Aaron MacCarley

Documentary filmmaker producing a film about civilians supporting Ukraine during the war — on dangerous warfare zones, love for animals, deep appreciation for Ukrainians, living in Europe, and how it all began

Watch on YouTube macgnarly.com
Want to grow your brand with video marketing?Check our services →
1 hour
Documentary · War in Ukraine · Animals · Europe · Filmmaking

About the Guest

Aaron MacCarley — Documentary Filmmaker, Traveler, Animal Lover, and Avid Reader

Aaron MacCarley is a documentary filmmaker currently working on a project that may be one of the most important films being made about the war in Ukraine right now — a documentary about the civilians who have chosen to support the country in the face of a full-scale invasion. It is the kind of story that only gets told when someone is willing to go where others won't and spend the time it takes to earn people's trust.

Aaron came to Ukraine the way people who belong somewhere eventually find their way there. He had lived across Europe before landing in Kyiv, and when he arrived, something clicked. Serhii Beverly met him at a networking event in the city, and within a few conversations it was clear that Aaron was exactly the kind of guest the Be Yourself Podcast was made for.

Who He Is
Documentary filmmaker, traveler, animal lover, and avid reader. Currently producing a documentary about civilians supporting Ukraine during the war — a project that took him into active warfare zones and deep into the lives of ordinary Ukrainians.
His Project
A feature documentary about the civilians who have stepped up to support Ukraine during the full-scale war. The film is being produced from inside Ukraine, with Aaron traveling to some of the most dangerous parts of the country to capture the story.
His Path
Aaron lived across Europe before making his way to Ukraine. His experience of building a life across borders — and eventually landing in a country at war — gives him a perspective on people and place that is rare and hard-won.
The Connection
Aaron and Serhii met at a networking event in Kyiv and connected immediately. After a few conversations, the invitation to the podcast felt inevitable. This episode is also the first in-person recording in the history of Be Yourself Podcast.

Episode Chapters

0:00 Introduction 0:32 About Aaron 4:18 Inspiring Stories 8:10 Sunflower Scotland 9:54 Ukrainian Unity 15:31 Funding 4x4 Vehicles 18:33 Henry Johnson 21:35 People in Ukraine 27:46 Berlin 29:16 Clubs in Berlin 31:16 Finding Your Passion 32:51 Becoming a Writer 34:46 Becoming a Filmmaker 36:47 Studying Philosophy 38:47 Writing Scripts 40:45 Moving to Europe 42:45 Film School 46:45 Working in Berlin 48:53 Short Videos 50:51 Trends Discussion 52:45 What Have You Read Lately? 58:49 Homage to Catalonia

Key Quotes

“
there are civilians in Ukraine doing incredible things very uh you know risky or you know generous like going above and beyond what any person usually does for their country their fellow man
Aaron MacCarley
“
it's not just suffering here it's not just you know one you know catastrophic event after another which does happen but that there's also you know stories of light of goodness and of people doing really incredible things
Aaron MacCarley
“
despite having you know being woken up today at 4am uh by Rockets exploding in the air I still wouldn't go back to Los Angeles if someone offered me a free ticket not at all I think this place is quite a bit more fun uh more vibrant cheaper better people
Aaron MacCarley

