With his HollyShorts Film Festival entry Sloan Hearts Neckface, it’s clear that filmmaker Justin Fair was meant to make movies. In our email interview below, Fair talks about how he “grew up on film sets,” jumping between Baltimore and New York and working as an actor in film/tv since a young age, before ultimately earning a spot at NYU with the Atlantic Theatre Company. “I was always taking as many film courses as they would let me and doing every film kid’s production I could,” he says. Eventually, his journey would lead him to LA, where he studied under the legendary David Mamet.
Sloan Hearts Neckface is Fair’s “first film project” that he’s directed since returning to New York. As much as it is a romantic (dark) comedy between Sloan (played with charm and charisma by Clara Mamet) and Banksy-type graffiti artist Neckface (Raúl Castillo, uproariously yet tenderly), it could also be read as a love letter to New York, to romance, to joy, and to art. Indeed, Sloan is whole-heartedly enamoured with Neckface and leaves illustrations and love letters at each of his tag sites. At first frustrated by Sloan’s interference, Neckface shoots down her attempts at connection. It isn’t until after some introspection—and elaborate ruses involving Neckface’s curmudgeonly friend Lester (played hilariously by Isiah Whitlock Jr.)—that Neckface finally confronts underlying fears towards connection and writes back to Sloan with love.
What makes Sloan Hearts Neckface a masterclass in short-form filmmaking is the way it reaches out its hand towards you and pulls you into a world that is creative, darkly comic, and wildly entertaining. You don’t always know what to expect from each moment, but you trust Fair’s direction, so you hold on tightly. By the end, you’re all the better for it: the film ultimately gives hope. For love. For art. For connection. Things that sometimes feel in short supply these days. It’s a testament to Fair’s talents as a director, indeed, a promise for what’s certainly going to be a bright career.
Before we get into Sloan Hearts Neckface, I wonder if you might tell us about your own filmmaking journey? Where did it all start for you?
I sort of grew up on film sets. I’m from Baltimore and my mother used to take me on auditions there and up in New York. I was doing commercial and film/tv work from a young age. I would get roles here and there and I was a background actor in about everything that came through Washington and Baltimore at the time. Minority Report, The Wire, I was one of the boy scouts Tim Burton’s aliens smooshed with the Washington Monument in Mars Attacks!. I ultimately ended up studying acting at NYU with the Atlantic Theater Company, but with film always being my goal. I was always taking as many film courses as they would let me and doing every film kid’s production I could. Then I would work on indie film sets in the summer doing everything from PA to camera assist. After school I moved to LA and did an advanced program with David Mamet and more Atlantic folks like William H. Macy and Clark Gregg. The rest of that class and I ended up forming a small film/theatre production company and I would do some directing with them and with some other friends in LA. I also started working for Mamet assisting on various projects and producing a few shorts with him for Funny or Die. I’m so grateful for those experiences. I learned an incredible amount watching him work. I eventually moved back to NYC and Sloan is really the first film project I’ve directed there.
What I loved most about your film was how wildly entertaining, joyful, and funny the story was. How did the story come your way, and what was it that jumped out at you and sparked the desire to bring it to life onscreen?
I’m so happy to hear you say that, thank you. “Joyful” especially because it has brought me so much joy from the first time I read Ian Grody’s script through making it, and It continues to bring me joy now. How it came about was I was directing staged readings for an industry night for writers and Sloan was one of the scripts in the evening. It was just a collection of monologues at the time but I knew as soon as I read it I wanted to make it a film. I fell in love immediately, with the love story. I felt real and visceral. It was so funny and gritty and had these twists that were so pleasurable. Eventually Ian adapted it into a film script and entrusted me to direct it.
I understand that you and the rest of the cast/crew are very much tight-knit, which, to me, translates successfully into the film’s themes of connection, passion, and artistry. You can feel an overall intimacy. What was the creative and collaborative process like with the actors and crew?
Yes, I love a crew that’s lean and mean! I’ve learned it’s very easy to get lost in the machine if it’s a giant production. I never want there to be a disconnect between the people on set and what we’re making. Everyone is making the film, not just the director, actors and DP and it’s very important to me that the set feels that way. I strive to create an environment where everyone’s contributions are honored. I was very lucky on this short to have the great privilege of creating with some really close friends of mine whose work I admire greatly. It was a labour of love start to finish.
The film has a highly stylized perspective to it, which is a testament to your directorial prowess. How did you approach the film? What were your inspirations?
That’s very kind, thank you. I do think a big part of the fun in it for me is developing a visual language that is unique and appropriate to each character and which then resonates their emotionality distinctly in each step of their journey. The overall vision was to make a gritty fairytale of New York. I wanted to show a New York just as magical as you’ve seen in films, but a part you may not have seen before. I wanted the audience to not want to leave this New York when the film ended.
There’s a poignancy to Sloan Hearts Neckfacein its overarching tensions between separation and connection, love and worship, and privacy and attention, which feels almost exacerbated by the pandemic. In a good way, of course. The notion of exchanging messages and admiring each other from afar, and yet wanting more than anything to feel close to each other, is supremely relevant today, considering the last couple of years everyone has seen. I know that the film was made before the pandemic, but I’m curious to know if your relationship to the film has evolved since playing a Tribeca last year, when the pandemic was climbing to its height, to now, where a more “normal” is achievable? And: if so, how?
Very astute observation. And I think you’re absolutely right. I mean all the vulnerabilities and anxieties that come with negotiating an intimate relationship- trust, honesty, acceptance, privacy and accessibility- these are themes of love that have always existed and we didn’t need a pandemic to explore them but certainly it has brought some of these themes to a very physical and literal plane. And the journey of the film exclusively playing virtually, to premiering and playing outdoors to now being able to be back in a theater will always be part of it’s journey and parallels those themes you mentioned and the ups and downs of the story in a very interesting way.
HollyShorts is an incredible platform for indie filmmakers. What does it mean for you to have your film screen here? How will you be celebrating?
HollyShorts is an incredible platform for filmmakers and I’m very grateful to have Sloan selected to play alongside so many other excellent films. I will be celebrating everyone’s achievements by attending as many screenings as possible and hopefully sharing a beer or two with my fellow filmmakers.
What’s next for you? And where can viewers follow you and your work?
I’m currently collaborating on some Graphic Fiction with this amazing company of people at AWA and with the writer of Sloan Hearts Neckface, Ian Grody. It’s a completely new process for me and I’m very excited for the work we’re doing. Hopefully it will begin to see the light of day in the spring. The first book is about a relationship between a girl and a Gollum which she conjures. Other than that, I have a genre short ready to film I’d really love to do and I’m working on a couple feature scripts. Instagram is the best way to connect with me @justinfairdirector and please do!
