AWC Spotlight | Shaun Vivaris

Shaun Vivaris, a New York-raised and Los Angeles-based filmmaker, has found his community after his 2016–2017 Armed With a Camera Fellowship. A natural storyteller and formerly aspiring novelist who makes genre-bending fantasies that have screened at multiple international film festivals, Shaun strives in his works for authentic Asian American characters and stories beyond mere representation.

In light of the release of his first feature film Lisa Mania on August 23, we checked in with Shaun and discussed his career since his AWC Fellowship, the making of Lisa Mania, his creative process and how he found a community through VC.

It has been five years since your AWC Fellowship film A Time To Bleed has screened at 2017 LAAPFF, and now your first feature film will be released very soon — in two weeks. Tell us what happened in between.

A lot of things happened. The biggest thing that AWC film fellowship did for me was introducing me to the VC and Los Angeles Asian Pacific film community, which was probably the greatest thing that came out of the film fellowship. Filmmaking is such a collaborative effort. It's one of those things where you really can't do it alone. I've been working for a while after the fellowship and meeting a lot of Asian American filmmakers like myself to really try to get my first feature off the ground. And I had another feature script that was optioned but that never got made. It's always a depressing thing when a project you spent so much time with falls through, but the LAAPFF community, and just VC in general, was like a social safety net that really helped me figure out what I was going to do next and gave me the support to still get a feature made, no matter what. Lisa Mania was the project that I really wanted to get made, and that actually was completed right before the pandemic hit.

Tell us how Lisa Mania originated. 

I wanted to do something pretty intimate for my first feature. The idea really started from two friends who are talking about their problems. Some of the themes I want to explore are miscommunication, relationship problems, and how a lot of times people are really hyper focused on their own issues to the point they ignore everything around them. It's a combination of that and also [comedy]. Some of the most comedic moments in film, or even in life, I think, come from the most ridiculous instances of miscommunication: a person means one thing but they say another and then the other person hears something completely different. And then you're left with some wild situation.

Your body of work seems to encompass a range of genres. Can you tell us more about your cinematic taste, and what draws you to films or filmmaking? 

Before I became a director, I thought I was just going to be a straight writer like a novelist. I was writing a lot of fantasies, and I actually wrote a fantasy novel that got picked up by a really tiny publisher years ago. During college, I started taking screenwriting classes just to try it out. I've always loved all kinds of writing and was doing all different types of genres. I love jumping around and learning different mediums for storytelling, but screenwriting really opened my eyes. Although I've always loved film itself, I haven't ever thought about the possibility that I could make my own. So that was the first step. My professor was a screenwriter. She was the first to push me in the direction of filmmaking, first with screenwriting. So I thought I was going to be a screenwriter. That led down the path of taking some production classes, and before you know it, I started doing short films with my brother. That's how the ball got rolling. 

If I had to say my favorite genre it would be fantasy. If I had an unlimited budget, I would want to do a period piece fantasy.. These types of films are incredibly expensive. If you want to do it right, you need a good budget for it. 

How would you describe your relationship with VC?

They  have been pretty supportive. The biggest thing was they pointed me in the right direction for meeting the people that I'd be working with. I met my producers through Visual Communications, Sultan and Kristin, and a lot of their connections and people who came on board of our crew. There's actually one or two scenes in our film that VC was kind enough to let us film in their offices. Despite the wild and ominous profanities in the film at times, they're pretty supportive about what I was trying to do and what I wanted to accomplish. 

I think one of the best things about about Visual Communications is that, I did a VC film fellowship with them, but they didn't just shoo me out the door and be, "Alright, you're on your own now." The relationship was still there, and I was able to come back to them for support and it was really special. I'm hoping that when I finally get my second feature funded, I'll come back to LAAPFF and have another premiere there.

What are some memorable moments during the time you were working on the film?

I love being on set, especially making this film because it was such a fun film to make. There were a bunch of scenes where we were all cracking up, even the crew was cracking up. Once my AD had to actually kick people off set, because we couldn't get to the scene, the people wouldn't be quiet — they just couldn't! You could just hear them laughing in the background. Even I had to try to really control myself. Maybe it's just being jaded by life, but the older I get, I feel like it's harder to recall those moments that make you laugh uncontrollably. So when they do happen, they're very memorable to me.

What would you like to say to potential audiences of Lisa Mania?

My main goal for making this film was to make a fun film. It deals with a bunch of themes, like relationship, paranoia, and miscommunication. I think anybody who wants to see a fresh comedy that goes in ways that they don't expect definitely should give this film a chance. Don't watch it with kids, though. It's not a film for children. But definitely watch it with a group of friends.

Lisa Mania (2022) will be available on demand starting August 23 on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Xbox and YouTube Movies among others. Visit https://linktr.ee/lisamaniafilm for more film updates and info.

The interview was edited for space and clarity. Photo courtesy of Shaun Vivaris and VC Archives.