Full Transcript

BTW: This episode of the Be Yourself Podcast is produced by Beverly Media. Want a podcast that looks and sounds this good? Check out Beverly Production →
0:00 Introduction
Serhiy hello everyone this is Sergey with the be yourself podcast where I talk to people who I admire for being unapologetically themselves today my guess is Aaron McCurley who is a filmmaker in Ukraine filming a documentary about our Warriors about our people and today I'm in his home so Aaron thank you so much for a pleasure to be on your podcast Thank You For Fighting me my pleasure uh so straight
0:32 About Aaron
Serhiy away let's start by just short introduction can you tell us about yourself how long have you been you've been in Ukraine and what's your mission over here
Aaron uh sure yeah well I came here in February um I'm originally from Los Angeles though born and raised um but last seven years I've been living in Europe and a few different countries Portugal Spain Germany and finally you know last year I was living in Spain and when you know February 24th Invasion happened um I'd already been you know pretty uh in tune with Ukraine what was happening you know not an expert but uh certainly following and the supporter of you know the movement here to you know win the war and I became you know very much um well the desire to do something happened very immediately and you know I began thinking what could I do um as a foreigner but someone who you know lives in Europe and has experience with other cultures uh you know what skills could I bring to the table and uh I'm a filmmaker so you know I began thinking like okay what kind of story could I tell and I kind of knew as someone you know trying a feature film for the first time and without a huge network of you know Big Industry or big media Network behind me it would be very difficult to tell like the front line military story and again that's what I saw you know the media already saturated with and I think there's good reason for that obviously the military is the focal point of the war um but I became very interested in trying to find out what life was like for civilians in Ukraine and it was very very hard to actually find footage or video of this yeah but I did find like a lot of written articles and you know obviously volunteer organizations you know some Instagram pages and such and uh kept diving into these and saying like wow there are civilians in Ukraine doing incredible things very uh you know risky or you know generous like going above and beyond what any person usually does for their country their fellow man and I decided like this is March 2022 I was like that's that's the story I should be telling and I think that's very important to tell because the world you know outside of Ukraine needs to see that there are people in Ukraine that are you know risking everything and doing their all to you know help their army win the war and to help other people survive and people need to see that there's not just suffering here it's not just you know one you know catastrophic event after another which does happen but that there's also you know stories of light of goodness and of people doing really incredible things um better you know really inspiring at least I was really inspired and um so that's when I you know started thinking like I was doing this master program but I was like after that I'm getting I'm going to Ukraine or at least you know I'm going to make every effort to do that and this is the story I want to tell so uh that's how I how I got here um and uh yeah it's like if you want to know more about my childhood I could go into that but I don't find it terribly uh you know out of the ordinary for an American
4:18 Inspiring Stories
Serhiy first of all thank you for doing this I did my hap to my tip I took my hat to all the people who um without proper even real understanding what's going on they still risk and go and uh you do a great job by covering and you know spreading the truth about what's going on uh so um you are focused not only on the worst but civilians as well and volunteers and volunteering organizations that helped the Warriors um on this on the subject what have been the most inspiring stories if you can just point out some organizations or some people that you have worked with
Aaron a bunch you know um I think one of them that really inspired me and that we've been in contact the most was a Ukrainian girl about 27 28 um she was living in Brazil for the last seven years and you know had her life settled there everything was going well uh but as soon as uh war broke out she was decided that she didn't go back and not just go back and you know stay and give and uh you know there's plenty to do with kids that people are doing and that's great but she wanted to go to barcode and you know the most dangerous areas and she's not Embark boot now honestly that's pretty closed off but they're still out there in chromatars can we film them doing evacuations uh going to places that are actively shelved and you know helping uh old folks animals and you know anything in between anything they can do and it's not just her there's a whole Community they're called Bassy way and they're really incredible people it's really you know one of my favorite experiences here uh you know despite it being in Carnotaurus and being shelled uh every night uh hit by rockets and not us particularly but the city yeah it was still an incredible experience just seeing what these people do and how committed they are to their work and you know there's Patrick who's from Germany who you know same as because then it goes to these areas helps evacuate um and many other people there that you know put themselves on the line just to help people and they don't get paid I think like there's interesting um experience we had on one of the evacuations where the woman evacuated was apparently under the perception that volunteers get paid a ton of money um something from Russian propaganda perhaps I'm not really sure but that was her perception and they don't get paid in anything they're doing everything that's why they're volunteers volunteers exactly I mean it's kind of in the name but uh you know it's weird the what Russian propaganda can make you think I suppose uh but anyways their whole story and you know their generosity and letting you know just film Crews come in and like invade their lives uh but like totally willing to take us to you know the danger areas and but making very sure we were doing an improper in a safe way is really really inspired by them and um I wish to go back and film them some more because of everything they did was just so incredible to me and um yeah but that's just you know one of a number like one of the groups I first connected actually wrote into Ukraine with them they're called sunflower Scotland and it's chaired by a man named Oleg Demetrius and he lives in
8:10 Sunflower Scotland
