DECEMBER 1995 / Emmy: 21 found them with my friend Scott, and they had cob webs on &6 : garbage bags full of shoes and clothes. I like them because them. A white van had dropped them off in two brand new but with these, it is hard to judge me. -Jason McLean There’s no place like New York This year, during the Vancouver Inter- national Film Festival, | had the most amazing opportunity to go to the New film Maker's Day at the Film Festival Trade Forum. The forum was extremely interest- ing, although somewhat industry biased, and the information provided there was one of a kind, and to a person such as myself, extremely useful. The speakers were fairly diverse, despite my crack about the industry bias, and the way the program was set up was quite intriguing. Basically there had been a competition of sorts for the two “pro- jects” that were to be put on the table for discussion by the “panel of experts.” The two projects were chosen, | guess, on the basis that they were the most viable. In fact, in many respects, the people involved in the two projects had already gone a fair. distance to see that their films were going to get made. They were looking to the forum for yet more information.as to how to get it done right. One film, Horsey, was a pretty Gen- xey film about a woman, twenty-some- thing, who was, “dying-at art school.” God knows it's hard. She gets involved’ with a rich kid in’a rock band‘who also. happens to be a heroin addict. The women who were pitching the script at this point would repeat over and over how the: “falling in love" sequences would have heaps of torrid sex. They had decided that their films were only going to be made for 5 the purposes of, “making tons of cash,” and, “promoting world peace." Hmm. Rita Joe. Several of the panel members were amazed that-they had managed to pull this off, and the team had decided that they needed ten million in order to get the talent that they wanted. Needless to Say there were probléms with both projects, in various ways. The panel discussed the merits of both the films, in terms of how Hollywood: would go about getting these projects done and also from the Canadian content, Telafilm and B.C. Film route. Particulars of funding and the production process. were dis- cussed. Overall, while | wasn't necessarily interested in either of the projects that much, the information that was jostled around was of extreme value. Better than that, | managed to get a chance to talk to the keynote speaker, John Piersen, one of the most influential people in the inde- pendent film world right now. He found distribution for Slacker, She’s Gotta Have It, The Thin Blue Line, and more recently, Clerks and Crumb. He's also a really nice guy. He had us come up to his room because he was bushed, he took his socks off, and we talked. Here's some of what was discussed... Kacey McDougall: And when does Sundance start again? John Piersen: It starts on the 18th of January. It's always the last ten days of January. Zoran Dragelj: | remember watching on TV about the Brother's McMullen last year... JP: Yeah, the years go by...They're not sup- posed to go by as fast for you, you're younger than me. I'm 41 now and | have children growing up, so for me like, the acceleration is just intense... KM: | think it's happening all over, it's like time is not what it was. Time's moving faster. JP: Really? KM: Oh, for sure...like, this year... JP: That's because the OJ. trial took six months out of everyone's life. There was half a year right there. KM: Let's not talk about 0.J. JP: | don't know a thing about it, but | like it when experts are wrong. | like it when I'm wrong about a film. Like, when | just don't get it and | think something's not going to do well and it does. | like ‘ : that, because | like being wrong and any- The other group had gotten the rights ee to the screen adaptation of the Ecstasy of .- body who's an alleged expert, you know, it's better:-when they're wrong. So that's » the only thing I'll say about OJ. It was great to have all the pundits absolutely convinced that a four hour decision had - *to mean... ~ KM: That he-was‘guilty... JP; ...a conviction. But it was just the opposite. It's just. great to turn people upside down and drop them on their head. KM: What did you think of these two films that were pitched today? JP: Umm... Wait, wait we gotta watch this, this is going to print...(laughter) O.K. it's hard for me to think about Rita Joe as being a “Canadian Classic” y'know, | don't know anything about the source material, | consider myself fairly well-informed and it was unknown to me. So it's starting point...it's leg up, a recognition factor or whatever, | wouldn't know. Horsey is interesting to me, uhm, Kristen (one of the women involved with the project...) started calling as soon as | said that | was coming here, even before it was selected as one of the case studies, she started calling very aggressively... Again, not to draw to many national distinctions, but | get all these U.S. film makers calling all the time thinking that the way they should come across with this hyper- aggressive attitude. A lot of attitude... KM: Is that true? JP: Yeah, it's truer and truer all the time. I'm not saying it's good. The whole idea is that confidence has become the central personality ingredient to suc- cess in the world of independent movies. And she really had that kind of bravado from the beginning. She would laugh’ at this so | can tell the story... run the busi- ness with my wife, and um, this year in particular there have been days and weeks wher | was stealing time to write. So, Janet has really pulled down a” considerable weight in Grainy Pictures [Pieresen's production company] in 1995. So on-one of thosé days; when Janet was really holding the fort, she fielded this: first call, and Kirsten says:..welly you-could tell by the nature ofthe materiat [what she