Pan African Film Festival/DisOrient Asian American Film Festival 2019 – A Knight's Tour
In a post-apocalyptic world, a young man, J.D., and a detached hermit, Henry, attempt to form a friendship in the midst of swirling suspicions about J.D.'s checkered past and the threat of unseen invaders from the outside world.
Interview with Writer/Director/Editor Marvin Choi
Watch on Vudu
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made A Knight’s Tour as my graduate thesis at California Institute of the Arts, but I actually began writing the screenplay long before I went back to school, during a period of depression where I was unsure about the future. It’s a challenge I wanted to tackle for a while, a feature-length chamber piece driven by paranoia in a post-apocalyptic world. I never really went all-in on the idea until a professor at CalArts, Charles Burnett, told me I should go for it after he learned I aspired to make feature-length movies.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I know I’m biased, but I think Joseph Price and Darnel Powell give two of the best performances I’ve ever seen on-screen. I also think it’s an unusual take on the post-apocalyptic genre. World-building is incidental, and violence is used as threat more than visceral experience for the audience. Instead, character development is placed front and center, and the setting serves more to explore two characters rather than serve as the centerpiece of the film itself.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The movie is implicitly driven by the interaction between two characters, one who is so isolated that he resolves his emotional conflicts with hallucinatory episodes and another who has lived his life built up on so many lies and slights of hand that he is no longer sure what his true motivations are anymore. It is from this interaction that the story emerges, as well as the themes of paranoia, isolation, and loneliness.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I never treat the script as sacred, so it changed multiple times throughout the course of making the movie. I had originally written the script with Darnel specifically in mind for the part of J.D., but casting Joe as Henry changed the script, as did the location we ended up shooting at, as did our interactions on set, as did ideas that emerged while editing. The script is just a document to help us get started, nothing more.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Really encouraging so far! What makes me happiest about the feedback is that everyone loves the performances. If I could have achieved only one thing with this movie, it would have been to depict great performances, so I am glad that has come across well. A few people also remarked positively on the editing, particularly the first chess scene and the night intruders scene. Those were particularly challenging to edit, especially since I deliberately wanted the movie to have no non-diegetic score at all, so I am glad they came across well.
A lot of the feedback has also remarked on my choice as a Korean-American filmmaker on hiring two black actors as the leads for the movie. As I said before, I wrote the part of J.D. with Darnel in mind, but in casting for Henry I had cast a wide net, simply looking for any talented older male actor. We were very fortunate to find Joe, but I think if we had gone with another actor who was not black, I would definitely have had to rewrite the script. For example, the image of a white man throwing a chain at a black man sitting on the floor would’ve been too loaded and wholly inappropriate for me to depict.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It’s been encouraging to hear such positive reactions from people from all walks of life. It’s also been a good reminder for me to be more thoughtful about how I develop the characters I write.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
The main goal has always been to have as many people as possible see A Knight’s Tour. As such, we’d like to use this opportunity to let more people know about it!
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
It would be fantastic if we could get some sort of distribution deal, more festival screenings, more press coverage, etc. At the same time, I am acutely aware of how this type of movie is not necessarily that appealing for a distributor. It’s a very low-budget film ($25,000 after post-production finished) with an unknown writer/director, two unknown actors, in a genre that doesn’t have much mainstream appeal. That being said, we do strongly believe in our movie, so we’ll keep working with it and see where it takes us!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I would like for Joe and Darnel to get the recognition they deserve for being the fantastic actors that they are.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
A fun conversation-starter about the movie is talking about where it was made. It was shot at the Dominguez Ranch, which was built on a mountain near Lake Piru, and we shot during the height of California’s summer drought, which greatly contributed to the stark landscape we worked in. We braved roaming herds of cows, rattlesnakes, bats, as well more friendly foxes and mice. At the end of our first night shoot, we were greeted by the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen, which our production sound mixer, Rasika Ruwanpathirana, managed to capture on camera. The footage of that sunrise even ended up in the final movie!
Would you like to add anything else?
It was an absolute privilege to work on this movie with so many passionate and talented people. I hope people will love and enjoy all the hard work we put into it.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I’m currently working on a short film about an extraterrestrial species discovering the golden disc aboard the Voyager 1 space probe.
Interview: February 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
TITLE
In a post-apocalyptic world, a young man, J.D., and a detached hermit, Henry, attempt to form a friendship in the midst of swirling suspicions about J.D.'s checkered past and the threat of unseen invaders from the outside world.
Length: 1:16:49
Director: Marvin Choi
Producer: Sara Razack
Writer: Marvin Choi
About the writer, director and producer:
MARVIN CHOI is a Korean-American filmmaker born and raised in Los Angeles. He once pursued a PhD in cognitive science at UC Irvine but dropped out to pursue a career in filmmaking. He still resides in Los Angeles, where he spends his free time reading comic books and writing screenplays.
I met SARA RAZACK, my producer, while we were students at California Institute of the Arts. She was probably one of the first people I talked to about "A Knight’s Tour," and her unstoppable excitement and enthusiasm for the project has been the sole reason why the movie is complete today. She has been the yin to my yang, able to fill in for all of my faults and effortlessly guiding me through the most difficult minutiae of the producing process.
Key cast: Darnel Powell (Joseph "J.D." Dauber), Joseph Price (Henry LaMoe)
Looking for: sales agents, distributors, journalists, film festival directors, buyers
Facebook: A Knight’s Tour
Website: https://www.aknightstourmovie.com/
Other: IMDB
Funders: Kickstarter
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? DisOrient Asian American Film Festival/Eugene, Oregon, USA - Sunday, March 17, 2019; other screenings pending