-Who is Brooke Harris Wolff?
I am mainly a writer, although I spent some years as an improv acting teacher, among other things. I’ve written screenplays, novels, plays and recently finished executive producing/directing an album of a musical called These Are the Times. I was the lyricist and Grant Johnson, the remarkable composer.
-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
I’ve always wanted to be a filmmaker, especially once I started writing screenplays professionally and realized filmmaking was a director’s — not a writer’s — medium. The turning point in my career as a filmmaker was when I decided to capture the comedic stories that chronicled the history of comedy in the U.S., as told by the comic/director/teacher Howard Storm. Then it was no holds barred to make my feature documentary, Eye of the Storm, happen.
-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?
I think cinema — actually, all the arts — can help inspire change in society. But I don’t think art alone can do it.
-What would you change in the world?
I hope people could start treating each other with more compassion and respect for their common humanity. The divisions are what is making it so difficult to solve the world’s most existential problems, as well as what is keeping us in a state of perpetual wars.
-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?
I think smaller films will find their niche in streaming services, but that larger films will command the theatrical experience, more reminiscent of the mid-nineteenth century with moving panoramas that captured the attention of large crowds than the meaningful, story- and character-focused movies of the 70s. I also thing that serial movies, much like TV series, will have a place in streaming. Sadly, a lot of the power of movies will be lost when people won’t have the experience of seeing a film in theaters, but my guess is that, all around the world, festivals and small theaters will rise up to find a way of giving that experience to the audience that wants it.
