Meet Paul Goodman | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paul Goodman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paul, how do you think about risk?
Most of my career I’ve been juggling real world risk in many ways that are uncommon in filmmaking. One of my first bigger gigs was a videographer and sound mixer for Discovery’s Whale Wars (later rebranded to Eco-Warriors). We were documenting the crew of the M/Y Steve Irwin as they navigated through international waters searching for illegal fishing and illegal fishing operations. We ended up finding a fleet of Chinese fishing vessels using an outlawed technique called “drift nets”. This is a net, sometimes 10 miles long, that floats through the water catching anything that swims into it. The crew hauled in one of these nets and the wildlife with it. There was something like 450 sharks and countless fish, dolphins, birds and more. There were two marlins, the biggest sea creature I’ve ever seen up close. All dead or dying.

We followed the vessel from the Indian Ocean, where we found them, all the way back to China and once there, we had to continue to follow the crew wherever they went. That’s where risk comes in. Our ship was coasting along the edge of the international ocean border, 12 miles off the Chinese mainland, and filming the crew discussing what to do next. To enter Chinese waters unannounced and with the intention of intervening in a Chinese national enterprise; that is presenting a high level of risk. Us as filmmakers and documentarians were in the unique spot of filming our fates in real time. They ultimately decided to go and late that night I was in a pontoon boat crossing international lines.

Currently I am a feature filmmaker and founder of a production company, Eight East Productions, and the risk I’ve faced here has, in many ways, been much more immediate and dangerous than anything I experienced on the high seas. I’ve been battling with Leukemia for five years and during that time I’ve made a handful of shorts and two feature films. To do all that while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation and countless other treatments was never a recommendation by my doctors but, again, I took the risks to do what I loved. I pushed myself and my health tremendously during this time and found what could be achieved despite the overwhelming circumstances. During the last five years I was diagnosed twice. The relapse prognosis was grim and disturbing to me and all my loved ones as it had spread to my spinal fluid and brain. It’s been a year since that diagnosis and in that time I achieved another remission, made another feature film, got engaged. At a certain point risk is just a drive to live and live well.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?

The way I’ve made these feature films has been a reluctant pattern. Once I was diagnosed with cancer, that was pretty much it for my career as it was at the time. I was working on sets or locations in far away places. Putting myself in positions where I needed to rely on my body’s resilience or trust it to not break down if isolated. With the treatments and the way my white blood cells behaved, none of that was possible, still not to this day.

I had to change gears and my focus was so distracted from career ideas or goals about the future. What I did – what I could do – was write and edit. I did that for 2 years in and out of the hospital. There are pictures of me in a hospital gown, bare ass, at the computer editing some footage for one project or another. I would even edit fun montage/mashups of favorite films and songs as exercises to stay creative and hone the editing style and muscles. In those days at the hospital I wrote a few feature scripts and would go on to shoot one, Evergreen, two years later.

My art comes from the place where I was at a certain time in my life. All films take time to produce. If you are writing and directing, the ideas you put into motion from a script you wrote won’t be manifested for a long while after you write it. I wrote a script in the hospital and directed it nearly two years later. The film is an escapist love story that takes two characters on a road trip from LA to Canada along the famous PCH. I wrote that while a tube connected my chest to the wall.

When my leukemia relapsed it was worse and extremely serious. I had a poor prognosis but not a lost one. Immediately my body started to respond to the treatments and I was able to make progress on recovery. I had a bone marrow transplant and was put through a lot to achieve another remission. All this was during the pandemic so I was completely alone. My loved ones would come to the hospital but had to stand in the parking lot where I could see them from my window. Sick, isolated, depression, extremely sick. I wrote another script. A Japanese American family discovers their grandma, during WWII, buried their heirlooms the night before they were sent to the Japanese concentration camps. Now, generations later, the family wants to find it. It’s called No No Girl and we filmed that in November 2021, less than a year after from my bone marrow transplant. It took a lot of help.

After two films through cancer, I can see how I use art to cope with my trauma and pain. As many of my friends and family and crew can attest to, I am determined in the pre production and the speed at which we bring these films off the ground. Because as much as I want to be and have a career as a filmmaker, art is healing. Filmmaking is hope. If I say we are making a film, I am saying I believe I will live.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I grew up visiting Little Tokyo as my family has a lot of ties to that community. My grandfather fought in the famous 442nd regiment in WWII. The most decorated regiment in American military history and comprised entirely of Japanese American men who were enlisted from their unlawful imprisonment. Little Tokyo has tons of important history, cultural events and delicious food and treats. I lived there for three years in my adult life and a staple of my diet was Marukai. It’s a market in Weller Court and they have great Japanese ingredients and wall to wall Japanese snacks. Insider tip, go in the mornings and score some of the fresh bento and rolls that they pre make in the refrigerated section. Cheap, delicious and comfort food for me.

Another must and staple of the area is Azay. A traditional Japanese menu from Chef Akira, this restaurant is my #1 spot for anything celebratory, special, normal, sleepy, hungry, inspired. It reminds me of my bachan the way it’s presented and so, so delicious. The restaurant also hosts many different community events so it always feels like you’re at the heart of the community when eating here.

Finally, Little Tokyo Taiyaki. I shouldn’t even be talking about this. If you can find it, you are in for a treat.

Culturally, there is the Japanese American National Museum. A beautiful building and always featuring an amazing and thoughtful exhibit that expands on the history of Japanese Americans in this country and powerful themes like identity, family, persecution and community. Right next door is the MOCA so it’s an easy place to make a day of museum hopping.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Diagnosed with cancer at age 25, there is no one else to thank but my family. My parents Bonnie and Greg, my sister Laurie and my fiancé, Vy. I can’t pretend I’d be alive without them. To get cancer at the age I did is relatively rare in the cancer world. Especially with Leukemia. You are either really young or 60+ and to get that diagnosis at my age, the science wasn’t fully curated to patients like me. I did three years of chemo before I relapsed. I saw what cancer can do to a family and the extremes we can be pushed to. Emotionally, physically, our relationships with one another; the love. I have more than love and respect for those around me who were there with me throughout all the terrible, terrible days. What my parents had to go through seeing me sick and, not to be dramatic, sometimes sick and dying. To stay strong in front of me at the hospital and take the grief home only to do it again the next day. And the next, and the next for months. Years. My sister gave me her bone marrow and we now have the same blood type. The same blood. When I woke up on my bed 5 years ago, tubes coming out of me, blood transfusions and chemotherapy- I had been in the hospital for only 3 days and still needed to spell check Leukemia as I texted it to people in my life. I woke up that day to see Vy standing over my bed. She told me she loved me and now we’re getting married.

Website: www.eighteastproductions.com

Instagram: @notsogoodman

Other: Our upcoming film, No No Girl, is set for a summer ’22 release so keep an eye out! Insta: @nonogirl_movie

Image Credits
Sea Shepherd