An Interview with Jacob Estes, Director and Writer of Mean Creek
By Pete Langlois, DC Film Society Member
Jacob Estes is finally coming to the end of a long road, and seeing the fruits of his labor pay off. Seven years since the first draft of the script was penned, Mean Creek is the first full-length feature film for the American Film Institute-trained writer/director. Starring an impressive group of experienced but not yet instantly recognizable young actors, this morality tale built around a plan for playful revenge on a bully takes its characters and the audience on an emotionally charged boat trip. Not your typical summer movie to be sure, but one that explores a depth of adolescent consciousness that is rarely seen on screen. I and two other journalists had the opportunity to speak with Estes on August 11 to discuss the film and his work.
Question: How was the premiere (held in Hollywood two days earlier)?
Jacob Estes: It was an amazing experience. Paramount Classics (the film’s distributor) went all out--we had a 700 seat theater and that filled up so they added an overflow room, as well as the red carpet, and lots of screaming fans for the kids in the cast (I'm sure it wasn't for me). It was quite a time.
Q: Did the story grow out of any personal experiences of yours with bullies?
JE: Yes, I tried to overlay some of my own experiences into several of the characters. I was somewhat of an outcast growing up in Chicago, overweight and often teased for having two gay dads (like the character of Clyde) although that eventually stopped. Then as an adult in San Francisco I played pickup basketball daily and started clashing with this 7-foot behemoth that took a dislike to me. He would often physically and emotionally abuse me on the court. I eventually had to stop playing to get away from him but did start to wonder about the motivation of him and people like that, as well as dreaming up some rather elaborate revenge fantasies. I had wanted to write some sort of morality tale, one where kids were dealing with an adult problem without adults around, and the instances of bullying lent themselves to that.
Q: In the relationships between the characters there seems to be an underlying culture of casual violence, even between the siblings and close friends. Is the story intended to be a cautionary tale in that respect?
JE: That is a thread of the movie that very few people have mentioned to me; it’s interesting how different people take different things from the movie. It is an important point: I wanted to show how, in the relationship between the friends, that violence at a low level was commonplace and could be playful, even instinctual, but that it has implications for what happens later in the film.
Q: The ensemble of young actors did an impressive job, and played very well off of each other. What the process for casting them, and for establishing the cohesiveness of the group?
JE: A combination of serendipity and a lot of effort. I didn’t want to cast anybody sight unseen based solely on a name, because I thought it was more important to create the right balance between all the actors. Most of them read between four and six times. Sam (Rory Culkin) and Millie (Carly Schroeder) were cast first. The hardest role to cast ended up being Clyde (Ryan Kelley), because we needed the right person to show why he would hang out with Rocky (Trevor Morgan) and Marty (Scott Mechlowicz), that there was a connection there. We ended up doing some rewrites once the part of Clyde had been cast. At that point the actors had already had some practice from all the readings, and we went and stayed in an apartment complex in Oregon for 10 days. There was very little dealing with the scenes then, I wanted to make them comfortable with each other so the main activities were wiffle ball, relaxing at the pool, and theater games, though some of the actors had had bad experiences with those before. But I did some of the those exercises anyway and called them something else.
Q: How did you stage, and what were intentions behind, the accident scene?
JE: That has to be one of the longest scenes in movie history besides My Dinner With Andre; it was 12 minutes from the time the boat turns around until the scene is over. It was shot over three days, and I was in the water a lot, and it was cold. We had several handheld cameras, and one camera inside a plastic casing that was used for the underwater shots. Josh Peck, who plays George and whose character is videotaping in the movie, did all his own filming in the boat, and then we had scuba divers who we dressed up as George for some of the in-the-water shooting. As for the intent behind the scene, I wanted the audience to be able to see the situation from both points of view, first as sympathetic to this bully character that has been humanized during the film; but once he gets so out of control and provokes the others that you do want the group to exact its intended playful revenge. Nobody wants to hurt him, but the things he are saying are so hateful and inappropriate that the reaction of the characters is just to take action to get him to stop, to be quiet.
Q: Did the emotional changes that the characters have to go through dictate shooting the movie in sequence?
JE: The best case would be to shoot the movie in sequence, not because the actors can’t make the jumps to those different emotional places, but just in order to track changes easier. Most of the movie of was done in sequence but not all of it; some of the scenes in the bedroom between Sam and Rocky were done out of sequence.
Q: Is there a statement you are trying to make with this film?
JE: No, I don’t have one, there is no pat answer. By the time you reduce the themes of bullying and revenge to what you see on the screen, all I am trying to do is have the audience walk away with something. If anything, the movie is about looking into the heart of your adversary. In this story the kids failed to do that, but that is what ultimately drives the drama forward.
Q: The soundtrack to the film is very eclectic, including some bands such as Wilco that don’t normally appear in many films. Did you write the movie with this music in mind?
JE: No, nothing was written with any music in mind, though once it was written we worked really hard to use music appropriately. We wanted to convey that these kids had some taste, that they were hip but not too hip, and I think we accomplished that. In one of the drug use scenes I imagined a Led Zeppelin song, but I knew we could never afford that, and I’m quite pleased with the song that ends up in there. It’s very light, and in the editing the music we chose ended up making us like these people better. Particularly poignant in the movie is the Wilco song “Pot Kettle Black.” I chose that just for the sound of it, and discovered later in examining the lyrics that they were very appropriate for the subject matter as well. I’d certainly rather have the characters listening to that than something by Britney Spears.
Q: What’s next?
JE: That’s top secret (actually, another one of Estes’ scripts, Nearing Grace, is in production, with one of Mean Creek’s producers handling the directorial duties).
Mean Creek was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the Humanitas award at the Sundance Film Festival. Estes also won the Nicholls Fellowship in Screenwriting for the script. The film opened nationwide on August 27.
On August 10, DCFS members also got a chance to ask Jacob Estes their own questions after a preview screening. See below.
