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| VIFF 2007 Interview – Autism: The Musical director Tricia Regan |
Autism: The Musical at VIFF 2007 |
by Jason Whyte
“Autism: The Musical” is never what anybody expects it to be. I think when you approach a documentary about “sick kids” putting on a play, you enter with certain expectations. I don’t want to presuppose what yours would be. But all I can tell you is that this movie will surprise you. It has been called “revelatory” by more than one critic, and was built from the inside out to be a movie first and foremost. So you get everything you expect and hope from any movie – laughs, tears, the sense of being glued to your seat – and you might even fall in love with a character or two….” Director Tricia Regan on her film “Autism: The Musical” which screens at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival.
Is this your first film in the VIFF? Do you have any other festival experience? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favourite parts of the festival experience.
Years ago my first film, a documentary called “A Leap of Faith” played at VIFF after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. I was deadly sick on antibiotics in my hotel room the entire time in Vancouver, only dragging myself out for the Q&A of my screening. So I am really looking forward to coming back and seeing a bit more of Vancouver this time around.
By far, the greatest thing about attending any festival is meeting the audience. In making any film, you struggle so long and hard turning a vision into something concrete that will move and inspire people – the only evidence you get ever that you have succeeded is in seeing your movie play to an audience, and having them come up to you afterwards and share with you their experience.
That said – the festivals that make a real effort to make the filmmakers feel at home and taken care of, and help us to meet each other by setting up special events for us…those are the good ones. Vancouver is one of the good ones.
Could you give me a little look into your background (your own personal biography, if you will), and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
I studied literature at university, and then went on to pursue a master’s degree in still photography. During my first semester in grad school, my professor asked me “What is it about your photographs that is uniquely your own; that is different from anyone else’s?” I then realized, absolutely nothing. Yes, they were well composed and well crafted, but they were pretty damn boring and the whole process was very frustrating for me. So I put down the still camera, and tried the moving one. I realized that my talents are indeed very visual, but I also needed sound, time, movement, and language to tell the stories I needed to tell. Because I was enrolled at NYU, I was able to begin taking film classes and had immediate success with that medium, earning a fellowship to work in a video production studio within NYU. That is where I learned my trade.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
An animal psychologist. No kidding. I was a dog whisperer.
While you were making the movie, were you thinking about the future release of the film, be it film festivals, paying customers, critical response, and so forth?
Of course. Especially with documentary, you always need to have a strong grip on who your audience is, who you are making it for and why. I always knew that this film needed to be a “crossover” film. It needed to spread well beyond the “autism” community. My goal, quite frankly -- though it may sound very highfalutin -- was to change the world. In example: to introduce the world to these very special kids, who are currently being born at a rate we cannot ignore, and get the world to fall in love with them. Only by loving them, or at the very least knowing and caring about them, will we find the political and emotional will to make room for them in our schools, in our workplaces, in our communities and in our lives. Only by meeting them head on, for all they offer, and all of the challenges they present us with, will we begin to value our children who are living with the diagnosis of autism.
So with that in mind, this movie was made to be a riveting and entertaining movie that reached beyond autism in its emotional complexity. That was always tantamount in my mind. Does this film transcend its subject matter? Can it give anyone a profound experience, whether they care about autism or not? Can an audience internalize and personalize the experiences of our main protagonists even if they have no acquaintance with autism? If it didn’t achieve that, nobody would ever come to see it, and the world would not be changed.
In order to accomplish that goal, I felt I needed to engage a very basic story strategy. Find a group of people (characters), give them a goal they are working toward achieving, build the stakes for achieving that goal, and then throw obstacles in their path. In “Autism: The Musical”, the obstacles in their path all arise from autism. It is a very basic story strategy, one that almost always results in a near perfect three-act structure.
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish, from your involvement.
A friend of mine, Janet Grillo, one of the executive producers of the movie, has an autistic child. Over the years whenever she has asked me to do something to help, I could never say no. She was introduced to Kristen Stills and Zoe Clarke-Williams, two women who wanted to make a documentary film about autism that would focus on Kristen’s son Henry. They had no previous experience with documentary, so Janet asked if I would talk to them and help guide them. A series of conversations began, culminating in one in Los Angeles in Kristin’s living room where I said to them straight out, “I don’t think you want to make a movie about autism. Autism is brutal, challenging and tough. I personally would rather show up for my root canal appointment with my dentist than sit through an hour and a half of autism. I think you want to find a structure where the subject is the kids, and the obstacle is autism. You know, find a group of kids who are trying to do something together, but autism is in their way, their autism is their obstacle.”
They agreed, and they knew about this woman Elaine Hall who was just starting a program called “The Miracle Project”,where she would work with a group of autistic kids to try and put on an original musical.
So I suggested to them that they should shoot a trailer and raise money. They did, and then called me up and asked me to direct it. Who could resist?
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
Quite honestly, the biggest challenge was money. The production ran out of money two months into a six month shooting schedule, and I was left out in LA – I’m from New York, by the way -- and broke, without even enough money to pay my rent. While I kept working away and shooting the film, the other producers worked like mad to raise money to keep me eating and with a roof over my head. Literally.
Everything else -- the production and the editing -- flowed pretty well. It was hard, hard work and required the one-pointed focus and dedication of everyone working on the film. The material was so great, it was always easy for us to stay focused and dedicated.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
My relationship to the cinematographer was a difficult but intimate one. That said, I think I would always choose first to work with her again. It was like we didn’t even need to speak to each other; we always seemed to share the same thoughts, and the same vision. It was really quite magical. Of course, this makes total sense when you realize that I shot the movie myself.