Aaron Scotland now but he he's a businessman but when this happened he decided to use all his resources to you know fund this charity that takes you know massive amounts of food or at least it did at the start but it got smart because taking food into Ukraine was actually he discovered not very ideal at all when you had plenty of food in Ukraine and you could support local business and so he's adapting where you see with um you know maybe some of these uh I don't know like Global ngos I guess I won't name any but um they still under the impression that like leviv needs trucks of food uh levit does not need trucks of food um they have plenty there and it's rather safe but Oleg and his team they go to in places and the karaoke region we went I think 10 kilometers from the border of Russia to tiny little village I was like one of the coldest days of my life but uh back in February but it was really like inspiring to see like how these people they really needed food because that area had been cut off from normal Transportation there's no you know shipping trucks out there there's no Novus down the street yeah it's just a village and they're really reliant on Aid and seeing how you know thankful The Village the villagers were just to have you know a bag of basic necessities uh to me that's pretty incredible
Serhiy especially when you think about the people who are living their life in other countries as you mentioned in
9:54 Ukrainian Unity
Serhiy Brazil and this a leg guy and that speaks so much to our Unity you know and um myself and as a Ukrainian I I can tell you that before the war there is a phrase in Ukrainian it pretty much means that like you deal with your problems I deal with my own yeah and deep inside I never Associated myself with this and I think none of us did I think this is like the heritage of the Soviet Union like even though it's considered like this commune-based thing this like you know and and uh the way we come together is so inspiring and it's something that you know they said about courage then courage is not being afraid of nothing it's actually being afraid by but do do it anyway and uh I I just felt like when shit hit the fan that you know we should unite and we should you should we should be uh you know join forces to beat this whole thing yeah and um so have you have you felt a real danger have you felt like the places where you went because I saw a picture of you in this area looked pretty pretty and then frightening so uh did you yourself feel a bit afraid being there or were you with all these people you felt totally safe that you were like yeah
Aaron well there's a spectrum right I mean most of our stuff has been in Kiev but in the you know Don bass area in the regions there were a few moments um where you know you start to feel like okay there could be a rocket or such and such uh I'm you know one of these kind of like nuts who you know doesn't necessarily freak out when you know I hear a rocket hit the city but when I did get afraid was we actually were able to like fund a four by four and take it to the zsu yeah and um you know kind of as a thank you or what have you the military guys that we donated to um took me on a ride through chassis vyar uh as it was kind of like uh you know ongoing shelling and Strikes and that was that was an experience I mean that's one of those where you're like wow this this is real uh you see you know fields on fire that you know had just been shelled minutes before or you know you're just hearing the constant thought of outgoing and incoming artillery uh you're seeing military vehicles of all types um but again it was also one of the most like moving experiences because I got to talk to a bunch of soldiers and uh you know they're just you know really generous and worn people despite everything they're going through and to me that gave me a lot of strength like even in this area where it's like you know anything could happen uh these guys are just like there and they have to go through this every day and their courage and you know bravery makes me feel you know a lot stronger too and that was like a very meaningful experience to me just going there and I would definitely do it again despite you know the risk it's so it's contagious so this is courageous courage
Serhiy as I think about it that actually what gave us praying yeah the um political will you know uh you know the way we stood our ground yeah and the uh in the in the like first weeks or like into a month into we had some soldiers dancing with their power gas with their guns yeah videos like that that motivate you they're smiling you see their beautiful wives who are talking to them I mean that's so moving yeah yeah
Aaron no I mean that's how you know I really first got interested in Ukraine was by watching that film uh winter on fire I don't know if you've seen um but you know an incredible documentary from my point of view just when I saw that I was like this must be the most courageous people like in the world like to stand there and you know drawing arms and sing you know the national anthem as I forget the the bakuch or something or shooting them the the police force that was there I could be saying that wrong but in any case you know there's a lot of civilians uh being hurt or even killed and they didn't give up and yeah to see that it was just it's so moving it's the only documentary I've ever cried watching I've watched some weird stuff I was like this is something else like that's when I really decided like if there is something that's going to happen there like I want to you know help these people uh because they they must have something else
15:31 Funding 4x4 Vehicles
Serhiy you mentioned that you funded four and four vehicle for our Fighters yeah can you tell about this initiative that you have the funding one because I know that you're involved in that one for that one and and also if you have some other ones
Aaron yeah uh I mean it's rather simple actually it's mostly just my family and you know my father is in Los Angeles and um you know I had just been to uh uh where was the concave with the sunflower Scotland and they had delivered their own 4x4 on that trip or it was actually a van um to one group and the way all they did is very smart like it wasn't a ton of money right like he finds very high-end uh like used car vans and trucks in Scotland so they have the advantage of also having the steering wheel on the other side which apparently a Ukrainian troops like quite a bit because snipers were naturally aimed for the driver's position so if they're on there you actually have a little extra safety um but they're also he says higher quality and a better value because 4x4 is within Ukraine the good ones are naturally hard to find because they're you know quite quite needed at the front and it was shocking to me I mean as a Westerner kind of you know fluent in how Army looks over there it's my father is also ex-military uh it was shocking to me to see some of the vehicles that uh soldiers needed to take you know to the front lines like there's a lot of private vehicles that have to be used because Ukraine did not have a fleet of its own Humvees um or you know ATVs prior to you know recent recent times due to you know contributions um a lot of soldiers had to take in private Vehicles not very good conditioned ones and certainly not Vehicles meant for battlefields absolutely um or even rough terrain and I was driving on some of that terrain and car key region and it's like it's a yeah Bounty ride it is not a you know nice asphalt road um so anyways when that happened I you know spoke to my father and said hey can we you know as a family pitch in and you know instead of doing such and such with this you know your old car that you want to fix maybe we could make a contribution uh together to you know the zayasu because they really need it this is you know life or death for some of them perhaps and um so through contributions of a few of us we were able to pitch in and with the help of Oleg from Sunflower Scotland he bought he found the car in Scotland uh took it over here uh got it painted and it's got pretty cool painting and I think it's named after uh water that's true yeah
