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Zakary Hori '24

Zakary Hori '24
  • Alumni: Visual Arts Media

What Once Was

Young adult man standing in the street looking hesitant

 

"What Once Was" is a short narrative drama that explores themes of maturity, aging, nostalgia and the passage of time, following a character on his journey of healing and uncovering his old wounds. This narrative draws inspiration from personal encounters assisting family members with moving, as well as revisiting Hori's hometown during school breaks.

One recent, yet powerful memory involved Hori helping with his grandmother's move from her large home to a smaller senior-style apartment, an event that brought together various generations of his family. While such an event was so simple and undramatic, sharing this experience with people he grew up with was just a stark reminder of how often we take these moments for granted.

Grappling with the realization that a physical home no longer offers that same refuge of safety and security can be profoundly disorienting—not just to college students like Hori, but also parents and guardians. During the entire process from writing to directing to editing, his one goal was for the project and story to resonate with others navigating similar stages of life.

Q&A

Fellowship Cohort: Fall 2023

Why did you choose this project?
At the start of the writing process, I wanted to create something personal, exploring my feelings in a raw and cathartic way. In preparation, I watched numerous short films to analyze their structures and aimed to make a project that felt different from the average student film on campus.

As for the subject matter, the themes evolved throughout the process, but I focused on incorporating my personal experiences and emotions into the work. As I neared the end of my time at UC San Diego, I often felt overwhelmed when I returned home and helped my grandma move out of her old house. These feelings of nostalgia, time, growing up and transitioning to the next stage of life inspired me to infuse those emotions into the very fabric of the movie—from every lighting, dialogue, sound, color and costume decision that a director must make.

Now, viewing the film in its nearly finalized form, I recognize there are many mistakes and things I could have done better on set. But considering the circumstances, I’m really proud of myself for seeing it through from start to finish and for believing in myself to pull it off with such a small crew and limited schedule.

How was this fellowship meaningful or impactful to you?
The fellowship gave me so much confidence in pursuing this passion of mine. Previous recipients of this program were fellow alumni of a well-known production club on campus, Triton Television (TTV). I’ve always admired the other creatives on campus, and when I received word that I had been selected, I couldn’t believe my luck.

What future plans do you have related to this work, if any?
I might continue on and try to submit this work to other film festivals. But, to be honest, the results from that won’t matter in the long run. The fact that this started as an idea in my head five or six months ago and transformed into this real short film is the biggest accomplishment I could have asked for. I think it’s different from any class project I was required to do at UC San Diego. The film wasn’t required by any teachers, grades or classes. To me, this was something I needed to make— both as a challenge and a way to capture what I was feeling in the months leading up to the end of my time in college.

At the time the fellowship was given, Zakary Hori was a Visual Arts media major with a minor in computer science. He was a senior producer at Triton Television and media director at Musicians' Club of UC San Diego, with experience working on a variety of film and music-related projects.

As a passionate storyteller, musician, and filmmaker, his film intends to explore the rapidly changing emotional toll of feeling young, being lost, and dreaming big, from the perspective of a guitarist in a particular rock band.