each other.

- [Giovanni] Yeah.

- There was quite a bit of symbolism in the film, especially there was a bobcat, so what was that for you?

- Yeah, so that bobcat, I feel like it really represented who's being vulnerable, who isn't being vulnerable.

Even like a cannibals notion of like predator versus prey or hunter versus hunted.

Our main character walked into that evening feeling maybe like the hunted and walked out realizing that both of them could be hunters and hunted at the same time.

And they could just, you know, kind of share each other's vulnerabilities, as scary as it was.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's an invitation to explore a little bit more about yourself for sure.

For sure.

Like I said, this was one of the most creative films I have ever had an opportunity to see.

And so I thank you so much for sharing your magic and your art with us.

- Thank you so much for having me.

(film reel clicking) - In our next film, a young woman journeys across the globe in search of a lost lover she hopes to find.

This is, "Three Men Named Mantas."

(film reel clicking) (bag wheels thudding) - [Fiona Voiceover] I had never even heard of Lithuania before I met him.

I won't go into the specifics on how we connected or how we lost touch, but we clicked.

I guess I had lost faith that there were sweet guys in this world.

How do you say idiot and Lithuanian?

(gentle music) So why am I here?

(gentle music) Maybe I'm searching for meaning where there isn't any.

(gentle music) (car engines revving) (gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music) (car engines revving) (gentle music) (bag wheels thudding) (door knocking) (door hinge creaking) (speaks in foreign language) - Okay.

Thank you.

(footsteps tapping) (Fiona sighing) (door bell ringing) (people speaking indistinctly) (door beeping) (speaks in foreign language) - Mantas.

(speaks in foreign language) - I'm sorry, I don't speak Lithuanian.

Nevermind my mistake.

(speaks in foreign language) Wrong Mantas.

(people speaking indistinctly) (birds chirping) (car door thudding) (car engine revving) Excuse me.

When I made this reservation online, the website said I was getting an automatic car.

- We don't have automatic cars, we have only manual.

- Okay.

How am I supposed to get where I'm supposed to go if I don't know how to drive the car?

(keys banging) (bag wheels thudding) (birds chirping) (speaks in foreign language) (car door thudding) (speaks in foreign language) (car engine revving) I am sorry, I'm going on and on.

I just need to get to this address.

Do you know of a bus or a train or?

I mean, I don't have much money, but.

(speaks in foreign language) I know it's far.

(birds chirping) - I'll take you.

(bag wheels thudding) (gentle music) (car engine revving) You said he's a good man, but you met with him this one time?

- Yeah, but, it's one of those things you can just tell, you know.

- I just hope your Mantas is not like my Mantas.

A guy takes you on a date, charms you into bed, and then cuts off any contact with you.

- Well, I didn't give him my phone number, you know.

- Yeah.

And then he ended any discussion with you on an app or something?

(car engine revving) All man are pigs.

But we are strong, hmm.

(both laughing) (car engine revving) There is a saying we have here in Lithuania.

- What is that?

- [Veronika] A hill of crosses.

- [Fiona] Can we stop?

- [Veronika] Okay.

10 minutes.

- [Fiona] Yeah.

- Yeah.

(gentle music) (car engine revving) I must say I respect you for being considerate for a man you don't know and how brave you are for your child.

- Not just for her.

(car engine revving) (birds chirping) (safety belts clicking) (birds chirping) - I'll stay here until you want to go okay.

(birds chirping) (footsteps crunching) (birds chirping) (door knocking) (birds chirping) (door knocking) (birds chirping) - [Mantas] Fiona.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) (gentle music) (footsteps tapping) - Hello.

- Hey.

- How are you?

- I'm good, how are you?

- I'm excellent.

We are here with James, the director of, "Three Men Named Mantas" with, "Atlanta On Film."

I must hop right into this.

This is one of my favorite stories to watch, primarily because it mirrors so many of my own experiences.

But now before we hop into things, I would love to get just a brief synopsis of the film.

- Okay so, the film is about an American woman who is pregnant and she travels across the Atlantic Ocean to find the father of her child.

But the catch is, it's a country it's not Italy, it's not France, it's something, it's a place where most people haven't traveled and that's Lithuania.

Which is also, I had never been to Lithuania before making this short, so.

