Daily Inspiration: Meet Justin Sirkin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Sirkin.

Hi Justin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The first time I remember wanting to make movies was when I was 4 or 5 years old. I had just seen Revenge of the Sith, and I was just totally mesmerized by it. I tried to reenact what I saw with my action figures and Legos. I didn’t know what a director was but I knew after I saw that movie that I wanted to make them. In elementary school and middle school, I liked writing short stories, drawing comic strips, and I also did a little bit of theater. I always wrote down movie ideas I had and would draw fake posters for them.

It wasn’t really until High School that I attempted to take filmmaking seriously as my life path. When I was 15, I wrote and directed a short called ‘When Life Gives You Lemons,’ which got me accepted to CSSSA (California State Summer Schools for the Arts) at CalArts. I learned a lot about filmmaking there but still didn’t really have my voice yet. The next summer, I went to NYU Tisch Summer Filmmakers Workshop and started to get a better idea. I really wanted to go to USC for film but I just couldn’t get in, probably my grades. I tried three times but eventually, I went to CSUN and did a few internships while I was there. I also produced a short film my sophomore year called ‘Baby’ directed by my friend Cole Swanson, whom I met at the NYU program. I always wanted to make features and promised myself right out of college that I would start on my first.

My last two years at CSUN, I focused on my writing and directing, and in my final semester, I shot my short film ‘Reseda’ as a proof of concept for the feature also called ‘Reseda’, which we are working to fund right now.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve been extremely lucky to have grown up in Los Angeles, especially the Valley. It wasn’t always a smooth road though, but those challenges have made me more resilient, and I’m pretty good at laughing at something when it doesn’t work out.

Not getting into USC was really tough at the time but I realized that my success wasn’t dependent on the school I went to. Finding my voice as a teenager was also a challenge cause I just wanted to make something cool, but as a teen, you don’t have the skills yet to figure out what criticism you should listen to. I learned to follow my taste and trust my ideas, but it wasn’t easy at first.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a genre filmmaker, but all my stories are personal. Part of what I like to discover when I’m working is the sub-genre and reinventing it in a way that appeals to my taste.

I really like films where you remember the characters and feel complicated about them. I write and direct all of my work and I get a lot of fulfillment creating the characters and the world. I guess my characters tend to be pretty morally ambiguous but still funny and likable. It’s hard for me to write something that doesn’t have a bit of humor. People are funny!

Every film I write in some way, shape or form has come from whatever is happening in my life at the time. So with Reseda, I was in the middle of college and didn’t have a job, was uncertain about my future, and needed something to laugh at. Curb Your Enthusiasm always got me through tough times.

That’s when I came up with the idea of a drug dealer who is trying to be the best drug dealer he can be and figure out what he is doing with his life…but he’s also an idiot.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Know everything there is to know about your favorite filmmaker. And make the best film that you’ve never seen. Be patient and go at the pace that works for you. Try to watch everything.

Work hard, but don’t make yourself miserable.

Don’t write only what you know; write what you want. If you don’t know something, learn about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://justinsirkin.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinaaronsirkin/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/justin-sirkin-57232ba1
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user53257824

Image Credits
– Image of Syl standing in front of a metal fence was taken by Apurva Raj. – Image of Syl standing on the walk was also taken by Apurva Raj