Gareth Leah – No Dreams Left Behind
We had the opportunity to interview with Gareth Leah, the filmmaker behind No Dreams Left Behind. No Dreams Left Behind is an official selection in the 12th annual Utah Film Festival.
What was the inspiration to make No Dreams Left Behind?
Like many people, COVID left me with a lot of time for reflection. Not having so much to do, I would spend a lot of time in the backyard tinkering. Every day when I would head to the garage to skate the miniramp my roommates had built, I would notice the neighbors had an old honda shadow in their yard which had succumbed to time. It had been all but forgotten and was being swallowed by bushes, tree’s, and grass. Wondering how it came to be in this state? I imagined that at some point in time, this was someone’s dream bike, a project which they would have spent countless hours on. So what happened? I concluded that this must be a dream they had given up on. The bike stayed in my mind and life in COVID continued as before.
Several months later, I was finding I had more free time than usual and decided I would fill it with a film project. Speaking with a friend who has a lifelong obsession with motorbikes, we decided that we would build a film around them. On our initial idea attempt our talent and supporters all bailed stating COVID, budgets, and even ghosting. It was disheartening, but I didn’t want to give up. It was now that the idea of the old abandoned bike returned to my mind. What if we could make a film where the bike was not given up on after all, but fixed to live again?
I wrote a short 3 act narrative that focused on an old mechanic who saves the bike and rebuilds it. I searched around for someone who could play the role but I soon realized it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Older people were not socializing in the current climate and finding someone who happened to be rebuilding an old bike near me was fruitless.Speaking with Dylan (Co-director/DP), we realized that the only way to make this happen was to live the narrative myself.
From idea to completion, how did this production change?
From the initial concept, the film took a couple of twists. There’s no faking hard work and elbow grease and so I spent hundreds of hours in the garage tinkering with the bike. Over the next month I would wrench and weld it into a sputtering existence.
What was the biggest challenge in getting No Dreams Left Behind made?
I think for this there were the obvious time constraints of the build, but also that dynamic of working in small teams with limited resources.
What do you think is the most important takeaway from your film?
It’s never too late to realize a dream.
If you could have a do over with No Dreams Left Behind is there anything that you would do differently? If so, what would that be?
With time and funding, it would have been nice to capture more of the build and deepen the story, but for the resources we had available – I think it came out well.
What do you have next in the works?
I just wrapped a TV show with Orlando Bloom climbing in Moab, and I’m finalizing a film that has been in the works for almost 3 years. It’s a unique concept that utilizes spatial and binaural audio to take us on an audio journey with the band Dirtwire in the Utah desert. We’ve been fortunate to partner with Company3 for color and some incredible audio techs at Sound Shepard and BYU to create a film that is unlike anything I’ve encountered before. Other than that, I’m heading to Patagonia for all of January to explore a relatively unknown part of the Turbio Valley and establish a new rock climb.
How can we learn more about you and your projects?
Social media such as instagram is probably the place i post most. Our company website and my photo gallery is also another place.