- Ooh, if you had never been then what was your inspiration to choose that particular location?

- Okay yeah.

In one way it feels kind of random, there are a few things that made me like really excited about shooting there.

And the first is, one of my best friends from grad school is Lithuanian.

- Ah.

- Yeah.

And she's not Lithuanian just by heritage, she's Lithuanian like she came to study in the United States from Lithuania and she is one of my favorite filmmakers to collaborate with.

I made a feature a few years ago called, "American Zealot" and she edited it.

And we had such an incredible time in the editing room.

We formed such a strong friendship.

- Yeah.

- And I was just looking for an opportunity to make a film with her again.

- One of the pieces in the film or that it touches on is, you think you're going for a good time, you're not gonna be there for a long time, and then it turns into a lifetime commitment.

And so that pregnancy reveal in the film, what was the thought process behind how you wanted to highlight or showcase that?

- Well, so I should start by saying my wife is the lead actor of the film.

Her name's Ana MacKenzie.

She's had a lot of success as an actor.

Has been acting for a while.

She and I didn't have plans to go to Lithuania to make a short film until she got pregnant.

And so of course I was super excited to show her pregnancy on screen.

The joke, I guess is a lot of people have like pregnancy photo shoots right.

And I was like, let's make a pregnancy short film.

Let's not spend money on a photographer, let's go international and make a movie.

But I knew I wanted to show her pregnancy.

Like I wanted her in a really quiet moment, so I don't know if the shot you're talking about is the one of her in the hotel room where she's just like lathering her belly with lotion.

Because I just have so many memories of her, like taking out shea butter and just like putting it all over there.

So capturing that moment, that really quiet moment.

- When the supporting character, Veronika, when she meets the main character and they come face to face and you have Mantas back there looking at her like, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me."

And she knows like, "No, you've done something.

"Even if you didn't do this, you've done something."

What was your vision for how that initial meeting and interaction, what was your vision for what that would be like?

- Well, I wanted it to be confusing.

Obviously I'm thinking about this mainly from my protagonist perspective.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause that's how an audience is experiencing the scene.

So you have this like, very sweet, young pregnant woman who does not know this language very well.

She shows up and she doesn't know what's on the other side of the door.

She has hope, right.

- Yeah.

- With each door that she goes to, she has hope that it's going to open up and it's going to be the man she's looking for.

- Mm-hmm.

- And it's going to be a positive interaction, right.

So there's anxiety going into the interaction.

But you open it up and there's chaos in this place.

- Actual chaos.

- And you have a Lithuanian woman who's immediately suspicious and jealous and puts it on her partner, who is also named Mantas.

But that becomes a catalyst for that woman to leave that relationship because it's a bad relationship.

- Yes.

- Right.

And then when they come, when they find each other again, a few scenes later, they've both been like, wronged by men in a certain way.

And they like find connection with each other.

There's like camaraderie that women can have.

- And the willingness to support, like, "I don't have to know you, "but I can understand what you're trying to do."

And support in the ways that she could, which was so powerful.

Especially seeing that they had, I mean, polar opposite personalities.

So if you had to define exactly what you wanted the viewers to get, or to come out of this film feeling or acknowledging or knowing, what would that be?

- So a big part of it is faith, I think.

And this is not like a religious movie, it's not meant to be a religious movie, but you have crosses everywhere.

So a lot of, I guess the theme of the story was inspired by how Catholic Lithuania is.

But crosses are a symbol of faith.

It doesn't matter what religion you are, like what walk of life you are, you know that a cross is seen by many people as this positive thing.

And something I found my wife and I constantly leaned on was this faith in ourselves or this faith in humanity that we had.

Like we're bringing a child into the world, how can we lean on the people around us even when we're in like a new strange place, like a location or just the general territory.

And it's faith in other people, I feel like, that has gotten us through everything.

- Yeah.

- And faith in ourselves and our ability to like handle a situation that might be really scary or foreign to us.

- I love that takeaway because it's something that we need, especially during these times.

Faith in yourself, faith in humanity and a faith and a belief that no matter what happens, you will be okay.

Thank you so much for joining us.

This was such a beautiful film and thank you for sharing it with us.

- Thanks for watching it and thanks for having me.

- Absolutely.

(popcorn popping) (people speaking indistinctly) What a beautiful way to discuss the search for a love almost lost.

