Meet Socs and DZ Zavitsanos | Film Producers and Directors

We had the good fortune of connecting with Socs and DZ Zavitsanos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Socs and DZ Zavitsanos, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
My brother and I learned an important lesson when our father escorted us to a UN refugee camp in Greece when we were just 17 years old. We had one change of clothes and two rolls of toilet paper. What seemed like a great idea, quickly turned into a what-were-we-thinking moment as Dad’s car vanished over the horizon…

What resulted from that wild experience was our first documentary short, <i>Two of Five Million</i>. The film follows the tale of two cousin refugees who fled from Syria in order to escape ISIS. We were fortunate to have played the film at over 30 film festivals around the world and won the Summer White Lynch Memorial Award at the Academy award-qualifying Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis. This experience provided razor-sharp focus for our future aspirations and taught us the importance of telling untold stories that matter.

It was also there we met Freddy Macdonald – a US-Swiss writer/director who at the time was only 15 years old. We were blown away by his work.

After the festival wrapped, we kept in touch and would send each other our short films, one of which my brother and I premiered at SXSW in 2018. Soon, we became best friends and close collaborators.

This experience taught us to go out of our way to form meaningful relationships with other filmmakers, because this is how enriching collaboration opportunities can arise. The ephemeral nature of film production requires that you constantly source new leads from project to project, which underscores the importance of rallying competent collaborators.

In 2020, Freddy told us he was interested in expanding his AFI application film, <i>Sew Torn</i>, into a full-length feature of the same name. The proof-of-concept short had already been acquired by Searchlight Pictures, and the feature-length IP was garnering plenty of studio interest.

So, we were brought on as producers for the feature after the <i>Sew Torn</i> short miraculously landed in the hands of Joel Coen, who advised our team to raise funds for our movie the Blood Simple way… Meaning: independently through family and friends to retain full creative control on our product. During the fundraising process, we helped attract sophisticated investors from a wide variety of industries across the country (most notably, NFL Hall of Fame safety, Ronnie Lott, and Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations, Daryl Morey).

This momentum sparked a wild creative journey that became especially gratifying when we eventually got the <i>Sew Torn</i> feature made and were able to premiere it in front of a large audience at the SXSW film festival this past March and in the Locarno Film Festival’s headlining Piazza Grande section in early August in a venue that holds 8,000 seats.

There is no greater feeling than seeing an audience immersed in a world that you helped create, and it truly reaffirmed our passion and love for the craft of filmmaking.

Joel Coen’s advice during pre-production was terrifying, but it was also liberating. We hope to carry this lesson forward as we get ready to craft our future projects.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets us apart from most filmmakers is our ability to expand our network and cultivate our creative relationships. We are proud to work with such a competent and loving team of collaborators who hold their artistry above all else. For us, it is all about creating something special, and the artists we have surrounded ourselves with strive to do just that. We are thankful for every single one of them.

Orisono, along with the entire Swiss crew, did such an incredible job on <i>Sew Torn</i>. Their humility, determination, and camaraderie-driven workflow elevated our production beyond imagination.

We are very proud to be working with many members of this crew on projects in development.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If we decided to visit LA with a friend, we would definitely take them to the TCL Chinese Theater on the northwestern side of the city. Their theaters contain such rich history, and the cinematic viewing experience there is unparalleled. The Aero, another fantastic theater in Los Angeles, known for its vintage and distinct style, is an incredible place to visit as well. Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, along with many other production companies based in LA often provide tours of their facilities — we would surely take our friends on those to give them a taste of LA’s filmmaking culture. Lastly, given the fact that Los Angeles has such incredible food spots, we would push them to explore Italian eateries like Rosti or La Scala, and Indian kitchens like Badmaash.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We would love to dedicate this shoutout to our sister Anastasia, who lights up the stage in Houston’s rendition of Drunk Shakespeare, an off-Broadway show based in New York City that meshes classic theater and gut-busting comedy. She has supported us on our journey in film since our early childhood and is currently signed with the Austin-based Collier Talent Agency.

We would also like to dedicate this shoutout to Freddy and Fred Macdonald, our close friends and collaborators who have supported us since we crafted our first professional short film. They are immensely talented filmmakers, and even better people. We look forward to celebrating all of their future success.

Finally (whoops is this more than one person?!), we would love to dedicate this shoutout to our film teacher from high school, Ryan Gillentine. Ryan cultivated our love for the craft and taught us so much in the classroom setting.

If not for all of their contributions to our filmmaking journey, we would not be where we are today.

Website: Our Vimeo Page: https://vimeo.com/user75140486 Socs’ Instagram Profile: https://www.instagram.com/socs_123?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== DZ’s Instagram Profile: https://www.instagram.com/dz.zavitsanos/profilecard/?igsh=d3l6ZmJlN3Yya2p5 Deadline Article for Sew Torn: https://deadline.com/2024/03/sew-torn-review-freddy-macdonald-strange-striking-neo-noir-is-a-great-discovery-sxsw-1235857334/ Rotten Tomatoes Page for Sew Torn: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sew_torn Letterboxd page for Sew Torn: https://letterboxd.com/film/sew-torn-2024/

Image Credits
For the first photograph we submitted of my brother and I seated: Katiana Jennings (her instagram is @katihewittphoto and her website is katihewitt.com) Stefan Klinger photographed our ‘on set’ experience for <i>Sew Torn</i>.