Inspiring Story: Leonidas Demas, First-Time Filmmaker at 78

Leonidas (78) has tried on many hats. He was in the Air Force, worked as a pilot, spent 35 years as an attorney and now in retirement, he’s trying out something new: filmmaking.

What started as an idea 10 years ago, is now a full-length feature film (“A Spartan Dream”) that is available to rent at home and premiered in theaters across five U.S. cities. We caught up with Leonidas to discuss how he made his dream a reality and what advice he has for other aspiring, older adult filmmakers.

What inspired you to write the script for “A Spartan Dream?”

I had always had this dream idea about Greece. My father had grown up over there, and he filled me with all kinds of truths and untruths about ancient history and the Spartans and the Gilead and all this stuff. He told me that I was the Duke of Sparta and when we finally got there, all the people would be cheering along the roads and there would be soldiers with their spears and shields and everything.

We finally got over there when I was 12 and there were no soldiers. There were no people cheering. We followed a dirt road, dust-spewing, to a one-bedroom village home with a dirt floor. This was 1960, there was no electricity or running water.

After acclimatizing for a day or two, I met the kids in the village and the donkeys and the goats and the fields and the olive tree groves and the orange groves and we would run around and play right at the base of a 8,000-foot mountain. It was just great as a young kid.

Since then, I’ve been there like 20 times. I developed an almost mystical, reverent sense of Greece and I always wanted to give something back. To honor Greece and my experiences there. So, I wrote “A Spartan Dream.”

Was this the first thing you’ve written?

I never had any filmmaking experience. Obviously as a lawyer I wrote a lot, you had to write briefs and memoranda and all that stuff. But I never did anything in an artistic sense.

How did you go from writing a script to actually getting it produced?

Ten years ago, I started formulating an idea and then about four years ago I started writing the story as a script because I felt it would be maybe easier to do a film script as opposed to a novel or something like that because that would be a very individual effort. And I thought to myself, well, if I make a film I’m going to have a lot of people around me who know what they’re doing, they know technical aspects, they know art, they know things that will be able to help me get this story produced. And I thought it would be better to do it that way for someone who’s just launching into the arts.

And it turned out to be true! I have a nephew who’s an actor in New York and he knew a Greek-American director who I sent the script to. He got freaked out because his ancestors are from Sparta too, from a village 15 minutes from my village.

He said he’d direct, and we started looking for a lead actor. One of the actors who auditioned turned out to also be from Sparta, and we hired him. He was perfect for it. Then, we went to Greece and got a Greek producer who knows the ins and outs of making a movie there. And then we got a casting director and cinematographer to come on board.

We were in position to start shooting, so we went down to Sparta. 95% of the film was shot in Sparta, all of our extras were Spartans and even the Spartan mayor was all excited about the movie. It was really a great thing.

Here’s a peek at the trailer:

 

Do you have any advice for other older adults looking to try something new and creative, like filmmaking?

You have to get the naysaying part of you out of your mind. As for the people who are naysayers around you, you can be nice to them, but you don’t listen to them. You have to be very positive.

For actually writing a script, scriptwriting software, like Final Draft, tells you how to format a professional script. It has to be consistent with industry standards or people will throw it to the side. The art and the story comes from you. But you have to know how to present it.

How do you think your age positively affected your experience?

I think it helped in a lot of ways. There’s a certain respect when you’re older, people listen to you and they defer to you. Obviously, you can’t be a jerk because then no one will respect you no matter how clever you are. But you get a certain credit from being older and having more experience.

What does aging with attitude mean to you?

In the end, the Lord takes you. But while you’re here, if you want to keep doing things that are of value to you and those around you, you need to be very positive and have a certain amount of courage.

From the beginning, I thought “I can’t do this, I don’t know anything about filmmaking, I’m wasting my time.” And one day I said to myself, “Shut up, Lee, and just do it.” And I did.

It’s an internal battle you have to win. Take over your life and do what you want to do, as best as you can. Even if you don’t succeed, at least you ran the race instead of sitting on the sidelines.

Photo credit to Odyssey Entertainment; Leonidas Demas at left, with his son, Chris at right.

A SPARTAN DREAM is now available to rent or own on all cable, satellite, and digital platforms like Apple TV and Prime Video.

Pam Hugi is Senior Planet’s Community and Advocacy Manager. Based in Brooklyn, she is a contributing writer for this site.