In our next film, we'll explore a love, I hope we've all experienced, familial love.

It showcases one family's interactions when a brother returns home for his birthday.

this is, "Runs, in the Family."

(film reel clicking) (gentle upbeat music) (speaks in foreign language) - [Father] Okay okay.

(speaks in foreign language) - Aman is coming huh?

- Yeah.

- [Actor] Camera, action.

Hello everyone.

- Raj, you are really disgusting.

- What are you talking about?

- Oh my God, your farts are nasty.

Like, go leave the room, you know.

- It wasn't even me, what you talking about?

(speaks in foreign language) (people speaking indistinctly) - [Raj] How does she know what my farts smell like?

- Everybody knows what your farts smell like, yeah.

(speaks in foreign language) - Can you guys stop yelling?

- Can you stop farting, how about that?

- Can you stop talking?

It wasn't even me.

- Yeah, right.

- [Mother] Come on guys.

- Mom, don't be a baby, sit down.

- You're the big baby in the house.

- [Sister] Yeah.

- Whatever man, I'm outta here.

- Good.

(speaks in foreign language) - Lovely.

Watch it man.

It's all in my eyes.

Great, now I gotta wash my face out.

Stupid kids.

I hate 'em.

(gentle upbeat music) - Mommy.

(gentle music) (sings in foreign language) Dad.

(sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) Dad.

Dad.

(gentle upbeat music) (speaks in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (door thudding) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (keyboard keys clacking) Yo.

(keyboard keys clacking) (door knocking) - Hey, what are you doing here?

- Bro, it's my birthday.

- That's what's up, man.

Facts, for sure.

(keyboard keys clacking) - So what happened downstairs?

- You know, man, same shit.

- Facts.

(keyboard keys clacking) All right then.

(keyboard keys clacking) - Hey, can you close that door your way out?

(door thudding) All the way like I had it, man.

(keyboard keys clacking) Facts.

(keyboard keys clacking) (gentle music) - [Voiceover] My anger is a response to perceived threats.

I acknowledge my role in my present circumstances.

(gentle music) My anger is a response.

I create space that is welcoming.

(gentle music) (sister groaning) (chants in foreign language) (gentle music) (bell chiming) (gentle music) (chants in foreign language) (gentle music) (chants in foreign language) - [Raj Voiceover] Hey.

(people speaking indistinctly) (chants in foreign language) You know man, same shit.

(speaks in foreign language) Can you close that door out?

What are you doing here?

- [Brother Voiceover] Bro, it's my birthday.

(glass crunching) (gentle music) (chants in foreign language) (gentle music) (chants in foreign language) (gentle music) (chants in foreign language) (gentle music) (speaks in foreign language) (gentle music) - I'm sorry mom.

I'll fix it.

(gentle music) - It doesn't matter, beta, who's gonna fix it or what.

You get angry for the little things you have to fix that.

You have to work on that okay.

(gentle music) (people speaking indistinctly) (footsteps thudding) (people speaking indistinctly) (speaks in foreign language) (door thudding) (speaks in foreign language) (footsteps thudding) (speaks in foreign language) - Want some?

(speaks in foreign language) (footsteps thudding) (speaks in foreign language) - [Actor] My God.

- There we are.

- Thanks ma.

- Eat.

(people speaking indistinctly) - Good.

(people speaking indistinctly) (cutlery clanking) (speaks in foreign language) (cutlery clanking) - [Father] Man, so good.

Supper's good.

- Yep, mom's did it again.

- I helped.

(speaks in foreign language) (Raj farting) (speaks in foreign language) (all laughing) - [Raj] After that.

(gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) (sings in foreign language) (gentle upbeat music) - I am here with the director for, "Runs, in the Family."

I'm super excited to be here with Paras.

Before we hop into all the things, I wanna know from you, what was your role in the film?

- My role in the film, I'm the writer and the director and I played a small role in it as well.

- See that's exactly what I wanted to get into this because you were multifaceted in this.

We had to do all the hyphens.

You wrote it, you directed it, you also starred in it, alongside your actual family, right?

- Yes.

- And we know family can be some real disrespectful members if we let them.

What was it like working with your family, bringing them into the realization of your dream?

- It was great, working with my family.