An Interview with Bronwen Hughes, Director of Stander
By Larry Hart, DC Film Society Member
Bronwen Hughes will not be pigeonholed as a one-genre director. The Canadian filmmaker’s third feature, Stander, is as radically different from her Sandra Bullock/Ben Affleck romantic comedy, Forces of Nature, as that was from Harriet the Spy, about an 11-year-old girl who spies on her parents.
Stander is a riveting true-life thriller set in the world of late 70s Apartheid South Africa. It’s the story of Andre Stander, at one time the youngest captain in the South African police force and son of a respected police General who became the country’s most notorious bank robber after he’s traumatized by killing a protestor during a famous uprising in Tembisa Township.
Storyboard caught up with Ms. Hughes at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (hotel of choice while the Four Seasons is undergoing renovation) where she explained how a young Canadian director came to make a film that has caused great controversy in South Africa much as Bonnie and Clyde did in the U.S. when it was first released.
“To make a film of any size of any genre is like giving a piece of your soul,” Hughes said. “I had no desire to make a film that looked like any other film so I was willing to wait until a script came along that would make this all-consuming task worth while.”
Hughes said she read the script that was sent to her knowing nothing of the story, which is legend in South Africa. By page 10, which described the riot sequence that the New York Times has called “a piece of virtuoso filmmaking,” she was hooked.
Hughes said some filmmakers are comfortable with characters and stories they know, but she likes the challenge of going in cold. “I went in with my senses wide open, like receptors, and I let myself absorb everything I possibly could to make the film authentic as possible, including surrounding myself with 300 South African crew members.”
Stander, filmed on 108 locations in 68 days, is part anti-Apartheid movie and part shoot-em-up flick, but for Hughes, it’s a character study. “I’m asking the question, ‘why does a man who seems to have a happy life cross the line and keep crossing the line and spiral downward’.”
In addition to dredging up bad memories for the South Africans, always sure to cause controversy, the casting of American actor Tom Jane, who dominates the film with his portrayal of the chameleon-like Andre Stander, created a media furor over the inability to get South Africans cast to play similar roles. Hughes admitted that money was an issue. “There was not a famous South African actor who could attract international financing that was also perfect for the role. If you tried to produce the film purely as a South African production, you would never have the money to make a film on a scale that the story deserves.”
At the same time, Hughes says one newspaper writer criticized her for not spending more money by using the Bob Dylan songs Stander was known to cherish. “People don’t realize it would have cost $125,000 for 30 seconds of Bob Dylan that was better spent on other parts of the film.”
Jane, who may be best known for his portrayal of baseball great Mickey Mantle in HBO’s 61*, was quoted in Variety as saying he turned down the part twice because he was afraid of the enormous challenge in playing a South African legend who is in almost every scene in the film. “That was news to me,” said Hughes, who said she learned of this after the fact when Jane also said that after his first reaction, he then became determined to conquer his fears.
As for the riot sequence, already being used in The Sundance Channel’s series, “Anatomy of a Scene,” Hughes said she was determined not just to film a “riot sequence.” She said, “We had decided early on that we were not going make an “Apartheid lesson” movie, so we decided to distill that part of the story into one huge scene. I did not want to portray what I’ve seen in films like Cry Freedom, what I’d call a massive montage of chaos. Rather than get the feeling of being outside looking in, I wanted to show what it was like for Stander, on the inside, facing an angry crowd of people.”
Hughes said her research for the film, which included seeing raw footage of the incident never shown on television, convinced her that the real tension came when the two sides faced off not knowing what the other side was going to do. The scene builds the tension for the audience as we wait for the first rock to be thrown, the first dog to be unleashed, and the first shot to be fired.
What has most divided those who have written about “The Stander Gang” (as they were called) is Andre Stander’s motivation. As the movie shows, Stander was no Robin Hood. He kept the loot and lived lavishly, yet insisted that his aim was political while others say it was far more personal and related to a failing marriage and the death of his brother in an accident.
Hughes, however, became convinced of Stander’s story when she interviewed the one surviving “gang” member, Allen Heyl, who related tales of police brutality while he and Stander were on patrol that were weighing on Stander even before the pivotal Tembesa riot. “I don’t think we painted the portrait of a saint,” says Hughes. “We show his massive ego which led him to a dark side of his nature, but I believe that he believed what he said on the stand, that he was “legally” committing murder as a policeman. The press in South Africa portrayed Stander as a greedy thug who robbed for pleasure. That’s partly true, but it’s not the full story and that’s what the movie shows.”
Stander will open in the DC area soon.
An Interview with John Sayles, Director of Silver City
By Adam Spector, DC Film Society Member
Believe it or not, John Sayles has been writing and directing films for nearly 25 years. Sayles says that he still struggles to get money for his films, fitting for a man who shot his debut film, Return of the Secaucus 7, over 25 days with a $45,000 budget. Sayles has stayed true to himself, making films he wants to make largely outside studio control, and becoming a seminal figure in modern independent film. He tells challenging stories that examine larger issues in an intelligent and honest way. Sayles’s films often explore unique cultures in America and abroad. His attention to dialogue and character have endeared him to actors. Testament to this are the many performers, such as David Strathairn, Joe Morton, and Chris Cooper, who have worked with Sayles frequently. While never huge box office draws, his films consistently garner critical acclaim. Some of Sayles more notable work includes The Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, and Eight Men Out (one of the best sports films ever made). Sayles also received Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations for Passion Fish and Lone Star.
Sayles' latest effort is Silver City, a political mystery. Chris Cooper stars as a Dickie Pilager, a dim-witted Colorado gubernatorial candidate. While Dickie is shooting a campaign ad at a local lake, a dead body floats up. Concerned about the political fallout, Pilager’s ruthless campaign manager Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss) hires private investigator Danny O’Brien (Daniel Huston). Danny’s job is ostensibly to find out about the body but actually to smoke out any of Pilager’s enemies who might have used the body to sink the campaign. As you might expect, Danny discovers more than he bargained for about the body, Pilager, shady business dealings, government manipulation, and a mysterious power baron named Bentel (Kris Kristofferson). Like many Sayles films, Silver City touches on broader themes and boasts a stellar ensemble cast. Joining Cooper, Huston, Kristofferson and Dreyfuss are Darryl Hannah, Michael Murphy, Ralph Waite, Tim Roth, Thora Birch and Maria Bello.
