Interview with director Hank Isaac (LILAC)

LILAC played to rave reviews at the January 2018 FEEDBACK Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Matthew Toffolo: What motivated you to make this film?

Hank Isaac: Lilac started out as a pretty mellow Disney-esque concept which I felt was too “light.” So I rewrote it as a somewhat grittier version, overlaid with the Robin Hood theme. This particular version was my response to the increasing number of children who were committing violent acts on one another.

My idea was to create a character who certainly could hurt of kill but makes a conscious choice not to. The underlying theme is: It’s not always necessary to annihilate one’s enemy to win the war.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?

Well, the “idea” percolated for nearly two years. I wrote two drafts of the screenplay over about a month…