American filmmaker, the winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979 Rob Nilsson is in Yerevan within the framework of  Golden Apricot film festival. Rob Nilsson is the creator of the Direct Action style of digital filmmaking.

- Your grandfather Frithjof Holmboe was an American documentary filmmaker and a photographer. Did filmmaking become a heritage for you?

- I`ve always admired him. He was a real old school man and he believed in family. He treated children like adults. He used to sat me down and keep on asking some serious questions about what I was thinking about. And I was a little child, I didn`t even know what thinking mean. He expected me some day to become a man who would know the answers to all the questions he was asking. He was a strong, smart and opinioned, but he never went to school.  Nevertheless, I didn`t want to follow his footsteps at all and become a filmmaker.

Rob Nilsson

Photo: Mediamax

- So was it your personal choice?

- It always has to be our choice. No matter what we do, everything in this world is the result of our conscious or unconscious choice. I discovered everything in my life on my own. Filmmaking accidently came to my life. Some friend of mine used to live in Africa. Once, a crazy idea came to our minds to make a movie, so we did. But it was not serious, just a joke. In late 60-s we made a more serious film in America. Gradually I got trapped in the world of filmmaking.

- You are well known as a director and actor, but you also happen to be a serious poet and that part in you interests me the most. When was the moment you felt that you need poetry for self-expression?

- I remember the moment, when I read the first poem in my life and that meant a world to me. It was Conrad Aiken`s poem from long poem series called “Prelude for Memnon”. There was a line that caught me the most. I am not sure I can remember the exact thing, but the idea is that he came to the verge and looked down and he had no idea the darkness was so deep. Conrad Aiken went to Harvard a year earlier than T.S Elitot. So they knew each other and were kind of in competition with each other. Elliot became famous and he is out of competition, but nobody remembers Aiken. I am also in love with Whitman, Mandelshtam, Mayakovsky.

Rob Nilsson

Photo: Mediamax

- I thought you love Bukowski.

- Hm, it`s interesting. You know I have never got into him. I have never got into Ginsberg either. I read “On the Road”, so one of the reasons I took off and became a wonderer because of Kerouac. But maybe I should try Bukowski now.

- Has poetry changed your life?

- Of course it has. I still write poetry. You see something and it hits you and can become poetry. One of my last long poems was started in Moscow and then I continued it in Mexico. Everything can inspire me, it`s incidental. Poetry is a companion. When you feel low sometimes poetry is the best answer and it can come in such a mysterious way. I have not written a single poem for some six months and it`s so unusual for me, because I am listening but I can`t listen anything.  The other reason is maybe I am making four films at once.

Rob Nilsson

Photo: Mediamax

- Is Rob Nilsson-poet jealous of Rob Nilsson-filmmaker?

- They both are jealous of Rob Nilsson-painter. I have not done painting for a while either. I have a studio where I paint and the brushes are dry now. The studio was needed for a film so I used it.

Now cinema and poetry are my life. But I picked up my trumpet again. This keeps me alive.  Sometimes in a way it becomes the best way to escape from reality, but of course, when you start playing you want to be good and it becomes a matter of practice. I also play for relaxation. The thing is that my level of cinema never gives a chance to earn enough money to finish a film, so you have to work at a few things at the same time to finish the film and to start a new one. But it`s kind of a good problem to have. And there are always people who make some comments, or criticize.

- Can critics be good, or useful for you?

- Maybe I am like my grandfather in this case because I am a very opinioned man. I have a lot of feelings about cinema, American cinema particularly. For some two-three years every month I have tha backpage of the magazine and I could write things I wanted. But it does not matter, what matters is what you work is, what you do and what is more important how you do it. That is the only thing for the artist that matters. You can forget about critics, because five people agree with it and another five don`t. The criticism depends on the art. Some critics are really strong enough and bright enough to overcome it and not to share some silly opinions, which sound garbage. That is what I mean what matters is how you do it

Rob Nilsson

Photo: Mediamax

- And still is there a person whose opinion is really important for you?

- It is John Cassavetes, when I met him anything he said was not enough for me I wanted to hear more and more. He changed my life. Another person is my 4 year old granddaughter, she is not much in art yet but she feels and she knows everything. I love the spirit and the courage of this little tiny girl. It is so beautiful to watch her, I did not know about this because when I had a daughter I was so much a filmmaker that I missed a lot. Now I am free to have some things I did not have with my daughter.

Lena Gevorgyan talked to Rob Nilsson

Photos by Mariam Loretsyan