Writer-director and award-winning playwright Levi Wilson and award-winning filmmaker-producer Lisa Hammer bring humor, heart, and biracial issues to AMC+ with their celebrated coming-of-age short film, Luke and Emma and A Gas Station On Franklin Ave. Now streaming in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, AMC+ is featuring the film as part of a special “Future of Film: AAPI Rising Stars” collection.
Set in 1980’s rural America, a mixed Asian boy navigates his way through puppy love in a white world. The story focuses on 11-year-old Luke, who has a crush on his classmate Emma. During a chance encounter at a gas station on a summer day, the two innocently talk and flirt outside, while Luke’s Thai mother shops and gets hit on by Emma’s father inside the station’s mini-mart.
I believe your short film, Luke and Emma and a Gas Station On Franklin Ave., is semi-autobiographical. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the film?
Levi Wilson: Well, since you asked nicely. For the most part I feel like I grew up as a regular American kid. Except for being mixed. It often drew a lot of unwanted attention. But I wanted to highlight what a mixed Asian kid went through in the 80s. I don’t know if I ever see mixed characters in film and TV in period pieces. Sure, there are plenty of “ethnically ambiguous” characters now. But if you are watching, say, the Deuce, you’re not going to see any mixed people. There seems to be this tacit sense that we’re just better now so we don’t even have to dwell on it. We don’t have to acknowledge the people who, in spite of all of the prejudice against it, systemically and culturally, came together and created families and communities. This happened. In fact, it happened so often that they had to make laws forbidding it!
What did you want to explore through this short?
Levi: I wanted to show people that mixed kids have been around for a while. We played at a festival where they also screened a documentary about mixed kids of all ethnicities. It’s still a thing. Especially with adults. Adults hold onto fears and prejudices ingrained into them when they were kids. And then they confuse those fears with culture. And when their kids try to figure out their own way those adults lash out in anger. But kids know what they are doing. We need to give them guidance and toolsbut they shouldn’t be imbued with our fears.
What challenges did you face trying to make this film?
Lisa Hammer: The biggest two challenges were: finding an affordable gas station to film in, and hiring child actors. Film locations are always a challenge, but an affordable gas station in the NYC area seemed almost impossible to find. We drove around scouting for two months, most establishments said ‘no’ or were not what we were looking for. We needed a well-worn working gas station and a real mini-mart that looked like they could be set in 1986. There is so much filming going on in NY that every gas station we approached was asking for 10k minimum to shoot. I went on film location scout websites, contacted the local film commissions from upstate NY all the way through New Jersey and even Connecticut. We were driving home from a long day scouting when we passed by the Royal Petroleum gas station in White Plains, NY and decided to stop in. We hadn’t seen them on our google map, so we were surprised. And next door we saw office spaces for rent, which made perfect holding and catering areas. We contacted the owners for both, explained our project, and within a few days had permission to both shoot and have holding areas next door. It was a small miracle, but I think just being considerate and friendly and asking face to face is the best way to get these things done. Levi can explain the work that has to be done to use child actors.
Levi: All of those issues with finding a location were all my fault for insisting on a story that takes place at an active gas station in the middle of the day starring two kids. And a period piece. After we finished up, I read a few articles where the authors had tips for making a short film, things like, don’t work with kids and don’t do a period piece. Of course, I did both. But kids aren’t so hard to work with. You have to cast the right ones. Which usually means making sure their parents are chill. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. But they have to have the right kind of support. Luke needed to be able to be comfortable being angry with his mom in the story. He talks back. So, he needed to feel comfortable with that as a person. Other than that, the main issues are logistical. They can’t be on a set for longer than 6 to 8 hours depending on their age or state.
What do you reflect on the experience of making this film and the lessons you took from it?
