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Director Henry Czerwonka Thinks We're All Haunted by the People We Once Were.
- Taylor Champlin
- Jul 13
- 12 min read
Updated: Jul 14
Home has a strange way of staying with us. Even after we leave, build new lives, and become different people, the places that shaped us often continue to exist somewhere beneath the surface. For filmmaker Henry Czerwonka, that tension became the foundation of HAUNTERS, the award-winning experimental short film he co-created with his wife, Abby. Fresh off winning Best Experimental Film at the New York Short Film Festival, HAUNTERS explores loneliness, identity, memory, and the complicated relationship we have with the places we once called home.
In this conversation, Henry reflects on growing up in Ohio, returning after years abroad, finding inspiration in unexpected moments, and why the stories we spend years trying to outrun often become the ones we most need to tell.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: What has the response been to releasing the film?
HENRY CZERWONKA: It’s been cool. It's nice to see people understand the themes more intuitively. That’s the most rewarding part of all of it. It's like it has a life of its own now.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Definitely. Congratulations! I really enjoyed it. I know that you grew up in Ohio. Is your wife Abby also from Ohio?
HENRY CZERWONKA: She's from rural Minnesota originally. We’re both from the Midwest, but opposite ends.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: What was your experience like growing up in Ohio?
Henry: My family's been in Ohio for hundreds of years, so there's definitely a long history of belonging there. There's an established identity and community. There are a lot of parts about that I loved, and also a lot of parts that I resented. I think there's this Midwestern stereotype of, “I'm going to leave and move to the west coast and live on the beach” or do something different and far away from the mild reality of the Midwest. I definitely fell into that category of fantasising about leaving. Especially through high school, that resentment really started to gnaw at me. I think there's this dynamic of not being understood for being more artistically inclined growing up in the Midwest. There's a feeling of alienation present in that. I think my perspective on that has really shifted in leaving. If I put myself back in the shoes of where I was before I had seen the world outside of the Midwest, there was a resentment that grew over time as I grew up there.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Yeah. The more I interview artists that grow up in smaller places, the more I encounter these types of sentiments. It's not to say that you can't be artistic in small places or reach success, but it wasn't rewarded as much. There are people who feel like, “This is my home; I'm going to stay here; I'm going to raise my family here and that's it.” That's incredible for those people, but when you are more artistically inclined, that resentment comes in. I can totally relate to that. I moved straight to New York as soon as I graduated high school. You live in New York, so you broke the stereotype of moving to the beach.
HENRY CZERWONKA: We lived in Hawaii for a hot second, so we got it out of our system. It was time for another reinvention. But it is interesting, you're totally right. You can be an artist in those places from a practical standpoint, but there's a deeper identity thing at play. It's hard to pinpoint. You want to be understood, but also you don't really want to be understood. It feels like you're always flip-flopping like a seesaw. That never ends.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: I agree. It's hard because when you're growing up in it, it's alienating. At the same time, it's hard to get rid of that itch to be understood. I have a complicated relationship with it as well. I feel for the kids that are growing up in those environments. If you want to move somewhere and explore more, do it. But on the other hand, there should be more acceptance and more of an outlet in smaller places outside of New York and LA. It might help with those feelings of resentment.
HENRY CZERWONKA: Acceptance is a great word. I think it can feel really uncool as an artist to tell the story of where you're from. Is it really that interesting? It's Ohio. It's not the most dynamic place in the world. It's always surprising that when you actually accept the uncool parts of yourself or the parts that you've been trying to outrun, people start resonating with that more. I wanted to distance myself from Ohio, but that also comes with a maturity for the people who do find deep meaning and purpose in saying, “I'm going to stay here. I'm going to build a life here” I'm jealous of that.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Me too.
HENRY CZERWONKA: Sometimes I think “Maybe this is something in me that's wrong. You seem so happy and rooted and I don't.” Maybe it's just that everyone's journey looks different, and maybe one day I'll feel that way. I don't know. I used to judge that and think, “You're settling”. Now I can see that was my immaturity. Not to say I still don’t think there’s different things for different people, but that isn't a lesser thing. Actually, there's something really profoundly beautiful about that perspective on the world and that ability to put down roots. It's the ups and downs of being okay with who you are and where you came from.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Absolutely. It's a journey. Sometimes you feel completely confident in what you're doing, but we are all on a different path. You’ve said you felt like you were in a rut before being inspired to make HAUNTERS. Two things that you were really inspired by were BC Vitals poem, “Ohio Understands You” and Alex G’s song, “Gretel”. I'm a huge fan of Alex G, so I love that song. I had never read BC Vitals poem, but I picked up on it in the film. The part you included says, “You understand the soil you grew up upon. Your roots are tangled in it, for you cannot escape that which saw you grow.” What aspects of growing up in Ohio do you feel you can’t escape?
