Chris Eska MFA '03: At Home in the World

For writer-director Chris Eska MFA '03, a passionate interest in exploring the world and the drive to make movies have always been closely intertwined. At 32, he has already made a film in Japanese (in Tokyo) and another in Spanish; the well-reviewed “August Evening,” which opens across the country this month. One of his long-cherished future projects will be set in southern India.

“I find it very liberating to work in different languages,” Eska explains. “I don't get hung up on the diction so I can give my full attention to what filmmaking does best: expressing emotion through editing, music, montage, body language or a subtle glance.”

Although he was born and raised in one of America's smallest towns (Ottine, Texas, pop. 98), Eska was swept along on several globe-trotting family vacations as a kid. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s he spent almost as much time backpacking across China, India, and Japan, as he did at UCLA studying the craft of cinema.

The experience was so formative that when it came time to make his thesis film, Eska returned to Japan to shoot “Doki Doki,” “because there was so much more energy on the streets and subways of Tokyo. I wanted to deal with something I had felt moving from a small town to a huge city like Los Angeles; a certain kind of modern urban alienation. It felt like a good discipline to get away from the specifics of my own experience by portraying characters who didn't sound like me on paper, but who were going through the exact same emotions.”

The film was accepted for screening on the PBS series “Independent Lens” in 2004, where it was introduced by Susan Sarandon.

Even when Eska returned to his home state of Texas in 2005, to make a film about the stress and strain of family life based partly on his own experience, he intentionally distanced the action somewhat by setting it within a Latino community, and by shooting it mostly in Spanish. “August Evening” first attracted attention when it played the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. Critics savored its patient drama about an undocumented Texas farm worker who encourages his widowed daughter-in-law to move on with her life. For the “LA Weekly’s” Scott Foundas, “the powerful, lived-in performances and Eska’s keen understanding of the reciprocal disappointments between parents and children make for a deeply absorbing viewing experience.”

Eska auditioned more than 1000 people for the movie's major roles, but admits he approached his ultimate choice for the lead, Pedro Casteneda, on the street, "partly just because he had a really cool pair of boots. But he also had a great look, and in talking to him I discovered that he was sensitive and intelligent and patient — exactly the kind of person you would want to be around during long hours of filmmaking in 110 degree Texas heat."

Eska has been credited in early reviews with unusual skill at drawing relaxed, moving performances from a mostly non-professional cast. But he insists there is no great mystery to the process.

"A lot of things have been written that romanticize the relationship between directors and actors. My approach with non-professionals is very practical. In the physical aspects of a film in particular I have a specific vision. The action is completely scripted and I tell the performers exactly what I want to see. 'Say the first half of this line and then turn slightly to the left and say the second half.' What I've found is that it really helps non-professional actors to know exactly what is expected of them and to have it memorized. That creates a basic sense of security. Then they can relax and often without my even saying anything they begin to draw on their own experience to give it true emotions. It's a very exciting thing to watch."

Shortly after its first public screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June, “August Evening” was selected as the inaugural release of a new distribution company, Maya Films, launched by UCLA alumnus, noted producer (“Selena”) and School Executive Board member Moctesuma Esparza '71, MFA '73. The film went on to win the LAFF's top prize, the $50,000 Target Filmmaker Award, and at Film Independent's Spirit Awards a few months later it won the Cassavetes Prize, given annually to a film made for less than $500,000.

“The story of ‘August Evening’ may look very American,” Eska says, “but I think of it, again, as a way to talk about universal human experience. And the stylistic influences I felt making it were mostly Asian, especially Japanese and Indian films of the 1950s by Yasujiro Ozu and Satyajit Ray.”

Although he doesn't quite endorse the idea, Eska acknowledges that some critics have roped him into a mini-movement of young American directors who seem perfectly comfortable making movies about foreign cultures. Eska cites as an example documentary director Chris Smith (“American Movie”), whose first dramatic feature, “The Pool,” was shot in India, in Hindi and English.

Instinctive global outlook notwithstanding, Eska admits he relished the experience of creating “a makeshift commune" when he assembled his crew to make “August Evening.” “It's a little strange that you have to do something as extreme as making a movie now to get that sense of community, just because the lives we lead are so scattered."

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