Shortness of Breath

"I can remember the exact moment the idea first hit me. I was sitting in a lecture by Charles Warren where we had been discussing Godard's early films. Although I was already familiar with his work, I had a sudden minor revelation about character and how we all construct our own personalities. I frantically, and in the dark, scribbled down a note to myself knowing that, sooner or later, this revelation would come in handy. That scribbled note later became the idea for "Shortness of Breath". Originally, the film was about two people who are obsessed with the film Breathless. But many notes later, I was able to develop the idea a bit more.

While still battling the script, I watched Tsai Ming-Liang's "What Time is it There?" In that film, there is a scene where Lee Kang-Sheng watches Jean Pierre Léaud in "The 400 Blows". It then occurred to me that film history has a time and a chronology all its own. Films can connect to each other over several years, but still exist in the same place at the same time. From there, I tried to construct a film that would be true to this--a film that is new and has its own sensibilities, but is still tied to those films that came before it and pays tribute to them. I think this is the challenge for all filmmakers--to make films that understand their sources without being pastiche or derivative. I hope to accomplish this with Shortness of Breath.

I should also add that the film is an exploration of many of my obsessions and interests that have developed over the years, from my early fascination with film noir, to my later interest in levels of reality and the nature of "play" in relationships. The film is the study of two lovers, Michael and Patricia, Francophiles who want more from life than what is advertised to them daily. They want excitement and adventure and so construct an elaborate play-world for themselves. Their challenge is to see how far they can carry their construct before the "real world" closes in on them.

MFA Film Production - Boston University
BA Film Studies and Production - University of California Santa Cruz

Since 1997, Zak has written and directed eight short films, including his most recent, Distance = Rate(Time), which screened at the Black Point Film Festival and the F4 Film Festival in April, 2003. An accomplished Writer/Director, Zak is also a talented Director of Photography. In addition to shooting his own films, he recently acted as 2nd Director of Photography on the feature film, Billy Todd's War. Currently, Zak serves as a board member for Central Productions, Inc., a film arts and production company based in Cambridge, MA. He also heads the committee for
Boston Cinema Census, a local film festival.
Shortness of Breath marks Zak's first feature film as a director.