HENRY CZERWONKA: Wow, that's a really great question. The first thing that comes to mind is less about Ohio and more about who I am. It feels like Ohio on the surface a lot of the time, but I think it's more about who I was and a past version of myself. It's always been easy to attach regret or really difficult seasons in life to places. I've actually had friends tell me it’s weird that I can't ever go back to a place where I’ve had a negative experience. I attach memories to places and my relationship with places has become a very interesting one. In terms of what I'm haunted by, I think I'm haunted by past versions of myself that I don't feel proud of. I wish that I'd been more comfortable in my own skin in some of these situations growing up. I think it’s really more personal than about the place itself. In the film, it was really important to me that her shadow was cast on these different sets and the question of “When she turns to face it, is she facing a version of herself against this place or the place itself?” That's not a question that I had a clear answer to, but that was the intended wrestle and conflict.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Wow, that's really interesting. I completely understand that. I also think it's good to give yourself grace with how people think of places and attached memories. We all have different experiences in life. If you grow up and experience a traumatic situation in a place, you have every right to be put off by it. You don’t owe other people an explanation. I think the shadow is really interesting because there’s a moment in the film where the girl in the white dress is dancing and the light goes on in the house. It feels like the mood shifts. The dancer smiles and it reminded me of the scene in Edward Scissorhands where Winona Ryder is dancing in the snow. Can you explain what emotion that part of the film was depicting?
HENRY CZERWONKA: When my wife and I moved back to Ohio after traveling and being immersed in these different cultures, it was a very difficult transition. We felt like we understood transition at that point. We'd moved so many times and I grew up moving often, always coming back to Ohio. It was a very difficult, lonely feeling. There was a conversation that we had where it didn't feel like we could land in Ohio forever, but of how we could be present in this season and what we could get out of it. All of a sudden, there was a shift in my perspective of, “Oh my god, this is so beautiful. I don't know if I'll ever be so surrounded by what made me who I am.” There's bad memories, but there's also really beautiful things that have happened here. That moment felt so transcendent. It wasn't where I wanted to leave the character arc. It felt dishonest to only stay in this place of anger and bitterness. Relationship with home is complicated. That moment in the film came from wanting to be as equally honest in what home can mean and reliving those memories.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: I really love that. It sounds like it was a very healing experience for you to make the film as well.
HENRY CZERWONKA: Definitely. Growing up, the short films I was making were subconsciously me. I was trying to process things. If I explained what I was going through, people would get super freaked out but if I put it in a film, people would understand. Even if they didn't, I felt seen. One of my first short films made at 14 was about a little girl during World War II who lives through the blitz attacks in London. It’s a loss of innocence story. I wasn’t trying to make something really heavy and sad, but I was 14 starting to realize the world can be really messed up. I was trying to reconcile with that. Making films professionally, you get less and less of those moments with art. It becomes more of a skill set, and directing becomes more marketable. HAUNTERS came from a place of burnout from one project specifically where we were pushing to get funding. It wasn't happening. I put it aside and I told myself I was going to act like I had nothing coming up. I'm just going to live my life for two days as if I've put it all behind me. It led to actually getting to make something in the spirit of what I used to make and having a moment to understand where I was at.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: I think that's incredible. As artists, it is hard when you feel burnt out and uninspired. I wanted to ask the timing of when you came across the Alex G song and the poem. Were these things you went out looking for?
HENRY CZERWONKA: They found me. I had known that song for a couple years. I don't know that I'd ever really sat with it or let it affect me. In those 2 days where I shelved everything, I was allowing ideas to occur in a way that wasn’t so micromanaged. I was a little bit despondent doom scrolling and BC Vital’s poem came up on my feed while the song happened to be playing on shuffle. It was one of those really rare moments where you get struck by lightning. There was something in reading these words and listening to the song that summarised this experience of wrestling with home. The idea definitely found me when I wasn't looking for it. I became obsessed with how I could make others experience what I was feeling in that moment.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: As an artist, you'll make a mood board together to express your ideas, but I feel the best things come to you, almost through these mini epiphanies. They become something you need to make a reality. It's something that you feel is in tune with what made you want to start creating art to begin with. What films made you want to start making films of your own?
