Conversations with Aiden Keltner

Aiden, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
When I was 8, I got a class assignment where we could write an essay or make a film. I didn’t like writing, so I picked up a camera, and basically, I haven’t wanted to put it down since.

But my love for movies started long before then. Since I was 3, my parents have been showing me their favorite film such as The Lord of Rings, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars, and Ingmar Bergman films. For me, movies were a way I connected with my family, and how I came to understand the world at a young age.

Because my mom is a teacher, she homeschooled me for the majority of my childhood and once I decided I wanted to pursue filmmaking as a career, homeschooling helped a lot to actually get me opportunities at a young age.

I started working on sets at 14, I PA’ed on my first feature film, the Samuel Project, at 15, and then, towards the end of high school, when I was 17, I started volunteering on sets at the American Film Institute (AFI), USC, and UCLA. I was still living in San Diego at that point, so I would take the train and stay in a hostel in LA while working on these films. While I was working, I was also able to attend some of the lectures at these schools.

It was at this point when I was trying to decide which film school I wanted to attend, that I realized that the network you are supposed to get from film school, I had already gotten from working on these projects and the knowledge I was supposed to learn from film school, I felt I was gaining tenfold by working on professional sets and making my own films. The cinematographer I collaborate with the most, Aakash Raj, was someone I met on the first AFI set I ever worked on.

Today, I direct and collaborate on narrative films and commercials in San Diego and Los Angeles.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think as an artist you are constantly going back and forth between high and lows. For me the most important thing is finding consistency in my work through that journey. I do remember one of the moments that was especially difficult for me was when I was traveling back and forth from San Diego to LA and working on sets at different film schools. Not only was it tiring at times, but it was also fairly lonely.

Now I have a strong network in both cities, but at that point, I didn’t really know anyone in LA and everyone I knew lived in San Diego.

Even though I loved working on set and going to lectures at these film schools, I felt pretty alone in a giant city. But the positive aspect of this was it brought myself and my girlfriend much closer together, as I was able to talk to her on the phone almost every night I was there.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Because my father is a psychiatrist and I have close family members with serious mental illnesses and mood disorders, I feel I have a unique voice as a filmmaker to tell stories about those with mental illness and their families that are unknown to the general public.

My recent film, Amazing Grace, tells the story of a mother taking care of her adult son with schizophrenia. To create an authentic portrayal of this experience, I visited different families who have a family member with schizophrenia and since creating the film, I have held three separate focus groups with families across the country.

I am very grateful to have received the Voices with Impact 2024 production grant recently, as I will be using this grant to fund my next film, which will tell the story of a young girl who has a parent with a serious mental illness and the isolation that can come from this.

I am also grateful to have had my films shown and awarded at various festivals and be distributed on PBS’ website.Most recently, Amazing Grace was awarded Best Drama Short Film at San Diego Film Week and received the Audience Award for Best Local Narrative Short Film at Coronado Island Film Festival.

And to all of the people who have supported me in the films I have created, including my girlfriend, Natalie, and everyone at San Diego Film Equipment and many others.