Conversations with Alex Langsam

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Langsam.

Hi Alex, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My interest in film began as a kid, as it probably does with lots of people. My friends and I would make mini-movies (and sometimes tortuously long movies) on those early 2000s-style camcorders. We’d copy what we were watching at the time — movies, TV shows, internet stuff — and reenact it, copying its style. A watershed moment was watching the behind-the-scenes for the Jurassic Park movies (me and my friends were obsessed with the series) and realizing there was this whole operation behind making movies. Imagine learning, as a kid in the suburbs of Melbourne, that people in America are paid to make a Tyrannosaurus appear out of thin air. You can’t beat that. It’s like a magic trick. It really is like casting illusions, showing people the impossible right to their faces and saying, “See, we did it… Now do you believe us?”

I kept up the practice, making stuff all through school and university. Particularly at university, I met people with vastly different tastes and knowledge, coming from all different places. That widened my scope, taught me things… probably made me a whole lot humbler. I learned so much about “cinema” and the ideas and concepts that could be folded into it… how everyone was bringing whole worlds to their art. That was very inspirational.

After making my first professional short film, “P-Graphica”, with some of my closest friends & collaborators, I moved to LA to study at UCLA. Making a film with more scope than my earlier work showed me just how much I still had to learn, and I figured there was no better place than LA. Now I’ve been studying in LA for about 2 years… helping out on as many projects as I can while working towards my own.

Coming to LA was one of the better decisions I’ve made… I’ve learned an incredible amount in such a short time. I directed my first music video (“Gönlüme Göre Ver” for Turkish artist Ayça Tilki), and it actually had some pretty good success. Now I have two short films; one (“Maralinga”) is about to head into production, and I’m excited to use all this new stuff I’ve learned to make it the best it can be.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road… but that’s always the fun of life, right? It’s cliche to say, but you really can’t have good without bad, happiness without sadness… the two define each other. If you can remember that perspective during hard times, then you can survive them; that’s the best I’ve learned. As one of my friends always says to me: “Roll with the punches mate… roll with the punches”. If you’re not rolling, you’re just getting punched.

Leaving my family was tough. I have younger siblings who are starting to get older. Knowing that they’re growing up and I won’t see them as they become the adults they want to be… knowing that they’re going through hardship and will just have to survive throughout and I won’t be easily there… that’s tough. My Dad’s older too. It’s hard not being there for my family.

Money is always a problem. But I’ve worked the 9-to-5 thing before, and it killed all my creativity… the one thing that really brought me life. It made me miserable. If I can avoid that feeling, I know I’m golden. I’d rather be broke than miserable… that’s an easy choice for me. I know that because I’ve lived both sides, and I know when I feel like myself. That being said, it can get tough, but I’ve been lucky. I’m very fortunate to have support from friends and family, to have some savings from my last job. I feel bad for people who don’t have that stuff… because then you’re very vulnerable, and the choice isn’t between being an artist or an office worker… It’s between life and death. So, that perspective is always helpful. It keeps me grounded.

Just to lighten things up, because struggles aren’t always so dark, I had a weird issue come up on one of my recent projects, the music video “Gönlüme Göre Ver” for Ayça Tilki. We made it super stylized, very Tarantino-inspired. She was visiting LA, and we thought it’d be great to make an overtly “Hollywood” music video. We thought it’d be fun, half parody, half sincere, with a fun twist at the end.

Anyway, the video released and suddenly, we’re getting all this flack from conservatives in Turkey, objecting to the violence in the clip. I’m thinking to myself, it’s not even that violent, y’know? Turn on the news; you’ll see violence. People killing each other, soldiers doing horrific things. Read the newspaper, scroll through social media… It’s right there for you. Way more shocking than anything in our three-minute music clip. And you check some of these comments, and it’s just people piling on Ayça, writing incredibly rude, sexist stuff. These critics they just picked on it because they could. I wish I could tell them, go yell at the real-life murderers and killers… not a teenage girl singing music for you. Do the world a favor if you’re so righteous. Help out in real life. Don’t tear down someone who’s doing something.

Lesson learned: If you’re public, be careful. The only advice I can think of for this garbage… “roll with the punches”.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’d like to think that what sets my work, namely my films and fiction, apart from others, and also what I’m sort of proud of if I can accomplish it, is the “big picture” scope of my work. I really want to understand and explore the bigger questions of life, the classic stuff that really has no easy answer, you know, like why are we here, what makes life worth living, what do you do with your limited time on this planet.

Personally, I have no time for minutiae, for things that don’t have the ambition or courage to really examine life with a keen eye. There’s so much content and entertainment now that I think it is really important to create something worthwhile. In fact, it’s a brilliant dilemma the contemporary artist is in — with our modern technology, it’s so easy to create something that now I think what is most important is creating something worthwhile.

I want to remind people that the world is huge and that it can offer them so much so long as they go looking. Right now, I’m preparing to direct a short film based on the British nuclear testing program. It’s set in Australia and looks at what happens in the aftermath of the tests… I’m hoping it can be a compelling way for people to learn about some of the heavier stuff in life, to get them hooked on thinking about how power and politics shape lives even if you don’t always realize it… and the consequences of hubris.

To sum this all up, there’s a great quote that I think says more than I ever could: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. That’s the job.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Oh yeah, that’s easy. You just have to tell yourself this: it’ll all work out.

In some way or another, your lot will be taken of, I promise. You might not get the things you want, but if you chill out a little, you’ll get what you need. I spent so much of my early career anxious about whether I’d ever “make it” or not. I’d get in my head and try to plan my life out. How ridiculous is that? Planning a whole life out in your 18-year-old head. You don’t know anything yet; how could you plan a whole life? I think a lot of people get stuck in that way, particularly both ambitious and smart people. There’s nothing positive about it… It kills your creativity, your spark, your spirit, whatever.

And you’re not making good work. I tried so hard; I really did quantity over quality. I was so concerned about making things the next project, making sure I had all these ideas. Now, that’s mostly gone. What I care about now is having GOOD ideas. Cultivating things. Giving everything in my life breathing space, allowing it grow. Love, art, family… all that stuff. Don’t scramble for control; give everything space. That’s the goal, at least… of course, I need to remind myself of it time and again!

I like that Bob Dylan song “Serve Somebody”. Go listen to that; listen to the lyrics. Forget any specific religion he refers to; just acknowledge that this world is huge and you’re very small, and you’ll get a whole lot more out of life if you embrace that rather than fighting it. Do your part. Tend to your garden. Don’t be afraid. It’ll all work out… in some way or another.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexanderlangsam.com/
• Instagram: @langsam_ag
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-langsam-a176b1185/