Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian’s feature film debut FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY premiered on Sunday at the 203 Los Angeles Film Festival. Starring Bruce Graham, Suzette Graham, Robert Eddington, Wyatt Eddington, Matt Valdez, Chelsea Word, Elizabeth Overton and Rebekah Mott, the film follows Bruce, a quietly spiritual man with three grown daughters, returns home from his morning jog to discover Suzette, his beloved wife of forty years, has passed away. The film then goes on to capture moments with each family member as they grieve. FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY screens again on Saturday at the festival.
VIMOOZ: First, congratulations on being an official selection in the 2013 LA Film Festival … and the World Premiere.
VIMOOZ: Tell us about the film – the story?
The story is about a husband, who has been married for 40 years and comes home to find that his wife has died. From that point we observe as he deals with the idea, as well as see how the process of death works technically as well.
VIMOOZ: Is this a “sad” film?
Is it a “sad” film. I guess so. The point wasn’t to be sad, because to us the film is about love, and sometimes the way we recognize the value of things is to remove the thing, in this case his wife. And the removal brings to light the appreciation, or in this case, we come to understand how much he loved her.
VIMOOZ:Who are the actors in the film?
The actors are co-director Robert Machoian’s parent’s and siblings, as well as the local mortician in town.
VIMOOZ: Did they have to audition?
No not really, we were interested in the idea of casting the people who would be the people involved, or will be involved in the event when my mother actual does die. And were interested in that would bring another type of performance to light.
VIMOOZ: This film has had quite a journey, first a short, now a feature. Was the transition hard?
It wasn’t as hard as we thought it’d be. When we make shorts we don’t think of ever making them into features. We want them to exist as they are, without further expectations then just being a great short film. But WAITING ROOM which is the short, a year after we shot it and had it on the festival circuit, it seemed to be asking for more, so we explored it, and I think what we came found was even deeper then the short.
VIMOOZ: Robert, you are credited as the writer for the film, what was the inspiration?
My aunt was the inspiration for the film. I was on a bus with her once, she had taken care of both her parents until they died. They died years a part from each other, so it was long time of her caring for her parents. I wanted to understand what that was like for her. Though the film is very different from what she shared, it made me really think about death in a very different way, and that way brought out this film.
VIMOOZ: What does the title of the film mean?
The title of the film is in direct relationship to my parents, they have been together for forty years, they are both very much in love with each other as there son it seems to me like it’s still fresh. They aren’t the older couples you see bicker, but then are so much in love. They are like the thing Hollywood romances are trying to capture, that twinkle. So I thought all this time has gone by as if it were yesterday. So pretty simple and straight forward FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY
VIMOOZ: What’s up next for the film?
Well we have our international premiere coming very soon, we can’t announce it yet because they haven’t, but we are very excited for that, and then it will live on the festival circuit for the next year, and hopefully find a home with a distributor.
VIMOOZ: What’s up next for you?
We start production on our next feature titled THE LATCHKEY KIDS in July. It’s a film about a sister and her four brothers. We are very excited to shoot it, and think it’s gonna be something pretty wonderful.