“LEAVE THE BUS THROUGH THE BROKEN WINDOW is about the time I moved to Hong Kong to make a film about art, but instead made one about my broken heart and that time I got lost inside a shopping mall. It’s deeply personal but also playful movie about a complicated city and the year I spent living there and the things I learned along the way.” — Director Andrew Hevia on LEAVE THE BUS THROUGH THE BROKEN WINDOW which screens in the 2019 edition of SxSW Film.
I hear you are back at SxSW this year! Tell me about what you have had here in the past, and your favourite aspects of the city.
I have been to SXSW a number of times over the years, but this is my first time with a film I directed. Previously, I was here with a narrative feature I edited called NO MATTER WHAT directed by Cherie Saulter. I also produced a short film with Amy Seimetz called WHEN WE LIVED IN MIAMI and was an associate producer on Amy’s feature Sun Don’t Shine. I’ve always been a fan of East Austin personally and love how walkable the downtown metro area is. The Driskill makes a great cocktail too.
So how did you get into this movie-making business? Talk to me a bit about how you got your start and what you have worked on in the past.
I started making movies as a kid, then went to a visual and performing art high school in Miami, where I studied visual art. I went to film school for undergrad and then moved back to Miami to make films. I made a bunch of TV documentaries about artists and helped start a film festival called Borscht, that was made by and for Miami filmmakers. I’ve produced a ton of things, including one movie called SUN DON’T SHINE (SXSW 2012) and another one that’s more well known, called MOONLIGHT.
How did this project come together for you? Give me a rundown from the preparation, to shooting, to post-production to now!
I was finishing grad school when I applied for a Fulbright Student Research grant to make a documentary about an international fair called Art Basel, and their recently launched satellite fair in Hong Kong. I had previously made a documentary for public television about the cultural impact of Art Basel’s first satellite fair on Miami’s local art community, so I knew the general contours of the narrative I expected to find on the ground. Once I arrived, it became clear pretty quickly that I had made a lot of blind assumptions in my proposal and suddenly had to grapple with my own ignorance about the subject matter. While I felt i had some narrative authority in Miami, I had absolutely none in Hong Kong and didn’t have nearly enough time to do the necessary research or make the proper connections or establish the right level of trust to pull off the sort of film I had proposed. So I was forced into making a different film. So I leaned into my weaknesses and tried to avoid the sort of faux authenticity that comes when you get to edit out the bad takes. I shot for the 10 months I lived there and came back with an extremely rough assembly edit.
At this point, my producer/editor Carlos David Rivera came on to help flesh out the cut. Carlos had been consulting from a distance since before my trip but once I was back in the country, I handed over a hard drive and we got to work in a serious way. We did the IFP Doc Labs the next year and the movie radically improved. I’m continually impressed by how much better movies are at the end of the process than they are at the beginning. All in all, it was a four year process from when I first applied to the Fulbright to our World Premiere.
What keeps you going while making a movie? What drives you?
I love solving puzzles.
What was your biggest challenge with this project, and the moment that was the most rewarding to you?
The whole movie felt like a dare between Carlos and I. We knew how you’re supposed to make documentaries, especially ones about art. There’s a form and a template. So between us, we set out to throw out the rules and see if we could make a movie by doing all the things you’re not supposed to do – the things conventional wisdom says won’t work – and still end up with a movie that people might actually enjoy and would be fun to watch.
I’m about to get technical, but I would love to know about the the visual design of the movie; what camera did you film with and how the movie was photographed.
I shot the movie myself, so I can answer this. I used a Panasonic GH4 with voigtlander lenses (a 10.5mm and 25mm). Both were incredibly fast and opened to a f0.95, which allowed for some great depth of field. I loved the ability to manually focus and felt like it gave me a lot of control over the look. I didn’t have a proper ND kit, so I shot a lot of slow motion, which stopped down the light – and then sped up the image in post so it looked normal. I also used my iPhone 7 when I needed it. They say the best camera to use is the one you have on you – and I took that to heart.
What are you looking forward to the most about showing your movie here in Austin?
We have yet to screen the film for a proper audience outside of a very close circle. I am supremely eager and excited to see the film in a room full of strangers.
After the film screens at SxSW, where is the film going to show next? Theatrical, online, more festivals?
We’re heading to more festivals. Next up is CPH:DOX in Copenhagen at the end of March.
If you could show your movie in any theatre outside of Austin, where would you screen it and why?
I would love to show the film at LACMA, or PS1 in New York. The Metrograph would be a dream. Or the Olympia Theater in Downtown Miami with a live score.
What would you say to someone who was being disruptive, like talking or texting, through a movie?
Please don’t do this.
We have a lot of readers on our site looking to make movies or get into the industry somehow. What is the ONE THING you would say to someone who is wanting to get into the filmmaking business?
Try to be the person who is making movies, rather than the person who talks about making movies. To do that, my advice is to find a way to work with the resources you have in front of you and make something you’ve never seen before.
And final question: what is the greatest movie you have ever seen at a film festival?
I saw a work-in-progress screening of Celia Rowlson Hall’s film MA at Borscht a long time ago. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen and it has haunted me, in the best possible way, for years.
This is one of the many film titles playing at SxSW 2019. For more information on this and any other title playing in the festival, point your browser to http://www.sxsw.com/film!