Alex Suszko (Independent Filmmaker)

Alex Suszko is an independent filmmaker in the Twin Cities.

A native of Stillwater, Minnesota, Suszko enjoyed growing up along the Wisconsin border, unencumbered by the strains of the big city, blissfully at ease with the predictable, middle-class suburban comfort.

“I had all of the things you could want,” Suszko says of his childhood.

As he developed into a teenager, Suszko became more disagreeable, exhibiting characteristics of someone who avidly railed against the status quo.

“I liked to antagonize people for the entertainment value I got out of seeing their reactions,” admits Suszko, an intentional contrarian who routinely clowned his teachers, even if he agreed with what they were saying.

“I would do it for the amusement factor.”

At the same time, unlike other budding youth who antagonized through humor, Suszko was devoted to his studies, namely art and cinema.

After graduating from high school, Suszko shifted to The Badger State to study film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Raised in a town of roughly 20,000 people, Suszko needed time to adjust to Milwaukee’s frenetic pace, and the university’s unidimensional approach to teaching film.

“The film department had a very one-sided way of viewing the world,” Suszko contextualizes, although despite their differences in opinions on several film philosophies, he still holds his former professors in high regard.

In that sense, it’s not that Suszko thought he knew better than the academics, but rather he thought there was a different approach he could take to his artistic pursuits.  

“From a historical perspective, the best films break all of the rules,” contends Suszko.

“A teacher is not going to teach you to break the rules. They’re not going to teach you to come up with an original technique because if they knew of something totally original, they would come up with it themselves.”

Suszko adds:

“But that’s not a knock on professors. It’s just a reality that transcends all mediums and disciplines of art.”

In examining Suszko’s past, it’s actually quite clear how the Stillwater native quickly defied convention and disregarded the expectations that others placed upon him.

For context, in high school, when his classmates were going to football games or throwing parties in their parents’ basements, Suszko was absorbing classic films, ranging in era from the silent Charlie Chaplin films of the 1920s, to the culturally defining Kubrick and Hitchcock movies of the 1960s.

“I grew up on those types of movies,” Suszko shares.

“And in particular silent films taught me how to show things visually, instead of relying on music or dialogue to convey a theme.”

This helps explain today why many of the local cinephiles in the Twin Cities automatically connote Suszko’s name with cinematic originality, most notably in the way Suszko’s characters are filmed in extreme closeups that force his actors to react in ways that perhaps they have never before.

This tendency on Suszko’s part is a far cry from the modern redundant blockbusters that rely on CGI and tacky dialogue to captivate audiences who in years past would have demanded more from Hollywood.

Yet, despite major studios showing a reluctance to challenge any previously established norms, Suszko says he will still watch some of the movies they produce, if only to remind himself of what type of films he actively detests.

“I think you have to have that range in order to decide what it is that you want to make as a filmmaker,” notes Suszko, whose 2023 feature-length film Dolwa has been nominated for numerous awards in five separate film festivals.  

Dolwa, a 100-minute movie about three women whose lives intersect as a mysterious moon passes by earth, is Suszko’s biggest production to date, and while he is grateful for the praise the film has garnered on the film festival circuit, he is quick to point out that it takes a talented team to create a riveting film, and that many young directors don’t always have the support in place when it comes to spearheading a film from pre-production to final cut.

“It’s easy to message a friend and ask him or her to act in a film, or to ask someone to come run camera,” Suszko says.  

“But those people might not be the ideal fit for what the artistic vision requires.”

Suszko then adds that often a filmmaker and his crew are not on the same page, directionally, and as a result, the entire movie suffers.

“Sometimes the cinematographer doesn’t really know what the director is looking for because the director doesn’t know how to articulate what they want,” Suszko explains.

“Therefore, finding a team that is on the same wavelength that you are is critical, but that can also be extremely difficult to find.”

And then there is the matter of finances, or lack thereof, which on the surface might be a reliable predictor of just how much a director can implement their artistic vision, but Suszko believes that budgetary limitations also can propel a filmmaker’s career into the next strata of self-development.

“What I’ve come to learn over time is that you almost find greater creativity when your back is up against the wall,” Suszko says.

“Not having money has also led to some of the best artistic decisions I’ve ever made, and I would not have made those had I had an abundance of resources at my disposal.”

Moving forward, it’s likely Suszko will continue to pursue his own version of excellence.

The Stillwater product remains relentlessly passionate about bringing real human stories into living rooms across the country.

As for the trajectory of his career, that much is unclear.

For his part, Suszko is unlikely to ever be associated with the excruciatingly formulaic Marvel saga, or sell his soul to a conglomerate for the opportunity to direct Adam Sandler through the twilight of his career.

“That’s somewhat of a difficult question for me to answer because there is art, and then there is entertainment,” Suszko responds when asked how he sees his film endeavors unfolding.  

“For better or worse, the mainstream audience isn’t embracing art anymore. They’re embracing commercialism and basic entertainment.”

But Suszko also understands that no movie gets financed unless investors believe they can generate a profit, and so while Suszko appears primed to be the antidote to the stagnating, risk-averse Hollywood landscape, he may need to make concessions in the future.

“I don’t want to make something that people don’t want to watch, but at the same time, I want to make something that I would want to watch, and if I cave to what the mainstream is demanding right now, I wouldn’t be making what I want to watch,” Suszko reasons, although he does think that there will one day be a return of original and daring cinema.

“I have a firm belief that true art can find its way back into the mainstream and be commercially successful, while also being intellectually sophisticated.”

Until then, Suszko will continue to refine his craft in a state known more for its plethora of lakes than for being the epicenter of film.

Not that Suszko is complaining.

In fact, the freedom to curate art that isn’t constrained by the investments of overzealous financiers is appealing, and it’s a tactic Suszko recommends other aspiring filmmakers adopt as they work to build their brand and establish their own aesthetic.

“Every artist, whether it’s filmmaking or being an author, should ask themselves what makes their work unique. For example, what is a Quentin Super book? What is an Alex Suszko movie?” he says.

“Once you can answer that, then you can go out and truly make something unparalleled. But if you abide by convention and do what everyone else is doing, you likely won’t find success.” QS

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