Below is an interview with Brad Sohn, the director of "Downtown" - an independent film that will be showing in this year's Tribeca Film Festival. In the film, Bob Wahlberg plays a cab driver and picks up a fare (Lance Greene), a Harvard grad who put the cab driver in prison after a barroom brawl some eight years before.

Q: Where did you get the creative impetus for "Downtown"? In other words, what drove you to tell this particular story?

BRAD SOHN: When I was at school I was sort of just beginning to understand that the passion I had for storytelling was more visually oriented – suited for film. I took this playwriting class and our first assignment was to create a scene that was an example of action structure. In other words, a scene that centers around a conflict that both characters have an agenda on. I had also always been a fan of Scorsese, and I was watching the "Cape Fear" remake he did. It was this great idea about someone who had been wronged, and now their life was devoted to somehow getting revenge. I loved that idea over a long period of time, but I thought that confining it in a claustrophobic setting like a taxicab would be an interesting way to kind of take a look on action structure. From there the idea just never died, and when it was time to direct something this seemed like a very shootable thing to do.

Q: You’ve had success in Hollywood as a beginning screenwriter. What made you want to shift gears and direct?

BRAD SOHN: I think it’s the natural evolution in storytelling. Screenplay is really a kind of quirky form, and it’s interesting when you’re out in LA that you can’t help but lose sight of the fact that you’re actually writing something for actors to say and bring to life. In directing you have the chance to take these characters and situations you’ve dreamed up and see them through to completion. Directing can be a lot of different things, but the thing that I’m most interested in is nuance in character and the narrative. I like visual stuff but guys like Clint Eastwood and Scorsese are guys who really got me.

Q: You shot this in Boston, yet it’s a fairly location neutral piece in so far as it all takes place inside a taxicab. Was the location important to you?

BRAD SOHN: Well, we were going to do this in LA and then 8 days before-hand it had to be re-cast, re-crewed, essentially re-everything to do it in Boston. After we got through that, it was almost as if I didn’t have time to be nervous or scared about anything else.

Q: Not exactly the kind of problem a rookie director wants to have –

BRAD SOHN: Well, I am a rookie, but the way I tried to remedy that – and I think that this will serve me well in the future – was really to create an environment that’s very team and conversation oriented. From the actors to my line producer to my good friend Frank Ciota – everyone was encouraged to chime in with ideas about character, etc. This helped me surmount any difficulties I might have had where my first-timers intuition might have gotten in the way.

Q: Would you say, then, that teamwork is a primary credo for your work?

BRAD SOHN: Well, I think the key to directing in my mind is to have a really good knowledge of the material. That means having a vision of what you want on the screen, what you want from each character, and what the story needs to deliver. One of the advantages I had was that the creation of this project, as I’ve said, was so many years ago, that it gave me a long time to think about the way I envisioned this story being told.

Q: And was the way you envisioned the project the way it wound up on screen?

BRAD SOHN: Not exactly, but that’s one of the great thing about watching actors work. I had two great professionals in Bob Wahlberg and Lance Greene. Both of these guys had directions in which they took their character, things that they did, choices that they made, and a lot of them are really good and not necessarily things I had envisioned. What wound up happening was the story sort of shifted from one character’s point of view to the other’s. It ended up taking the story to another level. I think ultimately the work would have suffered if I said it was my way or nothing at all. It’s a really good lesson for the future. I think you have to be confident and decisive in your choices, but you can’t be too proud to entertain other point of views.

Q: Now you’ve got the short, which is a remarkable showcase of your ability. How do you get it seen?

BRAD SOHN: We think that the best fit for it in the short term would be the Tribeca Film Festival. In the past I’ve had things in development with Marlboro Road Gang Productions, which is run by Ed Burns. While we’re not going to make a movie together right now, Eddie has certainly been very supportive of my work, as has his producing partner Aaron Lubin. Last year they showed a terrific film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I think it would be terrific to sort of follow in those footsteps. I think Tribeca is a great place, and always has great films. It would be a great chance to get in touch with that same Ed Burns audience.

Q: What can we look forward to next from Brad Sohn?

BRAD SOHN: There’s a script that I’ve been working on for a while now called "Scattered." It’s in the same vein as "The Big Chill," but for a different generation. It’s about a group of friends from high school who are forced to sort of rediscover themselves. One of the great things about it is that this film can really be done on any budget. I think that there’s a very powerful $100,000 version of this movie. I think it can be a great festival movie that can definitely get distribution.