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EYE OF THE DOLPHIN, a MovieBank and Quantum Entertainment ProductionINTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL D. SELLERS/WRITER-DIRECTORQ: This film takes place in a particular setting and besides its more universal themes of coming of age, has a focus on dolphins. What motivated you to make this your next film and to give it this subject matter?A: On many levels the movie is about communication, and being open to the possibilities that are out there. Hawk says “it’s our failure of imagination” that keeps us from being able to recognize the intelligence and beauty of the dolphins, and in a very real way it is our failure of imagination as parents and children that keeps us divided. How easy it is to erect walls and hide behind them. Isn’t that what parents and teenagers do? Yet if we make that leap of imagination, we can understand each other, and discover that we’re not so different. I think it was that idea of the challenge of being open to possibilities – of humans being open to the possibility that dolphins are intelligent and it’s corollary – parents being open to the possibility that teenage children are intelligent — that intrigued me.Q: You are the father of a daughter who is roughly Alyssa’s age. Did that influence you as a filmmaker in your choice of protagonist and the relationship she develops with her father?A: Well, to be truthful – I think the movie was part of a process whereby I was trying to understand, and ultimately make peace with, one of my teenage daughters – I won’t say which one. (I have three…she knows who she is.) I was an absentee father like Hawk, chasing a self-consuming dream, and I missed a lot of her life. She resented it. When I first worked on the story, it was more from Hawk’s point of view—then as I got deeper into it, it was more from the daughter’s point of view. If it sounds like therapy – well, it was. Has it healed us? I like to think it has helped. But I can never get back those years I missed. And I’m not sure she will ever forgive me for it. But I guess if you’re asking …was it personal? Yep. Very.Q: You worked together with screenwriter Wendell Morris to revise the script. Could you talk about that evolution a bit?A: I’ve made a kind of inverse progression from producer to director to writer so I have no problem recognizing and understanding the value of bringing in writing support to help refine a screenplay that is Read the rest of this entry »
