Ground Breaker - Phillip Van

Phillip Van is an MFA candidate in NYU’s Graduate Film Program, Tisch School of the Arts and was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and Portland, Oregon by his father, a Vietnamese refugee and his mother, a Greek-American.

Phillip's films have screened and won awards around the world in festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, and Gen Art Film Festival, among others.

He won a 1st place Eastman Scholarship, was the U.S. winning entry in Kodak’s program at the Cannes Film Festival and is the winner of a 2007 Student Academy Award.

Based on his work, he was chosen out of over 3,000 applicants to direct a short film sponsored by the Berlin International Film Festival .

In the largest jury vote of the festival, 520 filmmakers from 101 countries screened three finalists and Phillip’s genre-bending short, High Maintenance, won the competition.

Next, ten thousand passengers on Delta Airline flights voted on five award-winning films and High Maintenance was their top pick, garnering Phillip an awards package that included a screening and celebration in honor of his work at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Phillip is represented by Bryan Besser at Endeavor. He is currently developing a feature adaptation of High Maintenance about sleep anomalies. He was also just signed by Rhea Scott at Little Minx, a wing of Ridley and Tony Scott’s commercial and television production company RSA, where he is the youngest of 11 directors.   For more info on Phillip and the projects he's working on visit.  www.phillipvan.com

Ground Breaker Film - High Maintenance

Jane is unhappy with her dull husband and monotonous marriage. Thankfully, in the near-future satisfaction is guaranteed and upgrades are always available.

Ground Breaker Questionnaire

How did you hear about HATCH?

I heard about HATCH from a producer I met at Sundance named Steven Shor. It was the first festival he recommended. He said that HATCH has a excellent eye for films and puts a great emphasis on cultivating new talent.

Why did you submit your film to HATCH?

I took his advice, looked you up, really liked what I saw and decided to submit.

What was your inspiration in making the film?

I aimed to make a film about the future but emblematic of our era. High Maintenance is inspired by contemporary conditions I see in excess, such as serial monogamy, consumerism, and "personalized" new technology in a world that is more linked than it has ever been, yet somehow also more disconnected.
The film tells a personal story about the power struggle in a relationship through the high-concept conventions of the sci-fi genre. I wanted to show that the fine line between the human and robotic is not based on technology so much as on the choices we make, and the way we treat each other. Through robots, the film hopefully brings to light a condition that is uniquely human.

Who is your mentor?

In life? My mom and pop.

Why did you choose to pursue film?

There are a million reasons why I pursue film, but the strongest are the simplest. Stanley Kubrick said, "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed," and now more than ever, this holds true. Film is a platform not only for our entertainment, but for our experiences, our dreams and our emotional lives. And the possibilities are boundless.

I am at heart a storyteller. Were I alive 3000 years ago, this would be my position in the village. Maybe some stories would be a hit with the wheel makers and maidens and others, not so much, but I would never stop telling them. At the heart of stories are archetypes that define us, inform us, and give some meaning as to who we are to each other and why we are here.
While "finding the meaning of who we are to each other and why we are here" was not my major in college, I can legitimately claim that this pursuit occupies large amounts of my time each day. And what other job compares to that?!

Pablo Picasso said, "It takes a long time to become young." I'm still learning how. So much of my youth was about preparation for the future that when I was a boy, I made a promise to myself to not forget the things that make everything worthwhile. Many adult pursuits require this type of forgetfulness. I knew I had to pursue something that would honor the hopes and dreams of my youth, or I would break this promise. I chose to pursue film. And now that I'm older, I can start to enjoy being young.