Most people who suffer through a tumultuous period of personal turmoil decide to kick back, take it easy and just pull back from the rat race. Not writer-director Hooman Khalili, who dreamed up the idea for his feature film “Olive” only two years ago this month. The independently produced and financed project was shot for less than $500,000 on a Nokia N8 smartphone—yep, a cell phone. The gently quirky family-friendly film stars Ruby Alexanderas a mysterious young girl who never speaks and yet changes the lives of three strangers for the better. “Is she a spirit, a ghost, an angel or someone’s imaginary friend? We leave it open to interpretation,” the director says.
He was inspired by Holly Hunter in “The Piano” and Audrey Tautou in “Amelie,” whose emotive performances were wordless, or nearly so. Khalili was also heavily influenced by “The Triplets of Belleville,” the 2003 French animated film by Sylvain Chomet that sets a dreamy, impressionistic tone with music, song and carefully edited sound design.
Khalili had no prior filmmaking experience. Why tackle such a daunting challenge his first time at bat? He says almost 1000 full-length films were released in the U.S. in 2010. “That’s almost three per day. So it was very important to me to distinguish the film that I did,” he says. “I knew we could do something beautiful with this cell phone.”
But as 2009 wound to a close, Khalili was at a crossroads. “It was one of the worst years of my life,” he recalls. “I was alone and bummed. It was Christmas Day and I was just surfing the internet, looking for something to do.”
He found his thoughts turning to the ever-increasing sophistication of cell phones. “The industry keeps talking about how your cell can do everything. Pretty soon we’ll be at the point where it can do anything we want,” he says.
Research into feature films shot on cell phones proved fruitless, and yet presented a golden opportunity. “I found that I was looking for something that didn’t really exist yet,” says Khalili. “I realized there is something to be said for being first.”
With that germ of an idea, he leapt into action. Khalili knew that Nokia was planning to launch its N8 in the summer of 2010 and saw that his project offered a great chance to promote the device in positive way. Thanks to connections via his day job as part of the popular “Sarah and Vinnie” morning radio show in the San Francisco, he was able to get a toe in the door with the communications giant.
“I emailed everyone I knew,” he says with a laugh. “Someone finally explained to me that Nokia is a company based in Finland! And that approval for filming a movie with their new camera would have to be approved in Helsinki.”
“My contact said there was only a 10-percent chance I would get Nokia to donate their new phone so I could make my movie. But I thought, ‘Why not? Why not take the chance?’”
Months passed and, miraculously, Khalili managed to snag three test models. He and his crew did a camera test in January 2011 and sent it off to Nokia.
“I never heard from them after that,” he recalls. “Not a word. I thought, ‘It cannot end this way.’” And so he went back to his contacts and began making calls, sending emails and spreading the word through his network of colleagues. Eventually, they managed to land partial financing from Chris Kelly, the former chief privacy officer for Facebook. It was enough to jump-kick the project into life.
Other connections paid off handsomely: indie-film legend and Oscar nominee Gena Rowlands agreed to play a role thanks to the dogged efforts of casting director Robin Lippin.
His co-director and cinematographer, Patrick Gilles, plays guitar in a band with Sarah, Khalili’s boss. They had long discussed working together. “Patrick is a real bad-ass,” he says. “You really need someone like him on a project like this, someone who is willing to just dive in the deep end with you.”
While on vacation, Khlali met Lyn Lear, wife of iconic television producer Norman Lear. He learned their son is a musician. And now Ben Lear’s original song “Imaginary Friends” is in contention for an Academy Award.
“Olive” has no distributor—not yet, anyway—and so “publicist” became yet another hat worn by Khalili. Late last year, they quickly realized the deadline was fast approaching to qualify “Imaginary Friends” for Oscar consideration in the best original song category.
The effort took more phone calls, more legwork and more prayers. They needed to have “Olive” play for at least a week to the public to qualify the film for most categories. Eventually, Khalili and Gilles spent $2000 to rent an auditorium at the Laemmle Fallbrook 7 north of Los Angeles because, they learned, a camera operator at that location is a fan of Rowlands. 
“I haven’t slept since April,” Khalili says. “I felt like I was gonna collapse 1000 times just from wearing so many hats. It was an intense battle. But I had a lot of support and an amazing co-director and look how far we got. We qualified for the Academy Awards.”
“So many times, I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I tried 300 doorknobs and they were all bolted shut. I just kept trying until one of those doors opened.”
“Olive” has also played at the iconic Nuart theatre in West Los Angeles. Khalili is seeking to have his film become the first feature shot on a cell phone to receive nationwide distribution.
“Do you want to know what’s really funny? The N8 is already obsolete,” says the filmmaker. “In the two years since I thought up this idea, using this piece of brand-new technology, the market has already moved on!”
“There’s already something like 40 films in production that are being shot on cell phones. By the time we get our distribution deal, who knows what people will be able to do with their devices.”
CLICK HERE to watch the first five minutes of the film.
CLICK HERE for the official “Olive” website.
To watch and hear “Imaginary Friends” on YouTube CLICK HERE.
Ben Lear official website: http://benlearmusic.com/
CLICK HERE to watch “The Triplets of Belleville,” via YouTube Movies: