Habib Azar

IONCINEMA.com’s “IONCINEPHILE of the Month” puts the spotlight on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. We’re getting a head start with our Sundance 2010 coverage, and have decided to feature one of the eight films/filmmakers from the inaugural NEXT section. I’m betting that his film will be a much talked about item at this year’s fest. This month we feature: Habib Azar and his debut film, Armless. Click here to view Habib’s top ten films of all time list.

“So begins director Habib Azar’s delightful debut feature Armless, a deliciously twisted romp of comedic drama filled with mistaken identities, missed chances, and revealing consequences. Azar deftly crafts a thoughtful, off-kilter farce out of Kyle Jarrow’s tautly written play by the same name. Armless offers a dark, philosophical fable about marriage and acceptance—speaking to those who fake it and still make it, and perhaps especially to those who want to change but still stay the same.” – Sundance.

Eric Lavallee: During your childhood…what films were important to you? Perhaps cue us in on early (sometimes shared with family members) memories you have tied to specific titles.
Habib Azar: My family was very old world and not really interested in going to the movies. We didn’t have cable and didn’t own a VCR until I was around 10 or 11, so most of my movie watching happened on PBS. I vividly remember looking forward to the Saturday night classic movie marathons. Most of the films are a blur, but I especially remember Errol Flynn in Robin Hood and Captain Blood. Once we finally did get that VCR I watched the only two VHS tapes I owned, Ghostbusters and Batman Returns, nonstop until the tapes (literally) wore out. 

E.L: In your formative years, what films and filmmakers inspired you?
H.A: You’ve chosen to interview a director who is far from a film buff. The inspiration of my formative years was surprisingly not film or television. In fact I did not own a television during college and only saw maybe 25 or so movies a year. I did however watch at least 7 live performances a week, be it theater, music, or opera, for the entirety of college, so my sensibility as a filmmaker is strongly influenced by the other performing arts.

The artists who influenced me the most during this time were Richard Foreman, John Adams and Peter Sellars (though the stars have fallen from my eyes on those last two since I was in college).

E.L: At what point did you know you wanted to become a filmmaker? And what were you doing before you landed the As the World Turns gig?
H.A: As I said, I didn’t even own a TV during college. Working in it couldn’t have been farther from my mind. When I graduated school I landed a job as an intern making copies at the San Francisco Opera. I packed everything I could fit into my ’71 VW beetle, sold the rest of my belongings in a very zen moment, and was one week away from driving from Pittsburgh to San Fran when I got a call from the EP of As the World Turns asking if I’d like to apprentice to direct. I turned the car towards the other coast, directed my first full episode at age 22, and have been doing it till now (the show will go off the air next September.)

E.L: Armless is based on Kyle Jarrow’s adaptation of his fringe stage play. At what point did you come on board?
H.A: Kyle and I have been friends since I got to New York, and I was at the opening night of the play in ’05. I was blown away. Kyle was able to balance absurdity and sentimentality like no one else (the director of that performance, Ian Tresselt also deserves credit for nailing the tone of the piece). When I was searching for material for my first feature, I asked Kyle if he would consider adapting it, and that’s how the journey began. The movie we made is very different from the play, though.

E.L: What kind of characteristics/features were you looking for your main characters/during the casting process? And could you discuss how Daniel and Janel came on board?
H.A: When you’re making a movie for almost no money and paying actors $100 a day, you forfeit some of your ability to screen test. We worked with a casting director and made a list of our first choices for each role and sent out the script. Amazingly every one of them accepted.

We were looking for people who could play the absurdity while remaining vulnerable and connected. On stage you can be vaudevillian with the comedy, but for the movie I wanted to be much darker and dryer and explore the truth in the characters’ circumstances. So we wanted people who could handle the weird given circumstances, but could be a little ridiculous vs. sensationalistic in their commitment to them.

E.L: What ideas did you have for the style of the film? What inspirations (other films, location, paintings etc…) did you draw upon for the look/style, aesthetics of the film?
H.A: We had 12 days to get this in the can. There were a lot of grand intellectual plans about what each camera move meant, and how each character was going to be photographed to illuminate their place in the world yadda yadda yadda. But in the end? You’ve got 96 hours to set up, block, shoot, meal break, strike, and get 90 minutes of a movie in the can. So it’s tough. Not everything worked out. Our initial aesthetic ideas are sometimes very clear in the final product, and sometimes they’re totally lost. In the end the hodgepodge of work actually serves us very well—I like to think that the tone of our movie is completely singular. Armless has this weird dry and dark humor that is unsettling and enticing at the same time; that tone is one of the more interesting and successful aspects of the movie.

That all being said, the overarching idea was that the character John (Daniel London) was on a journey towards gaining control in his life. At the beginning of the movie he is acted upon by the camera and the environment, and through the film he gains control of the action of the photography. It’s a journey from an alienating POV to a documentary POV.

E.L: Can you discuss the collaborative process you had with your Editor Sarah Smith?
H.A: Sarah is the heart and soul of the movie. No one has worked harder on the movie or has had as much influence on it. I am incredibly lucky to have a partner like her. Sarah has edited every single one of my projects, from web series to shorts to this and I trust her judgment completely. It’s interesting because most of my experience has been in 3 camera live to tape directing, where I am in effect editing the show live. I actually had to force myself to take masters and inserts and b-roll during Armless because I had such a clear idea of the final project. And of course, in the end, every single one of the shots that I thought was extraneous was used brilliantly by Sarah and turned the movie into a better one.

E.L: Can you discuss the collaborative process you had with your Production Design team Eunice Bae and Ryan Kravetz?
H.A: The person who worked second hardest on this movie was Eunice. She was a one-stop shop for costumes/props/art direction/production design. Seriously—it was all her. This was the first time she had worked in any of these capacities on a feature film, and the mutual exploitation was key to us being able to come in on budget and have the final product that we had. We would have never made it if we had to hire, transport, and feed the 4 people that Eunice heroically replaced.

Working with Ryan Kravetz is also an interesting story. Ryan and I have worked on several projects together, and it has NEVER gone well. In fact we’re barely speaking at this point because of Armless. So why do we keep trying to work with each other? I don’t know his POV, but for me it’s because he is hands down the most talented production designer I’ve ever seen. He has this amazing ability to walk into a room and just see it differently than everyone else. He’ll say, ‘why not use that closet door as the entrance, and put the bed here, and never see that wall’ etc, and everyone will be like, ‘whoa…why didn’t we think of that—it’s so obvious now.’ For a movie on such a short budget his creative thinking was indispensable.

E.L: Can you discuss the collaborative process you had with your DP Orson Robbins-Pianka?
H.A: Orson was one of the only people on the crew who understood me and how I wanted to work. Like Sarah, Orson and I have worked together on every single project I’ve done since school. He was a great middleman between me and the crew, mediating my, ‘just hang a fucking light and let’s go!’ aesthetic with everyone else’s, ‘we need 2 hours to make this 15 second shot work.’ Knowing that he understood the value I put on story and character let me relax and listen to him when he told me that it was important to spend 2 hours figuring out the exact type of ND to put in each of the seven windows so the character looked good walking down the hallway for those 10 seconds of the movie. And he was always right.

Armless will have its world premiere at the 2010 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Here are the screening dates and times.:

9:00 PM Fri, Jan 22 Yarrow Hotel Theatre
11:59 PM Sat, Jan 23 Holiday Village Cinema IV
10:30 PM Sun, Jan 24 Broadway Centre Cinemas IV
5:00 PM Thu, Jan 28 Holiday Village Cinema II
2:30 PM Sat, Jan 30 Holiday Village Cinema I