Jacob and Curtis met in 2000, when Jacob was an undergrad in Film Production at NYU. They had been good friends for a year when Jacob suggested they collaborate on a documentary. Curtis enthusiastically agreed, and the result is an illuminating portrait of an artist as he faces a devastating illness with courage, humor and the transcendent inspiration of his work.
Konrad interviewed Jacob the night before his 6am flight to Sundance 2004, where Curtis premiered and received Honorable Mention.
AAF: So all the time you knew Curtis, did you see a story with his illness, with whatever was going on with him, developing?
JAO: Yes I did. Curtis – what struck me most initially when I met Curtis, he was African American, black, and he was obsessed with Western art from the Renaissance, Medieval art, and just Europe in general. And in fact he had gone there as a kid, as a teenager, alone, and lived there basically for most of his adult life and traveled Europe, learned several languages, studied dance, art history, etcetera. Whereas his brothers, all his brothers were jazz musicians or were involved somehow in black or African American culture or even African culture and religion. And that dichotomy in his family interested me initially. So I wanted to do a portrait of the entire family.
But I decided to focus it after a while. Because he was most compelling person, and what interested me at first was, in the end, not so interesting. You know – so what, he’s black and he’s interested in this and that? – I’m this and I’m interested in other things as well. So I kind of learned a lesson just in my own thought process about, I guess, one’s own ignorance. (laughs)
So as I got to know him more the story became more about his dealing with AIDS. And the fact that he was at Rivington House, which was a health care facility for AIDS patients, which was very good for him at the time but still not his home. He lived in a very large town house that his family owned for over 60 years, and there’s no place like home, so he wanted to go back. So that became the narrative, that became the story – will Curtis go home, will he paint again?. And during the journey he went blind and his health deteriorated, so it was always a question as to whether or not he would make it, and obviously it was very difficult.
AAF: What do you feel was the most important thing you learned making your first documentary?
JAO: If possible, get to know your subject very well. If it’s a person, be their friend. Don’t think of the film – certainly think of the film, but you have to be selfless at first, particularly in the beginning, and just get to know them and they will give you their trust and later on they will give you their best work because you’ve put in the time and you’ve become their friend. And the other reason – if you’re not close to somebody making a film then you’re not gonna know what their boundaries are and where you’re taking your film too far. Whereas if you’re closer to them it’s more intuitive.
That leads to the other big thing I learned, actually the biggest, is – you’re always wrong when you’re making your documentary – you think you’re right and then you’re wrong, and what’s right is what the person is going through. They’re telling you – maybe not verbally – that they’re going through something. They’re going through some internal drama and it’s usually coming out physically in some way in their expression or in what they’re doing and it’s your job to pick it up, to know them so well that you know what their subtleties are.
AAF:Sundance, was it a primary goal? How did submitting to Sundance affect the editing?
JAO: We had 50 hours of footage, enough good footage to make about a 60 minute film or movie. But I took the advice of another editor, Jean Chen – it’s better to make a really great short film than an okay longer one. I just thought about it and I told my ego, “no, don’t have a big ego, make it a short.” And also as a first-time filmmaker, who am I in the film world? I’ll have a much better chance of getting accepted in the short category as opposed to a feature category. You know, let’s be realistic. And I’m glad we did it because it’s really tight – we can justify every scene because we were merciless with our own stuff. I feel like we packed the last 3 years of someone’s life into 35 minutes, so I’m happy with that. And Curtis was happy with that, which was the most important thing. It was really important for him to see the movie finished before he passed away. And we literally finished it the day he died. We got the tape back, the online was done and he died that same day.
AAF: He saw it?
JAO: He saw it on my computer before the online and he really loved it. He was really happy with what he had to say, and he told me he had a couple of weeks to live and he was so relieved that the film was finished so that he could just die easier knowing that.
AAF: Now that you’ve had a chance to process knowing Curtis, what have you realized about your own personal journey with him?
JAO: Curtis was my teacher – aside from the film Curtis was my teacher and mentor – everything he ever learned he threw at me. He told me everything he could possibly know about art history, about traveling, about life. I was lucky enough to know him and be willing to listen to him; I learned just a tremendous deal. I also learned about dying. When you’re young you just don’t think about it. Watching him die was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but I did it because I loved him and he was a great friend. It’s kind of weird to say it, but it was almost a pleasure because it was him.
For more information about Jacob Akira Okada, visit www.firstencounterfilms.com or email him at jacobokada@aol.com
Konrad Aderer is a filmmaker living in New York City. He is directing/producing the documentary project "Life or Liberty", on the shared history of Muslims and Asian Americans who have been targeted as “enemy aliens.” He is currently president of the Asian American Filmmakers Collaborative.
