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| SXSW '08 Interview: "Medicine for Melancholy" Director Barry Jenkins |
by William Goss
The "Medicine for Melancholy" Pitch: "A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority living in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco."
Describe your movie using the smallest number of words possible.
Boy meets girl.
Is this your first trip to SXSW? Got any other film festival experience?
First trip to SXSW, first trip to a festival as a filmmaker. I work as one of the production managers at the Telluride Film Festival. Have done so for years. No clue what the ride is like from the other side.
Back when you were a little kid, and you were asked that inevitable question, your answer would always be "When I grow up, I want to be a..." what?
A lawyer. For a kid raised in the projects, the de facto answer was either a doctor or a lawyer. I ran my mouth a lot, so folks always got me to say a lawyer.
Not including your backyard and your dad's Handycam, how did you get your real "start" in filmmaking?
I was literally walking across campus and noticed a sign on a building that said "film school." I was a semester away from completing a degree in English. Guess something bit me.
Do you feel any differently about your film now that you know it's on "the festival circuit?"
Honestly, yeah. In a way, it doesn't feel like it's ours (as in the crew's) anymore. Well… not like it's completely ours. Any time someone writes about the film, I feel something of their analysis becomes embedded in it, particularly for someone who sees the film and reads those words before or after. It's a great thing. I imagine this interview will become another part of that "grafting" process.
Of all the Muppets, which one do you most relate to?
I'm slackin' on my Muppetology. Sorry.
During production, did you ever find yourself thinking ahead to film festivals, paying customers, good & bad reviews, etc?
Production? No. Production was too intense to think about anything other than the shot in front of us, whether we could afford to feed the crew day after day, etc. Post-production? Hell yes! We had to finish the film fast to meet the spring festival deadlines. Every day was a measure of risk versus reward, how long we could afford to work on cutting this or that scene because a deadline was approaching. There are issues in the film that are relevant right now, so it was important to get the film before an audience as quickly as possible. Definitely not the ideal situation, you'd like to have enough time to step back, let it breathe and then make adjustments. But we made it work.
How did this film get rolling at the beginning? Give us a brief history from writing to production to post to just last night.
Girlfriend broke up with me. Wrote the script. Showed it to James, Nat and Justin. They all said, let's go. So we got going. And now… here we are.
If you could share one massive lesson that you learned while making this movie, what would it be?
Work with people you trust, and always, always listen to them.
What films and filmmakers have acted as your inspirations, be they a lifelong love or a very specific scene composition?
Claire Denis and Lynne Ramsay are my biggest filmmaking inspirations. I love the way both spin metaphors out of real world elements, what I call nuts and bolts filmmaking. Even when they aspire to themes of metaphysical insight, the elements they use are visceral, real world elements. There's a difference between showing and telling, and both these women are masters of showing. "Nennette et Boni", "Ratcatcher", "Vendredi Soir", "Small Deaths"… great films.
Did you watch any movies in pre-production and yell "This! I want something JUST like this, only different."?
No. In fact, I restrained myself from watching films I knew were similar to ours in premise specifically to avoid wanting something "JUST like this… only different." In the end, influences find their way into your work regardless, but in this case, avoiding the obvious ("Before Sunset", "Quiet City", "Vendredi Soir") made room for less direct influences. To that end, my film school fascination with Godard certainly wormed its way into the film.
What actor would you cast as a live-action Homer Simpson?
I've set this question aside twice, coming back to it over and over and still can't think of an answer.
Say you landed a big studio contract tomorrow, and they offered you a semi-huge budget to remake, adapt, or sequelize something. What projects would you tackle?
I love the "Die Hard" franchise. It's always been a dream, hell, let's be real, a FANTASY of mine to helm a John McClane vehicle. This film we've made is a quaint little movie, but trust me, we would do a KILLER "Die Hard" film!
Name an actor in your film that's absolutely destined for the big-time. And why, of course.
There're only two actors in the film, so I'd be a real scab for choosing one over the other, wouldn't I? You guys almost tripped me up there.
Finish this sentence: If I weren't a filmmaker, I'd almost definitely be...
…a high school English teacher, writing in my spare time (and somewhere out there, a teacher yells, "Yeah, right, WHAT free time?!").
Who's an actor you'd kill a small dog to work with? (Don't worry; nobody would know.)
I'm a cat man, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for small dogs, so it'd be tough to kill one for an actor. Now, to work with Agnes Godard… hmmmmmm.
Have you 'made it' yet? If not, what would have to happen for you to be able to say "Yes, wow. I have totally made it!"?
I'm a cynic and a sap. Bad combination. Folks like me typically don't "make it." Which is good, because lacking the desire to enables me to make films like this!
Honestly, how important are film critics nowadays?
Extremely, particularly bloggers unattached to media outlets. Criticism has always been an integral part of human discourse, whether for the arts, science, politics, et. al. It is absolutely annoying that we should even entertain the notion that film could be an exception. There's always been a campaign to discredit the merit of thoughtful film criticism. The reasons have everything to do with the quest to control what enters the marketplace. Film critics are more important now than they ever were. And the internet is thankfully re-democratizing the process.
You're told that your next movie must have one product placement on board, but you can pick the product. What would it be?
Condoms. What other item solves as many problems as this one little gadget? It's beating a dead horse, but the more examples out there the better. Hell, we placed a condom PSA in this film free of charge. ;)
You're contractually obligated to deliver an R-rated film to your producers. The MPAA says you have to delete a sex scene that's absolutely integral to the film or you're getting an NC-17. How do you handle it?
If it's integral to the film we'll roll with the NC-17. If it's not, we'll be reasonable, make the edit and move on. Nothing's precious. Everything's fluid. "Lust, Caution" was a good example. They rolled with the NC-17, and the movie didn't even come close to recouping its budget. I saw that film and felt it wouldn't have been any less lusty or cautionary with a snip here and a snip there. Then again, Ang Lee can afford to lose someone millions of dollars these days. A lesser known filmmaker likely could not. It's all relative. I imagine if I made a film bearing an NC-17 rating, I'd know that well in advance of production and would limit the budget accordingly. In this (film) industry/business/profession, however you choose to refer to it, a risky artist need be a thrifty artist.
What's your take on the whole "a film by DIRECTOR" issue? Do you feel it's tacky, because hundreds (or at least dozens) of people collaborate to make a film - or do you think it's cool, because ultimately the director is the final word on pretty much everything?
It's complicated. The only definitive stance I have on this is that someone who both wrote and directed the project could at the very least entertain the "a film by" credit. At the end of the day, though, everyone who needs to really care about those things knows the truth, they being the editor, cinematographer, re-recording mixer, et. al. These people all know to what degree their input directly effected the outcome of the film, and theoretically the director has a reasonable estimation as well and will take or refuse the "film by" credit accordingly. It's all bullshit, though: the "a film by" card is just another marketing tool to reduce a film to its most easily sellable asset: the director. Or, more to the point, the one film the director made previously which an audience can look to as evidence of the quality of this new work…despite the two possibly not being at all related. (Cynic)
In closing, we ask you to convince the average movie-watcher to choose your film instead of the trillion other options they have. How do you do it?
I've no clue what those trillion other options are like, but most times, I'm a nice guy… and it'd be real nice of you to help this nice guy by checkin' his film out. Please? Pretty please? With sugar on top? (Sap)
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Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy will play as part of the 2008 South By Southwest's "Emerging Visions" slate. For more information, click here.
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2428
originally posted: 03/05/08 08:29:16
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