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

I first got into movies at a very young age. I remember I used to watch Daddy Day Care and say I wanted to be a film director when I was little even though I didn't know what really meant to be a director. My life changed so much ever since, and my priorities changed as well. Movies were a second thought for me by then, although I was pretty active shooting home videos, like my sister's birthday, or my family's New Year's eve. Wasn't until my late teens that I considered trying a filmmaking career. I started watching a bunch of things from Bergman to the Marvel Universe and when I realized I felt the need to make my own films. I moved to Buenos Aires and joined film school.

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

The idea came when I was watching The Green Ray by Eric Rohmer. The film is about a girl that doesn't know where to go on vacation, and I thought "what if she was on vacation and didn't want to be on vacation?". I wrote the idea on a paper and started scratching outcomes, situations and dialogues. As I was writing, and after a few opinions from friends, the idea started morphing into what it is. The vacation not being an actual vacation but only a time when you have nothing to do.

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

I think the biggest challenge was the little amount of time we had. We shot at a restaurant that was open while we were shooting. We arrived in the morning and by noon we were supposed to finish. It was noon already and we had a few shots to film yet, then we had to move some things in the script and adapt to what we had at that moment: the street.

The easiest part was working with the cast and crew. Everyone was incredibly efficient and very lovable and understanding. I really hope I can work with them again in the future.

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

Normally I watch a ton of films, so choosing one that I've seen recently is tricky for me. Lately, I've been trying to dive deep into Japanese and German films, so I would say Black Board by Kaneto Shindo, a film about bullying and the Japanese educational system, that I didn't like that much when I finished it but that looking back and thinking about it I started to love, and the classic The American Friend by Wim Wenders, a film that has the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen, and also, is directed by Wenders, that I fell in love when I watched Notebooks on Cities and Clothes, that has the coolest split diopter shots I've seen.

5) What’s next for you?

If the virus doesn't interfere again, I am shooting another short film in June. It is a project I've been working on since 2019 and I am very excited for that. I am also writing my first feature so I hope I can finish the script and hopefully do something with it.

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IG @rowilucas, FB Lucas Rowi