A German film distributor called Störkanal will soon release a special edition German DVD of WEAPONS. I have been sent a list questions to answer for the booklet. Instead of posting all the answers here at once I will answer a single one each day.

Question #5

The topic of WEAPONS is very controversial, so was it your goal with WEAPONS to give the audience with something to think about it or what is your intention with WEAPONS?

I think you always want the audience to leave thinking about something, anything. I suppose the topic of youth violence - specifically gun violence - is controversial because it’s something people don’t want to think about or talk about. It’s ugly to admit that it’s happening every day all across the country. Instead of making a film that gave easy answers or wrapped everything up in a tight bow my intention was to leave the story open ended so that audience members could come up with the answers on their own. When I watch a movie that provides easy answers I feel robbed. I feel like I just wasted 90 minutes to learn something I already knew. I feel like if that’s your intent as a director then don’t even go there. Don’t even try to make a movie about anything ‘socially relevant’ if you’re just going to regurgitate what we all know already. So because I personally hate movies like that if I make a film that deals at all with a tough issue like youth violence I’m going to purposefully refrain from taking any standpoints or making any clear messages. I’m going to let you come to your own conclusions about what the fuck just happened in the past 85 minutes. Every audience member’s answer might be different but that’s what’s cool about movies – each interpretation is on an equal plane. Opening up discussion is more interesting than just saying something and having everyone nod their heads in agreement and move on.