Cookies Director's Statement

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“I wrote Cookies & Cream while held up in an extended stay hotel in the middle of nowhere. I was frustrated. Frustrated that the film I had (and still have) in development was taking so long to finish funding. I remember being on such a roll when we attached names to the project, and especially after the first funds came in. But as inevitable as this is in the “up and coming” corner of the film business, things just began to slow down. And I got frustrated. I wanted to say something – ‘in the meantime.’

My lead actress and frequent muse, Jace Nicole and I, begin to discuss this character we had in our heads. While she worked her day job waiting tables and bartending in Hoboken, NJ, I would drop by and we would jot down notes about this Carmen character in between breaks. When I felt I knew who this woman was, we separated; I took a portion of my writer’s fee from the other feature in development, and disappeared to a non-disclosed location. No phone, no Internet, no friends. 6 sleepless nights and days later, I returned home with the script, and an unbreakable determination to shoot this one right away. Fully funded or not.

For those considering making of your own first feature without healthy financing in place, I advise you to immediately reconsider. That is, unless you are prepared to look at yourself in the mirror. Unless you are prepared to take ‘the blue pill’ and see things for what they really are. Unless you are prepared to loose some dear, long-time friends, and get rejected by businesses that will not sponsor you free meals, or a free location, then don’t do it. Unless you are prepared for your ego to be left dangling like the 5-dollar china ball light bulb that serves as your primary lighting source due to constantly threatening time restraints, then again, don’t do it. Unless by chance you are prepared for these things, and you are prepared to really see once and for all who your real friends are, who on your team really believes in you, and if, in fact, you are ready to really learn how to direct, if you are ready to see what you have learned or not learned in all the years you have studied filmmaking, if and when all the glitz is stripped away and all you have is your story, your script, and your actors, and ultimately you get a chance to see what you are really made of as a filmmaker and a human being, and you are prepared to go broke doing it, then, and only then, do I recommend this kind of undertaking. Luckily for me, I had come to a point in my life, and my career, that I was ready for all of the above. I felt brave enough to take a look.

The only thing that I am 100% sure about is that this character Carmen has that kind of determination, and that this film on one level is about those sorts of sacrifices. She is a single mother with limited career options, trying to survive in a business that takes as much patience as it does talent. This film is, on one level, about the affect that her career choice has on all of her relationships. But that’s all I am certain about. Or at least that’s all that I choose to be certain about. Andrew Bujalski says that he is always careful to not be too explicit to himself about what the central theme is. He says he always wants to retain some mystery in the work even for himself. I can see where he is coming from now that I have just completed my first feature film. But what is not a mystery, at least for me, is the sense of personal accomplishment and pride I feel for my close and talented team of collaborators, as well as for myself, for having completed this also very personal statement - whatever that statement may ultimately be; and that the accomplishment itself, feels just as important as the final product.”

- Princeton

Official Cookies & Cream website.