INDIE SPOTLIGHT: Interview with ‘Anemoia’ Filmmakers Zachary Karem and Penelope Eaton

Set against the backdrop of a seemingly utopian metropolis. Anemoia projects the perfect future. Death, illness and poverty have all been solved. The problem our protagonist faces is an existential one. She is still unhappy. She dislikes her present time period and longs for the “good old days”. While shopping at a vintage store she finds the digital memories of a man who died thirty years prior. The man idolized the future much in the same way she idolizes the past. She fall’s in love, but of course, it is just a simulation based on his memories. And, when she experiences his death in his attempt to reach the future, it feels like the end. Or is it? Anemoia uses state-of-the-art volumetric capture and VFX not seen on any other short film at this scale.

I believe it’s safe to say that there is a small part in (well almost) individual that is nostalgic for something before their time. Be it for the music, fashion, the cost of movie theater tickets – the list goes on. In the short film Anemoia, the filmmakers explore this notion but take it a step further with time travel, and those from the past timeline are fixated on what the bright future may hold. Throw in a love story in the mix, and you have yourself a compelling story unfolding between two different people from two different time periods.

Outside of the compelling storytelling, and acting, these scrappy independent filmmakers brought together an incredibly talented crew to handle the visuals, VFX, costume and production design – really giving it a lived-in and grounded reality for a sci-fi short film.

Zachary Karem, writer-director-actor, and Penelope Eaton, executive producer and lead actress, recently spoke with Script about tapping into this ideal of anemoia, and about their creative conversations from character development to working with their key departments, and they share great tips about entering and attending film festivals.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: First things first. I'd love to talk about the story idea and how that came to you?

Zachary Karem: Basically, I've had this for a long time - as a kid, I was very much obsessed with the future, and I always kind of looked at it with this romantic ideal of things will always progress and get better. And I was really excited for that as a kid. And as we approached the 2020s, I remember as a kid, what I thought the 2020s would be like, and then kind of where we are - that kind of sparked this conversation between Penelope and I. She had this nostalgia for past time periods. I was like, ‘Oh, that's interesting.’ It's two sides of the same coin.

But I was really interested in this romantic kind of obsession of both of us countering time periods, one for the past, one for the future. And then I got really into the Jazz Age, like authors and musicians and stuff from the 20s. And I kind of developed the same sort of romantic idealization of the past as well. And I was like, ‘Oh, this would be really interesting just to have two characters, who both have this ideal, but they’re in counter time periods.’ So that's kind of what sparked it, and then we developed it into this love story, because I felt that would be very interesting.

Sadie: What were those creative conversations between the two of you, especially in developing your characters' voices and keeping it very grounded, even though it's a sci-fi set in the distant future?

Penelope Eaton: I think that a big part of it was that we got to have all these conversations that no one else saw. We really went into her character, and what was her backstory, and where did she come from, who were her parents. And that really shed light on, I think, how we portrayed her. 

And then also, just wanting to make sure that, like you said, it was grounded and it was lived in. Those things kind of came from just watching things and talking about these characters and realizing that there is not a need to over explain it. We wanted it to feel lived in. And we had these ideas of who these people were and how they go about society. We kind of relied on that.

So, for her, a big part of her backstory was her parents and how her mom ended up dying, both her parents were supposed to kind of die, and one of them didn't. And her dad decided to use some of the future technology to continue living and upload [her]. And so, she kind of goes through life having a little bit of anger towards the future because of that type of situation. And she kind of fantasizes about what it was like back when her mom was around, and also even beyond that when it was a simpler time.

Zachary: We really liked the idea of - it was funny to us, and kind of, I guess, ironic - that in this future, almost like utopia, like her friend even says, ‘I would never want to go back to the past. It's the dark ages,’ because what we wanted it to be is that in this future, we have solved a lot of society's ills, we’ve solved inequality, we've solved disease, and in most senses, you can continue your consciousness if you don't want to die, and kind of upload yourself. And so, a lot of the big things that people worry about today, we solved, but there still can be something missing.

And that was kind of the big thing of you know that life can be a little unsatisfying sometimes regardless, even if you have everything in the world. And so, we wanted to kind of portray that in the sense that regardless of where you are or what time period you're in, or whatever situation you are in life, that you kind of have to find your own meaning and your own personal happiness has to be something that you choose and that's kind of what we wanted to get at by the end.

