An Interview with Braden King, Writer/Director of award-winning “HERE”
By Appo Jabarian Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Friday, March 13, 2009
“HERE is a landscape obsessed road movie that chronicles a brief but intense romantic relationship between an American satellite-mapping engineer and an expatriate Armenian art photographer who impulsively decide to travel into uncharted territory, both literally and metaphorically.” This is the description provided by HERE’s writer/director Braden King. The uncharted territory, however, goes beyond the story and characters, and is an apt description of the production itself and process of bringing this movie to life as filming begins in Armenia this summer. HERE represents an opportunity to highlight Armenia’s uniqueness on the world stage – from its rich culture and spirited people to its beautiful topography. Having already garnered awards from top festivals, notably Cannes and Sundance, the widespread positive buzz on HERE by film enthusiasts and Armenian supporters worldwide can certainly raise international awareness of Armenia’s prime location in one of the world’s most coveted regions. HERE also represents an opportunity to create an image of Armenia as a film production destination. The potential for new commerce and industry and of increasing Armenia’s international profile is no small task, but one that the production team of HERE seems intent on taking on. However, it is clear to all involved that achieving these goals will be partly dependent on the support by Armenians worldwide. Armenians in the twin Armenian Republics – Armenia and Artsakh (Karabagh) – and the Diaspora should take both pride in and ownership of HERE.
Recently, USA Armenian Life Magazine’s Managing Editor Appo Jabarian conducted an interview with Braden King, Writer/Director of HERE. Richard Marshalian, a member of USA Armenian Life Magazine’s Assistant Editors’ team of “Youth Forum,” contributed to this interview.
Zoe Kevork, Executive Producer of HERE, helped make this invaluable movie project a reality. She is a dynamic source of cooperation and communication between the writer/director of this new promising movie and the Armenian communities in U.S.A.-Europe and Armenia. Below is the text of the interview:
USA Armenian Life: Why the title “HERE?” Braden King: In the process of developing this film I’ve been following a kind of thread. I didn’t wake up one day with a fully formed idea, knowing I wanted to make a film about a satellite mapping engineer. It was a very slow process that had to do with wanting to make a film about a feeling – specifically, the feeling of cross-country travel; journeys I had taken across the United States and around the world by car. The title is just one part of that journey, that thread that I’m still following.
That said, it did come very early on, the word – HERE. It came at the very beginning. The different ways in which that word – married to a film that is ultimately about ideas of place, culture, geography and how we tie all of these things together – it sort of seemed like the only fitting word. I stopped thinking long ago about what it might mean or what the specifics of it were; it was simply something that seemed to represent what this film is trying to be about.
USA Armenian Life: Are you surprised that the word “HERE” came to the forefront in your thoughts and what made you decide to adopt it?
KING: No, I’m not surprised. It seemed organically symbolic of what I was trying to get at. I didn’t attach a specific meaning. The word was there from the very beginning. This part of the story: Years ago, before all of this was even a vague idea in my head, I was living in a big loft apartment in Chicago with a group of musicians. I remember waking up one day and just painting the word HERE on the wall in big, black, capital letters and knowing that it was the next thing that I had to explore, the next puzzle I had to solve. I didn’t know what it meant; I didn’t know what it was; I didn’t know what it symbolized. But I knew that it was the beginning of a new journey.
USA Armenian Life: Your character, this engineer has been to many countries. Why Armenia?
KING: The only way I can answer that question is to talk about the way that I ended up in Armenia. I was searching for the most appropriate place for the film, the most appropriate landscape and culture for the story. I thought about places like Morocco, North Africa… I traveled to countries that are further east, various “-stan” countries where a lot of these mapping projects are going on because of natural resource exploration. And then came Armenia.
Armenia was first suggested to me by a friend, an experimental filmmaker who lives in Toronto. We were having a discussion very early on – before there was even a script – about this vague idea I had for a film about a cartographer. And this friend, she very subtly suggested that I consider Armenia as a location.
I didn’t pay too much attention at first, but as I continued developing the project and developing the story I would come across articles buried in the back of the paper – a photo would catch my eye. And then I was doing more research – looking at landscapes, etc. – a slow obsession started to build with this country whose national symbol – Mount Ararat – was across an international border. I started finding thematic analogies for the film that existed in the actual world. These were fascinating to me. They were things I couldn’t make up. For a film that was about questioning ideas of geography, a film about questioning ideas of orientation and even mapping – coming across these things was unbelievable.
When I finally visited in 2004, it very quickly seemed clear that there was no more appropriate place in which to set this story. Here was this culture that existed between east and west, both culturally and literally, on the map; a country whose history has been a transition point; a country with such a gorgeous and varied landscape within such a small space – a landscape that is as magnificent as anything you would see driving across 2000 miles in America.
Armenia is also a country that is between times – ancient history in all its monasteries and religion – and it’s also on the cusp of the future. You go there now and you see all these hundreds of construction cranes and all these new technologies everywhere. In the end, Armenia became the third co-writer on the script. The country, the culture, the people allowed me to finish this story. They finished the piece for me, in a way that was breathtaking.
USA Armenian Life: What was the hardest part of deciding on the location (Armenia) to make this movie?
KING: There are two answers. The first, as I’ve mentioned, is that once I arrived in 2004, I saw clearly that there was no more appropriate place to make this film.
