The documentary “Lost” reunites the stars of Hawaii’s hit TV show

Can you believe it’s been 20 years since the first season of the hit ABC show “Lost” premiered on television?

A new documentary titled “Getting Lost,” screening at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, takes viewers back in time and features interviews with cast, showrunners and Hawaiʻi’s own Ryan Ozawa.

The film raised over $250,000 through crowdfunding and reached its original goal within 24 hours. In any other documentary, that would have been the headline. But last year, new allegations emerged about a toxic writers’ room — one that some writers and cast members described as racist and sexist.

The makers of the documentary decided to include the good, the bad and the ugly. HPR spoke with director and producer Taylor Morden and producer Emily Claire Morden, a married couple.

Taylor Morden said he had wanted to make this documentary for ten years, but it felt too soon after the show ended.

“There was this period after ‘Lost’ ended where people liked to make fun of ‘Lost.'” As a fan, I didn’t like that, and as a filmmaker, as a storyteller, it felt too soon, and I didn’t want to fight it. “And in these 20-year waves there is a kind of nostalgia.”

He said there was a sense of community among fans who watched the show, which aired from 2004 to 2010.

“One of the big things about it was that you had to wait and talk about it every week. “Everyone was watching the same thing at the same time, in real time, and all the people who watched it afterward, no offense, but you missed it about that community and that conversation,” he said.

The documentary was originally supposed to be about fandom, he said.

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“We thought it would be about the fans and we would make this documentary and it will be cool because it was a cool time. And then you talk to Jorge Garcia and he says, ‘Well, let it be.’ I’m getting the word out to people.’ And then suddenly Josh Holloway is interested, and Michael Emerson, and he calls Terry O’Quinn, and when that comes out, Evangeline Lilly and Maggie Grace are on board, and you’re just like, I guess, “We’re doing ‘Lost’ right now.” he said.

That’s when his wife, Emily Claire Morden, came on board. She said one of her favorite parts of the production was telling the cast how much Hawaii means to them.

“I get to sit down with Daniel Dae Kim and Henry Ian Cusick, who still live here and have lived here since the show was filmed, and just hear them talk about this place and how much it means to them,” she said. “It was so wonderful, it makes me want to move here.”

Last year, the Mordens almost gave up on the documentary after an article and book came out claiming it was a toxic writers’ room. Taylor Morden said they had been working on the film for a year and a half.

“We had a meeting, the producers and I, about whether we should not finish this film – did we contribute to the problem by building these people and doing exactly what is described in the book and the article, namely, using people?” “They’re put on a pedestal and then they can do no wrong, and then they get away with things they shouldn’t do,” he said.

Emily Claire Morden said speaking to Javier Grillo-Marxuach, one of the authors, helped them move forward.

“He actually wanted to talk on camera and tell his story. We felt like this is now part of the story of Lost and needs to be part of the conversation. So we thought it was important to move forward and, you know, just tell the whole story of the show,” she said.

Taylor Modern added: “It’s almost a perfect parallel to the show ‘Lost’ because it’s about all these flawed people looking for redemption, and you see flashbacks, and you see these flaws in people’s pasts, and you Find out whether that’s the case or not, they can be reconciled and it’s all open to interpretation, and that’s true in real life too.”

“Getting Lost” plays tonight, October 11, at 8:15 p.m. at Consolidated Theaters Kahala. Tickets are sold out but standby may be available. The film’s producers said they plan to screen the documentary in Canada and London before releasing it on digital platforms by the end of the year.

This interview was broadcast on The conversation on October 11, 2024. “The Conversation” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.