Dave Boyle met Goh Nakamura, a musician, at a party after the premiere of his movie, White on Rice, at last year’s San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. They spent a lot of time hanging out during the festival and started talking about doing a movie together.

“We just really hit it off,” said Boyle. “I’m a traveling filmmaker, and he’s a traveling musician. That’s where this all started – it was sort of autobiographical.”

Now that movie, Surrogate Valentine, starring Nakamura as himself – sort of – is the closing movie of the festival on Thursday, March 17 at the Kabuki.

Boyle said he’s met a lot of his closest collaborators at film festivals. He was excited to cast Nakamura as the lead in this movie.

“A lot of people know him for his music, and I was convinced he could carry a movie,” Boyle said. “He has a quiet charisma and he’s able to hold people’s attention.”

In Surrogate Valentine, Nakamura plays a musician who tries to teach an actor to play guitar for a role in a friend’s movie. The movie was filmed in San Francisco in black and white. Shooting it in black and white meant a reasonable budget, Boyle said.

“We’re talking used car prices,” he said. “We didn’t have to worry about color temperatures or wardrobe, and we made it in 15 days and didn’t go over budget. Plus Goh looks great in black and white.”

Nakamura wrote the movie, along with Boyle and Joel Clark. Boyle says he enjoys working with other people.

“You can’t make a movie on your own; it’s the most collaborative of the arts,” he said.

But what about the frustration in working with others?

“The frustration is part of the fun,” he said. “You can’t make a fire without friction, right?”

How about the loss of control with all those collaborators?

“Control on an indie film is a totally false illusion,” he said. “You can get thrown out of a location at any time, for example. You need to let the film evolve into what it wants to be.”

Boyle, who was out in Austin for South by Southwest, said he was looking forward to coming to San Francisco for the SFIAAFF.

“I love it – It’s one of my favorites,” he said. “It’s one of those festivals that has great audience support. It’s one I always hope I’ll be invited to; it’s a staple of Bay Area film culture.”