An Inspired Chat with Harry Waldman of Rogers Park

Harry Waldman shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Harry, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I wake up, hop out of bed and go straight to my laptop. I first check my email and respond to my messages accordingly, then make my daily posts about my filmmaking career on the appropriate social media handles. After that, I eat a light breakfast and get on with the rest of my day, whether that involves filmmaking, editing or anything else on my calendar.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Harry Waldman. I am a Film Director/Writer/Editor. My Production Company is Edgewater Film Productions. I try to create powerful films that make the viewer feel a wide range of emotions and convey ideas that will linger in the viewers’ minds long after the credits roll.

I am currently finishing up festival runs for two of my short films, “Enter the Room” and “Bay For Blood”, planning to have a public online release for my other short film, “In the Backseat”, am editing my debut feature film, “The Corridor Crossing”, am about to begin posting casting notices for my next feature film, “Incautious”, and am storyboarding for my debut animated short film, “Slivered”.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
It was when I first began editing, particularly when I learned of the power of music. My debut film, “515” was looking to be a bit of a disaster at first. I made the entire film by myself with a cheap camera that I bought at Best Buy, so the story is very limited. The initial rough cut was around 45 minutes, and was basically just a bunch of footage of me rummaging through my apartment. It was long, tedious and redundant.

But once I started to mix in the music and color grade my clips, the film really started to come alive, and I felt like I had learned that I had a “superpower” for the first time in my life. It is a simple and silly film, but a fun one that I believe is elevated mainly due to the music and editing.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
It was when I started to make films. “Enter the Room”, my first professional short film was based on a really toxic relationship that I had with a roommate in college. I feared that telling this story would be painful. Not only was it not painful to tell, I was shocked how much fun I had making the film, particularly, portraying the neurotic character who was based on my roommate.

While I have used my pain from previous experiences to tell my stories through my films, it is really important for me to tell complex stories with multi-layered characters that seem real, even if they are deeply flawed.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
When I first discovered filmmaking, it was one of the most important moments of my entire life. While it was great finding a path and purpose, I tied my identity too heavily to filmmaking when I was younger. While I still love making and watching movies, I have learned over the years that moderation is key, and that I am a multifaceted person with many different hobbies. It was vital that I continue to pursue my main passion, but also give myself some time to pursue other hobbies and simply enjoy life.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
That I lived my life to the fullest. I got into a pretty heated argument with one of my close friends about a year ago (and his points on what he called me out on were pretty valid), and he basically told me that he was letting me get away with certain behaviors that he wouldn’t with other friends, because he really respected the fact that I was one of the few people he knew who actually lived my life the way that I wanted and wasn’t so concerned with what society and others expected of me. While the argument was unpleasant, it was really cathartic hearing him tell me this as no one had ever said this specific thing to me before, and he is a brutally honest person, and someone who’s opinion I value and trust.

I spent my younger years obsessing over what others thought, and it was exhausting and depressing. Not too long after college (right around when I started to pursue filmmaking), I started to embrace the “real me” and the things that I really enjoyed doing. I stopped putting so much pressure on “what I was supposed to do” and simply focused on “what I wanted to do”, and I never looked back. And one day, many years later after I made this switch, I woke up one day, stopped feeling like a fraud and fully accepted and embraced who I truly was.

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Image Credits
Jordan Sasticum

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