Austin Film Festival Conversations: Lenny Barszap & Aaron Brown, the Writer & the Director of ‘Home Free’

Writer Lenny Barszap and Director Aaron Brown.

Home Free is an amazing story about what it means to be kind in this world, and it recently screened at the Austin Film Festival. And to fully appreciate the story’s gravity and depth, we sat down with the film’s writer, Lenny Barszap, and its director, Aaron Brown to discuss the film’s incredible messages.
 
John Betancourt: All of my research spoke to this being a film that was based on a true story. So, I am curious as to how much truth is present in this particular tale.
 
Aaron Brown: Oh, man, I would say the entire movie was based, well, this is how we put it like before we, you know, Lenny wrote the script, we sat down and kind of made a greatest hits of every hilarious experience that we could remember from our high school and college days. And then from there, we're starting with this menu of just ridiculous stories by various people in our, in our world. And then, you know, Lenny had kind of a menu to pull from when it came to writing the script. So, you know, percentage wise, 80%.
 
Lenny Barszap: Or more, really. It's really, it's all real stuff. It's just, you know, mashed together in, in a fictional way. But it's, it's all based on real things that we did, dumb things we did. In the very caring and smart thing that we did. But mostly the dumb things.
 
John Betancourt: That’s okay, if we’re talking 18-19, there’s not a lot that I’m proud of from then. (Laughter from all)
 
Aaron Brown: John, I feel like you could have been hanging out with us, and we would have had just a great old time.
 
John Betancourt: I think you're right. I mean, some of the stuff in the movie? Like the pranks? I’m all. “Yeah, I'd have done that.” So yes, very real. So yes, we could have definitely had good times at 19. Um, but with that in mind, what inspired the two of you to come together and tell this story?
 
Aaron Brown: I mean, I'll just say this, like Lenny and I met at camp when we were 12 years old. And it was, you know, we were both coming from small towns where we really felt like outsiders, we didn't fit into the communities that we had been growing up in.
 
Lenny Barszap: We were Jewish in very small towns of Texas. And so, we went to we went to a Jewish summer camp, and we were like, “Oh, people hate you too where you grew up? Oh, cool. Let's be friends.” (Laughter from all)
 
Aaron Brown: So, the camp was kind of an interesting, you know, pivot in our lives where we actually kind of met friends and people like Lenny said, that were sharing the same experience. So, by the time we got to college, we were really excited to kind of be in, you know, be out on our own with just like a core group of, it was about six of us living together sophomore year, in this big, you know, old, dilapidated mansion of a house, but it was super cheap, super rundown, but it was ours. We felt like we had peaked and still feel that way, actually. Still kind of like, the best linear situation I can remember.
 
Lenny Barszap: But I mean, telling this story as a movie. I mean, we were, neither of us studied film, right? Like we were, I studied architecture, Aaron was in communications, but not in film. We both moved to New York after college, and Aaron came home. And he just was like, “Hey, I signed us up for a public access show.” And we have to turn in a short 30-minute episode every week. And we, we don't know how to do. (Laughs) And this was, you know, from 2000 to 2004. So, you know, when we started, we were editing with two VCRs, just like we were, you know, nothing was digital.
 
Aaron Brown: We were probably 21-22 At the time, New York City.
 
Lenny Barszap: So, we were, that was kind of our film school, like, we learned how to like, you know, they were terrible. And then they got a little less terrible. And we did that. But we kind of stopped doing that show because we were working, on not film stuff. But we wanted to kind of come. We knew we wanted to keep doing that in some way. And then Aaron ended up starting a production company, he moved back to Austin started production company. I was miserable at my job and started writing scripts, started writing scripts, just to keep myself saying and eventually we came back together. And we're like, hey, let's start making films. And we ended up at Sundance, we made a short film--
 
Aaron Brown: That premiered here at the Austin Film Festival, Hot Tub.
 
Lenny Barszap: But this before we -- we had just shot it and we went to Sundance because we're like, well, if we're gonna make films, let's at least see what this whole thing is about. And we were hanging out with other filmmakers, and they just were like, “How'd you meet?” And we started telling old stories and this was one story that came out was the story about us. In college, inviting, you know, this former, this unhoused, former professor to crash on our porch and people were like, the reaction to the story was like, “Oh my god.”
 
Aaron Brown: ‘You all should make this a movie.”
 
Lenny Barszap: At first, we thought no. But then we were like, “Okay, well, maybe we should.” like we've always wanted to kind of capture that time period in our life. And so that's, that's where that started. And then we were like, “Okay, if we're gonna tell the story about the professor like, is it a serious drama about homelessness? Is it you know, you know, whatever.” And we're like, “no,” because college wasn't serious.
 
Aaron Brown: I mean, look, when it comes to making a movie about that kind of time in your life, John, the most important thing is that your friends who lived through that shit, find it funny. You want your friends to, you know, laugh, and that was kind of the whole ethos of the time was this, how do you make your friends laugh? It's like, one upping each other and pranks and jokes. And so when we were talking about making the story we were exploring, like, is it a documentary? Is it a drama, it’s pretty serious stuff going on. And we both just kind of agree, we were like, college wasn't that… it was hilarious. It was really funny. Let's be… let's be authentic to the experience. And let's make a comedy. We're comedy guys. Anyways, that's when we lived in New York. I mean, all of our extra time was spent, going to see stand-up comedy and making comedic shows, and things like that.
 
