Gus Marinak: Man, Myth, Legend (Interview Assignment)

Gus Marinak: Man, Myth, Legend

An Interview By Ryan Sindler

Student, film maker, student, brother, son…these are perhaps some of the simple words that can be used to describe Windsor Locks, Connecticut’s Augustus Marinak. At 19 years old, Gus has had four local jobs and has written, directed, and acted in nearly one hundred short films. Gus lives with his parents and has four brothers and one sister.

Gus laughs and excitedly rubs his hands together as we discuss his history as an amateur film maker. One of his films that he is most proud of is entitled Gus’ Almost Last Adventure. There is a distinct look of entertained disgust on his face as he describes the first scene of the film. “I took a bowl and mixed ketchup, mustard, relish, and something else together. Then I dipped a candy cane in it and took a bite.” As I prepared to ask Gus the purpose of this scene, he excitedly interjected “Mayonaise! The last ingredient was mayonaise!”

Gus’ Almost Last Adventure is Gus’ longest film, timing in at about 50 minutes, and is similar to his other films in that he plays every character and handles all of the camera work himself. The interesting plot of this film gives some insight on Marinak’s obscure imagination: Aunt Harriet (played by Gus) comes to visit. Gus, inconvenienced by previous engagements, makes two attempts to sneak out of his own house. “She beats the crap out of me and knocks me out” says Gus in reference to the first attempt. The second escape attempt results in a fight that ultimately gives Aunt Harriet a heart attack and kills her. The remainder of the film involves Gus traveling backwards through time in attempt to correct this accident. SPOILER. Everything turns back to normal.

Gus’ brother and former film making partner Sam lost interest in making movies when Gus was about 13 years old, giving Gus complete creative control over every aspect of his films. Since then, Gus has written, directed, and played every character for about 20 movies. Since the beginning of his film making endeavors, however, Gus has made nearly 100 movies averaging about 10 minutes each.

Hopefully we will be able to follow Gus Marinak’s film making career as he chases his dream job of making movies. In the future, he plans to continue to write, direct and act in his own movies. The only thing he has no interest in is editing his films. “I’ll let someone else do that” says Marinak with a wave of his hand.