As far as the way we wanted to portray it, we wanted to do kind of like you were getting at is that we don't explain a lot, I really like some of the older, of course, some of the older films from the 50s, 60s, where there was this art of observation, where you really had to pay attention. And I know that that's kind of counter to a lot of the stuff that's made today. Well, not everything that's made, but, you know, the millennial or Gen Z generation, it’s instant gratification, and everything is laid out for you really quickly, and you have 90 seconds to get it out. And so, we intentionally wanted to do the opposite and make it so you did have to pay attention, and if you didn't, maybe you would miss some things.

Sadie: Going back to that idea of being grounded in this futuristic world, I'd love to talk about the creative collaboration conversations you were having with your DP [Louis Normandin], with your visual effects team, down to production design and even costume design.

Zachary: Starting with the DP. He was amazing. We had a bunch of conversations about how we wanted to portray things. We wanted the past to be shot in anamorphic, to give it this more kind of letterbox, cinematic feel, to kind of portray the way that she was feeling and what she thinks about the past. And then we wanted the future, or the present day in the film to be shot spherical. So, it was wider, and clearer. We wanted to have this contrast.

And then with costume designer [Gamila Smith] and production designer [Margo Graxeda], both of them are really amazing people. For costumes, we went around to the Fox lot and a number of different costume places. We wanted it to feel like people would actually wear this, even though it is a little bit out there.

Penelope: I think specifically, too for my character, she kind of got the opportunity to wear something that was a little bit more vintage looking, or a little bit more of the past, just because of her admiration for it. And then I think we, at first, we went to all these places, and we were like, ‘Should we make it a little bit more futuristic looking? Or does it even need to do that?’ And we kind of came to the idea that maybe it doesn't really need to do that totally. So, with Parker [Kit Hill], my friend in the beginning, yes, it's a little bit more futuristic, but it was clothing that I actually ended up finding online. And I believe it was 3d printed, by a brand that is innovative, but still was trying to keep the aesthetic of today.

Sadie: Your film had a really decent festival run. Any advice for those who are about to submit to festivals – from doing your research, prioritizing which festival is best for you and your film, networking opportunities, and trying to save a buck or two?

Zachary: We didn't have a ton of connections really. In the very beginning, I think the first couple of festivals, we just randomly submitted to them, but we wrote a really nice cover letter, researched everyone that was at the festival, and really tried to pick ones that we found that had at least some sort of science fiction. We were looking at random festivals that we thought that it would connect to.

My dad is Lebanese, and I was like, ‘Oh, it'd be cool to premiere this in Lebanon.’ I have never been. So, I found this festival in Lebanon, and reached out to the people and sent it to them - it was in Beirut. And they got back to me and were like, ‘Oh my god, amazing! Come out here.’ And so, we went out there, promoted it there in Beirut, which was amazing. And it was actually a huge audience. Everyone there was very, very receptive to sci-fi. It was a really great response.

And then there, actually, I met a bunch of people that were Americans that run festivals kind of all over the world, and they invited us to a couple of festivals here in the States, and then we went to those. And then we met people there that invited us to Garden State, and then Chelsea and Burbank. So, the whole connection thing was super important. We went to all the panels and did interviews and discussions with all the other filmmakers, and that was really helpful.

So, if you're a younger filmmaker, even these smaller festivals, if they've been running for a number of years, that was what we looked forward to. Nothing against the new ones, but I wanted to find some that had been around for a little while, that maybe weren't the largest, but that I knew that we'd get in and there is a little bit of prestige there, and we can talk to people, and they'll maybe be connected to other festivals.

Penelope: I think also for younger filmmakers, it's really important when you submit, definitely put a cover letter. I feel like that's super important, because I think it’s’ the first visual, someone might not totally watch your film all the way through, unfortunately, that's the reality of it. And I think your cover letter is your opportunity to kind of point things out that you really think that are powerful. And then I also think that just researching genres and really trying to, like Zach was saying, make connections when you go to these places, because those are the people that kind of carry you on through the rest of it.

Sadie: Now it’s post-festival run, you’re about to premiere the film online. What’s next for this short?

Zachary: We've written Anemoia as a feature. That's part of the impetus of putting it out is to drum it up a little bit. I know that it's a short film that's going online, but I'm hoping that I can get a decent viewership and use that as a stepping stone to get the feature produced, which will be much harder, obviously. I think it's important to try to get as big of a community and as many people to watch it as possible. 

The award-winning short film Anemoia is now available to watch online (or below).