What are the films or people that had impacts on you and deeply inspired you to become a filmmaker?

As I mentioned above, as a teenager, going to school in New York, I spent time in theaters that showed French New Wave movies 

and became fascinated by Jean-Luc Godard's film “Breathless.” I watched it a dozen or more times. 

I also love the black-and-white Italian New Wave films of the 1950s and early 1960s. 

Particularly Fellini's movie “La Dolce Vita” stands out for me. It’s a movie about the dance of human social illusion and beauty, 

in the surroundings of demolished, postwar Italy, a crumbled, physical environment in many ways. It's a great movie. 

More recently I appreciate movies such as “Terminator 2,” in which James Cameron manages to use the traditional action 

elements of blockbuster filmmaking, but interweaving them with human stories about deep conflicts in human relationships and family relationships–taking characters to a point where they must make difficult choices, sometimes impossible choices. He's a great filmmaker.

You made your film “Two Stoners,” which got an official selection in the 

"American Golden Picture International Film Festival". 

As a filmmaker, tell us why you decided to make it?

I made this film as my final project in a recent class at Stanford University on how to make 3-minute fiction films. 

I came of age at a time when many people I know fell into drugs and alcohol, and in “Two Stoners” I wanted to create a story about that, 

and what some of its difficulties and confrontations are.

What were some of the challenges you faced in making this specific film?

I had almost no budget for the film. So I was faced with the challenge of conceiving a project that I could manage 

on a relatively simple technical level; but still have it be a meaningful cinema story for general viewers. Because of the low budget, 

I couldn't have car chases; or UFOs landing; or people leaping off cliffs into the ocean. So I had to come up with a story that was “small” in a technical sense, but “big” in a human sense. So that was some of the thinking process that I went through in making this film.

Tell us more about your experience in this film?

I prepared, and prepared, and prepared, and over-prepared. That’s the way I do things. And so the actual production day went very smoothly. 

To my surprise. We shot it rather quickly. The actors were great. We did multiple takes of different scenes. 

One of my actors had some experience from her days earlier in school doing some acting. The other actor had no acting experience at all. 

He’s a music producer. It was fun to work with them, and help them figure out ways to create resonant characters on the screen.