Haven't heard of Azazel Jacobs? Trust us, in the years to come, you will. Although Azazel Jacobs has filmmaking in his blood thanks to his father Ken Jacobs, one of the most respected and pioneering avant garde filmmakers of our time, his road to becoming a director wasn't simply a chip-off-the-block journey. In fact, Azazel Jacobs' minimalistic style at this stage in his career embodies the true spirit of independent cinema, as his latest film, Momma's Man, uses the bare essentials of reality to tap into an emotional loss many who have moved away from home still feel.

An official selection at the 2008 Sundance fest, Momma's Man explores what it's like to revisit your home in New York City as an adult only to discover life has moved on while only your memories remain in a childhood space you don't want to let go. For anyone struggling to cope with the gap between becoming an adult and the memories of a life that doesn't exist anymore, Momma's Man is a simple but powerful journey many will be able to identify with.

On the heels of its August 22 release in New York, Momma's Man makes its Los Angeles debut this week on September 5 before going wider in select theaters. Having spoken to numerous directors who have made a name for themselves inside the Hollywood machine, it was a breath of fresh air to get some exclusive time with an up and coming independent director who so truthfully reveals a side of his identity on film.

THE DEADBOLT: Since you got started in the business when you were seventeen and did a Super-8 movie about where you lived in New York, was that the inspiration for Momma’s Man?

AZAZEL JACOBS: I had done really poorly in high school, so I was looking to figure out another school. There was one school, like a college - The way that New York City works is: If you have a certain grade point average you’re automatically admitted to a college. If you have really low grades, if you live in a certain vicinity, you can get entrance into a certain college or high school. My high school was like that, and I didn’t want to go into a college that was the same situation, which was just training to get - I don’t know what kind of work, but you train to get an office job.

So that was the inspiration for making the film. I wanted to see if I could go to an art school. There are always cameras around the house, so that’s what made me pick up a Super 8 camera and start shooting around and I wound up having fun with it. And I really don’t know what it was that made me want to apply to the school that I did in particular, but it must’ve been that I wanted to try their film department or something.

It’s so hard. I’m thirty five now, so that’s half my life ago. It’s hard to remember what these things were. But it wasn’t like this, 'Alright, now I figured out what I want to do,' like I always wanted to make movies. I always liked movies, but it really just happened bit by bit.

THE DEADBOLT: And you wanted to start in animation?

JACOBS: Not so much animation; I loved cartoons, comic books growing up, like more of the underground comic books. There was somebody who was very close to the family growing up, Art Spiegleman, who did a lot of underground. So I was always around these kinds of comics. My dad also had a lot of these books, so these were things that I loved - you know, Basil Woverten, Will Eisner. I got to study with Will Eisner when I was going to high school. I knew he was teaching school, visual arts, so I was able to take a class with him. So thinking in terms of frames, and thinking in terms of story, I’ve always been there. But I definitely don’t draw as much as I’d like to now. It’s still something that I’m interested in.

THE DEADBOLT: After going back home to work on the film in New York City, did it fill the void you were feeling from your early years of living there?

JACOBS: Yeah, it did in two ways. In one way, definitely - I think this is for everybody, like when you go back to the place you are from - it made me appreciate where I live in Los Angeles a lot more. I enjoy having my space and being thankful that it’s a totally different tempo over here and there’s a different thing going on. It’s a lot easier for me to work and it made me realize that in a lot of ways. This is my own stuff in terms of writing and things like that. Also, in some ways it filled the void in other areas. It made me even more connected to my folks and that place than I intended it to be. You know, I wind up traveling to festivals with them.

So what happens in a lot of ways is the film has done the opposite and connected me more than ever with my folks and the place. It’s something that seems really obvious now, but it wasn’t so obvious making it. I really did see it as a way of letting things go, so it’s strange. I just left on Monday and it’s an odd feeling. I miss them more and I miss things. It’s still something that I’m going through. In a lot of ways this movie is too close to me to get a good grasp on that. We had a screening and it was a nice way to launch it and let it go and let it into the world. So that’s what I’m trying my best to do. I’m going back to writing and working on the next thing.

THE DEADBOLT: In terms of connecting to your past, how do you feel about social networks like Facebook?

JACOBS: That’s a good question, because I just broke down and joined Facebook about a week or so ago. I was really thinking I don’t need one more thing that’s going be distracting. But I wound up having this experience at a festival where another filmmaker, it turned out to be my old best friend from camp that I hadn’t seen in twenty years, had turned into a filmmaker and made a movie, and suddenly we’re at a festival together and his film was great. You know, there are people from your life that nothing bad happened, you just went in different directions. So he kind of tempted me and told me he was on there along with the other camp kids, too. It’s definitely having them at screenings, having people show up, only that I found through Facebook [laughs]. I’m still at this place where I really enjoy it, but I could see it turning into a serious distraction.

THE DEADBOLT: Was there ever a consideration of getting other actors to play your parents, or does that even make sense?

JACOBS: Yeah. It didn’t go that far. It kind of didn’t leave the fantasy stage. But Peter Falk was who I was thinking of for my dad and Shelly Duval was who I was thinking of for my mom. But that was really because they were actors I like, that I would like to work with. I could even say somebody like Elliot Gould or somebody like that. They are all heroes and when I see their work I think they’re incredible performers. But pretty early on I realized it had to be my folks. I think I thought of Vin Diesel for the best friend as well.