18:33 Henry Johnson
Aaron yeah yeah so yeah one of my one request was like you know hey can you name it after this American war hero Henry Johnson uh for me that was a apropos because he was a guy who volunteered to go fight in France in World War One made sense and no connection to the country um but again showed courage beyond what you can expect of anyone uh like fought off an entire like platoon of Germans basically by himself and you know was recognized as the time at the time as a hero but sadly you know due to kind of racism and yeah basically institutional racism within the states he was never granted the same kind of treatment like Medal of Honor or anything yeah uh back in the 20s or 30s and died at age 32 of facing alcoholism uh and was forgotten for many years TSD maybe or something yeah you know combination of these factors yeah exactly and so it wasn't until Barack Obama's time that presidency where he was posthumously uh awarded a medal of honor but still average American does not know who this is so I felt that was you know an apropos name for the vehicle and um yeah it's still in service over there so you know I'm very proud of that little contribution but uh yeah what about some this flag too you know I donated to the squad in Bak Moot and um you know they sent me this lovely flag with this message uh you fuck Putin yeah and fuck you know death to Russia yeah I quite like it so power to those guys um but yeah in terms of like the funding process right now I'm actually trying to put together like a proper fundraiser um to you know raise additional funds for some of the groups we filmed um like animal shelter base UA sunflower Scotland uh just as you know thank you and to make a little extra contribution because you know what's very little to you know someone in California yeah or what have you could be mean quite a bit to you know an organization here and you know someone who's potentially benefiting as a from a career career-wise from a film I want to give back as much as possible because my mission here is not just to you know document and be neutral it was to actually support and make what contribution I could
Serhiy I know for sure that people who come here they give much more than they take and just for you to know that we we know that as ukrainians um how do you find Ukrainian
21:35 People in Ukraine
Serhiy civilians like people let's talk about people in Ukraine and give and Country in the cities that you visited yeah um well here's the question for you all right Are we more similar with the Americans or we more different and which what where do a similar word do we differ
Aaron Ah that's a very interesting question I mean it's so something I'm sort of investigating as I'm here like this is my second time in Ukraine the first time was in 2021 but it was only like three days that was also one of the times where I was in Cuba and I was like this city is actually great like I would definitely come back here uh and I found the people extremely warm because remember this is August 2021 that I was here and it's still like people very afraid of covid in Europe and the United States especially yeah um I wasn't one of those people I didn't quite agree with the quarantine process I thought it should be you know more of a liberal uh like choose your own path kind of thing where you know if you want to take time up but that's a different issue in any case I came here and people were just like even at that time very warm and like shake your hand like let's hug Let's uh let's go out and have a beer and then I was like wow this is like quite you know nice at this time because I was feeling quite down for much of the you know covet period the isolation is very affecting my mood and mental health and this little respite here gave me a very you know good impression of the country and again since being here last few months it's a very very nice to just you know go out and it's very easy just to talk to a Ukrainian in a way that's not possible in other European countries oftentimes um you know I've lived as I said in a few different ones and of course every country has you know a wide diversity of people but uh as I said you go to Germany and you don't get the feeling like you can just approach you know even another young all the young Germans and just say like hey like you want to you know hang out like sometimes you can I'm sure but there's a different mentality there it seems where it's like yeah um but here are you kind of do like you can you know go to a bar and say like oh hello someone they won't like uh you know they'll be like oh hi you know and they'll talk to you yeah maybe it's just the novelty of being a foreigner I don't know it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts but uh I found people to be exceptionally generous um like there are interesting quirks sometimes I think like for me the most interesting one has been like in terms of communication Norms uh and it could just be like translation uh you know Lost in Translation things but I find sometimes like you know the American Standards uh you make an appointment and your guy comes at a time okay and if he doesn't it's like why'd you fuck up but like here you know for my internet I make an appointment they they called me to make the appointment at 10 A.M I'm like okay you know I'll be here at 10 A.M and they call me at 9 45 like oh can we move our appointment to 4 P.M and it's like well that's not ideal but okay and then at 4 P.M like no one's there and I have to call them they're like oh yeah the guy didn't actually feel like coming uh and it's like weird little things like that where it's like oh okay uh that sometimes happened like it happened with odd frequency but it's hard to like pinpoint these and describe exactly even what I'm talking about right now um but in any case like I feel like there's a lot of similarities between American and Ukrainian culture that uh people don't you know know unless you come here and you speak with ukrainians I think you guys have loved great humor uh which you know is very important to me and there's definitely that you know Gmail like talk about it you know ability to talk to someone that I think is also present in a lot of the states although differs from place to place like for me comparing Los Angeles the average Los Angeles person versus the average kid person in terms of friendliness Kiev wins out any day yeah um especially if you go to somewhere like a nice bar or club that's where it's like the differences amazing uh uh you know if when people say I want to go to Los Angeles I tell them stay away from the clubs like they're filled with people who literally just care about their Instagram follower account or you know how many likes they're getting on their selfies like that's not a myth that's actually like the culture in many of these like high-end clubs and they have no regard for like meeting strangers they will literally like treat you like a freak if you try to just introduce yourself because you know you're not on their level of uh influence or status I've never had anything like that happen in Kiev and you know being you know a fan of techno music I've gone to a few of the clubs and it was just amazing seeing not only the increased quality of music but just the increased quality of people who are there just to have fun and to meet others and to dance rather than to get clout or whatever you know the kids are calling it nowadays to me that's where it becomes very very apparent and I really appreciate that here
