Over the past four decades Isaiah Zagar has covered over 50,000 feet of Philadelphia with folk art mosaics. A new film by his son examines the personal cost of such artistic devotion.

In a Dream, a documentary on the life of cult folk artist Isaiah Zagar, is one of the most affecting indie films you’re likely to see this year. Directed over the space of seven years by his son Jeremiah, it reveals the deep scars behind his iconic wall mosaics, taking in everything from childhood abuse and suicide attempts to paranoia and marital infidelity. Already a hit at American film festivals, Jeremiah talks exclusively about the emotional hurdles he and his family had to overcome in order to complete it.

Did you ever intend In a Dream to get so personal?

Jeremiah Zagar: I knew that I didn’t want to make just an artist movie about my Dad. That’s boring. I needed something real to happen to elevate it away from that. I wanted to combine beautiful 35mm footage of his artwork with intimate interviews. But there was no way I thought that that realism would come through him splitting up with my mother.

Did you feel guilty filming your parents immediately after he admitted having an affair?

It was a coping method. They were going through the craziest time and I had to be with them anyway because we were picking my brother up from rehab. If I took the camera away from my face I’d just start crying. It was the same when my father and me were in the country and he was talking about the time he tried to commit suicide. If I took the camera away it was impossible to handle that idea. The camera made it less emotional and much easier to deal with.

Surely that’s easier said than done.

Diane Arbus once said, “If I have a camera in front of my face I could let a tank roll over me.” The problem was when I started editing. I didn’t have any distance. The first cut was really angry towards my father, this cut is more balanced – it shows his fucked up-ness but it also shows him in this loving, beautiful light. The first cut was mean, and my Mother was barely in it. It was just me expressing how upset I was.

Is it hard to watch with other people?

It’s impossible for me to watch it in the theatre. It’s been winning awards all over the place, and people love it - this woman came up to my mother in the grocery store yesterday and just started hugging her. The filming isn’t the hard part, the hard part was looking at it over and over again, watching your Mother scream everyday. Literally that part where my Mother screams in the car, broke my heart every fucking day. I want you to gain meaning out of the film, that’s what the movie is for, it’s not for my thoughts, it’s for yours. Hopefully my life has meaning in your life. But watching it is painful for me.

And your Mum and Dad?

They show the movie around Philadelphia. It’s made them stronger. It’s made all of us stronger. They’re more together than they’ve ever been.

© TIM NOAKES

www.hzfilms.com