WITHOUT REGRET
What do you regret?
The things you did, or the things you didn’t do...
Three seconds. That’s how long Ezra Hudson spent gazing at a beautiful hitchhiker. Plagued by her indelible face, he doesn’t understand why such a brief encounter could haunt him to this day. He almost stopped to offer her a ride, yet that single hesitation started a pattern in a life defined by missed opportunities.
After making all the right choices, the safe choices, perhaps Ezra wants to believe that a love at first sight holds the answer to what’s missing in his life. But how much can a person really know about another person, especially in three seconds?
FESTIVALS
Changing Face International Film Festival 2017 - Official Selection
Los Angeles Cinefest 2017 - Semi-Finalist
Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival 2017 - Online Official Selection
Production Notes
Without Regret was a story that stewed in my head for many years, but it wasn't until after my first marriage ended at the age of 26, that the time seemed right to make a statement about the regrets we all live with. It's easy to point out what you wish you would have done differently, but the reality is you don't know. While your path might temporarily turn towards pain, sometimes you need that pain to work through who you are meant to be, and in my case it pushed me to dive deeper into a life of artistic endeavors.
In any given situation, you can only know your own version of reality as is played out by your experiences, so at any given time it's damn near impossible to know if you're on the right life path or if in your old age you'll end up riddled with regret. Regret can be a powerful tool for change, but it can also be crippling. In bringing this story to life, it is my hope that it provides a space for audience's to question their own lives and the regrets they live with and that perhaps in doing so it will bring them peace.
It's not often, while making a micro-budget passion project, that you are so fortunate to assemble such a great team, both in front of and behind the camera.
Our cast includes such heavy hitting talent as Steve Gaghagen, who trained as a method actor under Lee Strasberg in the same class as Marlon Brando; Christopher Pennock, who is most well-known for Dark Shadows and an active member of the Actor's Studio; Stephanie Lee, currently working on the Refugee Project with the Actor's Gang in Studio City run by Tim Robbins; and Julisa L. Wright, most well known for her work on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Behind the camera we assembled a talented team who collectively has worked on such a range of projects as Marvel's Thor, Salinger, The Voice, Bullet to the Head and various projects for Vice Magazine's music division.
As part of my process for directing Without Regret, I chose to let actors contribute their own improvisations of either personal or imaginary regrets in order to capture the hyper-realstic performances I was after. Below is a sample of those full performances:
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