And you know, it was kind of cathartic.

- Yes.

- Because there was a lot of yelling at each other in the film.

But, you know, for the first time in our lives we could say cut and then laugh after that, you know, after yelling at each other.

So it was a lot of fun.

- So then if you could give us just a brief synopsis of the film, "Runs, in the Family" so we can get a little more background.

- "Runs, in the Family" is a day in the life of a family in Atlanta.

It's the son's birthday, he's coming home hoping to have a great meal and a great celebration with his family, but he arrives and learns that everyone has retreated to solitude because they got in a big fight, so he's kind of putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

- So now since it is your actual family, character development is something that can be a little tricky.

(both laughing) So if you can kind of give us a just a quick synopsis on each of the characters and what was it like directing them in the film?

- So the mom is, she's the glue, you know, she's what brings everyone together, ultimately through her compassion and of course her cooking.

That's why everybody's there.

- [Alechia] Yes.

- Dad is a mirror, a sense, a mirror image of, you know, the son, gets angry like super quick, is quite selfish.

The brother who is actually my cousin, I have another sister who was like, "No, I don't wanna be in a movie with our family."

(both laughing) So I brought in my cousin to play a brother - Truly runs in the family.

- Yeah, totally.

And when it came to directing them, I think the key for me was I didn't give anybody a script.

I knew if I gave them a script and asked them to like memorize lines, it would've been a nightmare.

So it was more like, hey, let's start here, get to this place and like arrive at the end.

And I would just give them those prompts.

- Yes.

- A couple lines of dialogue to say, but just sort of a general direction of what needs to happen in the scene.

And gave them full reign to, you know, be at each other's throats.

(both laughing) And they were into that.

- I'm pretty sure that was a good time.

- Mm-hmm.

It was a really good time.

- One of the things that I really liked about, "Runs, in the Family" is that you held true to your cultural background.

And many times we can get forgetful or not want to highlight or display how in holding our own culture, we still are a traditional family.

So, was that something that was intentional for you, that you wanted to ensure that you still maintain your cultural heritage?

- Sure.

I think the biggest piece of intentionality is to try not to teach the audience anything.

The culture is a part of our lives, so I like to assume intelligence in audience.

And if I were, I can't hide the culture, this is my family, right, I couldn't hide it, right.

My mom spends a lot of time in the prayer room, you know, meditating and praying.

My dad spends a lot of time singing Indian karaoke, you know.

My sister is a yoga practitioner and instructor.

So those are big parts of their lives.

- Yeah.

- They don't define them, but in a sense.

- It's who they are.

- It's who they are, yeah.

- Yeah.

There was a portion in there where there were some challenges where I believe the main character broke a picture.

What was that, like, what was that level of frustration?

- I think, you know, it was his birthday and nobody was paying attention to him or it was too familiar of a moment.

So I think the frustration came out of that, where it's like, hey, I'm coming home.

Oh but like usual, like everyone is, you know, in a fight rather than being happy and together.

So a very selfish moment for that character.

- Okay.

And so then if you could decide exactly what you wanted the viewers to take away from the film, what would that be?

- I would never decide that or have any desire to.

The desire is for a conversation to happen.

Like a group of friends walk out of a movie theater and have some things to talk about, you know, and discuss and debate amongst themselves.

- Yeah.

So deepening the human experience?

- Yeah, that's really it.

- Yes.

- Everyone's gonna have their own experience, so I don't.

- Yeah, for sure.

- I don't want to interrupt that.

- Yeah.

I love that.

Well, thank you so much for coming and spending time with me.

This has been phenomenal.

Make sure for more you visit WABE.org/AtlantaOnFilm.

(film reel clicking) Those films definitely got me in my feels.

What about you?

It's okay, it's okay, don't worry, tell me later.

But don't forget to join us next week for our last collection of films from the Atlanta Film Festival.

I'm your host, Alechia Reese, and I want you to stay tuned for more, "Atlanta On Film."

- [Alechia Voiceover] Coming up on the next episode of, "Atlanta On Film" we speak with filmmakers Daniel Robin and Ines Michela.

- I really wanted to tell the story of a young girl going through her first intimate encounter and seeing what the fallout of that looks like.

- [Alechia Voiceover] Don't miss this episode of, "Atlanta On Film" on WABE TV.

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