Emmanuel Itier

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE

Mammoth Film Festival

Interview with director: Ben Epstein.

By Emmanuel Itier

Q: What was the idea making this film, how did it come together?

Ben: I remember being a teenager very well and I remember realizing that my parents were also “people”! It’s not so simple to navigate the adult world and it’s like unraveling some sort of emotional mystery. My own emotional detective work is like so removed from Alex, played by the talented Eva Horvath. But I did like with this film that her internal teenage self-discovery is happening at the same time than this big external mystery. She always has this unarticulated question about why she doesn’t fit with her family. This film is her search to that answer. The title says is all: “Who are you people”. “Alex” is asking that about everyone in her life.

Q: Tell me about the various difficulties to make this film?

Ben: Well, I wrote it and then the next day we just shot it! Haha! The truth is that it took me almost 10 years to make it happen. The trick was to get the financing in order to get the cast and vise versa. It took forever but at some point, the main producers Toby Louie and Jordan Forley said: “if we build it…they will come”, like in the famous movie with Kevin Costner, “Field of Dreams”. Well, we were lucky to get enough financing to hire a casting director and then we got the names we needed to make this film. There are some strong performances By Alyssa Milano and Devon Sawa but also by Ema Horvath who plays our lead: “Alex”. We got very lucky with our assemble cast and an amazing behind the scene crew. From all the versions of the movie that could have existed over the year I’m so happy this is the version that came to fruition. Ema was fantastic and she brought to life such an amazing dimension to this character that had been living in my head for such a long time.

Q: What is this truly about for you, what does it convey in term of themes, messages…?

Ben: I want this movie to provoke conversations. And talking about “questions” rather than “answers”. Human beings are very messy. If we did rational and logical things movies like this one would be boring. The question I’m asking, is: how do you emotionally reconcile the human beings you know and you love with the actions they have done, especially if these actions are horrible. That’s an endlessly fascinating question to me. I don’t want to give away the end or any other spoilers, a crew member, on the set came to me to ask if I thought “Alex” and her father would talk after the end of this film. I replied that I really didn’t know. And he replied that she shouldn’t talk to him again after what he had done to her. Later that day, a different crew member who had her this conversation came to me and said: “I really hope she can forgive him because she loves him and he fills a void in her, to know him make her know herself more”. I agreed with her as well. I think this film doesn’t give us any easy answer because there isn’t any easy answer in life. I like that the film leaves you with a question.

Q: What importance represents a film festival like the Mammoth Film Festival?

Ben: I have never seen this film with an audience. The entire course of this film was impacted by covid. We were lucky to finish filming on March 7, 2020. Post- production was totally dominated by covid. I never was in the same room as my long-time contributor, editor Jeff Bernier. And I never met our film composer, Aaron Zigman. We did many virtual test screenings, but I never saw this film with an audience. So, for me, being at the Mammoth film festival is a chance to see the movie in a format, the big screen, it was intendent to be. So, I can’t wait to see how the audience is going to react to my film.

Q: What’s coming up next…?

Ben: Well, I hope I don’t come out with another movie in 10 years. Currently I’m a writer on a Netflix show I’m not allowed to talk about. And I have several other projects. One is “Past-time” about the Pete Rose scandal and how it reflects the battle for the soul of America. So let’s see what’s going to happen with “Who are you people” and then I hope I can make “Past-time”.