Serhiy I'm just getting chills and goosebumps as I as I listened to because I can relate so much to what you're saying and I'm all saying to techno and that's nice yeah more of a on the memorial on the melodic side but before the war we were called like a New Berlin yeah yeah yeah sure and someone
27:46 Berlin
Aaron who lived in Berlin uh I can say give in a way has already surpassed Berlin because Berlin and I hate to say that I am a fan of C I lived there four years okay I speak German uh but it's gotten to the point where it's like it used to be all about like those things I was talking about like we come to dance and enjoy the music but now it's like no no if you don't wear the right like kind of leather pants we're not letting you into the club because you're not part of this you know but it's not like on the fancy side yeah it's more of a like the other freaking the other end of the spectrum yeah like if you show up to the club in Berlin with like just a thong on they'll be like oh you're the right kind of person if I wore this to the club they'd be like what you're normal like okay man maybe I just don't want to wear like tight ass pants that like make me sweating or fear it was uncomfortable uh I just want to dance and enjoy some music like fuck you Berlin and I've never had any patience for that um and here you don't get any of that like you know you can show up or whatever you want
Serhiy that's man that's what
29:16 Clubs in Berlin
Serhiy Freedom actually is it's not about uh you know some kind of competition to wear the weirdest outfit possible at least I don't think it should be yeah but a lot of clubs in Berlin that's the case yeah and um I have a friend who's a DJ actually right now on his path to the international sort of market and I'm kind of helping him he said that um yeah in Germany people don't even bother to change the interior yeah the old a really really used places just because the um there's so many people the clubs don't need to do anything they don't always have yeah parked their house and he said that they party from Monday to Sunday yeah yeah oh my God
Aaron that's scary man it's a lot of Temptation well yeah Berlin has that weird thing of like you know you wake up at eight in the morning whatever day it is and you take the tram or what have you and you see the zombies coming back from the club and it's like you're going to work and there's a kid like um hey buddy you have fun but you're right that's so true like uh the best um lighting I've ever seen at a club was actually here at collider Club collider yeah I was blown away how they did this um and you've seen some closes right to you know a bunch of places in Berlin but they're you're right they don't make an effort to decorate the Interiors yeah in a very interesting way I mean you're looking at like an old Warehouse maybe they put up the speakers and then I don't know spray painted the walls like yeah a lot of cases you know it's nothing more than that whereas here you can tell they put an effort they you know they want it to be an experience and that's awesome man I love that and also just having fucking space that's also the thing I do not like being crammed in to like a sardine house uh you know I actually want to be able to breathe and dance yeah if I go to a club I don't want to pay twenty dollars to be like you know packed in like I'm in the Metro at 5 pm
31:16 Finding Your Passion
Serhiy speaking of finding your passion since this is the name of my podcast be yourself stay yourself but before you do that you have to find yourself all right sure and you said uh before the record uh before the character we start rolling cameras that you've been a filmmaker for seven years so how did you decide to do that was there was there ever a Breaking Point or you know where you said enough of something that you've done before maybe some uh really courageous move that you took I'm just interested how did you find this something that you truly truly love right now
Aaron right now yeah sure uh I mean I never had the long-term job and office because from a young age I understood quite well that you know the nine to five career life was not what I wanted for my life um but it wasn't like I you know was six-year-old and I you know wanted to be a filmmaker I had a lot of different dreams through my childhood but I think
32:51 Becoming a Writer
Aaron things started to coalesce around the Arts uh around when I was like 16 17 and I started you know getting much more into reading again like as a child I've read a lot but then there's a couple years where I was like you know super into video games and then around 16 I was like wait you know I'm stepping back from that I'm kind of interested in new things now and learning about the world um and a lot of it you know some part of it I have to thank is you know very uh you know great teacher I had in high school like Mr Padilla if you see this thank you but I use one of those guys like one of the one a million teachers I was like didn't really care for the typical curriculum and you know just made us read really good books and like kamu was one of them I don't know if you know Albert Camus the French absurdist philosopher um but he assigned his book The Fall which is interesting because it's not even one of Kenwood's most famous works uh it's typically known for the stranger and Mythic Sisyphus uh but he assigned this one and this book had like a very deep impact on me like 120 page book or something it's quite short at 16 years old yeah and uh man this book like changed my life it's like wow people can actually like analyze life in this way but like in a very entertaining fashion and I also started reading some other authors after that like it you know if you get into this it's like a chain right like you find one guy and I would look up like who was like this and then you know you go on a YouTube or YouTube or Wikipedia what have you and it'd be like well this was part of this movement and this guy talked to this guy um but anyways this was kind of a different chain but I started reading authors like Aldous Huxley and
34:46 Becoming a Filmmaker
Aaron um Hunter S Thompson who had very like different views of the world that either I've ever been exposed to and for me that like really inspired me that I also wanted to think about the world and write about the world and so that time I was like that's it I'm gonna you know become a writer um so starting to read a lot and do you know whatever I could to expand my knowledge of the world but again still not a direct path but I knew like I wanted to do something creative at this point and um I also it's probably like one of the lucky last you know generation in the world to have the ability to get a job at a DVD rental store okay yeah which uh you know doesn't really exist anymore I don't know has ever seen one of these um but uh yeah it was a great little place in my hometown and the one the big perk of working there is like minimum wage but you could take out all the DVDs you wanted uh you know after your shift as long as they're available and uh that year or a year and a half probably watched like 200 different movies like the full what I call like Canon of must watch movies I've watched all of those because I was you know decent at school I would get my shit done yeah uh you know by 9 00 pm and then you know uh smoke a little bowl and then watch a movie or something yeah and it was like this is great like also learning so much about culture in the world and so I just I couldn't really decide like all right writing film I like both these things a lot uh but whatever I want to do I want to do it very intellectually and like with a you know deeper uh you know Insight
