Zeshawn Ali

When asked to define Indie films, Zeshawn Ali replies “I would say Indie film is like ‘Do-it yourself’ film making, it’s not so much about a style as it is more about the amount of resources you have…the type of movie you make is determined by your budget.” He pauses and says “It’s all about the new film makers.”

Ali can relate. The twenty year old Ohio native has made his way to the big city to follow his dreams in becoming a filmmaker. He currently attends Tisch School of the Arts in NYU.

Ali shooting for his newest film

Through his education at Tisch, Zeshawn says that they really emphasize a lot on helping the student make a film that you can continue to pursue outside of college. They call it “The Fifth Year Film.” “It helps prepare you for the real world” Zeshawn adds. This may just be true, considering Tisch has gotten a lot of attention lately from its most recent graduates, Luke Mattenu, having won an Oscar for his short film “God of Love.”

Ali claims that the students who are born and raised in New York City obviously have an advantage in showing these unknown and amazing locations in their films. Those who are not from the city focus more on being experimental and adding a “weird style” to their films. “At Tisch, there seem to be two types of filmmaking, there are those who are from the city and those who are not and it is so easy to distinguish between the two.”

That logic also seems to apply to even the most prestigious film festivals. Ali worked for the Tribeca Film Festival for six months, helping prepare for its opening in the spring of 2010. “They separate the films into the Hollywood alternative films versus the outreach films.” Hollywood alternative films are with first time directors who have big Hollywood figures star in their films. The outreach films are the low budget, indie films that make their way to this showing for a chance to be spotted by a big time director or producer to endorse their future projects.”I personally prefer the Hollywood films, only because its cool to see these big time actors, who probably aren’t getting paid much, help participate and work with a first time director.”

“We did a lot of research on films, I was part of the development department and did alot of market research  like collect exit polls, which are surveys viewers take after seeing the movie and use them as part of the research.”  Zeshawn also explained that when picking which films to place in the festivals, the department purposefully picks those that are different from previous award winners. “They’re really into foreign films this year” Zeshawn adds.

Though all films entered into the Tribeca Film Festival are from New York City, its filmmakers nationalities range from all over the world. Ali says that Brazil is the newest spark of interest for the festival and that most of its contestants have made films there.  “It adds a lot more diversity to the mix and therefore continues to make the film choices different from years prior.”

Zeshawn is most excited for his upcoming internship with Magnolia Pictures. The newest film that they have released is All Good Things, starring Kristen Dunst and Ryan Renolds. The film is inspired by a missing person’s case set in New York City in 1982. Robert Durst was suspected but never put on trial for killing his wife Kathie who mysteriously disappeared and was never found.  The film is also produced and directed by Andrew Jarecki, who was the director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Capturing the Friedmans and producer of Catfish.

“I make movies about things I know and the things that people in my movie know” Zeshawn has made about 12-15 films within the past two years at Tisch, all incorporating what he calls real life elements. “I only use people I know in my films and I make sure to use what those people know as a main aspect of my film.  One of my friends was really into graffiti and I took his knowledge and love for the subject and incorporated it into my film. It makes it real.” You can check out Zeshawns work here.