Last month I had the privilege of sitting down with Sayles to discuss his new film, his politics, and his career:
Adam Spector: Tell me about the idea for Silver City. Where did it come from and how did it evolve?
John Sayles: I’d been thinking about doing something very much about politics and especially electoral politics since 2000. The last presidential election we were in Florida shooting Sunshine State and talking with people about the feeling that the real story down there wasn’t hanging chads or the ballot. It was how many African-American people didn’t get to vote and that there seemed to be some thought behind that, that it wasn’t just an accident. So I started thinking about that. I started reading some stuff about the effects of deregulation on various industries, including the meat packing industry, which I used to be in, and I think the first thing I started to think about is that a lot of this stuff trickles out of the news media almost as if it were a natural phenomenon. This just happened; it’s an accident. It falls out of the sky or something like that. In fact most of it is the result of careful planning. Somebody said “Look, we don’t like the way things are legally. We can’t change it legally; it won’t run past the public if we tell them what we’re doing. But what if we redefine this or what if we rephrase this or what if we spend a lot of money to get this politician to change his mind about this whether it’s through getting money to his campaign or hiring lobbyists to bug him to death, or just getting rid of that politician? Just put enough money into this one-time thing. Get this guy out of there. Get a new guy in there.”
AS: Like the Ralph Waite character in Silver City?
JS: Yes, he’s a thorn in someone’s side at the EPA, so they just blow him out of there. So I started thinking about that and how would you make a story that could follow a lot of these things. What if I used the mystery genre? So there is an investigator who stumbles upon this stuff and that’s not what he’s looking for but that’s what he keeps finding. And then I started thinking about the idea of somebody working for an candidate and the trail starts to turn back on that candidate. Quite honestly, it was only about a year ago that we started focusing on making this. I wanted people to be able to draw lines not only between the characters in the movie, but from the movie to what’s going on in the country now. That’s when I decided, “What if I give this candidate some attributes of George Bush when he was running for governor of Texas the first time?” He’s a new candidate, his father is a famous politician, he hasn’t been up to much in his life. But he’s got all of this money behind him and he’s learning how to be a candidate. His character arc is that by the end of the movie, he’s better. He’s at least sticking to the script. People can say “OK, is the stuff that’s going on in the movie stuff that’s going on in the country or our state, or our local kind of politics?”
AS: So was the plan always to release Silver City in the fall of an election year?
JS: Two things. The plain commercial thing is if you’ve got a sports movie it’s pretty good to release it near the end of that sport, when people are really thinking about the playoffs. Not on the night of the playoffs, but leading up to it.
AS: Did Eight Men Out (about the 1919 Chicago White Sox throwing the World Series) come out in October?
JS: No, it came out, I think, Labor Day, so people were thinking about the pennant race and all that. But you don’t want to compete with the sport. You certainly don’t want to come out the week after the World Series. I wrote The Howling and they always play it around Halloween. So there’s that and also we wanted people to think about this election and think about this administration and hopefully you get people started and they say “Well it’s not just about one election; whoever gets in you got to stay on people’s case. There’s big systemic problems here.” One of the biggest is how campaigns are financed and that it’s almost impossible for us to have politicians who think that their constituents are voters if they’re getting all their money from corporations....
Another is this immigration policy we have, which is tied in with a lot of things. But it’s been accepted, even encouraged in some ways. Even though it’s difficult to get across the border, certain industries are subsidized by illegal aliens--people you don’t have to pay scale or benefits. And if you don’t pay them at all when the job is over what are they going to do? If the construction industry and the restaurant industry had to pay everyone minimum wage and benefits, they’d be in deep sh-t. And we have to make that question of do we need those industries or do we need those industries on that level. Are we willing to have people come up here and get ripped off? Or can we live with that hypocrisy, that we don’t want these people here, but we need them here?
And then there’s the environmental stuff, which has been pretty egregious in this administration, especially, I think, some of the most creative naming of bills that are really to cut back on environmental protection. The “Blue Sky Act” or the “Clean Water Act” or whatever ... and I get used to that, which all politicians do no matter what side they’re on. That kind of “What can we call this so that people won’t really know what we’re doing to them?”
AS: In another interview you said you made political films, not ideological films. Would you say that holds true for Silver City?
JS: I do think that it’s an ideological film in that it’s a pro-democracy film and one of the questions that it asks is how you define your democracy. What do you ask of people when they’re going to have a democracy? What responsibility personally do you have to take for it and are we anything close to having a democracy or are we further away from having a democracy than we were 15 years ago. So it’s very ideological in that way. It’s really just considering one system and its ideas about itself.
AS: Silver City starts off very satirical, with some comic moments. But as the film progresses it becomes darker and more dramatic. Was that something you were looking for or is that just how the film played out?
JS: It’s pretty much what I was going for. If you look at Danny’s arc--at the beginning he’s kind of hapless and kind of a loser. He’s doing a job he doesn’t care for and his way of dealing with that is to do a really bad job of it. He’s not a good detective ... he eventually does find some things out not because he’s that brilliant at it and he finds most of them out toward the end when he gets more serious about it.... The arc is from somebody who is apathetic, who is cynical, who is half-assed, who is a bit of a loser, somebody at the end who doesn’t win the battle. He doesn’t even win a skirmish in this one. But at the end he’s gotten his girlfriend back and he’s gotten his sense of moral outrage back, and that’s a big arc for a character. It’s more than most people go through in a 3-4 day period. And therefore, in the movie also, like a lot of mysteries, a lot of film mysteries, you think it’s a simple murder or maybe even an accident and it could turn into The Trouble with Harry, about a stiff that won’t go away. And there’s that kind of morgue humor at the beginning of it and as you put a name to this person you can’t be quite as funny anymore.... You have to say, “Well wait a minute, that’s a human being and he’s dead now and he’s got a family somewhere and I can’t be quite as blithe about that as I used to be.” And the same thing happens with Danny. At first it’s like Aughh!! There’s this job, there’s this politician and he’s (Pilager) paranoid and he thinks that these people are after him. He drew a body in a lake, which is pretty far-fetched and then when he (Danny) starts discovering is, wait a minute, something did something to someone here. And he starts getting upset and at the end he’s got a conspiracy theory that hits way beyond what actually happened but he’s hooked. And I hope that the trip that the audience takes is pretty much like the one Danny takes.
