Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker and Filmmaker Jonathan Hammond and San Diego Writers Festival
SDWF: Tell us about your movie Expect a Miracle: Finding Light in the Darkness of a Pandemic?
JH: It’s a documentary I made that is currently streaming on the KPBS app. It’s free. Check it out. It’s about a house in North County who took in people dying from AIDS after they were rejected by their families, so they could have a place to die with dignity. It was a harrowing time but many stepped up despite prejudice to love people who were sometimes complete strangers. If you look, despite everything, there are those who transcend the moment and are vessels of love and grace. Also, it’s shockingly relevant to this moment in how people handled a pandemic.
SDWF: What books or movies are you currently enamored with or planning to read or watch next?
JH: I am currently reading Clean Hands, by Patrick Hoffman because I love pulpy thrillers during the summer, as well as Jack and Lem, which tells the story of John Kennedy and his lifelong best friend Lem Billings, who was a gay man. Apparently, they were even closer than Jack and Jackie and after JFK’s death, Lem was devoted to Jackie and he was often considered an honorary Kennedy member. Furthermore, I am also reading, The Skies Belong to Us, which is about the Golden Age of Highjacking. (I was pretty shocked by the fact that such a thing even existed).
SDWF: Which filmmakers have influenced you most?
JH: Like most filmmakers of my generation, you could not escape the power of Spielberg, Scorsese, and Kubrick. There are so many. I love the quirkiness and humanity in many of Jonathan Demme’s films as well as the sheer hilarity and creativity of Woody Allen’s golden age—though I won’t watch anything new from him, sadly. The most exciting filmmakers of the moment are Alfonso Cuaron, Tarantino, and Taika Waititi—who was the biggest influence on Isabel.
SDWF: What’s the last movie you watched?
JH: My friends and I have socially distancing nights at the Drive-In, though the quality of the films require a good sense of humor. We saw Force of Nature, which was so silly that it has potential for being the next cult classic.
SDWF: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
JH: To get out of my head and to enjoy the process.
SDWF: What creative resources (in San Diego, if appropriate) have been most helpful to you?
JH: San Diego Film Consortium. The film community has been amazingly supportive.
SDWF: How has filmmaking changed your life?
JH: It’s all that I have ever wanted to do, but it took a long time for me to jump in. I feel it’s given me purpose? Kind of? I feel I am myself doing it.
SDWF: What was the first piece of filmmaking you shared with someone else?
JH: The first movie I remember making was an 8mm short about a toy train who had to make a perilous journey across our living room. It was also, inexplicably, a musical. My dad was the cameraman and I improvised all the dialogue and songs. The film ran out before the conclusion but my dad just pretended to keep filming and I was so mad at him for that because it meant he wasn’t taking it seriously. Again, I was six—so it was gloriously awful.
SDWF: Where can we find your blog/website or any other online links (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)?
www.facebook.com/jonathanhammondfilm
https://vimeo.com/showcase/5579869
SDWF: Thank you Jonathan