THE DEADBOLT: As far as the main character is concerned, did you write Mikey’s Agoraphobia as comedy?

JACOBS: I think the whole film is filled with something that’s funny. I try my best to make a balance of being funny and being true. I’m not saying that I could directly compare with Curb Your Enthusiasm, but that sense of humor. And I think Curb Your Enthusiasm pushes it a lot further than where I go, kind of to the extreme, but I like that humor. I really like that kind of thing, where things are shown - That are funny and at the same time painful.

THE DEADBOLT: Since your father's filmmaking style is so experimental and avant garde, how is your approach to filmmaking different than his?

JACOBS: Well, he said it pretty good when he said I have to think about the audience in a different way than he does. His audience is, first and foremost, for his life, for my mom. That’s who he’s thinking about when he’s making the work besides himself. And it’s not so much that I’m thinking of an unknown audience, like I’m thinking, 'How’s this going to work with teenagers or people in their twenties, thirties, or forties?' That’s not so much what’s on my mind, but I’m definitely interested in speaking a different type of language. You know, I’m speaking in narrative. A lot of my influences come from narrative, which is a universal language. I think my father’s work demands a different type of muscle than my own. It really is one of these things that the more you get into that world, the more you understand, the more you appreciate, and you kind of build the language up. But I kind of started with an assumed language that’s already been well established before me.

THE DEADBOLT: What did they think about the project when you told them you were going to do it?

JACOBS: I think they realized how important it was for me and they took that seriously and they respected that. They could see it was coming from a place where I really needed to say something about it.

THE DEADBOLT: Did they do anything beyond the acting to help you?

JACOBS: No. In terms of making this movie, they were the actors in it and that was it. It was nice to have them around, but I really dealt with them - It shifted our relationship quite a bit. I wasn’t talking to them as their son, I was talking as a director and I was thinking of them as my actors as much as possible. Of course, at the end of the day things went back.

THE DEADBOLT: Since the film's been getting a lot of great reviews, do you pay attention to the press or is it something you could care less about?

JACOBS: I would love to say that I don’t, that I don’t read any and I don’t care about it, but it’s not the case. You know, for this type of film, when your making it, you’re not thinking of getting money back and that’s such a faraway fantasy. You’re just hoping for feedback and that is the pay for these types of movies. You want to just know, 'Are things connecting?' Are things not connecting? What things are?' And reading press and talking to people is the best way to get it.

You have two ways: You have friends that you trust that see these things and are going to tell you honestly what they think and it's the same thing with critics. You know, like whether you’re going to agree or disagree with them, you know that these are people that love film and have a desire to spend their life thinking and talking and writing about movies. So I find what they have to say, a lot of times, interesting and sometimes frustrating, sometimes complicated. If anything, I take it for Momma’s Man. It’s not like now that I’m going back to work I’m thinking about critics or trying to do something to appease them. It’s not something that’s in my mind when I’m making the work. But obviously it’s been nice to have a good warm response.

THE DEADBOLT: It's funny how there’s something really tragic about the simplicity of pre-adult life, in that it’s gone forever. Are you still mourning those years?

JACOBS: It comes in waves. I definitely don’t need to tell this story again. I feel like I have this thing to grow old with that I’m really excited about. I can’t wait to have a child and watch this film with that child. These are things that I’m excited about, with or without me around, and I’m glad. I wanted this thing to revisit - You know, the home was this rental and it’s a place I’m not going to able to go to. I’m glad I’ll always be able to go back to this situation. I’ll still see and experience things - You’ll be on a street corner and you smell, even some garbage in Chinatown will take you back to suddenly being twelve or thirteen years old, and you don’t really understand how twenty years has gone by between this, it’s so fast. How is this possible that suddenly I’m here? I was just there. You also know that I’m going to be feeling the same way in another twenty years. It’s not that I have any better answer but I do have a better understanding of it. But I can’t explain it any better.

THE DEADBOLT: I hear you’re a big fan of The Clash?

JACOBS: I am. I don’t think that Clash fans like to admit they’re fans. I think we all think we’re members of the band, like we’re on some equal footing.

THE DEADBOLT: So what type of impact did Joe Strummer have on you?

JACOBS: Everyday I think about him saying that it’s a sin to bore people. I think about that. I think about how he - I mean, they all have their unique thing. It wasn’t all Strummer that has had an impact by his work. But I really like how much he pushed to be precise, to push himself, and I really like somebody that’s kept on constantly pushing, but full of flaws and allowed those flaws to be seen and how he still tried his best to do things.

THE DEADBOLT: You're working on a gangster story next, what can you tell me about that project?

JACOBS: Gangster stories are another thing. The whole film noir and all of that has also had a huge influence on me. Those movies, Maltese Falcon and all those types of films, The Big Sleep, these are all sets that I would love to visit. These are movies that I would love to walk into. So having an opportunity to do a gangster film, I want to do something that’s really far away from me, something outside of my world, something that I know very little about. I needed to step out of being inside of my house for so long. I needed to go to some place that I just don’t know that well and a place that’s been attractive for a long time.

THE DEADBOLT: So what are we talking about here, Goodfellas, The Godfather, or...

JACOBS: Well, I don’t know if I can say that because it’s still early on, but I think Goodfellas and The Godfather are incredible reference points. But I’m hoping to make a gangster film that people haven’t seen before.