A photo by Brian Padian, director of the independent feature film “The Black Sea.”

IN THE 1990’s, just before the internet arose to the position in which it dominates every minute of our waking lives with its twin engines of fear and retribution, there was a rise in the popularity of something called “film school.” Film and television, the thinking went, were the mass media that had the most far-reaching influence. The narratives told in these forms could be badly made, in which case they were little more than single-use cultural ego strokes, or they could be well made, in which case someone might even consider them art.

I did this—the film school thing. In the early 1990’s, I graduated from high school in a small town in northern Colorado, went to college at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, and learned how to make movies. Shortly thereafter I decided I would prefer to write fiction and run an independent press instead of making movies, and thus follows a whole sordid tale of disappointment, lies, and debauchery with which I will not bore you.

There is someone in Portland who went to a similar film school (the American Film Institute) but who is far more virtuous: his name is Brian Padian. He wrote, directed, and produced—independently, under his own steam—the feature-length film The Black Sea, which he finished in 2015. Because feature filmmaking is hard, and it can be expensive, and it is time-consuming, The Black Sea has just recently become available on DVD or to stream.

I do not know Brian Padian. In order to mark the DVD release of The Black Sea, then, I have asked, and been granted, his permission to interrogate him about just what he thinks he’s doing. Because there is not just The Black Sea. There is also his photography:

Tillikum Crossing bridge in Portland, Oregon. Photo by Brian Padian.

Road. Photo by Brian Padian.

There is also a new film he is writing, called Sister/Brother.

He is also a husband and a father and a person who has a full-time job.

“Son and Parents and Eighteen Year Gulf.” Photo by Brian Padian.

How is he doing this? How does independent filmmaking work (or not work) in 2018? What did film school do for him, and what did it not do for him? How has his cinematic (and photographic) eye changed? What has he learned? I will ask him these questions Wednesday, May 23rd, at Boys Fort, in downtown Portland, Oregon. Please join us.

The official write up:

Brian Padian.

THAT WAS FILM SCHOOL, THIS IS NOW
Brian Padian and Dan DeWeese in conversation

7pm, Wednesday, May 23rd
Boys Fort
1001 SW Morrison Street
Portland, Oregon

BRIAN PADIAN is a screenwriter, photographer, and the director of the feature length independent film The Black Sea (2015) and the short films The Big Black Dark (2011) and I'm Your Man (2010). He is currently in development on his next feature film, Sister/Brother. A graduate of the American Film Institute, he has lived in Portland since 2004.

DAN DEWEESE is the author of the novels Gielgud (2018) and You Don't Love This Man (2011), and the story collection Disorder (2012). Editor-in-chief of the web magazine Propeller, he is also the publisher of Propeller Books. A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, he has lived in Portland since 2000.

DeWeese, a lapsed screenwriter and filmmaker, will ask Padian about the role Padian's film education has played in his approach to writing, his goals for a career in film, and in the development of Padian's visual aesthetic. Particular attention will be paid to stills from The Black Sea, as well as images from Padian's photography. Both men are parents, and at some point in the conversation DeWeese will surprise Padian by asking about children, parenting, and how family life has affected Padian's growth as an artist. The conversation will take place in Boys Fort, which Willamette Week named Best Men's Specialty Store in 2017.

 

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