36:47 Studying Philosophy
Aaron so I decided to you know study philosophy in college okay which college uh it's called read and I don't really recommend it it's a community college no Reed College it's not a community card it's a very quite expensive private school okay uh luckily you know the GI bill for my dad it's like a military benefit paid for most of it but I'm still in debt for that it's like still in debt now 10 years later 12 years later and the Philosophy degree uh doesn't really get shitty jobs either so all in all you know I paid for a really good reading list yeah that's about it in any case I also studied a lot of writing and you know at that point decided somewhere in the colleges that I you know wanted to go to film uh because I would enjoy most after all these classes and such watching a film and thinking about films and I think I still will write book I still like writing but what I enjoyed most about the film process was the social and collaborative nature of it I was quite enjoyed you know because we would do this as kids even in school high school like getting together and just like filming some stuff together yeah and this was not you know for Instagram or YouTube or anything this was actually before those times uh shockingly enough for instant gratification yeah exactly so you would be doing it just to like show a couple buddies like yeah you know it was not something that was going to be published and make you famous or what have you uh but it was just fun it was just good old fun and so I decided like hey wait a minute like I could use writing to write scripts uh because actually you know in my creative writing courses one of the things the comments I got was like oh
38:47 Writing Scripts
Aaron this sounds like it could be an interesting script or movie and I was like oh yeah I was kind of I think more pictorially sometimes yeah um so yeah when that's you know graduated finally and you know all my nice debt then I was like right we got this useless degree costs a lot of money um and I guess I'll go to China and taught English there for a bit okay I came back and then had this period of like bouncing around from job to job for about a year okay just absolutely hating each one of it each one of them and you know all this time I continue reading and uh one of my other you know Inspirations was Henry Miller as a writer who writes also quite philosophically and profoundly and sort of irreverently uh about his life abroad mostly um Paris in the 30s and his books were banned for like 30 years and 40 years and I think if they came out now they would also be banned we've made this weird U-turn in our culture where because he wrote very sexually and like abrasively uh I don't think people like the kids these days would would let it happen which is interesting um in any case I think he's still a profound writer and you know his message was basically like you know do whatever it takes to live you know as you want to live and if you look like in his case want to be a writer and live outside of this American corporate system he's like he packed his bags and just went to Paris and lived there for seven years hardly any money you know dirt poor but the book Tropic of Cancer is kind of how
40:45 Moving to Europe
Aaron you know how that experience unfolded and the you know the joy he experienced nonetheless just by being you know quote free person that had a big impact on me um so I decided to do more or less the same thing yeah and uh you know I had this friend from college who was in Brighton the United Kingdom and that was my connection to Europe uh didn't end up working out in Brighton because it turns out the UK doesn't really want you to immigrate even if you're American hadn't done my research there this is a repeating pattern for me uh but my second choice had been Berlin so you know I look up after reading books instead of reviews on Airbnb yeah exactly uh yeah I'm too busy with my you know creative stuff and then I forget all my logistical problems uh but uh anyways I found it you know take it to Berlin I didn't know anyone there but I was like well why not and I finally made it there and said all right I got my camera I got to you know I got a Visa because you could get a Visa in Berlin quite easily yeah and uh started to work uh from Brighton I ended up you know doing this weird traveling thing of like I went to London and volunteered on this like illegal barge for a couple weeks and then finally from there went to Berlin and you know just decided like just to make it somehow and I found this uh you know under the table you know repair construction job uh for summer uh with this British guy is you know one of my good friends Chris now we stayed uh friends since um and then I found like this brand new
42:45 Film School
Aaron like little film school that was very interesting and it was like a one-year program but it was like you just make as many films as possible and that ended up being like a pretty cool experience just you know not that the you know level of teaching was so crazy high but that you just got to sit down and experiment with not sit down but actually go out and experiment with uh you know these cameras and it's kind of just like a free rental house okay where we would just take out of cameras like go film some random stuff for a week come back we don't talk about our films and the same we save it next week and made a bunch of stuff most of it crap but uh some of it's okay and it's learned a whole lot just by doing it which is what I recommend to you know anyone and from then on like tried going back to LA for a while um working on you know big film sets over there which was good learning experience but by this time I'd already become kind of addicted to the European lifestyle in La just wasn't going to cut it anymore yeah um I couldn't see myself you know driving two hours each day and sitting in traffic and you know hardly seeing your friends because basically the problem in La is to see your friends you're going to have to drive there and that could take a long time people get lazy and then if you drink it becomes a huge problem it's very expensive to get Ubers and it's a very much less social environment and Berlin is quite different in that respect you know it's very well connected publicly and so I came back to Berlin and started you know got the freelancer Visa as a filmmaker and uh just started working on whatever little Productions I could
Serhiy did you uh learn how to do that like the most practice you got from this school that you were filming for for how long did you do that the school yeah the school was a one-year program one year so it was like an intensive almost like in terms of you know we're doing stuff all the time uh so yeah I got a lot of practice to that uh by your camera by that time first that time I had my yeah
