After spending many years working as a multi-camera stage manager, production assistant and assistant director on numerous TV shows and feature films, John Aguirre took on the challenge of directing The Utopian Society -- and, miraculously, finished shooting this little independent movie in only eleven days. “I was trying to get a calling card as a director, and this project looked like something with strong characters, which appealed to me,” Aguirre explained in a recent phone interview.

How did he happen to find The Utopian Society? According to Aguirre, while he was working on TV’s Family Law with Paul Haggis, a writer who had penned a short story brought it to him and mentioned he wanted to turn it into a movie. “I had experience with a situation similar to the one in the story, and it looked easy to shoot, so everything made sense to me,” the filmmaker said.   

The Utopian Society, written by Jason Preston, follows six college students (played by Malim Akerman, Kelvin Yu, Sam Doumit, Austin Nichols, Mat Hostetler and Kristen Ariza) who have been placed in the same group and given the assignment to write a paper describing their version of a true utopia. But they have procrastinated and now have only one night to complete that assignment. The movie, which Aguirre classifies as a “dramedy,” emphasizes the interpersonal dynamics taking place among these diverse individuals who seem to have nothing in common except their secrets. “I’m happy this movie was selected in over 40 film festivals and has won so many festival awards,” Aguirre declared.    

Stating that the most enjoyable thing about working on this film was collaborating with the actors and crew, Aguirre added, “It’s a great feeling working together -- and so exciting to tell a story like this.” Impressed with the young actors cast in The Utopian Society, Aguirre pointed out how critical it is to have an audience see them. “It’s important for people to go into Hollywood Video or Blockbuster and ask for this film because they won’t see these fine performances otherwise. For example, Austin Nichols may now be seen in movies like Glory Road and on TV shows like CSI, but I think he does his most unique work in this movie.”

Obviously, Aguirre loves filmmaking. “It’s all I ever wanted to do since I was given a camera in third grade,” he admitted. “I watched all the Walt Disney films growing up. In the seventh grade, my science project was on ‘persistence of vision and animation.’”

Partly because of his interest in animation, Aguirre self-financed, created, directed and produced My First Day, a children’s video pilot (featuring “Buddy Bear”) that’s won several awards and much praise from parents and press alike -- and was recently picked up by THINKFilm to launch their new THINKFilm Kids division.

What’s next for this talented filmmaker? He recently produced a feature film titled You Did What? and is in the development process as producer for Frail, a drama starring Anna Paquin and Brian Cox.

“I have three or four directing projects in the planning stages,” he said. “First is Pretend, a comedy reminiscent of Paper Moon, and I’m hoping to get Dakota Fanning to star along with Sean Astin. Then there’s Women on Top, a sort of Desperate Housewives Meets Entourage movie. Next, Jack of Hearts aka Poker Face, hopefully with Ray Liotta – and finally, Double or Nothing, another comedy.”            

Clearly, filmmaker John Aguirre is on a roll.

(Photo: John Aguirre talking with Austin Nichols on The Utopian Society set.)