Interview: Alex Walker

Perfection is an obligation, rather than a choice, for Alex Walker. During our interview it was plain to see that he will not cut corners in his pursuit of a good film. The Auburn Independent Film Festival must have appreciated the effort and talent because Spacewalk placed second out of the twenty-three films on the shortlist last week. I met with him on the set of his next film, California Eden, to discuss Spacewalk, California Eden and his inevitably bright future.

Spacewalk was born out of an experimental film form project. Alex explained that he was reluctant to experiment too much with the visuals but he envisaged that sound was something that could have interesting effects on the finished film. The story focuses on a young deaf girl, Mia, who is more comfortable in silence than in the harsh world of sound that her hearing aid drags her into. She prefers to dream of a life in space, where everyone is deaf to the world around them. An exceptionally provocative message, expertly portrayed, did not come without having to tread a few tricky paths. The team behind Spacewalk were eager not to create a film that was incorrect or offensive in its representation of this problem; they wanted those with hearing impairments to appreciate the film as much as anyone with perfect hearing.

One of the standout features of Spacewalk is the performance by Kathryn Miller as Mia. I spoke to Alex about how he cast the young girl and was surprised to learn that it was her first acting job. She was found on a casting website and was incredibly co-operative and professional for her age, Alex explained. He described to me his desire to ensure that the acting in his films looks natural. Tony Banham, he explained, is a father himself and so his short turn as Mia’s Dad was no different to how he is with his own kids. Alex’s desire to keep everything as natural as possible with his actors is compounded by his directing style where, in his own words, he likes to let them “breathe”. This is due to his belief that forcing them into the strict shackles of ‘this way or the highway’ direction would only have a negative effect on his film.

Speaking to Alex about what he likes to see in his films, it was evident that he likes to pay very close attention to detail. It was close up shots of inanimate objects and the actors’ interaction with them to create a depth to his characters, and specific lighting techniques to create shadow that he mentioned as his favoured traits in a film. He confirmed that California Eden will showcase these directing preferences far more than anything he has made before.

California Eden is the brainchild of Alex and his writing partner Lotta Weber, although it was Alex and his editor, Nina Lindholm, who pitched the idea to the group having researched the Jonestown massacre. It was a mammoth task for the writers to work out how they could tell the story in twelve minutes in such a manner where the audience are fully involved with the characters who were victims of Jim Jones’ insanity. For those not familiar with the Jonestown massacre, its death toll was 918 and 912 of that number committed suicide on Jones’ command. It’s a story worth reading and the film picks up in the final 24 hours. When they pitched the film to their university year group, it had an incredible reception; the characters are rich and the story is gritty and intense.

It hasn’t been plain sailing for California Eden though. Writing aside, Alex and his team encountered some difficulty casting Jim Jones. Rebel Dean had been cast but started to back out days before filming was scheduled to begin, due to fears that he wouldn’t be able to portray the true mania of Jim Jones. Luckily, Alex quelled his fears and the film recently completed filming, to be screened on May 13th^th.

It seems there really is not limit for Alex Walker and his team; with California Eden’s incredible reception, a penned mention on a popular American podcast and independent film advertisers clamouring for the chance to publicise it. Alex made it explicitly clear how much it means to him to prove to everyone, and to himself, that he can tell a good story. His biggest fear was making a film half-heartedly that wasn’t as good as it could have been but speaking to him post-completion, all those fears have subsided and the confidence is palpable. All of this comes off the back of success at Auburn and there are plans for California Eden to be entered at bigger festivals. Did someone say Sundance…?

Watch Spacewalk and California Eden (after May 13th^th) at www.alextwalker.co.uk

Like California Eden’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/California-Eden/492472554147089?fref=ts