The second is purely practical – how do you bring a western-style production – even a relatively small one – into a country with very little film infrastructure? In our case, this has posed challenges, but nothing so severe that it made me think for a second of moving the production to another country. I believe that Armenia could be a truly international film production hub – one that could sit alongside those in places like Romania. If HERE can, in some small way, help bring that idea closer to reality, I will be very pleased. The country has so much to offer cinema and the world.
USA Armenian Life: What would you like to see an audience member go home with after watching the movie?
KING: I’m still thinking about your previous question – about why is this movie is set in Armenia. It got me thinking a bit about an off topic thing: how this lead character – the satellite mapping engineer – ended up in Armenia.
After couple of years of work making notes and writing about the characters, developing the characters, and thinking about the kinds of things they would do and the things that were going on in their lives it came to the point were I wanted to find “the” place before actually writing the screenplay. I couldn’t do that without a location to pin the story to – much in the same way that the satellite imaging engineer is doing his work: to pin the map to the location. We had to do the same thing for the script. In some respects, this character could be doing his work anywhere in the world. But in this story, Armenia was the only place he could be. In order to get at the themes of this story, in order to accurately reflect them, there is no other place in this world to make this film.
In terms of what I want an audience member to experience, that’s a difficult question. Part of me doesn’t want to define that in any way. The most magical thing that can happen in any cinematic experience – or any experience with art, period – is the feeling that happens sometimes when you leave the theater or the concert or the museum and the world outside has changed a little bit.
One thing that I have found as I’ve been working with the industry on this project – especially in the non-Armenian community – is a fascination with the Armenian landscape and culture that is sparked by the script. What has amazed me, whether it’s with the people I’ve talked to at the Sundance labs, or with people in the industry, is how often after they’ve read the script, I’ll come in and talk about the project and there is a whole secondary conversation about how after looking over this project they have gotten on the internet and Googled different parts of Armenia and looked at what the landscape looks like. Or they’ve started to read about the culture or the country’s history. I’ve been to Armenia nine times now and it’s still an amazing place with just layers and layers to penetrate and explore. To see this same reaction happening with the potential audience, even at the script stage, is amazing. It gives me great confidence that an audience can be led along that same exciting journey of discovery that I was led along.
USA Armenian Life: How is the story different from others that have crossed international borders? KING: That’s a good question. I think you have to go back to the reasons why Armenia was the most appropriate for this type of story to answer that question.
You have this American satellite-mapping engineer continually coming into cultures he does not understand, yet he is defining these places in a certain way.
Then there is this woman who comes from what I consider to be one of the most richly detailed, historic and interwoven cultures I have ever experienced, a woman who has gone in the opposite direction, who has gone to Canada, who has gone to Europe to start a new life. A woman who has this very grounded culture running through her and who is dying to assimilate now after having had all of these new experiences outside. How does she fits back in? What happens to her, and to her experiences when she comes back? The combination of these two characters and the transformations that their relationship and the journey they embark upon together leads them through – that experience allows them to see themselves in ways that they couldn’t see with anyone else. It’s what makes their relationship unique.
Traveling with this American who doesn’t have the ties to the place that she does allows this woman to get a different perspective than I think she could get in any other way. Similarly with the American – the Armenian perspective, the Armenian sense of place is a very deep and unique one that contains ties that bind generations to that land. His questioning of his solitary life and his lack of that kind of history probably couldn’t be more acute because it takes place in this particular country. So it’s about the ways in which these two people inform each other and ultimately change each other against the backdrop of this amazing place – Armenia.
USA Armenian Life: Is there a specific message that you are trying to relate to the audience through your depiction of the two main heroes?
KING: I would not use the word message, I would use a word like feeling. Or experience. It’s about trying to create something that allows the viewer to experience the world – their world – in a slightly different way. USA Armenian Life: You mentioned that you visited Armenia for the first time in 2004, you talked about he landscape, and the photographs of the land, what about the people? What was the most striking characteristic that you noticed?
KING: We could have a day-long conversation about this topic alone. Where to begin? My experiences in Armenia have been such a gift – and I mean that not only in terms of learning about the culture, but also in seeing the landscape, and in being exposed to an endless stream of amazing people. I felt I was supported, I felt I was being taken in. I still feel that. The generosity of the country, the hospitality of the country and the Armenian people is what allowed me to complete this story. It would have been impossible without Armenia. There is no one specific answer. It’s everything.
What I found in Armenia was a landscape and culture that had such an amazing amount to give. The overwhelming sense I had about Armenia was the incredible amount of potential the country has.
I remember being overwhelmed on my first trip because there was so much to pack into the film – so many details, so many things I wanted to get in there. I came away feeling that there needed to be a hundred films made in Armenia. A thousand films made in Armenia. There was no way I could shoulder the responsibility alone. It was just so inspiring. I came away wanting to share as much of my experience and what I had seen as I could. But I also knew that I could ultimately only be one of many. So many more stories need to be told. This is part of why we have pledged to reserve 5% of HERE’s profits to benefit young filmmakers within Armenia. So many more films need to me made.
USA Armenian Life: How will the production of this movie affect you personally and professionally?
KING: The process of developing the film has already been deeply affecting. I have no idea how the actual production will affect me, but I am anxious to move on to that phase of the journey. I don’t make films with these kinds of calculations in mind. I make films because I feel I have no choice; because I feel that I have been presented with something that I have to go through, to figure out. This is what led me to Armenia and to HERE.
For additional information and updates about HERE we encourage our readers to visit the film’s website – www.herefilm.info.
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