Few films are able to capture the emotional realism of childhood. It’s a strange time that rarely fits into the normal structure of a movie, but Hide Your Smiling Faces is able to do something very special. When a death of a peer occurs in a small town, the kids are filled with an overflow of emotions they don’t understand. This movie is able to capture a very sympathetic and confusing time with an amazing amount of authority.
We are thrilled to be able to talk with writer/director Daniel Patrick Carbone about working with such young actors, using improvisation, and what first feature films have inspired him.
Heartland Film Festival: When a film doesn’t have a traditional narrative, audiences tend to examine each character moment with a greater level of detail. What was it like working with your child actors to establish these nuances? Did you learn from them about responding to violence?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: This was always the intent with this film, from the very first draft of the script, which was written as a series of vignettes, loosely based on my own memories of childhood. I wanted the film to have a collage-like, patchwork structure where how characters get from point A to point B is less important than how one formative moment for a young person influences the ones around it.
Working with Ryan and Nate was an absolutely pleasure, and I feel confident saying that I learned more from them than they did from me. I wanted to cast boys that wouldn’t need to “act” in the traditional sense, but would be willing to be themselves on screen, and use moments from their own past to influence their performances. Ryan and Nate are two of the most honest and open collaborators I’ve worked with and they elevated every single scene in the script by bringing an extra layer of authenticity and vulnerability to these characters. It was important for me to explore violence as not only a fascination for boys, but also as a means of communication. Many of the boys in the film had never seen a gun up close and capturing that innate fear and trepidation was very interesting. They were given complete freedom to respond to these scenes as they would in real life.
Heartland Film Festival: Even though there is a death at the beginning of the film, you shy away from any sort of attempt to solve the mystery. Was that always your plan when you were developing this story?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: I was always more interested in exploring the aftermath of the death, and its emotional and psychological effect on the people close to it, than the actual specific details of the accident, including the exact cause of it. To me, knowing exactly why something so tragic occurred doesn’t help make the loss any easier to process. I wanted the audience to be with Tommy and Eric from the very start, and to never leave their side. We process the events of the film right along side them, and share in the mystery and confusion of the grieving process.
Heartland Film Festival: What does the screenplay for this movie look like? Was it more of an outline or from the beginning did you have a firm idea of what you wanted?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: There was a full, 75-page screenplay for the film that I wrote, but it was always more of a document for myself and the crew to use as a guide. It was important to remain open to events that would unfold organically on set. Once I had the crew and the actors out in real world locations, the story had a way of taking on a life of it’s own. I chose to embrace that and I think it added a level of realism to the film. I knew what the basic arc and structure would be, but many of my favorite moments and scenes in the film were not planned ahead of time. I also knew that real kids would be able to speak the lines more realistically and interestingly than I could write them, so aside from a few scattered lines here and there, improvisation was highly encouraged.
Heartland Film Festival: This was your first credited feature film that you wrote and directed. What did you learn the most while making this movie?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: Making this film was without a doubt the biggest learning experience of my life. At first, I thought of this film as less of a feature film to put out into the world, and more as an exercise to test myself. I wanted to know if I was even capable of making a feature film, and telling an engaging story for that amount of time. It was a labor of love for me and all of my collaborators, and I never could have imagined the amount of support and exposure that the film would go on to have. I think the biggest thing I learned when making this film was that if you believe in your story, and feel a personal connection to what you are putting on screen, so will many of the people in your audience. More than budget, more than known actors, more than what format you shoot on, audiences are looking for interesting, passionate, and personal stories to relate to and discuss.
Heartland Film Festival: Are you working on a next project?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: I’m in the process of writing a few narrative feature scripts, but the next film that I will complete is a documentary called Phantom Cowboys that explores male adolescence in three very small industry towns in America. I hope to complete this film some time in the middle of next year.
Heartland Film Festival: What are the moving films that have inspired you as a filmmaker?
Daniel Patrick Carbone: A good number of my favorite films happen to also be great director’s first features, and many of them are realistic portrayals of young people. Films like Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, David Gordon Green’s George Washington, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood are some of the most moving films I’ve seen and were hugely impactful on me as a filmmaker.
You can buy tickets for Hide Your Smiling Faces for the following screenings…
- Friday, October 18 at 1 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14**
- Friday, October 18 at 6 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14**
- Sunday, October 20 at 7:45 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14**
- Monday, October 21 at 7:45 p.m. at AMC Traders Point 12
- Tuesday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. at AMC Traders Point 12
- Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. at AMC Traders Point 12
- Thursday, October 24 at 4:15 p.m. at AMC Castleton Square 14
- Saturday, October 26 at 8 p.m. at Wheeler Arts Community
**Producer Jordan Bailey-Hoover is scheduled to attend these screenings.