AS: In another interview you referred to television as a type of drug. In a film like Passion Fish, it’s an opiate for May Alice to forget about her troubled life. In Silver City it appears to be a drug in a different way. Almost a mind-controlling drug. Is that the way you see TV?
JS: With any drug it’s how you use it. Here it’s not just television it’s media in general, media news in general ... unquestioned, it can lull you to sleep. At some point you have to get up and say, “Well, wait a minute, I’ve got some practical things to do here. I can’t just listen to this stuff. This is not what is actually going on in the world.” They would like you to think that’s what’s going on in the world and just stay within it’s reality. I’ve had a lot of scenes with people watching TV in my movies over the years. At one point in this film people are watching it with the sound off and there’s an important part of the movie where that’s happening. Who he (Danny) is talking to at that moment is the guy that questions mainstream media, Tim Roth’s character. And the minute you turn the sound off, or just turn the picture off and listen to the sound, you analyze what’s on there and not just accept it. You’re starting to question what that thing is. And just that act of turning the sound off already is a step toward Danny’s thing of getting his moral outrage back. He’s not just saying “Hey, it’s TV, what are you going to do?”
Yeah, I do think that unfortunately the news just wants us to be hooked on it rather than on what is really going on in the world. So if you remember the coverage of both of the gulf wars, that the major networks, they got a theme song, they got a logo, they got a name for it. So every night it was this kind of semi-improvised, quickly edited miniseries that they were doing. They were not necessarily looking to what was happening out in the world. They were looking at each other. “What’s Fox doing? That seems to be working. Let’s put more American flags on the corner of the screen. Let’s make sure our people have American flags on their uniform while they’re embedded. What can we put them in front of because MSNBC is gaining on us?” That is network television, the sitcom world, the world of every Monday--you live and die by the numbers. It’s not reporting what was going on there. They didn’t say, “What’s going on there that these other guys don’t know?” They were saying, “How do we present what the Army is telling us in a more interesting, more stimulating way than our competitors?”
AS: Related to that is the issue of media consolidation, which Silver City also touches on. Bentel’s company buys the paper that Maria Bello’s character is working for. Your film is being distributed by Newmarket, one of the true independent distributors out there. Do you think it could have been distributed by one of those pseudo-independents with ties to major studios?
JS: Yeah, I think Sony could have done it. I think Sony Pictures Classics could have done it. Miramax would not have been allowed to, probably, by Disney for the same reason they didn’t do Michael Moore’s film (Fahrenheit 9/11). I think Focus could have done it. I think New Line could have done it. I don’t think Fox would have done it, Fox Classics. I think they would have gotten a nasty letter from upstairs. There is a culture there, and they know what is expected of them. It would have been uncomfortable for them to but that. But I do think they could have. Sony Classics is the least controlled of those. They really have autonomy and they do what they do. They really don’t get in Sony’s way. Sony doesn’t get in their way. They’re within a certain mandated budget and stuff like that. Others that are a little more closely held, it’s more about personalities than corporations. It’s still a pretty marginal world, those companies.
The people in the big studios, if they’re political at all, it’s about “This isn’t going to make us money. Some people are upset by this and this isn’t going to make us money.” I think there might be one or two studios who have connections to somebody, but that’s probably pretty rare. While in 1969, Haskell Wexler, who shot this movie, came out with Medium Cool and somebody basically called the studio up and said, “Give us a break. Get this movie off the screen.” I saw Medium Cool in Washington, D.C. here during a march to protest the bombing of Cambodia. There was tear gas in the street, and it was like “Well, do you want to go to the Justice Department and get arrested, or do you want to go to this movie? I want to go to this movie.” I wasn’t into throwing sh-t around in front of cops. I went to see this movie with a tear gas smell in the theater, and I said, “My god, this is going to make a fortune! Every college kid in America is into this stuff. This is a movie exactly about what is going on.” And it was off the screen everywhere in America in the next week. They could have made some money and they chose not to. That kind of thing does go on a little bit. Sometimes the motives are bigger motives. With our little movie I think there‘s only a couple of places where the corporate parents would have said, “No, we just didn’t want to get involved in that.”
AS: A couple of things that were said in the film, I was wondering if those are things you believe or know people who believe. Bentel says that Americans like a winner more than they like the underdog. Do you think we’re at that point right now?
JS: I think we’ve seen that in sports. I think we’ve seen it in movies a lot more. Certainly this phenomenon of “Entertainment Tonight” or not (just) the trade papers but the regular magazines posting who won the weekend. I hear kids saying, “It made the most money last week. Let’s go see that one.” Just to be part of something. Coca-Cola has certainly done advertising on “You want to be on this team. The soft drink that the most people in the world drink.” And you just see it in advertising a lot more. “This is the #1, this is the favorite.” People say, “Well, this must be the best one. We’ve got to go see something at the mall, Let’s go to that movie. Everybody says it’s good.” And that’s what advertising becomes. Nobody says, “Hey, nobody has seen this cool new movie.” It just really doesn’t work with people anymore. I think you still see it in movies, the underdog stuff and sports stories still have some of that stuff too. But I think that's the way that sometimes even people vote. “Well, this is the guy who seems more powerful. It seems like he’s going to win. I’ll vote for him because I don’t want to be a schmuck.” I really feel that change since I was younger, and certainly in the movies you see it. The golden age of movies for me was the 70s. There were a lot of movies about guys who didn’t win in the end. A lot of anti-heroes, a lot of ambiguous endings and you don’t see many of those anymore. You usually see a freeze-frame on somebody doing “We’re number one.”
