Director's Statement
About nine years ago, I sat in a darkened theater on my first day of
film school as Professor Tannis explained we were about to see a very important film.
Expecting a black and white classic, I was startled to see the first frames of an animated Disney short starring Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
You know the story…
A powerful sorcerer leaves his workshop in the hands of his apprentice, Mickey, who’s not fully trained in the ways of magic. Overstepping his limits, the apprentice puts on the sorcerer’s magic hat and gets a broomstick to do his chores for him. Intoxicated by the new power, things get out of control for Mickey when the broom develops a mind of its own. The sorcerer’s apprentice is nearly lost in a flood of his own hubris, but is saved when the master returns and gently rebukes him.
Many years later, the experience of watching that film as a seventeen year-old still sticks with me as an eerie warning of events to come. Events that unfolded for me in the most dramatic way imaginable from the moment I first met Maurice Singer, the writer/director of “Bemoana,” and central figure of my film Unspooled.
Filmmaking in general has an insanity factor that comes with the territory, and every project I’ve ever worked on suffers from the same collision of faith and doubt that Maurice experienced on the set of “Bemoana.”
The question resounds in the dark: ‘If I just believe in myself, is that enough to succeed?’
It’s the question I pondered making this film, and while wholly unromantic, my conclusion is my first real step toward understanding the difference between
apprentice and master.
-KEIR MOREANO |
