Tribeca ‘09 Interview: “Vegas: Based on a True Story” Director Amir Naderi

Intensity, location, experience. The location is crucial and I always base my films on experience, that is, the director, the actors and the crew must live in and feel the environment. I spent 3 months alone scouting, absorbing the outlying towns, the desert, the bars and stories, the light and air, to get a more intimate sense of the place. With the crew, we lived in a trailer out in Pahrump, outside Las Vegas, for 6 months, cut off from the world. In the wind and the dust, we experienced the same landscape of obsession as the family in the film, with the same intensity. At the end, we just couldn’t stand each other. And that’s when I knew things had worked out.
This is what I tell everyone when I start a film: It’s like a train at a station waiting for passengers. I look for cast and crew who are willing to risk, who want to achieve something, who want to make something of themselves and prove themselves. I tell them, if you board this train, you will pay for it, you might have to travel through hell with the film, and if you lose your patience or your commitment, I can’t stop the train for you, because it’s beyond me, the train will take its course to the very end of this experience. If you want to get off, you’ll have to jump off. But I can promise that one day, we’ll pull into a station, you’ll get off the train richer (in experience, of course) and we’ll have a film out in the world together. Those who come on board might hate me through the jounrey, but we inevitably become best friends afterwards, as a result of it.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

As usual, funding was the biggest challenge. We put the money together in bits and pieces, like a puzzle, sometimes on a daily basis. On how we raised the money and from whom, there are lots of stories, some involving Vegas gamblers…

The environment was tough too—6 months in the desert is never easy.
How do you define success as a filmmaker, and what are your personal goals as a filmmaker?

I adhere to certain principles and the principles define success for me. Film is an artistic medium with its own capabilities, so a good film should present us with something that cannot be done in any other medium. Also, a film must have an original and a gutsy core - aesthetically, narratively, or in the method of its making. Courage and risk are crucial, and if I feel that I have managed to combine experience, experiment and a narrative, then I can say I have achieved some measure of success. That’s what I’m looking for.
What are your future projects?

As always, the future depends on the funds. After the experience of this film, I’m ready to make the film I’ve been wanting to make for years: a movie about the moon. Why not? Cut.