talked about]. l’should have known better, you know, she wanted to talk to me. Janet says basically, “..you-can talk to me." You can talk to Janet as if it's me almost all the time. She goeSnd; she = doesn't want to talk to Janet. She says, "get John to call me.” You know, like, get John to call me. (laughs) Obviously that's insulting to Janet! But it's even funnier than that because Janet quickly sent her a fax back, communicating the whole idea that nobody can get John to do anything. No one gets John to do anything that John doesn't feel like doing! So we started off on this kind of confrontational basis, but it warmed up. So on the one hand | feel some sympathy for that film, but there are people out there interested in similar material right now. | know that was said at one point today — | think that Charlotte Mickey said that at one point . | think that's true. I've been very down on one specific element on that plan of action — | didn't hear the rest of the pro- posal — but, that there'd be some sort of major sound track tie in. I've been burned on that logic already in these last few years, and | just don't uh... KM: That was a good thing to hear actu- ally, just to sort of dispel that little illu- sion, that if you have this amazing sound- track you're gong to be able to sell the film. Just like, unless you've got all your [music industry] people already set up, you're just bringing yourself into another ais eee they don’t make me feel too tall. Some people judge you by your shoes, Supposedly when I get nervous it makes my feet sweat ... and I wear nylon socks. Once I screwed wood to the sides of my shoes. Once I was so poor that I had to wear a pair of dirty socks in my shoes, because they had major holes in them and they hurt my feet. I can see why peo- ple buy this type of shoes - because they’re fucking comfortable.” production sort of guy who's going to want to... JP: And | do believe that in the case of Clerks, | think that the Sony soundtrack deal — the Soul Asylum song and video and the Alice in Chains song and every- thing else — were kind of helpful to the film. Not enormously, inordinately helpful, but | think they were helpful. But It was a no-money, after the fact Miramax lever- age deal, y'know Sony and Miramax are doing a lot of business now, so that music came at no cost. No cost. And Kevin [the director of Clerks] was able to preserve a couple of the songs by his friends in the local band Love Among Ruins which had done the...Is that what they were called? Love Among Freaks? | suddenly can't remem- ber. Who knows, any ways, the Clerks theme song and the one other song in the movie are still there, so the new music was long after the original fact, it came at no cost, and | think it eventually sold close to 200,000 units. And one thing you could definitely say that it helped was with the home video performance of the film. It definitely raised the awareness of the title. a JP: What got you — again this is always interesting to me — what started’you on the indie [independent film]: path? Were there specific individual: films that helped? Because you know Kevin's [director of Clerks] deal? One of the reasons | really got into doing:the book, was-because ” Kevin-came at.the end-of this decade, and he'd been really directly triggered by Slacker. == ~The wholé way it'Went Was that He *” saw Slacker. He went to the Angelica in 4 New York — his-second trip to see.a movie + in’New York city ahd when he saw , Slacker, hé saw the trailer to the Hal Hartley film Trust. 0.K., then he went and « saw Trust. Then he saw Slacker again, and ‘then he began to work his way backwards » on tape and disk. And he only went back, and this is so perfect for my theory, he * went back to She’s Gotta Have It. He read: Spike's first book, the She's Gotta Have It book, Spike mentioned Jarmusch, and then he went back to Stranger's Than Paradise, and that's where he stopped. That was it. '84. Stranger Than Paradise. So, he has this whole theory on what it was that he got from each of the movies...Because he has this end credit, and he thanks Spike, Jim Jarmusch, Hal Hartley, and Richard Linklater for “..lead- ing the way.” Because in the book there are these dialogue chapters. There are these in between chapters that are like, me and Kevin talking. So | said, “Explain why those four?” He goes, "Slackeris the movie where | want to be a film maker, and | go, | can do this. Strangers Than Paradise was this is what it's going to look like, | can pull this style off visually. Trust and The Unbelievable Truth are the movies where | say, this is my dialogue PoA Speaks Frankly With Film Producer John Piersen ecmer 1995 (tm 21 66 FF ums them with my friend Scott, and they had cob webs on them. A white van had dropped them off in two brand new I garbage bags full of shoes and clothes. I like them because they don't make me feel too tall. Some people judge you by your shoes, but with these, it hard to judge me. ‘Supposedly when I get nervous it makes my feet sweat ... and I wear nylon socks. Once I screwed wood to the sides of my shoes. Once I was 0 poor that I had to wear a pair of dirty socks in my shoes, because they had major holes in them and they hurt my feet. I can see why peo- ple buy this type of shoes ~ because they’re fucking comfortable.” There’s no place like This year, uring the Vancouver nter- rational i Festival, had the most amaing opportu to goto the New fim Makers Day atthe Film Festival Trade Frum. The forum was extremely intrest- Ing, although somewhat industry biased, andthe information provided there was fone ofa kind and to a person such as myst extremely useful. The speakers were ft diverse, despite my crack about the industry bis, and the way the program was setup was «ute intriguing, Baia there had been 2 competion of sorts for the two “pro= jects that were tobe put onthe table for x = 3 — =