Shooting one’s own movie is an incredibly rewarding experience, but also challenging, you are out there entirely on your own. But I knew that in order to create the kind of intimacy I needed and wanted, and in order to develop the kind of relationship I needed with the kids so that they would step forward and blossom in front of the camera… I needed to shoot the entire film myself.
There was a moment in time during production when the other producers were pressuring me to add other shooters to the mix, and I flat out refused. They thought I was being egotistical and controlling, and I feared I was being egotistical and controlling – but deep in my gut I knew this was the way it had to be. I think we all understand why now.
Talk a bit about the festival experiences, if any, that you have had with this particular film. Have you had any interesting audience stories or questions that have arisen at screenings?
I have been making films and working in non-fiction television for over ten years, so when I finished “Autism: The Musical”, I knew it was very good. In the final months of editing I had shown it to so many people in the industry who I respect for their feedback, and we all knew it was a winner. But nothing could have prepared me for the kind of overwhelming response that I have gotten from audiences at the film festivals where this film has shown.
There have been standing ovations, people hugging me on the street after screenings, weeping in my arms. There have been adults and kids who said that their lives have been changed by the movie. I think what this movie does really well is to give you an authentic experience. It never spends too much time in one place, and it goes very deep and dark in one scene, and then immediately brings you right up just as far in the opposite direction in the next, there is no manipulation to get you to feel any one way. Just experiences, one after another and it keeps moving almost like a freight train.
So that when the film ends, you are left with a swelling of all kinds of emotions that takes you somewhere deeply personal. There has been more than one person who, feeling lost going into the movie, have emerged deciding to refocus their lives into a career path that helps others. One autistic child came out of a screening, weeping. His mom said, “Don’t worry, these are good tears.” Then the child explained, “I am Wyatt. I am just like him, I used to be trapped in my own world too!” Wyatt is one of the stars of the movie who is incredibly eloquent in expressing his frustration with his struggles.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
I think I actually draw most of my inspiration from music. While making this movie, I listened to three songs every morning on long walks – the Shins “New Slang”, Wilco’s version of the Woody Guthrie song “California Stars” – and most importantly, the song that the movie ends on, Steve Wonder’s “As” from his Songs in the Key of Life album. “New Slang” directly influenced the sound of the music score for the movie, California Stars influenced the overall mood of the movie (hopeful, easy, and perhaps bittersweet) and “AS” encapsulates the heart and soul of the movie.
How far do you think you would want to go in this industry? Do you see yourself directing larger stories for a larger budget under the studio system, or do you feel that you would like to continue down the independent film path?
It’s always been my game plan to proceed into directing and perhaps writing scripted films. I feel very close to that right now.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
Animal psychiatry…just kidding. If there was another profession I could see myself doing, I would have done it by now.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
I’d like to work in just about any situation where money was no object.
Do you think that you have “made it” in this profession yet? If you don’t believe so, what do you think would happen for that moment to occur?
In documentary, the big challenge is not so much “making it” – but in making the money you need to keep making it. It is very, very hard to get people to invest in documentaries, and to pay you a living wage. Docs just don’t generate that much money, and in starting out, they are always a gamble because there is no script, no stars – there’s just reality. And although you may have sublime talents in collaborating with reality to tell a great story – if reality doesn’t show up as a willing partner – your hands are pretty well tied.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
It is ridiculously important. I only say ridiculously because, especially with docs, often it is the subject matter, and the reviewer’s interest in the subject matter, that generates the review – and a bad review can kill your film. I have seen so-so docs with intoxicating subject matter get great reviews, and I have seen the reverse as well. I hold my breath every time I read a review of my movie.
If your film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
One where there was at least one viewer seated there and ready to see it. It makes no difference to me at all.
Do you have an opinion on the issue of “A Film by (Insert Director Here)” ? Is this something you use? Many people collaborate to make a film yet simultaneously, the director is the final word on the production.
If the director has final cut, than yes, they are the final word on the production, and the film is a demonstration ultimately of their vision. I had final cut on this movie, so I know this first hand. I have collaborated with others on my previous two films, so there was always a negotiation. I think the work suffers for that. It is my personal belief that any great piece of art – be it literature, movie, theatre, architecture – HAS to be the result of one clear vision. There may be many who contribute, present ideas, offer their talents, even offer ideas the director never would have thought of themselves, but there has to be one person, one mind, one spirit that is making all of the final decisions in line with their vision.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the Cineplex Scotiabank Megaplex?
Take a chance, you won’t regret it.
No doubt there are a lot of aspiring filmmakers at film festivals who are out there curious about making a film of their own. Do you have any advice that you could provide for those looking to get a start?
If you can possibly do anything else – do it. It is not easy. You will be tried and tested on every level, and you still may not succeed. So if there is anything at all else that interests you that you can see yourself spending your life doing, do it. If not, if all you can see yourself doing is filmmaking, then go forth with absolute conviction.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
Today, I would have to say “Harold and Maude.” For too many reasons to mention.
The 2007 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival runs from September 27th to October 12th. Hundreds of films from all over the world are being screened over 15 intense, film loving days. For more information on this film, when it is scheduled to screen and information on many other films this year, point your browser to viff.org. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2270
originally posted: 10/01/07 02:19:48
last updated: 10/03/07 14:39:42
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