Lenny Barszap: Yeah. And I mean, when things do get serious, we don't we can't sit in that, like we throw jokes immediately at… nothing’s sacred. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it was very, very important for us to, you know, have this be kind of an unapologetic comedy, but that none of the comedy is at the expense of anybody experiencing homelessness. They are not like, it's all the students, you know, abusing each other. But, yeah, I mean, that was just, and also to use that as a way to get people to actually pay attention to this issue, because it's not an issue that people want to pay attention to. It's an issue that, you know… a lot of stuff, most social impact stories, right, people make like these tearjerker sad, you know, really gut punch movies that like nobody, I don't want to watch those movies. Like, I know, I should watch them. And they're all in my Netflix queue, but I just don't want to watch him. So, we're like, you know, can we make a movie that just makes like, you know, if I were like, “Hey, John, you want to go see this movie about homelessness?” You'd be like, “No.” But if I were like, “Hey, do you want to go see this? Funny college comedy, like coming-of-age college comedy?” “Yeah, let's do that.” And then, oh, look, I slip in the Trojan horse.
 
John Betancourt: Well, you did a great job with the Trojan horse. Because I really thought I was settling in for the next PCU, and a P-Funk cameo. But that left turn… well… with that in mind, my next question really leads to that messaging. Because it is there and I have to know, why do you feel that now is the appropriate time to really start having this conversation about homelessness in America?
 
Lenny Barszap: If not, now, when I mean, it's an issue that is all around us, right? And we nobody wants to have the conversation. We all want to walk past it; we all want to just look the other way. And it is, you know, it is everywhere. And it's an issue that we just as a society, we should not be accepting. You know, this is the United States. And we have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people living on the streets. And so, we… we really feel I mean, that was our experience. This was a personal experience. So, we've stayed close to this issue. But we really think that this is the next or one of the next big social issues that our country has to grapple with.
 
Aaron Brown: Let me let me let me put it this way, John. We live in the fucking United States. This is the most… rich… rich isn't the word… we're the luckiest people in the history of humanity, let's be honest with ourselves, we have so much. And there are hundreds of thousands of people suffering every day all around us. And I don't care what their reasons are. And the movie does explore quite a bit of that, because it's real easy to throw an assumption about a massive group of people to be able to make it easy to walk by and ignore. But we're better than that. And it all counts. And all we did was make a little movie about it. We don't, we're not claiming to know how to solve the problem or anything. There are people doing way harder work that we're trying to put a spotlight on, like the Other Ones Foundation, who are rock stars, and they are in the trenches, but they're making it fun, and they're actually doing things that are inspiring us. But my point is, we're better than this. Okay, and we're lucky. Especially, you know, I live in Austin, Texas, Lenny and I went to college in Austin. The Other Ones Foundation and the Esperanza Community are, are based here in Austin, and Austin, to me, I just have, you know, this movie is somewhat our love letter to Austin. I see this as being the start of something much bigger. It's a much bigger conversation. And the fact that it can start happening right here and then kind of spread out. It's a much more difficult situation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York is just so the scope is so big, Austin, it's big, too. But what a place to kind of say, hey, let's actually try to get the artists to get the thinkers to get the business leaders, we have the resources to tackle this thing. Let's, let's stop ignoring it. Let's help let's help our neighbors. That's who we are.
 
Lenny Barszap: Yeah, I think at I mean, the movie, all we're trying to say is like, these are people right? Like these are, I think it's easy for us to, to, you know, we have… it is America, and we do have this mentality of like, you know, pick up your bootstraps. And you know, you should be able to get yourself out of this situation. But we don’t… our society isn't designed that way. Right? Like, once you're in that situation, it's virtually impossible to get out without support. So, all we're trying to say is these are people, and they need our help. Right? And we don't we don't have the answer. We have ideas of things that we think would help but the main thing is just like, we need people to think about this, start conversations and just, you know, it is an issue that universally people will, unless you're a real piece of shit, right? Like, you agree that this is wrong, right? At its core. we all we all agree that this people should not be sleeping on the street. But it's the solution that we disagree on. Right. But let's talk about those solutions. And let's figure out like, how do we move towards a situation that is beneficial for everybody? Right? We can do this. It’s also way cheaper. It's been proven, it's way cheaper to house people than to give them emergency services on the street.
 
John Betancourt: Well, I need to applaud both of you. For putting a message of just being decent and kind into a movie. Especially right now in this climate. The last question that I have for you guys today, what do you each most proud of when it comes to this film?
 
Aaron Brown: You know, it's kind of strange. Having your movie at festivals and with the current situation in the world all over. I mean, you name it. There's a lot of things happening right now that are heartbreaking. But I'm very proud that we spent three, four years of our lives making a dumb comedy that actually has some relevant value to humanity. I mean, look, we're not we're not trying to pat ourselves on the back whatsoever. But I'm very proud that if we're going to make the effort, because it's an insane effort to make any film and yeah, I have a lot of respect for every filmmaker who's ever finished a film. I'm just really proud of the fact that you know, ours is at least entertaining. There's a lot of laughs in there, but maybe it does. I change the perception slightly on how we look at our own less fortunate neighbors. I'm proud of that.
 
Lenny Barszap: Yeah, I mean, I have the same answer, really. But I mean, our movie has already, in our partnership with the Other Ones Foundation, our movie has already gotten people off the street and into stable housing, and some into permanent housing. And that's incredible. Right? And so, we've already done that. And will only… the success of this movie, you know, be it financially, we, the Other Ones Foundation gets 10% of anything we do. So that would help. But also, just like, our goal is really how far and how wide can we get this movie so that it just starts all these conversations, right? So, if we can do that, and just get people to kind of think about this issue nobody wants to think about than that. And if we can make our friends laugh, that is awesome.
 
Aaron Brown: Yeah. And I think we managed to use more curse words in this movie than any other movie ever made. Lenny says we're not even close, but I'm like, it's pretty much no, we did not hold back.
 
Lenny Barszap: If you ask my mom, if you ask my mom, Aaron is right.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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