Beloved Lower Haight record store Rooky Ricardo's will be showcased in an upcoming film festival as the setting for a surreal time-travel film. Called Amar, the short film will screen at Roxie Theater next week as part of CAAMFest 2016.
Cole Valley-based filmmakers Sudan Sethuramalingam and Ashley Pittson of production company Noba Arts shot the piece, which tracks an unusual encounter in a record shop between an employee and his future self. The 11-minute piece was shot at Rooky Ricardo's last September; we caught up with Sethuramalingam and Pittson recently to learn a little about the film, its shooting location, and what they're working on next.
Tell us a little bit about your inspiration to become filmmakers.
Sethuramalingam: I've always wanted to be a storyteller. As a child I was telling stories with toys to my cousins. Now, the medium is movies, as it's more accessible to people, and there are more platforms to share work with people. I've been thinking about writing short stories for a long time, but this is actually our first real movie.
Film stills: Noba Arts
What was the learning curve like?
Sethuramalingam: My cousin and I were experimenting together in 2012 on a pulpy film called Double Cross, and were questioning whether we should go to school for film, or if we should just try one thing and then learn from it. We went to a one-day course in San Francisco and decided to go through the process on our own, and learn how to do this.
Pittson: I was the producer on this film, as well as the director of photography. But he (Sudan) was the star, the director and the writer. We pretty much learned as went.
What's the origin of this story? What is the film about?
Sethuramalingam: At the time I was traveling and we had a very short time frame to turn this piece around. The story is you meeting yourself, but you're traveling in the opposite direction of time. So if you are traveling from birth to death, he's traveling from death to birth. You happen to meet, and it's a conversation between you and your future self—but each has a different perspective towards life.
How did you ask Dick Vivian (Rooky Ricardo's owner) if you could use to the space?
Pittson: We actually went in and were pretending to look for a record, and eavesdropped to see if he was a nice guy. I just walked up to him and introduced myself and said "Hi, I'm Ashley, we like your shop and want to make a film."
Sethuramalingam: He agreed almost immediately, but when I said "Awesome," he said, "If you say awesome, I'll walk you out."
Pittson: He said he'd let us shoot here, but only under the condition that we never say the word "awesome" again. We had a great chat and at the end of it I let an "awesome" out. We thought it was all over, but said he'd let that one slip.
Sethuramalingam: It worked out really well. He gave us the space to shoot for six hours after he closed for the day, and just handed us the keys. We did the whole shoot in five hours, including me shaving and changing my hair.
How has the film been received since you finished it?
Sethuramalingam: It actually got accepted to All Lights India International Film Festival. I went there and it was awesome—it was the first film we'd made and they really took care of us. I had a chauffeur, and a red carpet screening—it was amazing. I was like, "Wow, we've just made one movie!"
Pittson: CAAM was one of our top festivals we wanted to get into. I had my eye on it from the beginning—initially I didn't submit to any other festival. The film is locally-made with all-local talent, and it was really important to me to have it screen in San Francisco. I was really excited when we got in.
What's next for Noba Arts?
Sethuramalingam: We've already made another film, which is even more experimental than this one, so we're applying to festivals with that one. But our real plan is to make a full black-and-white feature made in San Francisco. We want to make this film a representation of real things that happen around the world, but present it in a small-town setting. All the actors will come from different countries and backgrounds.
We've finished writing, and we're going to start casting soon.
Amar will screen at the Roxie Theater at 10pm on March 11th, as part of CAAMFest's Selection of Shorts.
