"I'm pushing DVD technology to its limits."

That's as close as Kade Mendelowitz will get to saying his latest project is revolutionary. 

Theater UAF's soft-spoken artistic director usually stays contentedly out of the spotlight, lighting his actors, giving them sets to perform on, and basically making them look good. 

But the usually modest Mendelowitz does allow a small smile to creep across his face as he talks, like a proud father, about "Water Stealers," the movie he wrote, directed, produced, filmed, edited, designed the sound for, made 3-D computer animation for, and…well, you get the point.

And he should be proud. 

Not just because he made a movie—thanks to new digital technology, almost anyone can do that.

And not just because he made a complex, computer graphics-laden movie all by himself—one 12-second scene took 10 hours to animate and 13 days to render the CGI for.  The self-proclaimed Photoshop Jedi spends so many hours at his computer that he wears special braces to ward off the onset of carpal tunnel.

"I can't even remember what my wife looks like," he said.

No, he should be proud because his film is different—experimental—groundbreaking perhaps.

"‘Water Stealers' is the proof of an idea," Mendelowitz said.

The idea: to make a truly interactive film with fully integrated audience participation.  In other words, a choose-your-own-adventure.

And choose the audience shall.

Throughout the sci-fi film, about aliens bent on stealing the earth's water, the audience is asked to make key decisions that drastically alter the storyline and ultimate outcome.  Understandably, the filmmaker is keeping the details off the record, on the QT, and extremely hush hush, but he would say, "depending on what you choose, some people will die and some people will live."

"There is a way where the earth doesn't win in the end," Mendelowitz said with the smug smile of someone who knows something you don't.  "You can lose if you choose poorly," he added, with a gravity befitting a knight of the Holy Grail.

"It's reaching your audience on a more intimate level," said Chip Brookes, who stars in the film as a loud-mouthed, hotshot, skirt-chasing pilot.  "They're invested in the outcome."

That intimacy is not easy to come by.

Since the audiences' choices directly and drastically alter the plot, Mendelowitz had to script, film, and put postproduction polish on all the possible variable outcomes. 

The complexity is staggering.

For example, the audience must choose, from a pool of six, the four pilots who will attempt to save the earth from the alien threat.  In the scene immediately after that decision (now pay attention, this gets really complicated really fast), one of the pilots is upset—upset either because he's going or because he's staying.  That pilot runs into another pilot at a bar.  This second pilot, again, could be staying or could be going.  Their conversation could go four ways: 1) they are both going; 2) pilot A is going, pilot B is staying; 3) pilot A is staying, pilot B is going; 4) they are both staying. 

Then, as if that isn't complicated enough, all six of the pilots gather for a final beer together—four are going two are staying.  An advanced degree in mathematics is required just to explain all the possible permutations of that one single conversation.

In all, there are 60 distinct paths that the film could follow.

DVD technology made this interaction possible, interaction that Mendelowitz feels is sorely lacking from other DVDs on the market.  Most movies, he said, aren't exploring all the incredible possibilities of the available technology.

"A television commercial is not a ‘special feature'," Mendelowitz said.  "I wanted to show that you can make more exciting stuff with this technology—not just linear stories."

And he thinks audiences are ready for it—hungry even.  Broadband Internet, pay-per-view, and TiVo have left Americans with short attention spans and an insatiable desire for technology-driven instant gratification.

"We want entertainment on our schedule," Mendelowitz said, "but we want more than that.  What if we could change the outcome of the movies we watch?"

Brookes agrees, "I think the audience will be impressed that they can completely customize the performance.  I don't know of any other movie that you can do that with."

Audiences will get a chance to try out the future of films at the world premiere of "Water Stealers" at the Lee H. Salisbury Theatre Saturday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m. Additional viewings will be held on Sunday, May 2, from 1 p.m. through 5 p.m., with shows starting every hour, with a special sneak preview at Regal Cinemas Thursday, April 29 at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Despite his modest façade, Mendelowitz beams with excitement as the fruition of his hard work looms so close at hand.

"It's definitely a big adventure."

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