INTERVIEW: ‘White Eye’ vies for an Oscar Sunday night
Photo: White Eye, written and directed by Tomer Shushan, stars Dawit Tekelaeb and Daniel Gad. Photo courtesy of filmmaker / Provided by London Flair PR with permission.
There are many interesting competitions at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Insiders are wondering who might bring home the top acting honors, while there’s debate on where the screenplay awards might end up. Most critics agree that Nomadland has a clear pathway to Best Picture and Best Director for Chloé Zhao.
There’s also some interesting contests in the other categories, the ones that fill the first couple hours of the telecast. For example, this year, Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman are competing in the Best Live Action Short Film category for their movie White Eye, starring Daniel Gad and Dawit Tekelaeb.
The Israeli film, running a quick 20 minutes, involves two men, a stolen bicycle and the struggle to stay human, according to press notes. Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Shushan, the writer and director of White Eye. He previously made a short film in 2014 called A Sight. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired you to tell this story?
This story is based on a real-life experience. About three years ago I found myself accusing another man for stealing my bike. After discovering that he is not the real thief, it was almost too late. This man was an Eritrean refugee, and I remember seeing the fear in his eyes when the police came. To know that I made him feel like that broke me to pieces. The same day I wrote the script, hoping to get to more eyes all over the world and maybe it will change something … for sure it changed me.
Was there ever a thought of making it into a feature-length?
These days I am starting to develop it into a feature-length. I want to deal with the same topic and use the characters of two men, the same age, when one is privileged. This time I will try to make them meet again. And to show what happens when compassion wins.
What are the difficulties of making a short film?
Shooting one shot in one night is definitely the most challenging part. In order to make the one shot work in one night, we had to do a lot of rehearsals. Each department knew exactly what to do and when. We became a very accurate machine that worked together.
The fact that you can’t see materials and accordingly prepare for the next shooting day is something that you give up when you choose to do [a] one-shot film in one night.
The good side is that at one take, the whole team is experiencing the film from the beginning to the end, and you actually watch the movie live so you can see at one take what works and what doesn’t. While we were filming, I still changed the script and took out parts of it because I saw that they were slowing down the rhythm.
How did you find out about the Oscar nomination?
I was at home watching the announcement on my laptop. It was unbelievable. White Eye was the last one to be announced and to see your name as an Oscar [nominee] was definitely the most incredible thing that ever happened to me.
When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
When I was 4 or 5 years old I used to visit my grandparents every Saturday night. Every time at some point my grandpa was starting to tell a story, and all the neighbors and friends used to join and listen. Even though I couldn’t really understand the story, I remember myself amazed by how he can touch people and make them feel. Since then I knew that I want to touch people’s hearts by telling stories. After becoming a film freak in my adult’s life, I felt that I want to tell my stories by making films. There is nothing more magical than to create story with visuals and sounds, and screen it in a dark room on big screen to strangers.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
White Eye, written and directed by Tomer Shushan, is competing for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2021 Academy Awards. Click here for more information.
