They support my work because it’s me, but I’m not sure they really enjoy or fully understand my desire to be doing this. But my mother, brother and sister go see them. He can’t handle this kind of psychological stuff. I’m not that surprised that my father isn’t going to see my films. I think that’s what came out of my family’s situation. You realize that the bonds are really strong and there is this ability and desire to work together. But I think that happens if you make it through something rough. There’s much more communication in my household now than ever before. It was very difficult for me to comprehend that these two giants who I called my mother and father, my gods, were not in synch, and that I couldn’t bridge the gap for them. I would see this rift between my parents and, as a child, would so strongly wish it not to exist. But there was a period of time where it was very difficult. And while it was volatile for a very long time, now everything is out in the open and it’s a much more workable situation. As me and my siblings grew up, my brother and sister, we started talking. All my family members are very strong people. As a personal thing, I felt resentment toward the distance and lack of communication that existed in my household, which interestingly enough, doesn’t exist today.ĭB : Yes, everyone except my father. But sometimes you see things that other people do and I say, gosh I wish I knew politics like Oliver Stone, but I don’t. In very general terms, why is this so?ĭB : It’s personal. I went to film school to basically get equipment and meet crewmembers, because I didn’t have any technical knowledge.ĭB : The New School of Social Research (in Manhattan).ĭT : Both your films deal with the family. It didn’t get picked up but I thought, wow, this is going to be easy, and then wrote five more scripts that received no interest at all! At that point I said, well I can’t just sit around writing scripts and not getting anywhere, maybe I’ll try and direct something. Solo, the producer who did Body Snatchers and other good stuff. It’s weird because it was a shitty script, but was optioned by some entertainment lawyer in LA who was shopping it around to Robert H. It was only after so many years, after I graduated from college, and got a year into my life as an engineer, that I finally sobered up from years of doing drugs and alcohol and realized, “wait a minute, I don’t really want to be an engineer!” At that point I said, well I’ll try writing a script, because I had a friend who was in a similar situation, so I took a screenwriting class, and wrote a script. I’ve had to overcome resentment over that fact. But I’ve always had this passion for film, though I never, ever conceived as a reality being a filmmaker, a writer. I come from this total suburban family, where everyone works 9-to-5, and everyone in the neighborhood does pretty much the same thing. I caught up with Buck over a pint (or two) at the Fant-Asia watering hole, “Le Vielle 300,” to discuss the method behind his calm madness.Īuthor (far right) with Quelou Parent and Douglas Buckĭonato Totaro : Can we begin with your background, how you got into film?ĭouglas Buck : No comment! Why should I tell you about my background! When I was naked with daddy at 7 years old, that led to Cutting Moments ! Seriously, it is a little weird because I’m an electrical engineer. Home maintains the emotional claustrophobia of Cutting Moments, but where it differs – a conscious choice on Buck’s part – is in refraining from explicit, gut-wrenching violence. In both films Douglas Buck approaches the theme of the disintegrating male psyche in an understated formal manner (minimal dialogue, restraint camera style, non-contrast lighting). Combined, the two films form a macabre psychological exploration of the patriarchal nuclear family gone seriously wrong. In two years short years, American Independent director Douglas Buck has becomes a Fant-Asia fan favorite for his uncompromising brand of “domestic horror” Douglas Buck was back at Fant-Asia ’98 with his short film Home, a companion piece of sorts to last year’s Cutting Moments (the film that had people crying “ouch”). Interview with Douglas Buck Domestic Horrorīy Donato Totaro Volume 2, Issue 4 / October 1998 20 minutes (4797 words)

Cutting moments