AS: Let’s talk a little bit about your films in general. Most of your films, in addition to the basic story, and who the characters are, also touch on larger systemic issues. Is that something you look for when you’re thinking of what film you want to do next?
JS: It’s often something that interests me ... sometimes it’s a question of “Is this really happening? Are these connections I see really there? Is this a trend that I see?” But I have to break it down to a human level and that’s where the characters come in so they’re not just allegorical, they’re also psychological and individual but they fit into a bigger thing. Everybody’s motives are a mixture of these things. You look at any political movements, if you really study it ... let’s say one of the problems with this movement is that this guy was an alcoholic or he couldn’t delegate authority or this guy was very jealous ... whether it’s Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, there was an antagonism between them because of who was the superstar of the movement. But there were also political differences. So you can say, “Well, yes they represented two political things here but there’s also just personal problems between the two guys” and that’s a line I always try to walk which is yes, I’m interested in personal psychology but what’s the context? Because your personal history is so tied up in the context.
I think a good example is Baby, It’s You, which is about the Jewish upper class girl who goes from Trenton High School to Sarah Lawrence, and in her senior year, she dates this kind of meatball Italian guy who is not going to even finish high school for a while. Well, that’s not quite Romeo and Juliet, but a star-crossed lovers kind of story. It’s about growing up and all that kind of stuff. But it also takes place in 1966, and you could go from a high school that was like the 50s and then go from your high school drama teacher speaking with a very cultured English accent and talking about deportment and how you hold yourself on stage and within two months be crawling on the floor doing Grotowski (theater) exercises with a guy who was sleeping with half his students. That’s a catapult not just from high school to college but from one era to the other, so that’s one of the things that made that story interesting. I wouldn’t have been as interested if it was set in 1955 and 1956. But the times made it even more interesting because that pressure on what’s always a kind of personal, growing, difficult thing is increased by the times. You had to grow up really, really fast and deal with all this new stuff, and everybody thought it was cool, even though it seemed really kind of strange to you. And all of a sudden someone hands you a joint and in 1966 nobody you’ve ever known has ever smoked a joint. And when you puff on that joint you don’t know if you’re going to go crazy and never get to come back. You don’t know that it’s different from LSD. You’re a pioneer. That context to me really changed the story, made it a more interesting story.
AS: Speaking of context, all of your films seem to have a very distinct sense of place. I couldn’t see a John Sayles film being shot mostly on a soundstage. The locations, the flavor. Is that something you look for? Do you do a lot of scouting?
JS: Quite a bit. And sometimes like the stuff that’s set in America, it’s about culture and what culture is there that’s different from mainstream culture or what associations do we have with that landscape. So with the Rockies we think of miners and cattlemen and so do the people who live in the Rockies, even though that’s less than two percent of the income made in Colorado. It’s just not big industries there anymore. But people still wear the boots and adopt the style of libertarianism, rugged frontier thinkers out there. In the case of the movies I shot in Mexico, there you have to go around and say, “What region in Mexico? What does this look like?” Acapulco (where Sayles shot Casa de los Babys), with the beautiful hotels and a beach, but also if you keep going up the hill, really poor people in shacks, evokes one thing. Being in the wilds of the Chiapas where there are no beautiful hotels and there are no shacks, there are Indian villages and the people don’t speak Spanish, evokes a different thing. It’s jungle around you, not Pacific beach, so there I was looking for something even more primal during Men with Guns. You go from sugar cane to banana fields to mountains and you start in a glass or plastic city.
AS: You’ve had a long career. You’re credited as one of the pioneers of modern independent film. Are you happy with where your career is now, with the type of work you’ve been doing?
JS: I like the movies. I feel good about the movies we’ve made. I feel good about the people we get to work with. You just never know. I rarely know if I’m going to get to make another one or what it will be so I don’t know what we will do next. It would be nice to have someone who said, “Look, I really like this movie. Here’s $10 million. Whatever you want to do. Put that toward what you’re going to do next.” That just never happens and that’s too bad in some ways and in other ways that’s good in that you never get complacent and say, “Oh yes, I haven’t done anything in a year. I don’t have a really good idea, but I’ll do something.” You’ve got to really want to do a movie to have to struggle as much as we do to get them made. But that’s the good thing about them not being easy.
The 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival Surprises and Astonishes
By James McCaskill, Storyboard Special Correspondent
At the press roll out for the 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival the Artistic Director, Shane Danielson, said that this year's program would be stronger than ever and that, "We believe in giving people things they don't already know. We want to surprise and astonish our audience." Shane, you did just that. I wasn't certain what to expect since three major UK films are bypassing Edinburgh and holding their premieres in Toronto (Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, Danny Boyle's Millions and Roger Michell's Enduring Love) and the Closing Night's film, 2046 was withdrawn part way through the festival (rumor has it that the film may not be out until the Beijing Olympics as parts are still being reshot). While those three films are having their openings in Canada, seven films had their world premiere's in Edinburgh and four will hold their own with anyone's: Hamburg Cell, My Summer of Love, Yasmin and Dead Man's Shoes.
Coming as it does just before the Venice and Toronto film festivals, Edinburgh has to find its own special niche to entice viewers away from the other August festivals here. The Fringe is the world's largest festival with more than a million tickets sold this year. The Book Festival entices major authors from around the world to this International City of Literature and the International Festival brings major performances as well. Ticket sales to all the festivals increased significantly helped no doubt by the rainiest August in some years. Danielson in his three years of steering the film festival appears to be making this festival the Mecca of art house films, a worthwhile decision. This year's Asian cinema is front and center with several superb films. From China came Passages (Lucheng, Yang Chao, 2004) and partnering with Hong Kong to also bring the sumptuous Hero (just opened in our area), a film that needed two divisions of the Red Army. South Korea had six films with Old Boy (while recommend you should be warned that the film contains graphic mutilation) and E J-Yong's Untold Scandal, an adaptation of Chaderlos De Laclos' 1782 novel that has been made into films by Roger Vadim, Milos Forman and Stephen Frears. DC audiences will get their fill of Korean films in September and October, see story above.
