A restless 15-year-old has spent his life surrounded by death, raised in his parents' funeral business in "small town USA." He views his alcoholic father as profiting from the dead. While a wake is held in his parents' funeral home, he breaks into the deceased's house, counting on it being empty. In his view, the dead no longer need what he pockets. He recruits his deaf-mute younger brother to join him in his robberies, unaware of what the consequences may be.

Interview with Director Luis Gerard

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

I wanted to explore the rebellious nature of youth linked to a funeral home environment. It is a thriller with a “twist” ending yet it explores the relationship between brothers in a non-working family structure and it has something to say about the accessibility of guns in present day American society and their eternal appeal to the young.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

Because it will engage you as a viewer. It is structured as a thriller with an ingenious concept: two brothers whose parents run a funeral home, take advantage of the wakes to rob the now empty homes of the recently deceased… you wonder how long they can get away with it, so… you’re hooked into watching and I love how the ending catches everyone by surprise.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

The personal is the rebellious nature of youth as I was one of those difficult kids growing up. The bonding of brothers and hero worshipping of an older brother are universal themes which are interlaced in a seamless way and the social comment of the accessibility of guns in today’s society emerges naturally from the story. It is not patched on, and that is one of the things I am most proud, of how one things leads to the next in the script’s construction.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

I started with the idea of these two brothers going about robbing the empty homes of the recently deceased while their families were at the wake. I made one of the brothers the rebellious Cain and a younger brother a hero worshipping Abel and to give a reason of why they went about it and how they knew the exact timing of the wakes, it must be their parents who ran the funeral home, so the older brother must look at his father in particular, as one who takes advantage of the dead, so in his rebelliousness, he must outdo his father, hence he robs the home of the dead his father works on… and it culminates with the main character viewing his own Wake.. it’s a continuous spiral of growing tension to its inevitable ending.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

I wanted to make the relationship between the two brothers, special and unique, almost as if they had their own language and that lead me to make the younger brother a deaf mute. This was written and shot before CODA (the post was delayed due to COVID). So when CODA won the Oscar it was just before my first showing of the short and everyone praised me and the young actors in it and make reference to CODA’s success…

By the way, the young actor is really deaf and the one who plays his older brother had to learn sign language to communicate with him, so they had to spend a lot of time together, rehearsing and that made them really bond like a family. You see them acting together in the film and their scenes together are beautiful. These two kids were wonderful and they provide the human element that connects with an audience. Their scenes together went beyond from what I was hoping for. To make one of the brothers deaf make the shoot longer and more complex, but I look at the end results and I have to “pinch” myself as to how lucky I was.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

The emotional response I get from the audience as per the relationship between the two brothers still surprises me. It is beyond what I was expecting. On the other end there is a shot in the twist ending when everybody goes “wow” (a shot that I improvised in the middle of shooting the scene) that works just as I expected. It’s a moment of pure cinema as Hitchcock would say…

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

To discover a work that entertains and while entertaining you has something to say about the rebellious nature of youth and the bonding of brothers… it’s my return to narrative filmmaking after years of doing commercial and I want audiences to be aware of my work as a filmmaker as I will next work on my first feature.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

All of the above. Film festivals of short films, and the buyers and distributors who handle them, have in their hands the future of the next generation of filmmakers. They are the ones that help us connect with an audience and give us the “push” to next becomes feature filmmakers.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

I just want the audience to embrace the film, what it has to say as to the love between brothers and just to enjoy the ride…

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

The magical language and connection between brothers and the appeal of guns to the very young. Actions have consequences and guns are not something to treasure..

Would you like to add anything else?

Just like in Truffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT, I just wish that the audience enjoys the film as much as I enjoyed making it. Wearing the hats of writer/producer/director was a nightmare, but now I look at the film and how it engages the audiences, and somehow the feelings of a nightmare or a troublesome shoot vanish. It feels in retrospect, like real joy!

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

Working on 3 different features. One, A BLIND EYE is a psychological thriller dealing with illegal immigration as two women in an isolated farm must learn to trust each other to survive. WHERE ONLY THE DEVIL DARES, is a multiple story dramatic mosaic set in the US and Mexico where the paths of a serial killer, an American doctor who performs abortions and a child obsessed woman verging into madness, collide. The third, CHOPPER, is a thriller shot in actual time and set entirely inside a helicopter whose pilot has been kidnapped to aid in the escape of political prisoners. All three are very different and very challenging.

Interview: October 2022

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

The Wake

Length:

23:36

Writer/Director/Producer

Writer, director, and producer Luis Gerard studied at the University of Puerto Rico where he began making films. His very first film QUE SERA was in the official selection of the prestigious Venice Film Festival and his second short ABSOLUTION was selected at The Sitges Film Festival. Branching into feature work, Gerard recently directed the second unit for HUSTLE, a basketball drama starring Adam Sandler, produced by Netflix, released in June of 2022.

Key cast:

Zander Bhola-Colbeck, Walter Carpenter

Looking for:

producers