originally published on nwasianweekly.com
June 7, 2003
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by Ann-Marie Stillion for the Northwest Asian Weekly
Jamie Hook
Director zooms in on Seattle as film town
By
Ann-Marie Stillion
Northwest Asian Weekly
When film director Jamie Hook talks about filmmaking, his thoughts swing through the air like an acrobat leaping from place to place. Articulate without being fussy, the 33-year-old director envisions building a flourishing regional movie industry in Seattle. "The Naked Proof," his first feature film, brings him one step closer to realizing his dream.
"The Naked Proof" is the first product of a new venture, Pinwheel Pictures, that plans to produce a new feature in Seattle every year. The world premiere of the film will be at the Cinerama on June 13, as part of the Seattle International Film Festival.
Pinwheel Pictures is the latest product from Hook and Deborah Girwood, who together also founded the Northwest Film Forum in 1995, a local organization with a national reputation as a community arts organization for emerging filmmakers. After five years as an organizer and supporter of other ventures, Hook has put himself to the task of making artistic film statements that, as he says, "can succeed in the real world."
When I saw his preliminary screening last week of his first feature, I felt like I was not only watching a film, but also experiencing the result of a lively passion for life and art.
The emerging director of Japanese American and German American descent, it turns out, has come by his relationship to cinema through the patient practice of art in the everyday world.
"I ran the Northwest Film Forum for six years and projected every show for 110 days. I like the artistry of film, the way film pulls together so many other strands of art. I adore the grand old traditions of high-art cinema, by which I mean the classical establishment of traditions as laid down by Hollywood filtered through the sensibilities that invaded Europe in the middle of (the) 20th century and were further refined in places like Iran, Taiwan and Korea," Hook said.
After Seattle, "Naked Proof" moves on to a prospective list of festivals around the country and beyond, from Toronto to Woodstock, N.Y., to Rotterdam, Netherlands. All of that, of course, is dependent on the enthusiasm generated.
Hook's cinematic influences include Woody Allen, the idiosyncratic world of Mike Lee, the imagistic Claire Denis and the important humanist perspective of Sajit Ray. His love of Hollywood is tempered with the knowledge of the wider world of film history and geography.
"It's always seemed curious to me," he said, "that Hollywood's influence is so overwhelming in America that it actually colonizes people's imagination to the point that they can't find room to imagine another way ... and then someone comes up like Woody Allen who does imagine another way, and everyone stands up and says, 'How the hell does he do that?'"
"The Naked Proof" was co-written by Hook and Girwood. The film succeeds as a comedy while pursuing a serious philosophic puzzle to determine what and who is real. The plot reads like a well-crafted short story in the hands of Harpo Marx.
Characters, especially the lead actress, played by an authentically pregnant Arlette del Toro, take on the quality of magical realism as they "appear" and "disappear" in and from the streets of Seattle. Setting the stage for discussion, Hook has drafted eminent playwright August Wilson, who opens the story with an ironic philosophical treatise that is exploited throughout.
In fact, this film is loaded with local lights. Charles Mudede plays a muddled priest who becomes more so as he confronts the shifting spheres of the dilemmas of the principal character, played by Michael Chick, a veteran of both theater and television.
In the director's mind, this cinematic effort is not just about making one movie. It is also about giving birth to the idea that Seattle can become a legitimate place, even an important one, in which to make movies outside of Hollywood.
"Seattle is as good as any place to stand up and say, 'There's more than one way to make a film,' and, 'There's more than one kind of film.' There's no reason that Seattle can't change the course of cinema," Hook believes.
The film functions quite well as a modern and somewhat fractured romance of two distracted people -- just the sort of folks all of us perhaps are as we stumble through life.
One of the diverse threads woven into this light-hearted film ride is pregnancy.
"Pregnancy has been a really strong facet of this story for a real long time. It's a world that men bump into in this very strange way for a little while. It's like you enter this secret society of men who have been with pregnant women."
"We filmed with a woman who was 8 months pregnant because I like tempting fate and invoking the blessing of God. ... On the other hand, it's like sticking a time bomb in the middle of your film, saying, 'I dare you to go off, and if you go off, we obviously have to make a completely different film,'" Hook said. "She gave birth two weeks after we finished shooting the film."
Whether tempting fate with babies or movies, the crew of "The Naked Proof" will soon follow with another comedy currently titled, "It's All My Fault," about a 39-year-old angst-ridden single mom. For now, Hook is simply saying that he is happy and humble to be part of it all.
The birthing process of his first feature is behind him. The birth of an important regional film industry is ahead.