One new trend, greatly to be admired, is the turn from films portraying Glasgow, as a 20th century Scottish poet put it, as "stinking bad lands of Glasgow where life rots as it grows." All followed the lead of last year's Wilbur, Who Wants to Kill Himself in showing the better parts of the city. Greenock is no longer the desolate area in Sweet 16 but is welcoming in Dear Frankie. Richard Jobson uses the city's strikingly modern architecture as a backdrop for his futuristic Scottish martial arts film, The Purifiers. Ken Loach in the last of his Glasgow trilogy (My Name is Joe and Sweet 16 were the first two) shows a middle class town in Ae Fond Kiss.
There were some hidden gems that did not make my Top of the Fest list but are worth looking for. Bitter Dreams (Mohsen Amiryoussefi, Iran, 2004) is a light, black comedic film about Iranian cemetery workers that includes a visit from the Angel of Death. If you are accustomed to heavy, politically laden films from Iran you will appreciate this one. if you have never seen an Iranian film this is a good one to start with.
Finland's Pearls and Pigs (Helmiaja sikoja, Perttu Leppa, 2003) is also on my list of hidden gems. Trailer trash with a heart start to turn their newly discovered younger sister's singing skills into ready cash in order to bail their dad from jail. Norway's United (Magnus Martens, 2003) may only make it to film festivals as it deals with yet another soccer wannabe but after the success of Bend It Like Beckham, who knows?
Must See List. Some of these films will have commercial releases in the next six months but for others you may have to look for FilmFest DC next Spring. Comme Une Image (Look at Me, Agnes Jaoui, France, 2004). Dear Frankie (Shona Auerback, UK, 2004). Hamburg Cell (Antonia Bird, UK, 2004). The Machinist (Brad Anderson, Spain, 2004). The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, Argentina-Chile-Peru-USA, 2004). Yasmin (Kenny Glenaan, UK, 2004).
Strongly Recommended. These films did not make the top category but are excellent and I urge you to see them. Ae Fond Kiss (Ken Loach, UK and Germany, 2004). Dead Man's Shoes (Shane Meadows, UK, 2004). Duck Season (Temporada de Patos, Fernando Eimbche, Mexico, 2004). Hero (Ying Xiong, Zhang Yimou, China-Hong Kong, 2002). Inside I'm Dancing (Damien O'Donnell, Ireland, 2004). My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, UK, 2004). Old Boy (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2004). Passages (Lu Cheng, Yang Chao, China, 2004). Stage Beauty (Richard Eyre, UK-US, 2004). Untold Scandal (E J-Yong, South Korea, 2004).
Synopsis of Top Films
Comme Une Image: in this witty, French intellictural chatering class film the ugly duckling daughter (brilliantly played by Marilou Berry) craves attention from her succesful author father.
Dear Frankie: is a well crafted, superbly directed film that in less capable hands could have descened into Soap Opera Land. Nine year old Frankie Morrison (Jack McElhone) and his mother Lizzie (Emily Mortiner) have roamed around the UK for most of Frankie's life. In an effort to shield Frankie she has him believe that his dad is a merchant seaman. Every few weeks Frankie receives a letter from him, all duly tracked on a map on his bedroom wall. When Frankie learns that the ship will dock in his new town in a few weeks, Lizzie has to recruit someone to play his father for a day. The Stranger, as he is billed in the film, is aptly played by the talented Gerald Butler. A twist at the end helps keep this from being a sticky, cloying film.
Hamburg Cell: The US backers of this film pulled out fearing a backlash if it is released in the states. This chilling thriller scripted from public records charts the drift of Muslim students in Hamburg, Germany into radical fundamentalist resposible for the 9/11 tragedy and is as exciting as any mystery thriller I've seen in years. I think the backers were a bit squeamish--the film makes clear that the position of the students is not the opinion of the majority of Muslims. It has been shown on UK TV with no repercussions.
The Machinist: Starring Christian Bales as you have never seen him. For the role of the tormented, guilt ridden Trevor Reznick, Bales lost 60 pounds. An industrial accident in an unidentified machineshop starts Bales on his downward spiral. The Machinist is the best adult drama I have seen in ages. One can make too much of casual material but you can not help but notice that Reznick has a copy of Dostoevsky's The Idiot on his night stand.
The Motorcycle Diaries: Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican heartthrob, stars as the young Ernesto Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) on a journey from their middle class, comfortable life in Buenos Aires across Latin American to a leper colony in San Pablo, Venezuela. This is a journey of self discovery that ultimately converts Ernesto into 'El Che.' The rich countryside and people of Latin American are a crucial element in this film. Over 30 locations, where most of the actual events occured, are used in this 84 day shoot. Sites ranged from Buenos Aires and Bariloche in Argentina; Temuco, Altacama Desert and Valparaiso and the mine in Chile and Iquitos and Machu Picchu in Peru.
Yasmin: It took months of research and workshops with the Muslim communities in the North of England by the director and writer Simon Beufoy (writer of Full Monty). Yasmin is a study of what it means to be Asian, Muslim and British in the 21st century told from the point of view of a strong and Westernized women while living in a traditional culture. Her story deals with universal themes such as guilt, transgression and the search for identity. After 9/11 Yasmin is marginalized and the arrest of her husband, a cousin she married so he could have a UK passport, compels her to take a second look at her life. Director Kenny Glenaan said, "I wanted to make a positive film about the British Muslim community to dispel the myths and rampant Islamphobia that have grown out of the September 11th tragedy. It was important that the films voice should come from within the community. None of it is made up. I used a mixture of people from the community and professional actors to play the main roles to deliberately blur the line between fiction and documentary."
Award Winners
The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature went to Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer of Love, a combination of adolescent love and religious experience. Mona (Natalie Press) is a 16 year old living in an unnamed English village with her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) who recently came out of prison intending to convert his pub into a religious center. This is Pawlikowshi's first film since the well received The Last Resort.
