Alex Salam

That’s my guest, Alex Salam, with one of the most riveting reasons to become a filmmaker I’ve ever heard. Given their significant training, it’s practically impossible to do, but I wish we had more doctor/filmmakers in the world. From those that I’ve seen, they’ve produced work that is equal parts precision and creativity, the perfect combination of soul and mind. 

Alex’s film, TWENTY TWENTY (2025) certainly does that — it’s “set over one brutal night shift at the height of the COVID pandemic and shows a very seasoned doctor’s emotional transformation” — and I feel so grateful we have filmmakers like Alex making art. 

In this episode, Alex and I talk about:

• How a medical doctor + film director relates to other filmmakers — are people curious?;
• Balancing his passions for medicine and filmmaking;
• The existential crisis to do “something artistic that is an expression of myself”;
• Whether he’s surprised there’s not more doctors/filmmakers and the quality of stories from the field;
• How his questions about moral character and medicine influence his filmmaking;
• The push and pull of methodical planning and precision inherent in the medical profession and creativity;
• What makes a great short film;
• The subtlety of his film, TWENTY TWENTY, and how he found his cinematic pace;
• The reaction to the audience of its screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival;
• The importance of setting the sense of place;
• What he’s taken away from all of the labs and fellowships he’s been a part of;
• What his representatives at The Agency will do for his writing and directing;
• His next films.

Alex's Indie Filmmaker Highlight: NFTS Sean Connery Lab Shorts

Memorable Quotes:

“What medicine has done for me as a filmmaker, it gives you a good understanding of character and emotion.” 

“You have to be clinically insane to go straight to a feature without having done a short or worked on TV.”

On what makes a great short: “Have a beginning, a middle, and an end to a story.” 

“That’s an advantage…if you’re making a drama set in hospital, it’s a shortcut.”

“ The kind of collaborators that I like working with that are important for me to work with [are] other collaborators who can be a little bit vulnerable.”

Links:

Follow Alex On Instagram

Alex Salam's Website