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| SxSW ’08 Interview – Heavy Load director Jerry Rothwell |
Heavy Load - Screening at SxSW '08! |
by Jason Whyte
“The film is a feature documentary about the UK’s most unique punk band. Heavy Load are rural Engalnd’s answer to the Ramones, subject to the combustible flux of ego, ambition, and fantasy that fuels any emerging band. But they’re also made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities. “We like to take a classic song” says guitarist Mick, “and crucify it.” Their cacophonic reinterpretation of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head possesses a frenzied anarchy that bears no resemblance to the disco original. Their howled version of the Troggs’ Wild Thing adds a psychotic menace that makes you forget that this was once a love song. The film is a comedy of conflicting ambitions, capturing the sweat and romance of playing in a band as they move out of the ghetto of disability club nights to test whether their dreams can survive in the mainstream.” Director Jerry Rothwell on “Heavy Load” which is screening at this year’s South By Southwest.
Is this your first film in the at SxSW? (Or the first film you have) Do you have any other festival experience?
It’s my first film at SXSW, but films I’ve made in the past have been shown in various festivals around the world. I love going to film festivals – they’re always affirming and inspiring – and great places to get films off the ground as well as show them.
Will you be coming to Austin to attend the festival? If this is your first time, what do you expect to discover? If you have been here before, what do you love most about the city?
I’m very much looking forward to coming to Austin for the first time. I’ve been in a mad rush to get the film finished in time (as I write I’m still doing the final grading), so I haven’t thought a lot about it. Just hope to get carried around on a tide of excitement and a satisfied blur.
Could you give me a little look into your background and what led you to the desire to want to make film?
I’ve been making films for 20 years, but only in the last eight have focused on directing docs for TV or cinema. I guess watching my dad’s Standard 8 home movies probably started me off. I studied literature at university which maybe makes me naturally orientated as much towards the sound as the picture. I then worked in communities making films and supporting people to make their own films about their stories and ideas. That participatory approach still shapes the way I make docs – I try to see them as a journey of joint exploration between me & the subjects of the film.
Growing up, you were no doubt asked the eternal question “When I grow up I want to be a …” Finish this sentence, please!
I can't remember any strong ambitions of any kind. The whole idea confused me, and possibly still does. Maybe I would have liked to be someone that tended rabbits, or did the window displays in bookshops.
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?
You’ve always got an audience in mind. I always think that filmmakers tend to assume things in our films are more clear and obvious than they are at first viewing – not that you always want to be obvious. But the main judge is yourself…is it a film that I’d want to watch?
How did this project come to fruition? If you could, please provide me with a rundown, start to finish.
I first encountered Heavy Load four years ago on the pages of a local Mencap newsletter, a poorly photocopied picture of a band with learning disabilities who did a cover version of the Clash’s I Fought The Law. I’m old enough to remember punk the first time round; for me it has a romance associated with being a teenager, so I followed them up, filmed a couple of rehearsals and wondered whether there might be a film in it.
I think I was drawn to them because there was an incredible joy in what they did, and I was interested in doing a film that got to that exuberance. I have done work around learning disabilities issues in the past and liked the idea that this could be a sort of rockumentary, not about the usual issues of services or housing, but about a band, whose learning disabilities are under the surface but are not the main focus. I shot with them over a period of two years, and it became apparent that my filmmaking was subtly unravelling their happiness. I felt perhaps the presence of the camera was destroying the very thing I was hoping to capture, introducing a set of new forces into the band dynamics – ambition, money, fame – which made them a better band, but a less happy one. And that became part of the story of the film.
What was the biggest challenge in the production of the movie, be it principal photography or post-production?
Storytelling. When I started out I had only a thin sense of possible stories. I shot something over a 120 hours. Gradually a tight narrative started to emerge – but I had to lose a lot of things I loved.
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.
I shot about 60% of the film myself on HDV and the remainder with director of photography Stephanie Hardt. When we worked together it was in situations where two cameras really helped to capture the action – with me on second camera and Steph lighting and main camera. We’d discuss what we thought would come out of the scene or event ; and agree a set of strategies – but what happened was often very different from our expectations! HDV gave us an intimacy with the characters. There were some scenes which just wouldn’t have happened If I’d been with a big crew.
