Hi8 is a new series of short interviews that serve as a quick hello to film figures we’re following. Inspired by the Walker’s 8-Ball Q&As, the series launches with a look at writers, producers, directors, and actors nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award. In a self-navigated format, each artist picks questions from a list, answering those eight that best expose their current musings and fascinations. No two interviews are the same.
The Austin, Texas–based Zellner Bros., have been collaboratively making films for over a decade. For their latest—Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter—Nathan wrote, produced, and acted while David directed. After obsessively watching Fargo, their protagonist is convinced the film contains a map to buried treasure and travels to Minnesota to find it. The Zellner Bros. shot many of the scenes on site, in and around the Twin Cities. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter played to a sold out audience at the Walker in September 2014. Along with producer Chris Ohlson, the Zellner Bros. joined Variety chief film critic Scott Foundas for a Q&A afterwards. Their feature was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: Best Director and Best Female Lead (Rinko Kikuchi).
On a warm Austin day in January, David Zellner writes to me about fond memories of yesteryear and the forces that motivated him.
1. Which creative talent would you most like to have?
The voice of an angel.
2. What is your favorite film scene?
It changes day to day, but the end of Aguirre, The Wrath of God is always a safe bet.
3. What was your most character-building experience?
Years of rejection.
4. What artist turned your world upside-down as a teenager?
Tie between Morrissey and Kris Kristofferson.
5. Name an image from past visits to the Twin Cities that you can’t get out of your mind.
The amazing interior of Nye’s, a national treasure.
6. What was your worst (college/post-college/make-ends-meet) job?
A phone survey job in the late ’90s. You had to hit a daily quota of cold-calls covering everything from political/current events to favorite types of condiments.
7. What recent album, film, or book did you consume recently that you wish you had created?
Ida. It’s a pretty perfect film.
8. When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, never have had a choice.
Chris Ohlson lives and works as a filmmaker in Austin, Texas. He recently produced the Zellner Bros. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter which world premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and will be released theatrically in March 2015. He is the recipient of the 2015 Piaget Producers Award and previously was a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow.
1. What have you been obsessing about lately?
TIME. I’m constantly struggling with TIME and how to be best friends with it. Please help me.
2. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
SLEEPING. I’d like to eliminate sleeping from my daily life and ritual.
3. What is your greatest extravagance?
Completely unnecessary and completely extravagant… A 2nd CUP OF COFFEE in a single day.
4. What artist turned your world upside-down as a teenager?
In 1992, I was 17 years old, and technically still a teenager, yes. I was sitting in the back of my crappy blue Mazda pickup truck and I heard, for the very first time, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE… Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk… and Everything Was Turned Upside-Down.
5. What’s your favorite comfort food?
CHIPS AND SALSA. Sometimes, it’s dinner. Sometimes it’s dessert… and every once in a while, it’s breakfast. But always, always, always, chips and salsa.
6. Whom would you like to spend three hours in an elevator with?
I don’t know that we’d even talk—but I think silently staring at mirrored elevator walls with WERNER HERZOG for three hours, would be completely revelatory and altogether life-changing.
7. What is your favorite place in the world?
It’s less a specific place, but more of a specific SETTING. I absolutely love SWIMMING AT NIGHT. Finding a moonlit body of warm water and diving in, that’s the good stuff.
8. What recent album, film, or book did you consume recently that you wish you had created?
I wish I had created HERE IT IS MY BEAUTIFUL FUCKING HEART (a wonderful chapbook of poetic comics by Jon-Michael Frank, buy it here).
The Film Independent Spirit Award nominees screen annually at the Walker Art Center as part of a collaboration with IFP. Screenings are free for all IFP and Walker members. Click here for the complete list of screenings.
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