Though set both in Tucson and Southern California, the film “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” lives spiritually in Arizona.
“It has a very specific texture to it that I think resonates with a lot of folks in Tucson and around that area,” said Zeshaan Younus, writer, producer and director of “I’ve Seen All I Need to See,” which made its Arizona debut at the Tucson Film Festival.
The feature, which was almost entirely crowdfunded, won best feature at Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, and is currently being signed to a distributor.
“I’ve Seen All I Need to See” follows Los Angeles actress Parker (Renee Gagner), who returns to her hometown of Tucson in search of answers, after the untimely and violent death of estranged sister Indiana (Rosie McDonald). Confronted by her sister’s ghost, the grieving Parker must grapple with her and Indiana’s unresolved relationship.
Renee Gagner is coming off the film “Gazer,” a project that Younus considers “spiritually similar” to his own. The team received countless audition tapes for the role of Parker, but immediately recognized Gagner as a “perfect conduit” for the character.
“I knew she just had this ability to touch the void really effortlessly,” Younus said. “She acts in micro expressions, and this film is filled with microexpressions.”
Rosie McDonald (HBO’s “Hacks,” “Happy Gilmore 2”), who takes on the unquestionably dark role of Indiana, is the “least broody person on earth,” the filmmaker said. “If you ever meet Rosie in person, it’s fascinating to see her be so bubbly, and then see her on screen, and just be filled with the infernal tempest. It’s a remark on how great she is as an actor.”
The “big baddie” of the film is portrayed by John R. Smith Junior (EEPHUS), whom Younus met at a festival called Panic Fest, and in whom the director recognized an innate ability to draw the viewer’s attention.
“There’s a moment in the film, when he turns his character into something completely new with a single gesture, and it adds so much complexity to the character; Things that you can only do with someone like John, who understands how to work in a really delicate space.”
The film is a genre-bending “experimental ghost story,” as Younus describes it, adjacent to the work of David Lynch and Terrence Malick. It also falls heavily into the Noir genre, exploring cynicism and moral ambiguity, and oozing crime and grime without ever diving very deep into that underworld. The plot is told through fractured timelines, as Parker navigates and tries to come to terms with her loss.
“It has this breadcrumb approach,” Younus said, “where we show the audience a wristband, and then we’re transported to the moment where that wristband goes on somebody’s wrist, and we’re in an underground nightclub. We’re switching times and switching emotions, and it’s all kind of interlocking with one another.”
“We kind of experience the cyclical nature of grief through the story of both of the sisters.”
The project exists separately from many of today’s films — films curated, Younus observed, for short attention spans. “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” is full of long takes, as the director has an “allergic reaction to traditional cinematic coverage,” and shoots in a one-and-done approach, rather than employing back-and-forth editing.
The filmmaker sees his ability to experiment as a privilege, which he largely attributes to not relying on the industry to pay his bills, having built a separate career in nonprofit work. He came into filmmaking while serving as board president for Orange County nonprofit The Frida Cinema, where he developed connections with filmmakers and creatives. Younus has been a film buff his entire life, citing film as his “only religion growing up.” Now, seeing the industry within his grasp, he eagerly pursued the dream.
He began with the 2018 sci-fi/cosmic horror short “Grey Canyon,” which screened at an array of festivals, and then expanded that idea in 2019’s “Prefigured.” While taking the short to festivals, Younus met the executive producer who would help realize his first feature film, “The Buildout” (2023). Through the critical success of that feature, he gathered investors and individuals interested in helping fund “I’ve Seen All I Need to See.”
“It’s been this self-fulfilling prophecy, in a lot of ways, that’s maintained its own momentum. I’ve been very adamant about keeping that momentum up and creating as much as possible when I can. And now ‘I’ve Seen All I Need to See’ is going to be out in the world.”
Younus penned the screenplay for “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” while on a winter retreat with his producer and director of photography, and the three of them quickly locked in on the idea. They were set on getting the film made as soon as possible. The team’s ethos is to “not spend a lot of time waiting for us to get in our own way.”
But the true inception of the film came before that, while Younus was editing “The Buildout,” which is a story of a friendship tested by a paranormal experience. Inspired by the on-screen relationship cultivated by his two main characters, Younus wanted to explore this more “minimalist approach to connection,” that is, “what it means to be connected to one-another through space and time, even if you’re not necessarily sharing a physical location.”
Both “The Buildout” and “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” take place in the desert, the former outside of San Diego, and the latter in Tucson. Younus is a self-described “desert dog,” who’s spent a lot of time in Arizona, Mexico, Utah and California. To the filmmaker, the ecosystem is a representation of adaptability and resilience, qualities that flow through his own stories.
“You have these brutally harsh conditions, and you have an ecosystem that’s beautiful and curated to subsist off the bare minimum.”
“I really like how that reflects on the characters that you have in these scenarios. There’s an inherent kind of ruggedness to them, because they’re okay being in the dust, and they’re okay with surviving on as little as possible, and I think that reflects a lot of characters I like to write.”
The sparse landscapes are also free of distractions, which Younus appreciates. The desert forces one to be alone with their thoughts, and to be alone with nature. This quietude is key to Younus’s writing style, to the introspective identity of his work, but more importantly, to the way he likes to film.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where we’re fighting highway traffic and cars and smog and trash. It’s just not something I want to have around me. I’d rather have us hold for an owl, or an insect that’s making too much noise, rather than a semi-truck.”
Tucson had long been on the filmmaker’s radar as a shooting location, as he’d spent significant time in the city and felt it had a liminal texture, a sort of “frequency.” He recalls watching dry thunderstorms and lightning cascading across canyons, and feeling inspired. A member of Younus’s wardrobe team, a Tucson real estate agent, provided several of the film’s shooting locations, outdoor spaces that she considered calming and “special” and “impactful.”
Producing a film in Tucson was “so easy” compared to doing so in Southern California, where shooting pretty much anywhere has become a nightmarish undertaking. Opposed to the red tape of LA, the “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” team was met with eagerness from the Tucson community, vital help from organization Film Tucson, and “flexible and kind” experiences with local businesses. The filming process was also easy, Younus said, because of Tucson’s photogenic nature.
“There’s this really interesting juxtaposition between the natural world and urban sprawl, and they connect in this interesting way where you have a house, and five feet away you’re at a trailhead, and right around the corner there’s another development, and it all feels kind-of intertwined.”
“You’re really privileged in a place like Tucson,” Younus said. “You can literally just turn the camera on and point anywhere, and you’re going to land on something beautiful.”