From FOUND Director Reena Dutt

When I was asked to write a piece about my relationship to filmmaking I didn’t know where to begin. How do you explain years of working as an actor transitioning to producing movies and finally taking the leap to tell the stories that mean the most to you, using your own voice and aesthetic? None of it makes any sense.

When I was a kid, I didn’t have any role models who looked like me, who understood my family’s history, or the nuances of what it means to be a first generation American. We were surrounded by kind people who were generous in spirit, but even that didn’t feed me a sense of belonging. As I grew older, I gravitated to the theatre and music building in High School – a world where all the quirky kids ran when they just ‘didn’t fit in’. It was teachers like Margie Wolfe (dance) and Mel Olson (theatre) at Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona where I finally felt I had a place. They accepted me for everything I was – and within that trickle down effect, so did many of my peers in those classes.

As I developed my career as an actor in Los Angeles, I grew to love filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), and Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and soon to started integrating even more culturally familiar names like M. Knight Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn) and Mira Nair’s (Mississippi Masala) movies. Seeing more South Asian storytellers telling their own nuanced stories was inspiring alongside mainstream names that were paving the road for us to walk on.

I tell you this history of mine because storytelling comes from a million different sources – sometimes at bedtime as a child from your parent, sometimes while sitting at the bleachers during a football game, and often in our own hearts hidden away in places that have a hard time finding an exit. Some of us leave these stories for holidays with the family. Some of us create films to tell these stories to strangers. Both are invaluable ways to leave a piece of ourselves behind for future generations.

Often these stories are never heard.

This is why Michalyn Steiner and I decided to bring together these six, lesser-known films from the heart of filmmakers we’ve met along the way of our journey with FOUND during the film festival circuit. We wanted these stories have a platform to be seen in our beautiful town of Longview which I now consider a home away from home.

During my time spent in Longview over the pandemic, I was exposed to folx that have stories of their own, and ears waiting to hear them. It’s a town where the arts are loved. With multiple dance studios, theatre spaces, musicians, and small business owners, it’s a town that cares deeply for self-expression and its residents -- this was proven in the way the city came together to make FOUND a reality.  We are thrilled to be able to premiere FOUND for you on Friday – and bring these other stories with us. Stories that may never see Longview unless we bring them to our neighbors ourselves.

With that, I hope you find Friday’s evening of films unique, captivating and thought-provoking. I find myself inspired by the filmmakers putting their hearts on the screen, and voices loud and clear to be heard. I am even more excited that we have this opportunity at The Columbia – a space that has brought in many, many artists, stories, and experiences to the beautiful town of Longview. Making movies has changed how I see the world and how I fit into the world, and I hope this experience changes you in little bits and pieces as well.

See FOUND and other National Short Films of Mistaken Identity this Friday, February 10th at 7:30PM. For more information and tickets CLICK HERE