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Take Five

After teaching kindergarten and first grade in Houston for seven years, Dennis Lee (Houston '92) moved to New York City, where he penned and directed a short film, Jesus Henry Christ, that won him a Student Academy Award. ("It's a great paperweight," he jokes.) The filmmaker, husband, and father talked to One Day about Kulture Machine, the production company he co-founded, and his new film, Fireflies in the Garden, starring Julia Roberts.

By Karen B. Manahan

ONE DAY: Tell us about Kulture Machine.
DENNIS LEE: We're basically all Columbia film grad students who got along collaboratively and creatively. We formed Kulture Machine as a means of taking as much control of our work as we can. We work on each other's scripts, sets-giving constructive criticism, producing, and directing.

ONE DAY: What got you interested in screenwriting and filmmaking?
LEE: I just knew that I didn't want to go to law school [and] didn't know quite what I wanted to do after teaching. I think it happens to every transplanted New Yorker-you just start writing a screenplay... I didn't have the skill set or patience to write a novel, and so I ended up writing a screenplay. And from that point on, I was kind of hooked. Nothing really sexy about it [laughs].

ONE DAY: What's directing like?
LEE: I don't think people understand how hard it is to make a film. You're asking people to invest a lot of money and a lot of faith into a story ... and that's all preproduction. Once you get to actually shooting, you're talking about 30 to 60 days of nonstop working, being nervous, trying to control everything while appearing to be in total control ... But shooting is a release-you're finally here, the cameras are rolling. It's kind of like your third year of teaching, where you just hit your stride.

ONE DAY: I've noticed that several of your films are about kids-any students who inspired you?
LEE: I'd say the whole experience [of teaching] inspired me. There are definitely stories I have from the corps, and maybe one day when I'm ready I'll write those stories.

ONE DAY: What's on your plate now?
LEE: I'm working on my first feature, which begins shooting in March, an independent [film called] Fireflies in the Garden. It's about a family [where] the mother passes away kind of tragically, and it's how the family of four tries to heal into a family of three. When you work with really talented actors like Julia [Roberts] or Carrie-Anne [Moss] or Emily Watson or Ryan Reynolds-they're really amazingly talented people who will bring so much more to their characters than I could ever [have] envisioned. So it's really just my job to make sure I capture that on film.