“Great art can come from anywhere and go with anything”
Edition 1: An interview with writer-director Casimir Nozkowski
Casimir Nozkowski, known personally as ‘Cas’, is one of New York’s finest emerging movie writer-directors. Before making his newly released debut feature film — The Outside Story — Cas spent many years creating short films and finding other inventive ways to blend his skills and need for income, including making trailers for hit shows such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and editing pre-emptive in-memoriam videos about not-yet-dead celebrities (an occupation he bestowed upon his movie’s main character).
The Outside Story is a uniquely charming tale about a broken-hearted young man — Charles, played by Bryan Tyree Henry — who rediscovers his love for life after he gets locked out of his apartment. It is set in Carroll Gardens, a leafy neighborhood in Brooklyn where Cas and his family have lived for many years and where we first met, dodging kids on scooters zipping over tree roots in Carroll Park. The movie expertly evokes the vital clash of humanity that a busy city block brings with it by introducing us to a myriad of characters, from traffic cop to swingers parties, who help to reconnect Charles to his sense of purpose. The film was selected for, among many others, the Tribeca Film Festival and the Woodstock Film Festival, and won the Best Comedy Award at the Port Townsend Film Festival.
Cas’s parents are both established artists in their own right — painter Thomas Nozkowski (1944-2019) and sculptor Joyce Robins — and he spent his childhood shuttling between an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and their creative hideaway in High Falls, NY. Prompted by the pandemic, Cas, his wife Hannah Bos (also an acclaimed screenwriter, playwright and actor, who appears as a scene-stealing pregnant neighbor in The Outside Story) and their son Rocket have spent most of the last year in the Hudson Valley.
After many frigid, outdoor play-dates this winter in masks and full snow gear, my family and I can confirm that Cas’s other skills include pulling sleds at high speed, telling weird ghost stories around the fire pit and inventing “Dad tax” aka claiming a handful of whichever salty snack is being grabbed for without parental permission. I am so happy to call him a friend, and excited to share this interview with you all.
AJL: Congratulations on the release of your first feature film! What led you to want to tell this particular story?
CN: Thank you! I love stories that start in the margins of life. Little problems that evolve into bigger and bigger problems until you’re all of a sudden dealing with core life issues. So, when I was writing this script, I feel like my starting concept was ‘what is the smallest point I can start from?’ And once I had that — a person who wants to be inside his apartment is locked out of it — it was just delightful to stack on the problems until that person was basically rethinking all their choices and facing those core life issues (love, regret, friendship, mortality). Plus, I am terrible with my keys and have been locked out many times and, each time, found something poetic in the disruption that circumstance brings. It’s such an annoying timeout but it offers real perspective on your life to not be able to get back into the place you find most comfortable. Sitting on my stoop, watching a vast spectrum of life pass by just on my block, it felt like I was looking at a landscape that could really nicely be rendered on film and offer an opportunity for my favorite actors in the world to crash into each other in a lattice of vignettes.
How old were you when you realized you wanted to make movies? Was there a particular movie, moment or person that inspired you towards that path?
I definitely have a eureka moment. Get ready. It was a sneak preview of Edward Scissorhands I went to as a child. That movie literally ended and I was like OH, DIRECTOR. THAT WOULD BE COOL. THAT’S THE PERSON WHO SAYS LET'S PUT SCISSORS… ON HIS HANDS! Looking back, it’s a strange touchstone. I dig that film but I wouldn’t say it’s in my top 100 (and for Tim Burton, I like Ed Wood so much more). But that moment is really the culmination of years of loving film and being introduced to it by my parents, who I think were greatly relieved I didn’t want to pursue the fine arts like them and ended up more art-adjacent over in the film world. My father was an encyclopedic film lover (with a multi-thousand disc film library I’m slowly digitizing) and I think I aspire to the volume of films he was able to absorb and keep at the ready for conversation or contemplation. And he also welcomed all eras and genres — this was true of his intake of literature and music too. That level of openness remains a major inspiration as well. You’ll see in most of my movies — including The Outside Story — I really like blending genres and hopping in and out of tones. I think that comes from being exposed to westerns, musicals, comedies, horror, sci-fi, silent, avant-garde, etc. all through my life and all of those genres being given equal attention by my Dad. The first audio cassette he ever made me had The Fat Boys on one side and Bruce Springsteen on the other. I like to think his point was great art can come from anywhere and go with anything.
What was it like to grow up with two very creative parents immersed in the New York art world?
Looking back, it was very special. But at the time, I sort of took it for granted. I was attending art shows in Soho starting at birth, bartending openings by age 12 and grew up in a former synagogue/whiskey still turned art studio/cavernous living space. I admired my parents’ tireless work ethic in the creation of their artwork, all the while kind of shrugging at it, like “that’s cool but what’s for dinner?” But now I look back and I love that art just became this normal thing to always be around. I love how much artwork was on the walls, on the floor, hanging from the ceiling and a part of every conversation. It made me feel very comfortable handling art which is a good way to learn how not to be precious with art and see the work that goes into it. I also love that I caught that era of art and New York City, even as a child and teen. It was already starting to gentrify but catching some of that rawness and being present at a time when the artwork felt more important than the career arc was wild. Plus, my parents were very encouraging of my film ambitions and inspiring in how they approached making money in unconventional freelancey ways that allowed them to prolifically make art.
You spent a lot of time in the Hudson Valley during your childhood. Tell me about that time — what memories stand out for you?
