00:25This is Tim Walsberg from Fast Track Uncerted TV.
00:28I'm here in New Orleans for the New Orleans Film Festival.
00:31So Brandon, he was going through a lot.
00:34It was a lot.
00:35And he was so young.
00:37And to see his relationship with his dad and then his mom was away and then his stepmom.
00:43And then she became pregnant.
00:44And it was a lot to deal with.
00:46And then he started drinking and with the drugs.
00:48It was just, it was a lot.
00:49And I was like, wow.
00:51When I read the script, I was like, wow.
00:54I didn't know things like that really happens with young adults.
00:57And it was tough.
01:00Was it hard to get into the headspace?
01:01It was because I had so much, little time to prepare.
01:07So it was like I was trying to get into it.
01:09And I didn't watch the first film.
01:11So it was.
01:12On purpose.
01:13Yeah, on purpose.
01:15And I didn't have time.
01:15And then I just watched the first film yesterday.
01:19And then I was like, oh my God, it makes sense now.
01:22And yeah, because I didn't know what the relationship was and how he got into that headspace with the drugs
01:29and the drinking.
01:30And then when I watched it, I was like, it makes sense.
01:32It's connected.
02:12So the hardest thing to create on screen is time and regret and all these emotions.
02:19Could you talk about directing them in that way?
02:22Because of my background of psychiatry, well, I'm not saying that I'm a psychiatrist, but being around constant psychiatrists and
02:29also always being around public health and just mental health people.
02:33I'm always obsessed with someone's backstory for every character, trying to figure out like from birth, before they were born,
02:40to where they are today, to where they want to go in the future.
02:42I did like a Myers-Briggs for the first one.
02:45It was.
02:45Really?
02:45Yeah, I get really into it.
02:47And so when I approach, and especially because often, because I work for a nonprofit, so where time is crunched,
02:54I don't think we had a single table read.
02:56We like went straight into it.
02:58We shot eight days, like short amount of time.
03:00So freedom.
03:01Yeah, exactly.
03:02Once it became instinctual for you and for the actors.
03:05Exactly.
03:06I had a conversation with a friend earlier, and one question that really stuck with me is, why do I
03:13need a reason?
03:14So for a while now, I've been trying to figure out what kind of activist I want to be.
03:20And I realized I haven't been tapping into my core reason at all, which means I end up all over
03:26the place and I can't focus my energy.
03:29And then I turned 21, and I was going through some old things, and I found this.
03:40This is the house I grew up in.
03:43I absolutely love this house, and I never thought I'd leave.
03:48It's crazy.
03:49I haven't been back since 2005.
03:52And this picture, it made me think like, damn, where will my kids grow up?
04:02And will there even be a New Orleans for them to live in?
04:05Exactly, and the key thing is trying to provide enough of that backstory and enough of that for then you
04:10to take it to where you want to take it.
04:11But also, workshopping everything.
04:15When the lighting setup's going, okay, we're workshopping, we're going through, what kind of do you need to make it
04:19feel more natural?
04:20I'm not someone that says, okay, what I wrote on the page has to be verbatim.
04:24How can we shape this so that it feels the most like you as the person that's tapped into the
04:30character are making decisions that aren't just what I thought of in my head when I was writing at whatever,
04:342 a.m. in the morning.
04:35And so a lot of it is around that and trying to get some of those deeper motivations that are
04:40underneath what's going on.
04:42And it's interesting because I don't know if we even talked about whether or not you had watched the first
04:47film or not.
04:48So to be able to just kind of plop right into it versus other folks that had the whole film
04:53before to know the trajectory, that's commendable because you're still able to kind of tap into that low space that
05:00he was in.
05:18Brandon, you have to stop coming to our meetings.
05:22Ours?
05:23A few months ago, they were mine.
05:26They've never been yours.
05:28They've always been ours.
05:30Yours, ours.
05:30You sound like Myesha.
05:33I'm sorry, Ash.
05:37What you doing for Endemium?
05:40Come to the parade.
05:45You're going to shower first?
05:57And I think the whole point about oftentimes in our 20s and certain times, we're just having fun.
06:04We're enjoying life.
06:06It's been a minute for me.
06:07But we're not paying attention to some of the whys and why am I making these choices, where are they
06:12coming from, connecting thoughts, feelings, emotions to actions.
06:16And when that moment clicks, it's fascinating.
06:19So that's kind of something I wanted to start to explore is when does that actually click for you?
06:23And when is it sinking?
06:24Yeah.
06:24When does it sink in for you?
06:25Wait a second.
06:26I'm not doing this just because it's fun.
06:28I'm doing this because I'm blocking something.
06:30I don't want to.
06:30I'm suppressing an emotion.
06:31I'm trying to handle or cope with something that is a lot for me to open up about.
06:37And it might even be subconscious, often subconscious.
06:39Yeah.
06:39And when you're able to kind of bring that into your consciousness and start to look at it is, I
06:44think, a very interesting moment in our lives.
06:46We don't always get there.
06:47So maybe putting that on screen can have other people start to get there, too.
07:24How much further?
07:26The parking's right there.
07:27Right past this.
07:32Statue.
07:57So the other piece that kind of sets him off, he thought he was fine until Maisha leaves.
08:03And this is someone, so in the first film, he starts off, the very first thing is, let's have a
08:07baby.
08:07So he's trying to repair the fathering, or, yeah, the experience he didn't have by having another child and pouring
08:14love into someone else.
08:15And that didn't happen.
08:17And all, like, he kind of was putting his emotional weight and burden on the Maisha character.
08:22So when she's pulled out from his, like, support space, he's just kind of floating, like, where do I go?
08:28So he's blocking the pain of that and the hurt of that rejection.
08:32Because he was like the star.
08:34He ran this group.
08:35He was running this movement.
08:36Things were going great.
08:37And so the rejection of that is why he's blocking.
08:39But the core to that is the feeling of abandonment.
08:42The core of that is not knowing why his mother left, not understanding how she could reject.
08:48Usually the connection with a mother seems to be a bit more sacred in how we look at it as
08:53the person that birthed someone.
08:54And so it's like, what about me could be so wrong that this person could leave?
08:58And then on top of that, the rejection from his father, not ever being able to really see him for
09:03who he is, not being able to respect.
09:05He's great and doing all these great things, but does not get the love and respect from his father.
09:08So all of that pain, it's easier just to block that than have to think about it and understand where,
09:14how that's showing up.
