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I’ve seen maybe four independent films without
distributors that made me wonder what was wrong with the distribution
system in America. Kwik Stop, The Snowflake Crusade
and Façade are the first three. Justin D. Hilliard’s
film Wednesday is the fourth.
Hilliard’s
Wednesday is a literate film with the potential to change
lives. It’s rather professional looking, despite being filmed
on Mini-DV and has a grasp of the cinematic process that I don’t
expect when I’m watching an indie film. I do enjoy indie film
for the ingenuity and ambitions, but Wednesday, which ranks
as one of the best indies I’ve ever seen, is one of the only
indies to struggle with its ambitions and win. Justin D. Hilliard
discusses his characters from all four storylines and his real life
motivation in this month’s indie interview. (Note:
This interview contains major spoilers.)
 The
Film Chair: When I watched Wednesday
it was a deeply affecting film and an intellectual film. It shows
through the characters. How much do you personally care about these
characters when you are writing the film?
Justin Hilliard: Whenever I am writing a film it's
almost like I'm writing elements of myself or people that I've known
in the past into the story. I get to know them really well and I care
about them. I
think that if you are going to write a character, whatever their flaws,
they are always going to have some good in them. A major part of my
process is I have to find that good and find their heart and then
that will show me whichever decisions they make and whatever choices
they make in regard to the story.
FC:
The fourth narrative in the movie, the one with the filmmaker, it
would seem almost too contrived had you written it the way the film
is described by the filmmaker in that story. But I still have to ask.
How did you come to write the film narratively, the three storylines,
leading into that fourth storyline? What inspired you to do that?
JH: Just the process leading up to the final segment?
 FC:
Yes
JH: Well, actually when conceptualizing began for
our first feature, it was going to be just Luke and Lucy
(the first story). It was going to be that original story with just
a lot more involved backstory and character as the feature. What I
decided was to interweave these two other stories with Purgatory
and Lyrics that I wanted to expand and show how different
people deal with death. We shot the first one, Luke and Lucy
and then I ended up going to London to prep for Purgatory
and as I was over there I started having these confrontations with
my ex who I hadn't seen. It was a pretty rough breakup and I ran into
her on the subway, just out of nowhere, just like in the film. Then
there were a couple meetings after that and it was just one of the
situations where she came back into my life as I was in the middle
of writing the segment, so things were kind of fresh and evolving
and becoming something more than what was originally outlined. She
turned to me and said this is your 8 ½ just kind of
joking around, but that kind of got stuck in my head because one of
my favorite films of all time is Fellini's 8 ½ and
that was what was happening. I was writing this film. I was really
passionate about the stories. And it was kind of just falling apart.
Especially when I got to the Lyrics segment which was supposed to
be the paradise of the three stories. Julian (the filmmaker character)
or my paradise was lost and that turns into the Narcissus
segment. It just evolved through what was happening in real life really.
Indie
Interviews #8: Justin D. Hilliard...continues here
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