Celebrating its 40^th anniversary, Outfest kicks off its 2022 film festival in Los Angeles from July 14-24, unspooling 200 narratives, documentaries, short films, episodics, festival favorites, and a total of 42 world premieres spanning every genre and representing 29 countries.

One such film is Unidentified Objects by Colombian director Juan Felipe Zuleta. This dark comedy revolves around the unlikely road trip of free spirit and alien-obsessed Winona (Sarah Hay) and uptight, pseudo-intellectual dwarf Peter (Matthew Jeffers) as they set off across the border to northern Canada hoping to get answers for their own purpose in life.

Wanting to direct since he was 16, Zuleta immersed himself not only in Hollywood and European films, but the big South and Central American directors of the time. But whereas young Korean, French or German film students could study the masters of their home culture, Zuleta didn’t have enough of a local industry to inspire him and made the commitment to leave and find cinematic opportunity.

After initially attending community college in Santa Monica, he transferred to NYU where he finished his film studies. After a stint in advertising, Zuleta connected with a young writer, Leland Frankel, whom he had admired since his internship days at Paramount Pictures, and the two set out to create their own work. First out of the gate for the collaborators is Unidentified Objects.

How important is a film festival like Outfest in showcasing your film?

I think film festivals are incredibly important for independent filmmakers like myself and especially nowadays that it’s more accessible to make a movie. Most independent movies don’t necessarily have big distributors or big investors. It’s a little bit more of a localized scene. Film festivals are pretty much the best way to find an audience, to find press, to find distributors, sales agents.  So we are incredibly grateful to Outfest for making our movie a centerpiece, which is also a big deal. Festivals do champion filmmakers and they do believe in the story and themes in the story they are telling. It can be massive for filmmakers like myself.

Once again, we have two mismatched people stuck in a car on a road trip. Why does that scenario lend itself to good drama?

I think some of my favorite stories tell very intricate emotionally complex characters without necessarily showing a lot.  Ultimately, cinema is a way to connect with humanity and to be able to put yourself in the shoes of outsiders and be an outsider yourself. So, in many ways that limitation of having two strangers that have very opposite perspectives of the world come together in this pink car, crossing a border illegally, and going to the North of Canada to a supposedly alien abduction, it’s kind of like a simple premise and it has a lot of substance to discovering developed characters.  And usually, I am very driven by stories about outsiders and stories about people who in many ways are misfits or who don’t belong. I think this was a very good exercise where we could really dive into the psyche of the characters.

The film centers on these wayward souls, the ultimate outsiders. They are both marginalized, objectified, made fun of and dismissed. How important was it to focus on aspects of people society doesn’t readily embrace?

I think in society, in our society historically, there’s been the status quo, the way things should be and people are. And in some ways, Unidentified Objects is finding two people, because Peter, the main character is not only a dwarf, but he’s also a gay dwarf.  He has intersectional pressure coming from different points of view, from his height, in culture he is just not normal in that sense, the status quo, and then in addition to being a homosexual, which is something that is another circle. And then on the other hand with Winona, who is a sex worker, which is unprofessional, it could be a dignified job, it could be done. So again, that is her perspective on the world, and society in many ways looks down upon those people just because they are different. I am putting these two people where the only thing they connect with is the fact that they don’t belong together. They don’t like each other for most of the story, and eventually, there is a point, there is like a big fight, and then eventually it develops into this very unexpected friendship. That is some of my favorite parts of the story, it’s the reason I told the story, it’s like the alien of not belonging, but also the fact that you can actually become friends with somebody who thinks differently than you. I think those are two things for me that are incredibly important.

Being from South America and coming to the United States, did being the outsider resonate with you?

100%. When you go to a different country, like for me, you get a kid from South America going to Los Angeles, which is a very corporate film industry, and then going to New York and you start making your life in advertising. You are around these type-A advertising executives who deal with million-dollar budgets with clients and everything is very specific, very straight in the way of thinking. Trying to break that mold and trying to fit into a world that doesn’t necessarily see a lot of people like you wanting to lead, wanting to create, wanting to propose ideas and wanting to belong in that sense, is not easy. I think the immigrant story is very much a story about an outsider trying to find a better life. I talk about my characters in Unidentified Objects as people who exist in minimal spaces. They don’t belong here or there, they don’t have a place, they don’t have room. The theme of our story, it’s not just a road trip movie, it’s a road trip movie of crossing a border illegally to the North of Canada, from the promised land to Canada. Thematically, this movie was written during the Trump administration and when COVID began. So, it’s kind of like that dream of a better life, kind of like everybody can relate with.

You wrote on Twitter about the seven guidelines for first-time directors. You said that the toughest part is the business part. How so?

Making a movie is so hard, it’s incredibly hard. The most important thing is to never give up and to really truly find a story that you are never going to give up because you believe in it so much.  What you should prepare yourself for is, to find people that believe in you, and little by little you are going to start adding much more people, and together you are going to become stronger and you are going to add more momentum.  I think raising money or finding investors is not an easy thing to do. You have to network, you have to meet the right people, you have to go to the right places, you have to do the right work, but ultimately what that determines what that is is really just as a storyteller. It’s just focusing on your heart and saying, what is something that I will feel happy that I am doing and that is worth telling? And that passion and that love and that belief in yourself I think is one of the most important things, and to never give up and believe in yourself.