RopeofSilicon Sits Down With Vadim Perelman to Talk 'House of Sand and Fog' and More…

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Sunday, December 14th 2003 at 8:30 PM

I got a chance with
a few other colleagues to sit down with Vadim
Perelman and ask
him a few questions about his directorial debut, House
of Sand and Fog, an acclaimed novel by Andre Dubus III,
due out nationwide on December 26th. The film stars Jennifer
Connelly and Sir
Ben Kingsley as Kathy Nicolo and Massoud Amir Behrani.

Having been shaped
by his own immigrant experience Vadim was drawn to House
of Sand and Fog immediately after picking it up in a Rome airport. His
life carried him from his birth in Kiev to Vienna, Rome, school
in Canada and finally to Los Angeles where he began directing commercials
and music videos. His work has spanned from Microsoft, Nike, AT&T
and more. He now has his chance at his first feature film as well
as his first screenplay.

Dressed in jeans
and a black leather jacket Perelman was as open as you would like
and willing to talk about anything. We delved into his past, the film, the DVD and the future and what he had to say was intriguing at every turn, but before we got into it we asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"You know it's
interesting because I don't have specific questions, but
once in a while we just start talking about the film and the things
in the film that I did, which I think are much more important than
how I got to do this."

Well, even with that
in mind, it had to be asked of him to describe how he went from
being a music video/commercial director to deciding to direct a
feature film.

"I always wanted
to do films, but I found myself in music videos and commercials
almost by accident. Coming out of film school I decided to do these
cheap music videos, it was my way to survive, to get into film.
In Canada it is so hard, there is very little free enterprise going
on over there. It's all government grants and you have to
show some sort of social conscience to get these grants and I hate
starting any project with a message.

"I was despairing
doing it, it was kind of this gilded cage I was in and I hated
the fact that I couldn't do what I really wanted to do which
was to make movies."

Someone asked, "So
how do you walk into something like this without ever written a
screenplay before."

He answered simply, "I
had nothing to lose. I didn't know any better."

"Had you done
any writing in school?"

He smiled, "Nope,
none. I was terrified of writing. I was terrified even after I
optioned the book, which is why I hired that Shawn Otto guy to
write a draft."

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