1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

Growing up in Texas the summers were too hot to do much else other than go to the movies or go swimming. I didn't think about filmmaking as a career until I got to high school and was fortunate to have a media tech teacher who let us experiment with DV cameras and editing equipment. I've been making movies ever since!

2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?

I worked with the actor David Kendrick on two short films and knew I wanted him to act in my feature. I was a huge fan of Sonny Carl Davis from his work in Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match & Last Night at the Alamo, and knew I wanted to pair him with David. I was looking for a story for them when I read the James Joyce short "The Two Gallants," and took the skeleton of that to create a story where there would be plenty of waiting around. I got stuck writing the script for a while and almost gave up, when practically as a joke, I wrote in a musical sequence based on John Prine's "Yes I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You." I kind of liked the idea of just having one randomly thrown in, but I started to realize how many more John Prine songs fit the mood. His music has everything I want my films to have, so for a first real deal feature, I was able to rely directly on him!

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the most, and the least? 

I knew the biggest challenge would be casting Maureen, but my friend Frank Mosley suggested the fabulous and supremely talented Morgana Shaw, who I collaborated with very closely to build the central love story. Frank and I kept bouncing ideas around about a Private Investigator following the conmen and knew I wanted him in it as well to balance out the three main characters. Besides casting Maureen, we only had nine days to shoot so we had to squeeze a lot in really quickly. Fortunately I don't like doing a lot of set ups or takes, so we were able to film everything and we even ended up cutting out a bunch of scenes. Usually my least favorite part is production, and editing is my favorite, but on this it was the inverse. We had such a fulfilling shoot with everyone contributing and collaborating, and the edit was grueling, because the structure of my script didn't work with the material. So my co-editor, Andrew Infante, and I had to work something new out. Everything was made possible by my wonderful friends Andrew, Juan Molina, and Alexa Harrington. Thank you!!!

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I've been watching a bunch of great stuff from new to me filmmakers (Yōichi Higashi, Abderrahmane Sissako), but the film that is really getting to me right now is Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August. I kind of abandoned him after my early cinephilia, but this is such a beautiful old man movie, something that takes on history & family in a way that requires some real mileage to pull off.

5) What’s next for you?

Since making the film I moved to New York and have been working as a video editor. I am currently writing a script about climate change and US imperialism.

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