Meet Stephen Les | Maker of films and audio plays.

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

Hi Stephen, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I was a sophomore in high school and I was taking a course in French. My French teacher asked me if I wanted to go see a French movie at a nearby college, and I went with her. We sat on folding metal chairs in a gym and watched a 16 mm print of Hiroshima Mon Amour by Alain Resnais. I had a very strong experience when I saw the film. I was too young to understand the story, but I was overwhelmed because I felt that the director cared enough about me to tell me the truth. Up to that point I felt like everyone was lying to me on some level–whether it was the teachers, or the newsman on TV, or my parents. But I felt that this director was telling me the truth, and it was a brand new experience for me. I decided that I wanted to do the same thing for other people, and that’s why I got into a creative field, specifically filmmaking.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am proud of and excited for a feature film that I’m currently finishing called Lost To Love, for which I am seeking distribution. I was uncompromising in executing my vision for the film–which was important to me for a specific reason. There are many musicians, filmmakers, and painters that affected me and made my life better, and in a certain way saved my life. The quality that all of them have in common is that they were uncompromising in executing their vision. In doing so they were able to reach me, and touch me, and made me feel less alone. If they had not been committed to telling the truth I would have detected it, and dismissed the filmmaker as just another liar, someone who was trying to fool me into thinking there was substance. I wanted to return the favor, and do for an audience that they had done for me. So someone who felt alone in the world would feel less alone, like I did when I saw Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Some of the filmmakers that affected me are Andrei Tarkovsky, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Samuel Fuller, and Nicholas Ray. Those are just some examples but I wanted to return the favor and I felt that all of these people were uncompromising in their vision and that’s the reason that their work resonated so so strongly with me.

Lost To Love is a romantic drama with a quirky sense of humor. I think of it as Eric Rohmer combined with the TV show Green Acres. It’s about the reunion of two former lovers who haven’t seen each other in 10 years. Out of nowhere the woman comes to see the man and they spent four days together. This idea gave me an opportunity to delve into the nature of romantic relationships, both blessed and cursed

It’s a character driven and dialogue driven movie. On the first day of shooting I realized that I didn’t have the equipment or crew to shoot the film in the visual style that I intended, the budget being so low. So at that point I had to make a decision as to whether to pull the plug on the project and wait until we had more money to shoot the film in a visual style that I wanted, or punt and shoot the film in the style that our equipment and crew allowed for. I decided to continue shooting and shoot it in a style that we could afford. And in fact the visual style of the film that came out of the constraint of money might have actually surpassed the original visual style that I had meant for the film. It was more spontaneous and possibly more in tune with the material.

I am currently looking for distribution for the film which is finished except for the fact that temp music needs to be replaced with an original score. I look forward to screening the film and engaging with an audience in a Q & A session so that I can have a dialogue with the audience about the film and its impact.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m not much for the nightlife but I would probably take them to dinner at La Poubelle Bistro and then a rock ‘n’ roll show at the Belasco. At some point I’d like to find a silent movie with live music accompaniment. Other than that I would take them to a lot of regular tourist places, except for the studio tours unless they really wanted to go to one, although maybe Universal City Walk. One of the best places I would take them is Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory. And downtown to the Art Walk if we can, and then there’s Korean barbecue and pinball at Ayce Gogi in Van Nuys. I would take them to the Arts District, Little Tokyo, and LACMA, the Santa Monica Pier, and the Bradbury Building, Central Market, and Angels Flight, and see if we could get a tour of the Orpheum Theater downtown.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I credit my parents for letting me go to New York University to study filmmaking. They were both factory workers but they had saved money all their lives in order to pay for my college education. It was an expensive private university but it was the best school on the east coast, if not the country, for filmmaking. They allowed me to follow my passion, even if it was unorthodox and even if they didn’t understand my passion.

Website: https://www.thestephenlesstudio.com