At the Grange Hall on Wednesday night, roughly 75 people sat, popcorn and concessions in hand, watching both The Bourne Identity and being treated to a running monologue of behind-the-scenes tidbits from its director, Doug Liman.

Mr. Liman pointed to the screen where a close-up shot of Matt Damon loomed large, and let the attendees in on a secret: some of the shots in the scene, most of which was filmed in Paris, were filmed at a Home Depot in Vancouver.

“The super close-ups of Matt we did in reshoots on our own, just Matt and myself in a Home Depot in Vancouver,” Mr. Liman said. “I asked the Home Depot, can we just build a set? You know, it’s fantastic. You’ve got everything you need right there.”

The Bourne Identity came out in 2002 and was a huge hit, spawning the series about the amnesiac Mathew Bourne, a character created by novelist Robert Ludlum.

Film was a big success, but the road to making it was a hard one.

Ray Ewing

Film was a big success, but the road to making it was a hard one.

Ray Ewing

But when it was being tested in theatres, Mr. Liman said success was far from guaranteed. Universal Studios was unhappy with it, he said, and in general the film was not getting good feedback.

“The first time I saw The Bourne Identity with an audience was at the premiere,” he said. “The film ends, and I look over, and my sister is sound asleep.”

On Wednesday at the Grange Hall, however, guests were attentive and eager to hear stories about the filming of the movie and how it finally got made. The event was hosted by Circuit Arts as part of its extensive summer programing. Brian Ditchfield, executive director of Circuit Arts, sat on stage next to Mr. Liman, asking questions as the movie played.

Mr. Liman first started coming to the Vineyard in 1992 with his parents and has been a seasonal Chilmark resident for several years. Apart from The Bourne Identity, he is well known as the director of the indie films Swingers and Go, and most recently The Instigators, again starring Matt Damon along with Casey Affleck.

He kicked off the event by discussing the tension between himself as a young filmmaker and Universal Studios, then headed by Stacey Snider, also a seasonal resident of the Vineyard.

“This is a movie I had wanted to make ever since Swingers. Five years sounds short now but, at the time, five years of trying to get a film made was a long time,” he said. “My agent was like, ‘Stop talking about Bourne Identity; you’re never going to get this thing made.’”

Throughout the movie, Mr. Liman would occasionally ask to pause the film to explain to the audience what was going through his head when directing a scene. For example, when Matthew Bourne is frantically walking through the Gare du Nord, the famous train station in Paris, Mr. Liman said there was no film crew helping to set up and shoot the scene. Instead, it was only him, behind the camera, and Matt Damon.

“I didn’t actually have permission from Universal to shoot in this train station so the camera work is shakier,” he said.

He also spoke about the struggle to get the film rights to the Bourne Identity book. He told the crowd that he first crashed the wedding of the president of Warner Brothers to try to get permission to make the movie. When that failed he reached out directly to Mr. Ludlum to try and secure the rights to his book. With a newly acquired pilot’s license, Mr. Liman flew himself across the country to meet Mr. Ludlum.

“He agreed to meet with me and he lived in Glacier National Park, Mont. So I flew myself to Glacier National Park,” he said. “It was my first cross-country flight. I mean, it was terrifying.”

That cross-country flight turned out to be the right move, and Mr. Liman ultimately secured the rights to the story, and eventually convinced Universal Studios to greenlight the film.

Mr. Liman admitted that he was probably difficult to work with as a young filmmaker but that he and Ms. Snider are now good friends, and he credits her with having faith in him.

“As outrageous as my stories are during the reshoots of the Home Depot or sneaking into the Gare du Nord or totally disobeying the studio, the single most outrageous decision of The Bourne Identity was Stacey Snider trusting me with $50 million to go make Bourne Identity,” he said. “So I honestly think the craziest, wildest decision of all of Bourne Identity was Stacey Snider taking a chance on it.”