The Daily spoke with director and actor Justin Monroe about the writing and production of "The Rock 'n' Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher." The movie will be screened at 9 p.m. Thursday in the Oklahoma Memorial Union's Meacham Auditorium. Admission to this event is free to the public.

The Daily: This is your first time directing a feature film. How is the process different between this and the shorts, music videos and TV pilots you’ve done in the past?

Monroe: It’s a get-through-it-to-get-to-it situation, man. It’s a right of passage. You would think — with a short film — that you have all the same elements. You have a cast, you have a crew, you have a budget, you have getting all your shots and making all your plans. You think it’s just extended time. But when you’re carrying a story over that big of a space in a feature film, beyond it being just a longer thing, art is much bigger, everything is much bigger. So you have to prepare differently, you have to work with the actors differently. Because you’re on a marathon and not a sprint, you have to really care for yourself differently. You can’t just go non-stop and go crazy over a weekend and knock it out and then rest for a couple of days. You do that, you’ll be dead on Day Five. Everything is about being more intentional — thinking about how to run a marathon and knowing when it’s time to pick up the pace. And then coordinating actor schedules is a much bigger deal because, you know, when you’re unable to pay huge budgets to actors, they’re having to do other things to make their money for the month. We were lucky to be able to pay a few of the actors pretty well, but some of the other tertiary characters and whatnot had to do other jobs, and we had to work around their schedules. There’s just a lot more. And of course, a much bigger crew you have to navigate. It’s a right of passage. And everyone that’s ever done it before me said, “Dude, I really don’t know how to tell you it. You just gotta do it.”

The Daily: What motivated you to take on this project?

Monroe: Both Jack (Roberts) and myself are from Tulsa. Jack plays Duncan. He wrote the movie, and we both produced it. He and I have known each other and have been working together for a long time. He wrote this project intentionally for Tulsa because we always said it would be great to come back to our hometown to do a project. He wrote it, and not only was it right — like the script was right for Tulsa — but the timing was right for both of us. It was a real transition into our true futures together as collaborators. I was with another creative partner at the time, and when Jack asked me to direct this, it was hard for me at first because I had to let go of some other projects. But when I read the script I was like, “Oh my God, my whole life has just changed. Yes, I must do this.” And it has taken both of us away from Hollywood to creating a new way of doing movies, which is absolutely connecting the community and building the community in mind. So this particular film was done completely by Oklahomans. The entire funding was Oklahoma, the entire soundtrack was Oklahoma. We brought actors from all over the world back to their home state, including people like Marshall Bell, who’s been in like a hundred movies — huge movies; Lizz Carter, who I know has done a lot of stuff; and Peter Bedgood. These are all working actors in Hollywood that wanted to come back. We wanted to shine a light on the metaphorical belt buckle that is Oklahoma, I guess. It was a labor of love, and we wanted to show off Oklahoma in the light we’ve seen it. Not in the way “Friends,” you know, Chandler saying it’s the worst punishment ever in hell. Well, that’s not the Tulsa I know. I know a very artsy, eclectic, weird, fantastic, story-telling community that has real, salty people and gorgeous landscapes and sunsets and rivers and people and locations. And so we were like, “Let’s go show that Tulsa, that Oklahoma.” And let’s bring grant programs to the community, so that as the movie makes money, grant programs — more art programs — are fueled because of the movie. So that’s just a whole heaping there for you.

The Daily: I know you use a lot of specific Oklahoma landmarks in the film, such as Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Do you think people who aren’t from Oklahoma will relate to the film as well, or do you think it’s pretty universal?

Monroe: That’s a great question. The story unto itself is a universal story. We’ve played it all over the world now. It’s been all over the entire United States, from New York to Los Angeles to Kansas to Indianapolis to New Mexico to Oklahoma. It has been in 20-something festivals throughout the United States. And we’ve been to London, Canada and Buenos Aires. Probably one of our best screenings of all time — the most packed house — was in Buenos Aires. They loved the movie. And when we talked to people about being so Oklahoman, what it does, I believe that, as we’re finding out, that local is global now. It’s people taking ownership of their local communities all over the world are forming a global community. And as people, as artists in their own towns — even those who are in L.A. — see that there are people out there who are willing to take a risk, to do something other than the Hollywood norm, it’s giving other people permission to do it and to go back home and do what they’ve wanted to do. So it inspires them, even though they’re not directly connected to Oklahoma; they’re connected to our story of returning to our roots. And that absolutely communicates. We’ve received standing ovations for how Oklahoma-centric we’ve done this film. And I’m not kidding. It’s been really, really cool. And it’s just been touching to see that.

The Daily: You also play the role of Arthur Christopher. Why did you decide to act and to direct?

Monroe: Well, I’ll tell you right now that was not our first intention. I studied theater, I’ve done some acting here and there, but my heart’s in directing. I think I love acting because I was in a band in Oklahoma for years called Jiffy Trip. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that band, but I was kind of a weird, whacked-out dude at the time. I’ve changed so much, but there’s still that thing in me that’s comfortable with being in front of others. So I knew I was capable of it, but it’s just not something I gravitate toward much anymore. I love to sit back and tell the story from behind the camera. But we were going to hire another guy in Tulsa who ended up not being the right guy, and then we were going to hire another guy last minute who was from Oklahoma but was in L.A., and we were going to fly him in, we had almost figured all of it out, and then the producers approached me and said, “Look, man. We don’t know why, but we’re just feeling that you’re to do this.” And I was like, “Yeah, I don’t know, man, it’s my first time to direct a feature film. I don’t want to be acting in my first feature film too. Come on guys.” And they said no, it’s for me to do it because I have that connection to my rock ‘n’ roll past and I knew the story, and somebody else who came in last minute wouldn’t know it nearly as well as I do. So after awhile, they just said they wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I just said, “Well, shit, I hope I do a good enough job.” I just let myself go for it, and it seemed to have worked. So that was not our original intention.

The Daily: What do you hope people will take away from watching Duncan’s journey?

Monroe: It’s an awkward, rocky tale, is what it is. It’s the guy who all odds are against him and he has to rise up into himself and become a man and challenge the great enemy, and hopefully the inside of him is not crushed. So it’s the typical sort of journey told with the archetype of a sort of Don Quixote. Duncan lives in a kind of imaginary world — he’s an awkward persona. It’s a classic tale told with a much more awkward dude. But I think that the journey unto yourself is something that we all resonate with. It’s learning how to be vulnerable, learning how to be authentic, and again I think that’s inside every human: the hope to become real and true unto themselves. You look at Wes Anderson and that type of genre; that’s my generation. We all come from broken homes, and our family dynamic is not what it was for our parents or for our grandparents. Families are just completely different configurations, and around the Thanksgiving table, it’s a much more awkward space. We live in awkward times, and it creates very awkward communication between people. What’s amazing is, when you’re willing to bear your own weirdness and your own awkwardness — confront it with big themes like suicide and chasing your dreams and you’re willing to be courageous — we all get that. I think when we’re willing to be awkward and confront the awkwardness, we’re at our most vulnerable. And inside vulnerability is where truth and life and inspiration happens. I think all of us have a little Duncan in us; I know I certainly do. I haven’t met anybody who hasn’t felt that they’ve put their foot in their mouth at times or has weird familial dynamics happening. We all get that. So I think it’s a very human story.