Aaron my first camera is like a Canon 5D or something like that Mark II and so with you know that experience I was able to start working on like small low budget things but what also helped on the other hand was going to La and getting that experience on you know very high-end Productions and of course I was working on the lower end of the spectrum like on a big crew I was you know a grip which is like a guy who's helping to set up the lights and such things um but you get to see it firsthand how experts you know experts are doing it and learned a lot like in six or seven months eight months of working on commercials I learned a whole you know like you know I could learn the whole fucking ton and I was able to take all that experience combined and come back to Berlin and then start you know working more as a cinematographer a director sometimes uh editor as well
Serhiy do you fun find do you fund your own movies yourself right
Aaron some of them I mean I have plenty of passion projects um you know that's what any filmmaker has to do if you want to you know start making things that are not so commercial yeah uh but also you know was able to find jobs doing music videos for you know typically smaller artists you know it's not like I'm working for uh you know Beastie Boys or you know that's that's a way out of date isn't it do you even know who the Beastie Boys are uh fight for your right to party bro let's go
46:45 Working in Berlin
Serhiy so um and of ums right you were doing um whatever pop can tube not forever but pretty much uh you were the the writer you were the executor is that safe to say did you work with had you hired people
Aaron oh yeah yeah sure no it's it's different every project you know yeah uh you get hired like as a videographer or versus you know a cinematologist it could be very different in many respects uh like a lot of projects in Berlin so one problem about Berlin is that it's super saturated with Freelancers you know if you want to get a job uh like freelance job you're always going to be underbid by someone else by nintendent yeah someone and uh so for me that was always a frustration as I felt like I was working for less than I should yeah because otherwise they say like oh you don't want to do it for uh this price well we found some kid who he's gonna do like eight hours of work for 60 Euros and you're like all right like it's like what uh but that happens all the time Berlin like I've seen plenty of Productions that are like oh we'll reward you you know it's a classic exposure and you know a donor kebab and it's like oh great like yeah thanks for feeding me well
Serhiy if in basic we were here now in Ukraine we have you still follow on something that started back in 17 when you were working in this DVD rental shop and and you still as I believe read a lot write a lot and I know that we should always kind of refill our brain with knowledge and that you're just the testimony that you learn yourself and you also put it into action that the best way to learn actually
48:53 Short Videos
Serhiy um in current in our day and age as you as you mentioned that you prefer to watch what movies and read books in our day and age people especially the newest generation prefer to watch 50 seconds videos and read three lines of uh to get to get all the wisdom in the world yeah like will you ever start producing short short videos um do you think that it's ever possible to cram the knowledge into into this kind of a really really short uh duration right and what do you think about the uh Trends nowadays in general
Aaron ah yeah these are good questions uh for sure uh to answer the first one do I think so I mean I have I can't say I've you know completely abstained from the real business because sometimes you have a small little idea and all it requires is a short little yeah 20 second thing or 30 seconds whatever it might be and okay yeah I'll put that together um but as a whole like I never wanted that to be a career because look I think those things that can be fun but if that's all you're in taking you're you're missing out on you know all the value of something that's
50:51 Trends Discussion
Aaron created with a lot of vision and preparation and depth you're missing out on a whole lot and say what you you think but I don't think there are very many if any like reels that will be remembered in even two years time to say nothing of like 10 years time whereas we still watch films from the 40s 50s even before 60s any any era films that really matter and we still watch and care about books from hundreds and thousands even thousands of years ago we still read uh well at least some of us still read and that like leads me to the trends discussion which to me is one of the frightening part about what is happening especially but you know especially amongst the youth but also amongst My Generation each generation I mean I see it even with my mom um that's time that used to be spent watching a film or reading a book yeah is now subjected to the scroll you know the Doom scroll yeah and I don't want to claim that I'm immune because I see myself doing it sometimes because these things are addictive and people have to really realize what they're doing to their brains and I don't think they do yeah and it's not just like you know the scrolling that's the problem it's all the you know opportunity cost that's what I think people don't think about
Serhiy people just flooded with so much data constantly
52:45 What Have You Read Lately?
Aaron because you know if I'm on a date one of my you know go-to questions is like what have you read lately and I'd say 90 of them the people I asked that question to don't even have an answer because they don't read and usually when I say why not it's I don't have time and that's to me the most bullshit answer ever it's not that you don't have time you know it's that you don't use your time for that yes sir uh you know you're gonna tell me you're working like 16 hours a day in a factory job and then you have to you know sleep six hours like it's you know 18.99 no that's not your life like you work at the Starbucks or whatever and you work a six hour shift and then you spend six hours on social media yeah and then you eat dinner maybe you go to the gym and then you go to bed uh that's why you don't have time don't have you don't make time and I mean that's just one level of you know the latter there it's like also even if maybe someone has time if they're really addicted and this is I don't know but I think you know there's a lot of studies that have been coming out in the last years and showing that these really do have a profound impact on your ability to concentrate yes uh so even say you did try to make time it might be more difficult and I've found this myself after you know uh studying a few you know weeks away from a book which I try not to do ever but it's happened uh you know naturally you're using your phone when you come back to the book it's harder to stay in it yes and you have to retrain your brain not to want to like get out of there you want an instant dump them in all the time exactly it's that dopamine trigger that's you know harder to come by if you're used to it coming every six seconds or what have you and I think this is going to have profound