Greg Kerr: A Man 'Unremembered'

If trying to describe filmmaker Greg Kerr’s chimerical first work, Unremembered moves in the same circles as films like Memento and Mulholland Drive. It presents an intricate look at the blurred line between dreams and reality along with the devastating effects of being quite literally a man without a past. Unremembered is screening at the New Jersey Film Festival this weekend, so Kerr answered a few questions about his science fiction adventure.

Inside Beat: What inspired this story?
Greg Kerr: I have a deep interest in science and science fiction. In the realm of science fiction, I prefer high concept stories as opposed to pulp — I’m a 2001: A Space Odyssey fan as opposed to a Star Wars fan. There is a place for low concept science fiction, but it isn’t in my personal video library!
But honestly, I can point to a precise moment that inspired this story. I had just returned from a trip visiting a friend in Vietnam in January 2002. I picked up some flu bug on the plane home, so I was exhausted and had a high fever. That first night back, I had a really unusual dream that revolved around the consequences of a person who has no past, but whose past history grows in reverse — from the present backward.

IB: Two main female characters in the film are Callie and Penelope, which seem to recall the nymph Calypso and Odysseus’s wife. (Not to mention that the protagonist John’s dog is named Argos!) Do you see The Odyssey as an influence on your story?
GK: The Odyssey was a huge influence on this story. Unremembered doesn’t follow the plot of The Odyssey, but it is thematically connected to it. Like Odysseus, John is attempting to return home to his wife Penelope, but he’s trapped, not on a physical island, but an island in time.

IB: There does seem to be a lot of physics involved in the story. Do you have a background in physics, and if not, did you consult with someone to write the script?
GK: In my youth, I had planned to be a scientist and started college in physics, chemistry and biology classes. I did quite a bit of personal physics research online and in books to support the script. Unremembered is an homage to the dreams I had as a youth — or maybe it’s just the scientist in me asserting itself on my creative subconscious!
Much of the research moved me beyond science into philosophy issues and Jungian concepts about dreams, which I used to bridge the gap in the film when it wasn’t possible to explain it all through science.
My feeling is even though there is a lot of physics discussion, it’s fairly simplified in the movie compared to how complex it can really get. For the non-physicists who appreciate tangible scientific complexity, Unremembered has much to offer.

Unremembered is being screened at 7 p.m. by the New Jersey Film Festival at Scott Hall 123 on the College Avenue campus on Oct. 25 and Oct. 30. For more information, visit the Web site at www.njfilmfest.com.