My first exposure to movies was in Bulgaria in the mid 80s. I remember watching Chuck Norris movies in a smoky bar on the shores of the Black Sea. However, I tell my friends that my very first memory of show business was, indeed, a Madonna video I watched in the lobby of a five star hotel. The name of the hotel was Dobrudza and it was located in Albena - a beautiful resort on the Black Sea where I spent most of my summers growing up.
Ah, how often I dream of our timber vacation home on top of the hill. The smell of the sea as my dad and I descended past the fishermen’s house to collect mussels (I was always impressed how their house was built under the cliff offering protection from the rain, but also high enough to avoid the tide. How the unassuming fishermen’s house blended so seamlessly with the Natural terrain of the shore rather than attempting to alter it). And let’s not forget the golden fine sand. I can feel it burning the soles of my feet as I write this. But, I wouldn’t want my tails of fishermen and mussels to paint the wrong picture.
I am a city kid. I grew up in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. Sofia is a unique place because it is covered with parks and even a forest, which connects Downtown to the neighborhood, Elemak, where I first lived. So, even though I grew up in the city, us kids still built fires, played in the parks, and went on adventures in the forest. I imagine I was fortunate in that sense because I stayed more connected to Nature than your average city kid in the world.
Nature was in abundance in the movie ‘Excalibur,’ which I remember seeing with my dad around 1985 (It took a while for Western movies to get released in communist Bulgaria.) Then, in the late eighties, two movies came out that made me aware I was in love for the first time. It was a feeling of Mystery, the Dragon’s breath, Merlin’s magic. The flickering image on the screen was this very much alive being that graced me with its presence for two hours at a time. It loved me, it beckoned me to its domain, but I didn’t know how to love it back, how to approach it with my feelings until later in America.
The first movie was ‘Die Hard.’ I remember seeing it and then, going back to my parents asking for money to see it again and again. I didn't stop at two or even three times, but made about eight or nine trips to the movie theater within a few weeks. The second movie was ‘Willow.’ As you can imagine I saw ‘Willow’ quite a few times as well. But don’t worry, ‘Die Hard’ holds the record and I have a feeling it will continue to do so until probably when I am really old and not capable of making movies anymore. Maybe then, in the year 2050, Bruce Willis will be tested for one last time. It was after ‘Willow’ that I pretty much knew that one day I would be working in the movies.
I first heard of the filmmakers that would come to inspire and influence me when on a date with a girl I really liked. I don’t remember her name (I feel I could if I slept on it. Maybe I will remember it tonight in my dreams. Will let you know.) We went to see a Japanese Godzilla movie. She asked me if I had seen any Godard? Godard who? I was more concerned with getting a second date. But to my dismay it didn’t happen. I wonder how much Godard had to do with it… or maybe the fact that, years and an ocean later, I don’t remember her name. I hope she is somebody’s queen, happy, amused by a jester, and, I am sure, still beautiful.
Fast forward to my arrival in Seattle at the age of seventeen. I remember writing a screenplay about FBI agents and the Russian mafia at the time. I was using a Brother typewriter I purchased for myself with money from my first job in America. I eventually finished the screenplay, but lost the copy. I wish I still had it because it would be fascinating to read it now.
My first year in the Land Of Dreams consisted of 60 hour weeks cutting raw chicken in the back of a Teriyaki Restaurant. I worked with two delightful Chinese immigrants, Ping and Fang. From Fang I found out that the chicken we were cutting tasted a lot like snake meat, which Fang explained to me they eat in China. When Ping and I went to see ‘Get Shorty,’ I found out that the language of film was, indeed, Universal.
One day, while walking out of the restaurant, I saw a poster advertising acting classes and before I knew it I was in Acting School. I graduated a man two years later. Those were two of the most important years of my life as an artist. Acting school forced me to confront and eventually embrace my darkest selves. They had been hiding somewhere in the attic of our house, back home on the shores of the Black Sea. Behind cobwebs, old books, perhaps a broken bike, and dust, lots of dust. And that smell of old. Like old monopoly money.
I actually had made up my mind to quit acting school after the first year. I was dying to write and make a film. But I had the fortune of speaking to a wise elderly classmate of mine, who will never know, unless he reads this, the profound impact his advice had on my life. Eric said to me, “You have nine months left of acting school. You quit now you will always look back wondering what you missed.” He went on to say, “Think about it, Bogdan, what is really nine months in a lifetime?” So, Thank You Eric! The last year of acting school proved to be most instrumental in me finding my way around the attic.
Of course, in the meantime, I finally watched some Godard along with Tarkovsky, Fellini, Antonioni, Bergman, Lean, Wells and the list goes on and on. I was lucky to live a few blocks away from Scarecrow Video, which had almost every director that ever lived and breathed film. I still love going there and getting lost in the directors’ section.
I spent 1998 acting and assistant directing for the stage. Then, I enrolled in University Of Washington’s Film And Video Program. It was a one-year night program where I learned the basics of film. I made my first short film right after school - the necessary spanking that prepared me for the making of ‘the Angel.’ It was during my first short film that I realized how much of a collaborative effort filmmaking is.
I never stopped writing. Just before we made ‘the Angel’ I finished my second screenplay titled, ‘Save Our Souls.’ It was a nostalgic piece partially based on my life in Bulgaria as well as that of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and in general the people of all nations ruled by communism. Looking back on it I feel that writing ‘Save Our Souls’ was very much therapeutic as I missed home and was still struggling with life abroad.
I will not go into detail about the making of ‘the Angel.’ You can read more about it on my website. I will say this - it was a great experience that I will always look back on fondly. I would do it all over again. Even though I paid for it all on credit cards. I have cut up all five of them since then, but unfortunately am still a captive inside their heavily fortified plastic prison.
I hope one day to do a director’s commentary and share my experience with young independent directors because ‘the Angel’ proved to be rich with lessons. It has also become a calling card, a sort of a bullet point on my film resume if you will.
Okay, it’s 2003. I am drinking Starbucks on their patio overlooking Green Lake. It’s early summer. I am talking on the phone to my mom, who is still in Bulgaria at the time. I am telling her how I want to write something funny. Something with action. Something like… ‘Run Lola Run.’ Something light.
A month later I am on the phone again pitching to my mom a scene for AVA. Actually, the scene that started it all is in the final draft and is the one people most often talk about after reading AVA. Sorry, but I will not tell you what scene it is. I will let you guess.
While I was writing AVA I took a job as a restaurant manager for Red Robin. I remember talking to my friend Dave and expressing concern over how time consuming managing would be. And it was. While in acting school I started to find my way around the attic, I still needed to learn how to get out of it. There was lots of clutter in the way. During my two years of managing I learned how to push through, how to discard the unnecessary, but most importantly how to lead myself out of self-doubt. I often tell people that managing for a great company like Red Robin was like getting a free business degree. I always knew my destination was film and looked at everything along the way as preparation for my career.
There was only one thing missing - unity. My mind and body were not in harmony with my Bliss. My passion. My destiny. I realized that like Ichiro, of the Seattle Mariners, must practice his baseball swing every day I must breathe and live my dream.
So, I quit my day job and here I am, making AVA and collaborating with a truly gifted composer in Devin Anderson and a very passionate producer in Justin O’Neill. With a little luck and lots of hard work we should be able to bring AVA to a Theater Near You!
