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

Pat: I’m from an old mill town called Fall River in Massachusetts. I got interested in film in high school as an aimless troublemaker. I had an English teacher my freshman year who became a mentor. He’d recommend me these old films he loved and I’d watch them. Then I started watching some on my own. I fell in love with the medium and have been figuring out my relation to it ever since.

Jamil: I grew up moving in between the US and Germany, speaking three different languages. I’ve always been intrigued by the difference in stories between my mother and father along with the photos they would share with me. I became intrigued with the moments before and after the still photos, it only became right to be intrigued with the media that encompasses that concept.

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

Both: We wanted to explore living with grief and depression not as a plot or story, but as lived experience in the present. We built a cinematic language around the space of suffering that, at a fundamental level, often lacks concepts and words—yet these are the only tools we have to share our experiences. How does that split the soul? Where does one find solace amongst pain?

Jamil went to college with Chad, one of the guys in the film. He introduced us to Gramercy, his group of childhood friends, and the area of New Jersey they grew up in. We became very drawn to everything about their lives and ultimately became the canvas to paint on.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

Both: It’s the same answer. The easiest and most difficult aspect was connecting to what the film meant to us at every stage of the creation process. That was difficult because it was a four-year process, so of course, we changed a lot through that period, as did the film. We had to bring a level of honest introspection that demanded constant energy and patience. The other side of the coin is that it was easy because we felt bringing the film to life was our purpose, so we had no other choice but to do it and do it with community and love. 

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

Jamil: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first feature, Kasaba, is a movie that through all its imperfections reflects what the medium can embark on. It somewhat gives me an idea of the child my mother was and I like to use that movie to paint a picture of what it might have been like. Any movie that bakes existential conversations within its dialogue gives me the reason to feel, I’m always sold.

Pat: New, Malni-Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore. Sky Hopinka’s feature debut. Pure poetry. Old, I finally got around to watching Ikiru. Rare to see a film with that much compassion and insight into the human condition. Contemplative Kurosawa. The man was a master.

5) What’s next for you?

Both: Well, we started a company, Seneca Village Pictures, which is our home to build cinema. We’re developing projects to direct together as well as pushing each other on solo endeavors. There’s a lot of beautiful synergy between them all because both of our DNA exists within every project.

We’re building a feature film inspired by Abbas Kiarostami’s Where’s The Friends Home? adapted in contemporary Brooklyn. It’s called In Search of Time. Our development is heavily tied to the documentation process, and we’ve organically stumbled into a short about two directors looking for a kid to play the main cast of the movie. We tend to have long conversations about life, purpose, consciousness, suffering, pain, grief, death, everything; we often trek into surreal spaces where time falls apart, and all of a sudden, it’s 11 PM and we’ve walked from Crown Heights to the Lower East Side. In a fragmented dream-like structure, we’re going to be interacting with different souls of Brooklyn, trying to make sense of the world while searching for meaning through this youthful energy of this child we find, coining the name Waking Up From a Dream.

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www.senecavillagepictures.com | IG: @jamiltmcginnis & @mpatheywood