For more information about Pinwheel Pictures or "The Naked Proof," visit www.pinwheelpictures.com.
Northwest Asian Weekly
When film director Jamie Hook talks about filmmaking, his thoughts swing through the air like an acrobat leaping from place to place. Articulate without being fussy, the 33-year-old director envisions building a flourishing regional movie industry in Seattle. "The Naked Proof," his first feature film, brings him one step closer to realizing his dream.
"The Naked Proof" is the first product of a new venture, Pinwheel Pictures, that plans to produce a new feature in Seattle every year. The world premiere of the film will be at the Cinerama on June 13, as part of the Seattle International Film Festival.
Pinwheel Pictures is the latest product from Hook and Deborah Girwood, who together also founded the Northwest Film Forum in 1995, a local organization with a national reputation as a community arts organization for emerging filmmakers. After five years as an organizer and supporter of other ventures, Hook has put himself to the task of making artistic film statements that, as he says, "can succeed in the real world."
When I saw his preliminary screening last week of his first feature, I felt like I was not only watching a film, but also experiencing the result of a lively passion for life and art.
The emerging director of Japanese American and German American descent, it turns out, has come by his relationship to cinema through the patient practice of art in the everyday world.
"I ran the Northwest Film Forum for six years and projected every show for 110 days. I like the artistry of film, the way film pulls together so many other strands of art. I adore the grand old traditions of high-art cinema, by which I mean the classical establishment of traditions as laid down by Hollywood filtered through the sensibilities that invaded Europe in the middle of (the) 20th century and were further refined in places like Iran, Taiwan and Korea," Hook said.
After Seattle, "Naked Proof" moves on to a prospective list of festivals around the country and beyond, from Toronto to Woodstock, N.Y., to Rotterdam, Netherlands. All of that, of course, is dependent on the enthusiasm generated.
Hook's cinematic influences include Woody Allen, the idiosyncratic world of Mike Lee, the imagistic Claire Denis and the important humanist perspective of Sajit Ray. His love of Hollywood is tempered with the knowledge of the wider world of film history and geography.
"It's always seemed curious to me," he said, "that Hollywood's influence is so overwhelming in America that it actually colonizes people's imagination to the point that they can't find room to imagine another way ... and then someone comes up like Woody Allen who does imagine another way, and everyone stands up and says, 'How the hell does he do that?'"
"The Naked Proof" was co-written by Hook and Girwood. The film succeeds as a comedy while pursuing a serious philosophic puzzle to determine what and who is real. The plot reads like a well-crafted short story in the hands of Harpo Marx.
Characters, especially the lead actress, played by an authentically pregnant Arlette del Toro, take on the quality of magical realism as they "appear" and "disappear" in and from the streets of Seattle. Setting the stage for discussion, Hook has drafted eminent playwright August Wilson, who opens the story with an ironic philosophical treatise that is exploited throughout.
In fact, this film is loaded with local lights. Charles Mudede plays a muddled priest who becomes more so as he confronts the shifting spheres of the dilemmas of the principal character, played by Michael Chick, a veteran of both theater and television.
In the director's mind, this cinematic effort is not just about making one movie. It is also about giving birth to the idea that Seattle can become a legitimate place, even an important one, in which to make movies outside of Hollywood.
"Seattle is as good as any place to stand up and say, 'There's more than one way to make a film,' and, 'There's more than one kind of film.' There's no reason that Seattle can't change the course of cinema," Hook believes.
The film functions quite well as a modern and somewhat fractured romance of two distracted people -- just the sort of folks all of us perhaps are as we stumble through life.
One of the diverse threads woven into this light-hearted film ride is pregnancy.
"Pregnancy has been a really strong facet of this story for a real long time. It's a world that men bump into in this very strange way for a little while. It's like you enter this secret society of men who have been with pregnant women."
"We filmed with a woman who was 8 months pregnant because I like tempting fate and invoking the blessing of God. ... On the other hand, it's like sticking a time bomb in the middle of your film, saying, 'I dare you to go off, and if you go off, we obviously have to make a completely different film,'" Hook said. "She gave birth two weeks after we finished shooting the film."
Whether tempting fate with babies or movies, the crew of "The Naked Proof" will soon follow with another comedy currently titled, "It's All My Fault," about a 39-year-old angst-ridden single mom. For now, Hook is simply saying that he is happy and humble to be part of it all.
The birthing process of his first feature is behind him. The birth of an important regional film industry is ahead.
For more information about Pinwheel Pictures or "The Naked Proof," visit www.pinwheelpictures.com.