Interview with David W. Brooks, 20th Digital Studio Founder

Shea: You founded that in 2008 (20th Digital Studio), and you got two films in this film festival– Appendage and Clock.

David: We've actually got five films in this festival. We've got three short films as well.

Shea: That’s awesome. Because I felt like I was missing some. I definitely know Clock because I did get a chance to take a gander at it.

David: What did you think?”

Shea: It was very unexpected. It was an incredibly powerful horror film and such a great vehicle for films like that. Alexis Jacknow, who wrote and directed it, is an emerging and significant voice. What was it about both films that made you want to produce them?

David: You know, it used to be geared around Sundance. I used to be the one that would go up and meet as many filmmakers as possible and run from one screening to another. But now we get screeners, and we can watch everything from all the festivals. The team has grown, and every year, Arby Petrosian, who is the head of creative at 20th Digital Studio, screens probably 300 filmmakers. Then he invites around 150 of them to pitch, and each one of them comes in with two to four ideas. So we have around 600 short film ideas that we hear, and then we get to make between 10 and 20 of them.

Both Alexis Jacknow and Anna Zlokovic had something going for them. They went through an extensive screening process and came up with short film ideas that we thought were great. Then, both of them finished shooting the shorts and, with Anna’s, I think we saw the first day's dailies. I went over to the set for the second or third day and asked her to start thinking about what the feature was going to be, because what she was turning out was great. The team she had working with her was fantastic.

That’s how Anna's turned out. Alexis is just so focused and intensely serious about her work. We asked her to pitch what the feature version of her short would be, and she came back with this very intricate, detailed pitch on what it was going to be.

Have you seen Appendage?

Shea: No, I have not gotten it yet. I did get a little bit of a synopsis on it, and it sounded very good. (I know) They're both about issues surrounding body autonomy.

David: It was incredibly relevant to the times right now, especially with what we've got going on with women's autonomy over their own bodies. It seems like it's not just women right now, but both men and women making the conscious decision not to want to have kids. But for some reason, it only seems like women are the ones carrying most of the brunt. I don't want to say punishment, but it just feels like it's more of a way to control women's ability to say whether they want to create a family or not. Yeah, like they have to have kids.

That's kind of what it felt like watching this film, with everyone just kind of on Hannah, why don't you want to have kids? Why won't you have kids? What's wrong with you? It almost made her feel like there was something wrong with her, like her clock was broken.

For me, it was just really hard to watch because how dare they make her feel that way and then pressure her to this point where she goes and does something that ultimately ruins her life when she had a pretty good sense of who she was before. And by the end of the film, you can see that she's just lost her ability to think for herself, and it was hard. It turns into a nightmare, and yes, a horror film when there's just a chorus of people who keep telling our character that there's something wrong with her because she's not having a baby.

That's real life. Yeah. It is a real-life horror that happens to a lot of women, and a lot of women who have either wanted to wait to have children or just don't want to have kids. It's kind of scary to hear people question your decision in life. For someone to say, you know what, I don't have kids, or I just don't feel like having kids right now. It's not the best thing for me. So in this movie, it wasn't just about having kids or people bothering her about having kids, it was also about family and the weight of having to carry on the family legacy in a way.

Shea: No, I have not gotten it yet. I did get a little bit of a synopsis on it, and it sounded very good. (I know) They're both about issues surrounding body autonomy

David: It was incredibly relevant to the times right now, especially what we got going on with women's autonomy over their own bodies. So it seems like it's not just women right now, it's both men and women making the conscious decision to not want to have kids.

But for some reason it only seems that women are the ones carrying most of the brunt of. I guess you can say, I don't wanna say punishment, but it just feels like it’s more of a way to control women's ability to say whether they want to create a family or not. Yeah. Like it's, they have to have kids.

That's kind of what it felt like watching this film with everyone just kind of on Hannah, why don't you wanna have kids? Why won't, why won't you have kids? What's wrong with you? It almost made her feel like there was something wrong with her, like her clock was broken.

For me, it was just really hard to watch because like how, how dare you guys make her feel that way and then just pressure her to this point where she goes and does something that ultimately ruins her life when she had a pretty good sense of who she was before. And by the end of the film you can see that. She's just lost her ability to think for herself and it was hard. It turns into a nightmare, and yes, a horror film when there's just the chorus of people who keep telling our character that there's something wrong with it because she's not having a baby.

That's real life. Yeah. It is a real life horror that happens to a lot of women and a lot of women who have either wanted to wait to have children or just don't wanna have kids. It's kind of scary to hear people kind of question your decision in life.For someone to say, you know what, I don't have kids, or, I just don't feel like having kids right now. It's not the best thing for me. So in this movie, it wasn't just about having the kids or people bothering her about having the kids, it was also about family and the weight of having to carry on, I guess family legacy in a way.

Did you enjoy Diana Aron's performance?

Shea: Yes, I did. Isn't she amazing? Absolutely amazing. I'm just blown away by the cast as a whole though. I have no words. It was just amazing. I was invested the entire way through.

David: Completely invested, and I'm really impressed with the way that this movie handled. The situation and the topic at hand. There was a lot of strong women who worked on Clock. Editor Alex Amec and Alexis Jacknow worked so well. Are you still there? Oh, I'm still here. Am I? Okay, good. Some great, great individuals worked on this who are women.

Shea: You've got a great cast.

David:. Yeah. So, the less I interfered, the better.

Shea: So you just stayed outta the way?

David: Well, no, I told them what my reactions were. It's the same with our shorts and the features, that we want to unlock the unique voice of the filmmaker. And the particular topic that she or he wants to address has to be true to their voice. I'm here as a facilitator.

Shea: Thank you for that. Yeah. And as you said, Diana really hit, hit home for me as a character.That was amazing. Amazing work. Amazing. For you, like, how important is it for you as a creator to produce horror that really sticks with the audience?

David: I think the more specific and genuine it is, the more universal it becomes, the more it ends up sticking. It felt like it was super important to everyone. To those who worked on this film that message got across. And I think they did a fantastic job with that.

Shea: Is there anything down the pipe we should know about?

David: I just saw the director's cut of a film we made at the beginning of the year. It's fantastic. It’s a man who wakes up in prison and doesn't know how he got there, that is, another horror. It’s along those lines. It's in post-production. Post production. Great cast.

Shea: It sounds good. I can't wait to see it. Hopefully. I am very happy that I got to speak with you. Thank you so much.

David: Thank you so much.