Paul Bojack is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and artist whose work spans film, video, and new media. With a career rooted in bold, thought-provoking storytelling, he has been exploring new narratives and experimental filmmaking. Currently, Bojack is exploring participatory moving image art with Your Reflection/Change of Direction, a project that literally puts viewers inside the artwork.

His feature films have earned praise from publications like The New York Times, LA Weekly, and Variety, which called him “a filmmaker who refuses to play it safe.” Paul’s work continues to evolve at the intersection of cinema and interactive media, inviting audiences to become active participants in exploratory experiences.

We asked Paul about his art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us about your background as a digital artist? How did you get started in the field?

I came into digital art pretty recently. As an independent filmmaker, I made features and shorts but I was getting frustrated with how long the process took to complete a movie, especially a feature. So I started to think about different ways of working, exploring other options. And I came up with the idea for an interactive / participatory project that would become Your Reflection / Change of Direction. And I loved exploring this new medium – it opened up a whole new set of possibilities and it was exciting to have an idea for a piece and be able to finish it in a matter of weeks, as opposed to years. And now, I have 25 pieces and counting in this project.

How has your experience as a filmmaker shaped your approach to interactive art?

Well, a lot of the knowledge I gained as a director helped shape my approach to interactive art – cinematography, editing, voice-over, music, sound design … these are things I’ve leaned on to create Your Reflection / Change of Direction. Also, as a writer/director, I liked taking risks, stylistically or with subject matter or both. So the way I went about making movies probably led me to interactive art, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time.

Your new project literally puts viewers inside the art. What inspired you to incorporate the audience’s own reflection into the experience?

I think in some way this work was a response to feeling trapped by my own image, by the way I see myself and the way others see me. So this started because I wanted to think about myself in a different way, to broaden and change the way I perceive myself, and to delve into both the darker and lighter parts of my psyche. And as I started to experiment with putting myself into moving image pieces, I realized that you could create a sort of language with it and hopefully engage with people from an angle they haven’t seen before. Surprise them, in a way. Cause the beauty of this project, I think, is that ultimately, it’s not about me. It’s only about me when I’m the participant. Otherwise, it’s about whoever is seeing themselves on the screen, whoever happens to be going through this experience.

*Being There - Text by Maria Rewakowicz*

This project was developed in a time of social upheaval and distance. How did that shape the themes and emotions you wanted to evoke?

Certain pieces in this series were definitely influenced by things that were happening at that time. The turmoil, isolation, and anxiety pushed me to create work that was more intimate than my previous work. I wanted to connect with people in a more personal, intimate way.

What’s been the most surprising reaction you’ve seen from viewer’s engaging with this piece?

Some of the pieces in this series are provocative, confrontational, blunt, and I’ve gotten word that some people were offended and angry. I think they felt they were put on the spot and didn’t want to deal with what was presented to them, what they became a part of. Though I wouldn’t say that’s totally surprising, given where our country’s at.

How do you hope people feel after seeing themselves integrated into your work? What questions do you want to leave them with?

As people view and are put inside these pieces, I think they’ll experience joy, wonder, anxiety, sadness, laughter, perhaps some anger too. Also, I hope that people will let themselves go, let their imaginations soar. I mentioned before that some pieces in this series are confrontational and blunt but the others are more oblique, open-ended, and designed to take you somewhere mentally and emotionally – places dark and light.

Those places will be different for each person, based on who you are, your frame of mind and your mood. When people leave the exhibit, I’d like for them to reflect on who they are, and who they could become. And to ask the same questions about people they know and people they don’t know.

Do you see yourself returning to traditional filmmaking or do you feel interactive and experimental media offer a more compelling way to tell stories?

I definitely keep filmmaking on the table cause I love the process of working with actors, cinematographers, editors, sound designers and so on. But it would have to be a situation that’s pretty much ready to go with financing. I think traditional filmmaking and interactive media can both be compelling. It really depends on who’s creating it, doesn’t it. That being said, interactive is super compelling because it’s a new medium, and offers more possibilities and has fewer expectations from the audience than traditional filmmaking. It’s wide-open at this point, a new frontier, and that’s exciting.