By Shaya Silberstein
Purchase alum and well-known director Azazel Jacobs, a 1994 film major graduate, returned to campus on Feb. 5 for a screening of his 2023 hit film, "His Three Daughters" at the Pepsi-Co Theater in the Performing Art Center (PAC).
Director Azazel Jacobs (left) taking questions from Professor John G. Young (right). (Photo by Alex Del Cueto)
His Three Daughters, which stars Natasha Lyoone, Carrie Coon, and Elizabeth Olsen, is a movie about three sisters who come together to take care of their dying father while figuring out their complicated relationship with each other. An aspect of the movie was not showing the father as Jacobs says, “I just knew, I didn’t want to go into the bedroom, like that was the important thing to me.”
Music being a part of the movie was an aspect that wasn’t used much, Jacobs said,
“So much of the dialogue for me is the score, it’s the music with how they speak with each other.”
Students raising their hands to ask questions to Azazel Jacobs. (Photo by Alex Del Cueto)
Students who attended the screening were able to ask Jacobs questions afterwards. Some shared different reactions as sophomore Marvin Chilton spoke on the aspect of the set. “The movie is unique in that it was shot in such a confined specific and limited space,” said Chilton.
While other students reflected on Jacob's time from Purchase to now a director, Cage Evinger, an English and global literature major, talked about it. “It's interesting who was here 20 years ago, like us. To come back here, it's retrospective,” said Evinger.
"His Three Daughters" won multiple awards, with Jacobs winning best screenplay at The
Gothams 2024 Film Awards and Lyoone winning best supporting actress in The 2024 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards.
Jacobs was brought by the School of Film and Media Studies Screening Series, which occurs every Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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