I love the Hudson Valley. My oldest friends all come from the stretch between Kingston and Kerhonkson and I have so many fond memories of partying on the back roads of Accord or up in the woods of Ashokan. Plus, it’s beautiful and hiking was another very important aspect of my family’s history. My dad was on the board of the Friends of the Shawangunks and he spent a lot of time working to preserve land in the area while hiking and bushwhacking with my mom and I all over the Shawangunk Ridge. My favorite hikes were Bonticou Crag and Sam’s Point and Stonykill Falls, and I even spent a summer as a (junior) Forest Ranger for Mohonk, biking the perimeter of the mountain and clearing trails. I also loved Tongore Park back when you could swim there. Deep Hole and Split Rock were other cherished swimming holes and tubing the Esopus in Phoenicia is a bucket list experience. I guess I like a lot of the water features in the area. Switching gears, I’m also a sucker for a mall and I loved the Hudson Valley Mall and its many movie theaters. I think it’s on its way out now but for a while it was kind of an iconic hang when you got your driver’s license.
Cas at 2 years old, with his mother, hiking around the Minnewaska area
You continue to straddle the city and the countryside. How do you think your time upstate, now and in the past, has influenced your outlook and creativity?
I have always loved going back and forth. My parents were weekenders who became permanent residents and they were religious about going up EVERY weekend. Looking back, I’m surprised that amount of transit didn’t bother me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t mind reading in a moving car and I busted through many books in the backseat of their Subaru. I think being upstate is all about appreciating the land and the green and the wildlife. It’s peaceful but it’s also noisy with the crickets and coyotes, which is a kind of fascinating conflict. I just loved feeling comfortable on the roads upstate and I love driving around in the area, up to Cragsmoor or over to Hudson and taking in all that natural wonder. I am DYING to make a movie in the Hudson Valley. I’ve actually made a few short films up here and there’s one landscape in particular I want to use in my next feature but I can’t reveal it. It’s too good! Also I just think walking around the woods, you can’t help but be inspired by how the land changes so much. Trees get knocked down, rocks fall, streams flood — there’s a surprising amount of action to be found in the land and marking those changes or just noticing them always has a moving effect on me.
What places or experiences in the Hudson Valley inspire you?
I’m going to stick with hiking and say doing the lemon squeezer up at Mohonk up to Skytop always resets my clock, so to speak. Anything at Minnewaska is special. I also love the rail trails especially the one connecting New Paltz and Rosendale. Speaking of rail trails, I have always loved the train trestle in Rosendale. I used to walk over it before it got fixed up, jumping from one beam to the next. Not the safest thing I’ve ever done! Moving slightly down the road, I also LOVE the Rosendale Movie Theater. I’ve seen a lot of flicks there and I’ll know the pandemic is over when it re-opens and we’re back inside eating some Necco wafers and watching an art film on its screen. I used to love Rhino Records when it was in New Paltz or frankly just sitting on the streets there. Now I’m more down with the playground crew for my 4 year old son, but the memories of New Paltz nightlife shine brightly. I like driving around the old parts of Kingston. My father’s family on his mother’s side actually settled there wayyyyyy back when and my grandparents are buried in the cemetery there. Oh, another blast from the past that I haven’t tried in a while but my friends and I used to spend a lot of time at: the New Paltz Diner. I don’t know if it inspires me, per se, but it cycles into my dreams a lot and I wreaked a lot of havoc in that parking lot.
Having grown up in this area, what did it feel like to take part in the Woodstock Film Festival?
It was such an honor. I don’t need to tell anyone how crazy this past year was, but I also wrote and directed my first feature film and right when it was supposed to start its festival run was at the height of the pandemic. For months, we didn’t know when or if the film would come out in any meaningful way. But festivals got really creative and found ways to show films even with the world totally upside down. Woodstock was chief among them and I can not tell you how happy it made me to see my film on the BIG screen, no less, playing a drive in at the 2020 Woodstock Film Festival. With tons of friends and family still in the area, we packed the parking lot in Woodstock and got to revel in one of only two times that my film has played on a big screen for a sold out crowd. I’m not complaining about my film’s otherwise virtual roll out, but that Woodstock screening was very special for about 100 reasons. Woodstock has also been super supportive of the film since playing the festival and I just can’t say enough good things about Meira and the whole team there.
What are you working on next? Has your extended time in High Falls influenced your work in any specific ways?
As I mentioned, I have a script set in upstate New York that I am dying to make. I actually want to make it so bad I’ve created two treatments: one, a feature film version and the other, an episodic approach. It’s about an unconventional band is all I’ll say, but it’s really an excuse to capture all the things I love about the Hudson Valley, many of which have not been put to film. Being up here a lot for the last year merely confirmed my desire to make this project and now I’m looking for the last half of funding to get it off the ground. I’ve also started a project called One Minute Interviews that is exactly what the title suggests. I interviewed about 20 people who worked on The Outside Story using that format and I sort of loved the directness and urgency. So, I’d like to pursue that interview series with some new subjects, maybe outside the film biz. Beyond that, I want to see The Outside Story continue its momentum and keep catching on. The launch has been so satisfying after the pandemic delayed us by a year, so I may also take a beat and just try to be present for the film finally landing on people’s screens. So, I’ll soak it up, then go on an epic hike or two this summer, hopefully get invited to a couple barbecues, clear my head, and if I’m lucky, start work on the next feature.
Thank you, Cas! I can guarantee you at least one of those barbecue invites.
The Outside Story is available on iTunes, Amazon and other digital platforms.
If you enjoyed this interview, don’t miss the next installment where I will be speaking to my almost-neighbor and hugely talented author-illustrator Forsyth Harmon about her new novel ‘Justine’ and settling into a life with a view of the mountains.