Lisa: I found that you can get anything done with a brilliant team of producers and cast and crew. Collaborating and letting everyone express their ideas is the only way I like to work. It is possible to have a well-oiled non-toxic film set where people feel valued, and their talents can flourish. I also believe in my own producing and production design abilities a lot more now, after the things I was able to pull off. From securing an impossible location within our budget to transforming a modern mini mart back to 1986 with careful production design, to finding the absolute best cast and crew who were eager to work on a project with so much meaning, I feel like I and our team can conquer anything now.
Levi: I have to say that I can’t believe that we pulled this together sometimes. At the beginning it seemed like a nearly impossible task, but I think the lesson here, for me, is that there’s a kind of magic in starting. And just go. Make a goal. Reach it. Make the next goal. Reach that. At some point the final goal is the finished project. It could be a long way away, but it doesn’t happen without the first step. Jeez, that seems so trite! But every project is a little different than the last. I know a lot of people who have a lot of ideas and never get started. And they’ll just never know.
What is your working dynamic like?
Lisa: Speaking for myself, the thing I love most in my professional life is collaborating with Levi. It’s just the happiest I have ever been. Discussing camera lenses over coffee in the morning, collaborating on scripts in the evening, the creative discussions we have on our walks, critiquing films we watch together, it’s all bliss to me. We see eye to eye on so many things and have very similar aesthetics. We cheer each other on and fill in where the other needs help.
Levi: I mean, yeah, yah know. Like, yeah. Totally.
The short aired on AMC+ as part of a special “Future of Film: AAPI Rising Stars” collection. How does it feel to have the film on such a big platform?
Levi: It’s a little surreal for me. No one makes a short film with the expectation of it getting onto a major platform. So, I feel very lucky that it found its way there. There’s no way this could have gotten where it did without people advocating for it. But it’s definitely gratifying for me to know that people saw this and felt the care and dedication we brought in telling this little story. So, I have to thank everyone involved in making it and the DCAPA Film Festival for selecting it and their sponsor, AMC, for starting this series featuring AAPI voices.
Lisa: I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and gratitude. One year ago we began our festival screenings and here we are, licensing a short film to a major platform. They say it’s an impossible feat, but I believed in this story so much that I just kept pushing it to see how far we could go. HUGE thanks go out to the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival.
What’s next for you both?
Levi: I’ve just finished the feature screenplay version of the short film and we have it out to our UPM to create a budget. So, that’s the next in the medium term. We have a mockumentary series. Great Kills. It’s a Tubi original and also on Amazon. We just wrapped the second season. Plus, we’ll be shooting a couple of musical documentaries, as well. Also, we’ve got another short we want to produce this summer that Lisa will direct. Like, dark surrealism. I’m excited about that one.
Lisa: Season one of our series “Great Kills” is on Amazon and Tubi, and Season Two is in post-production, with Cathy Moriarty, Eric Roberts and Bai Ling, directed by James Merendino (SLC Punk). My 90’s arthouse series “Turn of the Century” with Dame Darcy was just acquired by Night Flight Plus, and is their #1 most popular series. I penned a short surreal horror script, “Midnight Sun”, which we will shoot this summer. I’m working on two music docs, and my short film “Empire of Ache” will be screened with The Future of Film is Female series at Nighthawk Cinemas and beyond, as well as being included in the book tour for Heidi Honeycutt’s I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies, which I appear in, and will be screened this summer with more of my work at Dylan Mars Greenberg’s Coney Island Film Series. The “Luke and Emma” feature is in development, and I am trying to find time to mix and release two new albums for my band “Radiana” and my solo work.
The Greek label The Circle Music is re-releasing material from my 80’s goth band “Requiem in White” on vinyl, and one of our songs just got released on a Cherry Red Records compilation with “The Cure”, “The Cocteau Twins”, “Dead Can Dance” and “Tones on Tail”. I am executive producer and editor on the upcoming feature film “Montauk” starring Molly Ringwald which will be released on Amazon this year. Oh, I almost forgot, my Satanic comedy TV show “POX” will be available soon on The Satanic Temple’s website TSTTV.