impact on people in general in the future and I think there's a lot a great lack of discussion about it because it could be all art addicted to these platforms and I hate to say it myself but I'm on them because my job kind of forced me into it people kept asking me for an Instagram yeah and I didn't get it until 2020 or so because of covet I was bored as hell um you know and I wanted to you know put myself out there try to get whatever response I could and now I'm just kind of stuck in this where I do find myself sometimes like you wake up and you look at the phone and there's some kind of notification and then you open something and then you find 15 minutes later what what just happened you're never getting this time back yeah it's like what did I just look at no I didn't even know and I was like man I used to you know never have that problem yeah I used to spend about an hour each morning just reading uh and I hardly do that anymore and I really you know bothers me and one of my hopes is that when I finish this film I can just delete all of them for a while and just kind of see what that was like again because man it was I remember a beautiful feeling of not having to be controlled by your phone yeah and you know I don't know if you know of the American writer Henry David Thoreau but he's one of these writers who wrote one you know tone that's Timeless called Walden and I think everyone should read it now because his whole premise was disconnecting from society and this was in the 1800s so it was way before films uh but you still want to disconnect and live by himself in the woods and one of his quotes was we have become the tools of our tools and yeah that's so apropos cyborgs yes this is an extension yeah yeah it's like are we using it or is it using us you know it's like and I I you know have to concede all of the benefits like yeah someone could say to me well then why don't you just throw away your phone well fuck I still have to work you know I still I still like the ability to contact someone when I need them you know not having to go to a pay phone is pretty cool yeah but uh like you're also sacrificing we are sacrificing a lot for that absolutely and I think as a human race we have to think about you know do we want to all become like Mindless scroll machines or should we try to like back off and maybe encourage some other things we used to do a little bit more um that's at least what I hope
Serhiy great I mean wisely why is the poet I feel like um it's a rabbit hole and um but on the bright side on the bright side people like you people like me now we are creators and for all of us for all of you guys listening uh just for a change try to not only consume but create if you need to be on your phone on Instagram or Tick Tock try to create something create some meaning or contribute into other people's lives by maybe sharing your experience not the stupid video of you uh you know jumping from whatever
Aaron yeah I think that's a very valid point uh just you know that I didn't bring up I mean it is enabling a lot of creators to be seen that prior hasn't been seen and that's a benefit uh and it's hard to talk like black and white on these things yeah because of course like even with what's going on in Ukraine now it may be very very different didn't
58:49 Homage to Catalonia
Aaron were we not to have you know social media um if we couldn't see what was happening directly I don't know if the support would be the same yeah um I'm reading rereading one of my favorite books right now uh it's by George Orwell it's called Homage to Catalonia and it's about his experiences volunteering uh in the Spanish Civil War and one of the things you you hear is constantly is basically no one outside of staying knew what was going on at all yeah or cared except like you know very political people because it was a very political war um and that was due to the mechanics of the time if you only have a newspaper and you can only the only information you can get is what the newspaper wants to tell you and there's no way backing or checking on that yeah there's so much misinformation that's why his book is considered actually one of the best sources because he was actually there and wrote critically of both sides which is very rare back in the you know 30s um so yeah I'm not saying there's no good in social media yeah but I have to pick it white but pick wisely how you how you use engage with it yeah
Serhiy um as we close maybe you can share some I don't know message to the ukrainians to the people around the world um maybe something that you want to promote something that you're involved in just to just some just some last word from you I'm sure
Aaron yeah let's see what there's a lot of things like I'd like to promote I mean I think my message to ukrainians is that you guys are really inspirational uh people around the world do care and are following this despite what you might read occasionally of people being you know Swept Away by Propaganda or Fox News or what whatever it might be a lot of us in the United States and Europe are really do care and want to see Ukraine uh win this war as soon as possible and are blown away by your courage and bravery and me being here I feel definitely that way uh it's been you know quite an experience but a heartwarming one uh just to see what people have done and are doing for their country um so thank you and thank you for the warm reception and I mean to everyone outside let's say like Ukraine is a lot more beautiful than you can imagine if you haven't been here like this city is actually one of my favorite places in the world and despite having you know being woken up today at 4am uh by Rockets exploding in the air I still wouldn't go back to Los Angeles if someone offered me a free ticket not at all I think this place is quite a bit more fun uh more vibrant cheaper better people and you know Ukraine deserves all the support we give and more because this needs to be preserved this will not be preserved if Russia uh takes over any of it and thank heavens to the ukrainians who stood you know and defended Kiev uh on those early days because that was a miracle in many ways so you know power to you guys
Serhiy yeah thank you man thank you
Aaron all right my pleasure

From this episode to your show

Documenting like Aaron?

Aaron films civilians in wartime Ukraine. Documentary work deserves editing and distribution that match its weight

Like documentary storytellingCinematic Videos

Cinematic trailers that bring your documentary to a wider audience

See cinematic work →Like getting it seenYouTube Channel Management

We run the YouTube channel that distributes your films

See management →Like stories that travelShort-Form Clips

Short clips that bring people to the full documentary

See clips →
S
Not sure where to start?Talk to Serhiy, the host of this podcast. A free 30-minute call with a growth plan for your show, even if you never hire us
Book a free call →

More Episodes

Ahmed Elnaggar: Building a Business in Dubai →
Alex Andorra: The Selfish Method That Built a Top 1.5% Podcast in a Tiny Niche →
Allan Langer: How to Sell Without Being a Salesperson — Authenticity & Customer Experience →
Anastasia Osypova: HR Expert on Career Change, Tech Hiring & Why Communication Decides Everything →
All episodes of the Be Yourself Podcast
Want to be a guest on podcasts like this one? Meet our podcast booking agency