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? (This can also apply to non-festival screenings as well, if you have had one.) ? If you’re a festival veteran, let us know your favourite and least-favourite parts of the festival experience.
SXSW is the premiere for Heavy Load; this is our first festival outing for the film. From non-festival screenings so far, it’s interesting to me when people give themselves permission to laugh. Because the film’s about people with learning disabilities, there’s often an anxiety amongst audiences about the funny parts. But it’s a funny film as well as at times a poignant one.
Best part of festivals is seeing films you wouldn’t catch elsewhere. And I always come away from festivals really liking and respecting filmmakers as a bunch of people. Least favourite aspects would be travel and the requirement to network.
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?
Biggest inspirations: Pasolini, Godard, Lukas Moodysson, Wong Kar Wai; Errol Morris
This film: Miranda July (for Me and You and Everyone We Know), Jean Pierre Jeunet (for Amelie), Errol Morris (for Vernon, Florida), the Maysles Brothers (for Gimme Shelter), Tony Harrison’s Black Daisies For The Bride (for poetry voiceover), and Morrisey's lyrics for being so outrageously – and beautifully - melodramatic.
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?
I’ve got to the point where I can just about earn a living and keep directing, which is great. When one film finishes I’m usually not too far from finding the money to start another. I’m committed to making films independently, and to express a certain take on the world and aspects of human life that I hope will move and enlighten people.
If you weren’t in this profession, what other career do you think you would be interested in?
There’s something odd about spending your life filming other people do interesting things. Often people mistake the experience of filmmaking for the thing its about. I think I’d like to do some of the things I’ve made films about – be in a band or paint or spend a lot of time doing up old cars or making a garden. Those aren’t really professions are they? I’d probably be working in education or community development.
Please tell me some filmmakers or talent that you would love to work with, even if money was no object.
Cinematographers – Chris Doyle; Editors Justine Wright (One Day In September) & Nick Fenton. My producer says she would like to work with George Clooney. Not sure why.
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?
I don’t know that I want to make ‘it’. I want to make films, and I recognize that to be funded do that it helps to have a strong track record. I think I’ve been lucky and am in a good place to develop other films, but it’s a constantly shifting industry in which you can never be sure what’s going to happen yet. Like most filmmakers I’d like to build a solid and lasting body of work, that I stand by and don’t regret, and that have an impact on people and prompt them to see the world in a different way. Maybe 10 more films before I die would be enough….
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
Unless you’re making Shrek 5 or Narnia 4 (when maybe there’s a built in audience no matter how good it is) it is crucial. You’ve somehow got to make your film visible in a world where increasing numbers of films are made – and the media response is fundamental to that. In my experience the critical response to a film usually follows the pattern of comments you have from non-critics. Some people will love it, some take exception to it. So long as they love the things you intended, and hate the things you don’t mind being difficult for an audience, that’s okay.
If this film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
The Open Air Cinema in Sydney Harbour, Australia.
What would you say to someone on the street to see your film instead of the latest blockbuster playing at the local goo-gooplex?
Laugh. Cry. Expand your head.
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?
There are two routes into ‘the industry’ in my experience. In one you work you way up from a runner making the tea, people shit on you and you don’t get paid, but if you stick at and are focused, you’ll get breaks which help you move up the ladder through your chosen department. Even then it’s hard to make the jump off towards directing. You get known as a DOP or an editor or a sound recordist. No-one thinks you could direct.
In the other route, you start making films, with whatever you can: super 8, DV whatever. And you gradually get better at it. And eventually you’ll make a film that people take notice of. By then, you’ll know your craft backwards. But you’ll know it in a different way to those who’ve taken the other route in, and sometimes those two cultures clash on a shoot.
It depends I think on what kind of films you want to make. I’ve never been that attracted by working on a set with 100 people, would far rather be trying to make sense of a live and unfolding situation with me and a couple of other people. That’s why I guess I’m drawn to documentary. I like mucking around in real life.
And finally…what is your all time favourite motion picture, and why?
Lilya 4 Ever - focused, impassioned, poetic, and really really dark.
This film is one of the many features that will be screening at SxSW this year from March 7th to 15th. For more information on this film, its screening times and for more information on SxSW, point your browser to the official website. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2425
originally posted: 03/04/08 14:13:16
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