Can you believe it’s been 20 years since the first season of the hit ABC show “Lost” premiered on television?
A new documentary, “Getting Lost,” showing at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival takes viewers down memory lane and features interviews with cast members, showrunners, and Hawaiʻi’s own Ryan Ozawa.
The film raised over $250,000 through crowdfunding, reaching its initial goal within 24 hours. For any other documentary, that would have been the headline. But last year, new allegations surfaced about a toxic writers’ room — one that some writers and cast members alleged was racist and sexist.
The creators of the documentary decided to incorporate the good, the bad, and the ugly. HPR talked to director and producer Taylor Morden and producer Emily Claire Morden, a husband and wife team.
Taylor Morden said that he had been wanting to make this documentary for the past 10 years, but it felt too soon after the show ended.
“There was this period after ‘Lost’ ended where people liked to make fun of ‘Lost.’ It was the butt of a lot of jokes. I didn’t like that as a fan. And as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, it seemed too soon, and I didn’t want to fight with that,” he said. “And nostalgia sort of flows in these 20-year waves.”
He said there was a sense of community among the fans who watched the show as it was airing from 2004 to 2010.
“One of the big things about it was having to wait every week and talking about it. Everybody was watching the same thing at the same time, in real-time, and all the people who watched it after, no offense, but you missed out on that community and that conversation,” he said.
Originally, the documentary was supposed to be about the fandom, he said.
“Getting Lost”
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“We were like it’s going to be about the fans and we’re going to make this documentary, and it’s going to be cool because it was a cool time. And then you talk to Jorge Garcia, and he’s like, ‘Well, let me get the word out to the people.’ And then all of a sudden, Josh Holloway is interested, and Michael Emerson, and he calls Terry O’Quinn, and by the time that gets out, Evangeline Lilly’s on board, and Maggie Grace, and you’re just like, I guess we’re just making ‘Lost’ now,” he said.
At that point, his wife, Emily Claire Morden came on board. She said one of her favorite parts of production was hearing from the cast about how much Hawaiʻi means to them.
“Getting to sit down with Daniel Dae Kim and Henry Ian Cusick, who still live here and have lived here since the show was being filmed, and just to hear them talk about this place and how much it means to them,” she said, “was so wonderful, makes me want to move here.”
The Mordens almost quit the documentary last year after an article and book came out, alleging a toxic writers’ room. Taylor Morden said that they had already been working on the movie for a year and a half.
“We had a meeting, the producers and I, about just, should we not finish this movie — have we contributed to the problem by building up these people and doing exactly what the book and the article lines out, which is, you put people up on a pedestal, and then they can do no wrong, and then they’re getting away with things that they shouldn’t,” he said.
Emily Claire Morden said talking with Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the writers, helped them move forward.
“He wanted to actually talk on camera and share his story. We felt that that is now part of the story of ‘Lost,’ and it needs to be part of the conversation. So we felt like it was important to keep going and, you know, just tell the full story of the show,” she said.
Taylor Modern added, “It is almost a perfect parallel for the show of ‘Lost,’ because it’s about all these flawed people trying to find redemption, and you see flashbacks, and you see these mistakes in people’s past, and you find out whether or not they can be reconciled, and it’s all open to interpretation, and that’s true in real life too.”
“Getting Lost” will be playing tonight, Oct.11, at Consolidated Theatres Kahala at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are sold out, but standby may be available. The film’s producers said they have plans to screen the documentary in Canada and London, before releasing it on digital platforms by the end of the year.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 11, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
