University alumnus and Baton Rouge native Max Zoghbi may have gained fame in recent months for his short documentary film “Wildflower / A Proposal,” but he insists he’s far from finished.
“Wildflower,” which is up on Zoghbi’s YouTube channel, is a 25-minute encapsulation of Max’s and his then-fiancee Bonnie Kate Pourciau’s eventful two-year relationship and eventual engagement.
Though a relationship is rarely without a misstep here and there, the Zoghbis have had a rough go by any definition of the word. After a mission trip to Haiti left Bonnie Kate with gastroparesis, a debilitating tropical disease that renders eating near-impossible, she managed to recover enough to make it back home to Baton Rouge.
Pourciau, who was split up with Zoghbi at the time, decided to take a road trip with her friend Elizabeth Sumrall, who was moving from Seattle to her native Baton Rouge, when the pair decided to stop for the night at a small town called Aurora, Colorado. They agreed to see “The Dark Knight Rises” at its midnight premiere on a whim, and what followed was something out of a bad dream: Lone gunman James Eagan Holmes opened fire on the crowd, wounding Pourciau and shattering her kneecap.
Zoghbi’s “Wildflower” documents Pourciau’s slow and painful recovery, the couple’s eventual reconciliation and his extensively complex proposal scheme, which began in Baton Rouge’s very own Cinemark Perkins Rowe and involved a fake movie trailer.
“We’ve had a humbling amount of press,” Zoghbi said, just as the couple, who now reside in Baton Rouge together, appeared Saturday on NBC’s “Today Show” to discuss their roller coaster of the past two years.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s crazy,” Zoghbi said. “Martha Stewart, Buzzfeed and The Daily Mail all did pieces on it as well.” 
After gaining an interest in filmmaking from an attempt to document a canoeing trip down the Mississippi River, Zoghbi said he decided to put everything he had into filmmaking. 
“We took this trip, and we were like, ‘we got to document this.’ Living like a pirate for a few weeks with just my friends and a camera made me realize how much I loved making film[s].”
Zoghbi’s Baton Rouge-based Loupe Theory Studios, a commercial video production company whose clients include Hunter Hayes, Otter Box and Pepsi, was the brainchild of that decision. Founded in 2012 with a grant from the Louisiana Business and Technology Center Business Incubator, Loupe Theory is the culmination of Zoghbi’s passion and hard work.
“Loupe Theory, I was just kind of doing it parttime,” Zoghbi said. “We won that Business of the Year Award, and I won a Gold ADDY for an advertisement I did. LBTC really helped get us off the ground.  
“I love getting behind people or brands that I can really get into. If you can find a group, or a brand or an agency that aligns with your passions, that’s just magic waiting to happen,” Zoghbi said. “I enjoy either finding or creating films that are worth sharing. And ever since cameras became affordable five years ago, that number has only gotten higher.”
He stresses the importance of thorough research and a genuine interest in the work as vital to the success of a particular project.
“You can’t share something as intimate as a video if you don’t care about it. And you can’t really care about something until you’ve done your research on it and found out more about it,” he said.
Zoghbi, while still interested in his current work making films commercially, aspires to one day make feature films. 
“I have like three feature film ideas. I have a lot of interesting people in my life that sort of drop these wonderful ideas in my lap. But right now I’m nowhere close to that. I’m a long way away,” he said. “But I always want to be a student, I always want to be learning.”
For now, Zoghbi will continue to be grateful for what he does have. 
“I’m thankful for every day, especially when I’m behind
the camera,” he said.