HENRY CZERWONKA: My older cousin was really into films growing up. Within a week's span, I watched Jurassic Park and ET for the first time. I was probably 7 or 8. My grandma was a very formative presence in my life. When she found out that I was getting into it, we drove to Blockbuster and she bought me the Indiana Jones box set. I have these really sweet memories specifically with early Spielberg and my family. A connection was forged from loving these stories with my cousin and my grandma. It felt like being on the verge of something I shouldn't be seeing as a kid, but it was scary enough that there was something magical. Then I started messing around with the camera. I started making films halfway through high school. I knew I wanted to fully commit to making films sophomore or junior year. I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the first time around that time. That movie changed my life. I had never seen anything like it. I actually just went and saw it the other day at Paris Theater here in New York. The production designer and the DP were there. I was nerding out. I could have played it way cooler than I did, but I went up afterwards and said, “Thank you guys so much.” I wrote a short film around that time called Analog Rainbow, which was supposed to be my thesis film even though I wasn't in film school. I wanted to make something that was enormous. I’m still very proud of that in the sense that it's a very honest look at the experience of growing up, family dynamics, memory, and trauma. We shot that in 2019 and it came out in 2022. It was a real stepping off point for me as a filmmaker.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: While living in different places, were there any realizations you had during that journey that maybe would inspire you to make a film based on them?
HENRY CZERWONKA: One of the biggest things that I experienced in traveling is what culture actually means, what it looks like, and its outlook. I realized culture is an entirely different way of experiencing the world. We spent a lot of time in Korea and Japan. You don't get those experiences growing up where I did as easily. It was amazing to learn from these people who see the world in a different way. It definitely had me questioning, “What is my viewpoint of the world? Who am I?” I'm from Ohio. It’s the butt of every joke that there's nothing there. I think this project was identifying and being okay with this cultural perspective I was given while growing up and not demonizing it. My work up until now has been very inward focused. I've been trying to understand myself a lot, but I want to shift to moving forward and understanding the world around me.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: New York, which is a special place that has respect for everybody's culture. Everybody can make their dream a reality there. I also think you should be really proud of the fact that HAUNTERS just won Best Experimental Film at the New York Short Film Festival.
HENRY CZERWONKA: Thank you. That means a lot.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: How long did it take to make this film in total?
HENRY CZERWONKA: I had the idea in August. My wife and I really co-authored this. It was eight months from idea to finished product. We started with a feeling and a pitch deck, but no script. It was very unconventional. The composer is named Collins McLaughlin from Nashville. He's amazing. I said “This is the flow and the character arc. There are no visuals. There is nothing to go off of, but we're writing the script with this score.” He’s the unsung hero of this process. Production was pretty short as two days in February. We shot on film and had 40 minutes of footage at the end of it.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: Were you able to show your family the film? What was their reaction to it?
HENRY CZERWONKA: They were the first to see it. I have a really honest relationship with my parents, which I'm very grateful for. They weren’t surprised with the themes the film is tackling. It was met with a lot of understanding. I know that's a privilege to have. It was really rewarding. Since I was a kid, I haven’t always known how to communicate things that I'm feeling with words, but I can explain through this art form. It felt like such a necessity for me in a lot of ways. I think they understood and felt something I wouldn't have been able to invite them into otherwise. That was a really special moment for sure.
TAYLOR CHAMPLIN: I'm really happy that you got to have that moment as well. What do you want to accomplish in the future?
HENRY CZERWONKA: I love narrative. I want to be in that space as often as I'm able to. I've always had this desire to tell a larger, more interconnected type of story. I’ve had this idea of a larger storyline since I was 18. After traveling and having these experiences, I realized the story starts there, but it’s gone into different places than I expected it to. My dream for the future is to tell that story. There's three chapters of it out now, which is: that short Analog Rainbow, a music video the artist gave us the freedom to make as a short film, and HAUNTERS is the third chapter. To be able to tell that story to an audience who's able to put together the pieces and see there's an investment beyond each individual project-that's the ultimate dream.
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