GLORY AT SEA Directed By Benjamin Zeitlin

Shane: Tell us about your film?

Benjamin: It was a community project made by a massive group of courageous and crazy people. 

S: How did you come up with the idea for the film?

B: It developed out of a very different film I wanted to make about a post-shipwreck resurrection involving naked Greek men catapulting out of the depths.  The idea of a resurrection remained, and then the rest of it was transformed by my experience in New Orleans.

S: Was this a school project?

B: no

S: How did you find your cast? 

B: All around New Orleans, we had an audition for non-actors where people wandered into my house and told us stories for two days.  Me and Par Parekh also cast a number of parts out of Buffa’s, our favorite bar, the lady who made me my first, and best, hamburger in NOLA ended up in the film, as well as a bunch of the regulars.  I re-wrote the script to include.  If I met someone and knew they had to be in the movie, they had to be in the movie, and the movie had to change to include them.

S: How long did the film take?  (From conception to final edit)

B: A year and a half.

S: What was the most difficult part of the shoot for you?

B: Directing at sea in the middle of a mass-mutiny. Also the most fun.

S: Tell us about the films festival experience  so far?

B: Its been totally different from my previous films, where I go and whether people will like the movie or not, wonder if they for me or against me.  With this one I more experience it with the audience, the film was a community experience and so watch it with people is the way it’s meant to be seen, I love watching it with an audience.

S: What has been your most interesting Q&A so far?  What was your favorite question?  How was the dialogue afterwards?

B: My favorite question was an exclamation at a screening that happened while I was still in the hospital, recovering from a car accident that happened on the way to Austin. Someone screamed ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ the highest of compliments.

S: What films or filmmakers inspire you?

B: John Cassavetes.  Bob Fosse.  These days - Lukas Moodyson, especially Together and Fucking Amal, and Herzog documentaries. Very influenced by the late 80s early 90s era- Die Hard, Willow, Aliens, Wayne’s World, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

S: What made you decide to become a filmmaker?

B: Arturo Gatti, Mohammed Ali.

S: What is next for you? 

B: Working on another seafaring epic with the same group of people in New Orleans, this one a feature.

S: What is next for the film?

B: More festivals in America and hopefully around the world.  Its also going to be distributed on McSweeny’s Wholphin DVD Magazine.  CineVegas, Rooftop Film Festival, and a Wholphin screening in San Francisco are the next 3 shows scheduled.

S: If asked to give one piece of advice to a new filmmaker making their first short film… What would it be?

B: Love your characters.  Have a sense of humor.