The Standard Life Audience Award is given to a mainstream feature film. This year Damien O'Donnell's Inside I'm Dancing picked up the award. Home for 24 year old Michael Connolly (Steven Robertson) is the Carrigmore Home for the Disabled. Connolly has cerebral palsy and his neighbor has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative muscle-wasting condition. They set up a flat of their own with the assistance of the inexperienced Siobhan (Romola Garai). The two men's growing fascination with Siobhan leads to a conflict and their ultimate realization as to what independence means. When asked about the response from disabled people about the film, O'Donnel said, "When we screened a rough-cut of the film to disability activists and leaders in the disability rights movement in Ireland their reaction was very positive. They enjoyed it, laughed a lot and were moved by it. They said it was an original and positive portrayal of people with disabilities and hoped it get a broad cinema release so everyone can see it."
The Guardian New Director Award went to Super Size Me.
Q and A with Jacob Estes at the DCFS Preview Screening of Mean Creek
By John Suozzo, DC Film Society Member
Jacob Estes, writer/director of Mean Creek attended the DCFS preview screening on August 10 at Landmark's E Street Cinema. Jim Shippey, co-director of the DC Film Society, moderated the question and answer session. Before taking questions, Jacob Estes told us that the budget for the film was a mere $250,000 and that it was photographed in Oregon where it rains a lot. This could have prevented the film from being made, but fortunately for them, it rained only on the last day of the shoot. After the rain stopped, big mists were left on the river which are well used for effect in the film.
Question: What happened to the characters afterward?
Answer: From a technical standpoint, it really doesn’t matter what happens to the characters later. It could be that the authorities will investigate and conclude the tragedy was simply an accident or a vigorous prosecutor could think there was malice and decide to prosecute. To me, it was more important to show where the characters were emotionally.
Q: What inspired you to make the movie?
A: I wrote the first draft about 7 years ago, in 1997, before Columbine. I knew that I wanted to a make a story about kids with an adult problem but without adults around to provide guidance and see what they would do. There was a whole genre of teen and teen tragedy movies--The Outsiders, The River Wild, The River’s Edge and Sean Penn’s Bad Boys. When I began writing the screenplay, a few additional movies of that type came out: Manny and Lo and Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. I wanted to do something like that.
Q: What was your intent as to whether George was pushed by accident?
A: At the time, George was saying really horrible things. And he kept saying horrible things. At some point Marty loses his cool. They were attempting to shut George up, not kill him. I think there were an awful lot of mixed emotions on the other characters’ part because of all the awful things George was saying. Everything just seemed out of control.
Q: Was it intentional to have Marty, the least moral character, wear a crucifix?
A: Marty’s character believed that "everything happens for a reason." Once you start giving characters details like that, the little nuances you add are almost necessary for their feelings. Every nuance added to their character leads you down a different path.
Q: Was your premise in the movie to show that there are a lot of bullies around and that bullying is a big problem for today’s kids?
A: That has been a popular notion on my travels around and a frequent question asked by journalists. But I never intended that to be the message. I intended the movie primarily to be about a lonely kid (George) who has two sides. He is desperate for friends but is mean.
Q: When Marty is trying to keep all the other characters silent about what happened down at the river, he doesn’t seem to articulate any of the reasons that they should keep quiet. Why?
A: Part of the reason that Marty doesn’t explain much is simply his nature--he’s hotheaded, he’s scared, and he doesn't want to deal with it. The lack of explanation may also have to do with the way the movie was edited. Scenes were reduced and we took out verbal exposition.
Q: Could you please elaborate on three of the symbols used in the movie: 1) the death of the snail, 2) the diminishing clarity of the water and 3) the camcorder George used to document his life.
A: 1) The death of the snail. This one is the easiest of the three to talk about. Millie is the most optimistic of the group but the events of the trip have changed her. This act exhibits her complete emotional collapse and the fact that Sam witnesses it confirms her descent. 2) The clarity of the water. I must admit we never talked about this. Did it get murkier as the trip went on? Actually, we did not have a lot of extra time in the schedule and we just took whatever lighting was available to us. 3) The video camera. In 1997, when I wrote the screenplay, kids didn’t own camcorders like that. They were too expensive. I thought that by using it, I could give the audience a perspective on George’s inner life. It is a part of his need, his character, his life. Part of his truth.
Q: What did Millie, the young girl, carve into the tree?
A: Great question. My wife, who has seen the movie maybe 50 times, called me just before the screening and said she just got what it was! Millie carved the word “SNAP”. It’s a reference to the scene earlier in the film when Millie asks Sam “If you could just snap your fingers and he would just be dead, would you do it?”
Q: What is your background?
A: I studied filmmaking at The American Film Institute. This is my first feature film, though I have directed a few shorts and written several screenplays. I grew up in Chicago and did some studying at Second City. I also studied acting in Northern California for a while.
Q: The film has an “R” rating, which means teenagers cannot see it. Could you have done something to get a PG rating?
A: Probably not, so I just encourage teens to sneak into the movie. Seriously, if I took out the language, there would still be the drug use. If I took out the drugs, there would still be the extreme emotional distress. So in the end, I decided I just wanted it to be truthful. So I don’t think there any way to avoid the “R” rating.
Q: Since you wrote it 7 years ago, were there other endings for the movie?
A: Several. In the original draft, there was a Forest Ranger character that stumbles upon the scene. Although he didn't see the crime, he found the marijuana and steals it. Originally, the movie ended with the kids on the ride home. I won the Nicholl’s Fellowship with that draft. But I wasn’t satisfied--I needed to go farther and see what the characters would do. There also was an earlier version where the bodies started piling up....
Q: Why was the gun present at both the beginning and end of the movie?
A: The gun played a bigger role in other drafts. But eventually it just became part of Marty's problems.
Q: What will be on the DVD that we didn’t see tonight?
A: Believe or not, we haven’t talked about it. Maybe we’ll use the Forest Ranger scenes. We’ll see.
Mean Creek opened in D.C. on August 27.
