Distancia

This short, by Santa Ynez Valley native T.S. Meeks and featuring Bolivian actor Javier Suarez’s very interesting face, is a study of loneliness in a big city.

See vimeo.com/tsmeeks.

Where did you find the protagonist?

I met Javier at a friend’s dinner party. My friend came up to me and said, “Hey if you ever need someone with an interesting face, my friend Javier is here from Bolivia.” I thought to myself, “An interesting face? What is he talking about? And why would I ever create something with that in mind?”

But sure enough about 30 minutes later I find myself talking to this man with an interesting face. We chatted for a while about life and his pursuit of acting here in the United States. He moved here for four months to pursue his dream of being an actor. He had no idea what that might look like or what opportunities would come — all he knew was that he had to risk everything and give it a shot.

As he shared with me, I found myself moved by his passion for life and his humility. That night leaving the party I felt compelled to write something with him as the lead. My friend was right about needing to meet Javier, but it had very little to do with his interesting face and much more to do with his soul.

What prompted you to tell this man’s story of loneliness?

I think loneliness is something that we all have to deal with in our lives, I don’t think there is any escaping it. We can all relate to the feeling of being disconnected or cut off.

In the film, the main character feels both distance from God and from people. He is searching for the longing to be connected to both man and a higher power. I guess what prompted me was the idea of loneliness as something that makes us uniquely human and that we have the opportunity to reach out to those who are alone. 

Los Angeles is very much a character in the film. Was that intentional?

Yes. I meet and see a lot of people in Los Angeles who are similar to the lead character, working and existing, and very rarely do we get to see their stories. 

What other projects are you working on?

I am in the second draft of a feature that we plan to shoot this next year. We are currently looking for investors. I am really excited to move into a longer form, giving me the freedom to visually explore the human condition more in-depth.