Local radio DJ Mike Gioscia returns to the director’s chair with his newest indie film, The Last, a story about one man’s quest to save the world from a corporate dictatorship. Set in a desert, The Last features Mars Flavian Blair, played by Gioscia himself, who creates a broadcast hub designed to liberate humans from the World Power Corporation. Giosca joined host Henry Santoro on GBH's Henry in the Hub to talk about the film.
Henry Santoro: Walk us through the plot line. When did you know that [The Last] would have the connections that it has to this crazy world that we live in today?
Mike Gioscia: The Last is a futuristic sci-fi, dystopian-like tale of a man fighting against the world’s last and only corporation. Basically, there’s one corporation left, and it runs everything completely. So, it’s about a man who is alone and isolated, using his last technology that he has to fight against this corporate evil. It absolutely plays wonderfully right now in 2020, in the world that we’re living in, but I actually did write it back in 2013.
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Santoro: Can you tell us what The Last is within the film itself, or does that risk spoiling the plot?
Gioscia: I don’t think so. "The Last" in the film is a drug. Part of the plot of the film is that there is a lot of drug use and mind control, purposely pushed on society by the corporation to relax and to be distracted and to not worry. So, it’s basically a drug that people would take to end their lives but in a “peaceful” way.
Santoro: When you literally have no money to use for an operating budget, that’s probably the biggest challenge of all, especially with a project like this. But what were some of the other challenges that you and co-director Kurt St. Thomas encountered in making The Last?
Gioscia: Everyone is working for free, so you really must work around peoples' schedules. Obviously, they’re being so kind to give their time for nothing, but that means if they have other work or family obligations and things, you really have to work around everybody. So to get everybody together for the principal shooting — which is two weeks in California — and get the equipment and get a little crew who again are putting in 12-hour days just for food and a couple of beers at the end of the day, it’s really just wrangling people and then also getting locations. Normally, you would do it the right way and ask permission and have to pay daily rates for things.
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Catch The Last for free on Amazon Prime Video. GBH News intern Charles Xu assisted with production.