Calendar of Events
FILMS
American Film Institute Silver Theater
The AFI concludes its Johnny Depp film series in September with Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, and Pirates of the Caribbean. An advance screening of Queimada! (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1969) starring Marlon Brando is on September 7 at 8:00pm. The last two in the MGM musicals series also can be caught: It's Always Fair Weather and The Bandwagon.
American Film Institute at the Kennedy Center
As part of the Korean cinema series is Please Teach Me English (Kim Sung-su, 2003) on September 20 at 8:40pm.
Freer Gallery of Art
The largest festival of Korean films ever presented in the U.S. takes place September and October. Most of the films are at the Freer, other venues also participate. On September 16 at 7:30pm is Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003); on September 17 at 7:00pm is Woman is the Future of Man (Hong Sang-soo, 2004); on September 19 at 2:00pm is A Flower in Hell (Shin Sang-ok, 1958); on September 24 at 7:00pm is The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (Jang Sun-woo, 2002); on September 25 at 2:30pm is a documentary double feature Cinema on the Road (Jang Sun-woo, 1995) shown with My Korean Cinema (Kim Hong-joon, 2002), followed by a panel discussion at 4:45pm with filmmakers and scholars discussing Korea's cinematic history from its beginnings to its emergence as a worldwide phenomenon in the 1990s. The series continues in October. See above for more participating venues.
National Gallery of Art
Films by Raymond Depardon include Untouched by the West (2002) shown with Les Annees Declic (1983) on September 4 at 2:30pm and New York, NY (1983) shown with Ten Minutes of Silence for John Lennon (1981) and Profils Paysans: l'Approche (2002).
Films by Russian director Boris Barnet include The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Lev Kuleshov, 1924) on September 11 at 2:30pm; Girl with the Hatbox (1927) shown with The House on Trubnaya Square (1928) on September 12 at 4:30pm; Okraina (1932) on September 18 at 2:30pm; By the Bluest of Seas (1936) shown with Dark is the Night (1945) on September 19 at 4:30pm; and Bountiful Summer (1951) shown with Alenka (1961) on September 25 at 2:00pm.
National Museum of African Art
On September 11 at 3:00pm is William Kentridge: Drawing the Passing (1999), a documentary about the artist, followed by a discussion; and on September 26 at 2:00pm is Zimbabwe: Talking Stones (1993) also followed by a discussion. Both are part of the contemporary African art and artists series.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Taking part in the Korean films retrospective, the Women's museum shows three films by Korean women filmmakers. On September 21 at 7:00pm is Jealousy is My Middle Name (Park Chan-ok, 2003); on September 22 at 7:00pm is Ardor (Byun Young-joo, 2002); and on September 29 at 7:00pm is Art Museum by the Zoo (Lee Jung-hyang, 1998).
Films on the Hill
"Spies of the Silver Spring" is the theme for September with films from the 1920s, 30s and 40s. On September 15 at 7:00pm is Mare Nostrum (Rex Ingram, 1926) photographed on location in France, Italy (including Pompeii) and Spain; on September 22 at 7:00pm is Lancer Spy (Gregory Ratoff, 1937) starring George Sanders in his first leading role; and on September 29 at 7:00pm is Northern Pursuit (Raoul Walsh, 1943) starring Errol Flynn in one of the half-dozen war films he made each with a different nationality--in this case Canadian.
DC Jewish Community Center
On September 8 at 1:00pm is Lies My Father Told Me (Jan Kadar, 1975), a Canadian film set in 1920s Montreal about the relationship between a young Jewish boy and his ragman story-telling grandfather.
In conjunction with the DC Labor Film Festival is Do They Catch Children Too? (Hedva Galilo-Smolinsky, 2003) on September 13 at 7:30pm, a documentary about illegal immigrants in Israel. A post-screening discussion "Guest Workers and Israel's Economic Crisis" will follow.
Pickford Theater
More films from the "Brown v. Board" series include Mississippi Burning (1988) on September 3 at 7:00pm; two ABC shows Close Up: The Children Are Watching (1961) and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963) on September 21 at 7:00pm; Crisis at Central High, a CBS show from 1981 on September 23 at 7:00pm; and Ruby Ridges (1998) on September 24 at 7:00pm. See the website for more.
Goethe Institute
Two films by Margarethe von Trotta will be of interest to those seeing her newest work Rosenstrasse. On September 10 at 6:30pm is The Other Woman (2003) and on September 13 at 6:30pm is The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1977/78). Margarethe von Trotta will attend the screenings.
A series of films produced by Artur Brauner begins in September and continues through November. On September 20 at 5:15pm is Morituri (Eugen York, 1947/48); on September 20 at 7:00pm is Witness Out of Hell (Zika Mitrovic, 1965/67) to be introduced by Raye Farr from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; on September 27 at 5:30pm is The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (Falk Harnack, 1955); and on September 27 at 7:15pm is Charlotte S. (Franz Weisz, 1980).
Also, for children is Emil and the Detectives (Franziska Buch, 2000) on September 18 at 2:00pm.
Griot Cinema at the City Museum
On September 5 and 12 at 3:15pm is Richard Wright--Black Boy (Madison D. Lacy, 1994), a documentary on the author, born in 1908, who overcame a childhood of poverty and oppression to become an influential writer. The film follows his journey through the Chicago Black Cultural Renaissance of the 1930s, the Commnist Party during the Depression, the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era, and the American expatriate community in Paris in the 1950s.
Former FilmFest DC audience winner The Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders, 1999) is shown on September 19 and 26 at 3:15pm. See the legendary Cuban musicians as they practice, record, perform and reminisce.
Smithsonian Associates
Two IMAX films are featured for Resident Associates at the Johnson IMAX Theater. On September 13 at 7:00pm is Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man. Following the screening, troupe members will discuss the film and their new show opening on September 16. On September 28 at 7:00pm is a film screening of Whales: A Giant Screen Adventure, following blue, humpback, orca and right whales through the coastal waters of Alaska, Newfoundland, California, Patagonia, Hawaii and Colombia. Chris Palmer, president and CEO of National Wildlife Productions introduces the film and answers questions after the screening.
FILM FESTIVALS
