INNOCENCE AND LEGACY: THE CATE SHORTLAND INTERVIEW

When her debut feature Somersault took home 13 AFI Awards in 2004, the cinematic world opened up for its young writer/director, Cate Shortland. While the film's stars, Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington, went onto Hollywood careers, Shortland went to ground. Her first shoot had been difficult and the kind of substantive project needed to coax the Temora-born filmmaker back behind the camera all-too-rare. It finally materialised in the form of Rachel Seiffert's novel, The Dark Room, the story of teenage girl Hannelore, 'Lore' for short, and the journey she takes with her orphaned siblings across the German countryside as the ideals of her beloved Fuhrer and the genocidal agenda of his government collapses. With the Audience Award at the Locarno Film Festival already in the bag and its Toronto campaign about to launch, SCREEN-SPACE sat with Shortland on the eve of the film's Australian release and found the director, charming to a fault, in a remarkably candid frame-of-mind...

Let’s go back to the source material, Rachel Seiffert’s novel The Dark Room. What were the most crucial elements of the book that you felt had to translate to the screen?

The thing we really struggled with, the core of the book, is that [Seiffert] is treating these people like human beings, so she never actually says. “Oh, look at this Nazi monster.” But she also never says, “Look at the poor Germans, aren’t they sad victims.” She walked this really amazing tightrope, where she manages to maintain a fair degree of distance from the politics, instead just letting the reader make up their own minds. And usually, when people write about these subjects, they will naturally define who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. And she never does that. (Maintaining that) was really tricky when we were writing the script and we fought and fought to get that balance right.

Lore is a superbly photographed work. Tell me how you and DP Adam Arkapaw (pictured conferring, below) developed the film’s visual language.

Adam showed me a film called Ballast, which I think was the directorial debut of the production designer from Batman, and it was astounding. And I showed him a lot of different things. Then we collaborated really closely with Silke Fischer, our own incredibly fabulous production designer, who had a really tough time because the budget for a period film like this was just a joke! For Adam and I, our rationale was that we didn’t want it to look like a stodgy period film. I was influenced by Claude Lanzmann’s film, Shoah, because that film featured people who were in the camps. They talked to one man who was in Belarus and he says, “Claude, look at this field, look at all these beautiful flowers. This is what it was like when they were murdering us.” That is also why there is a lot of nature in the film, because our lives are transient but nature keeps moving on.

You’ve said that the comparisons to Somersault are coincidental. But (producer) Liz Watts got the book in front of your husband (director, Tony Krawitz) and (UK producer) Paul Welsh got the book in front of you. They clearly felt the material may have played to your strengths. Do you still feel the two works are so distinctly unrelated?

I can concede that [the lead characters] are both the same age and are both dealing with their sexuality. They both don’t fully understand their sexuality, how they use it and what that means. But I think Heidi (Abbie Cornish; pictured, right) almost has Aspbergers and displays that from the start of the film; she almost has no moral self-knowledge from the beginning of the film to the end. But Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) is fiercely intelligent and politicized. She starts the film in this very stringent way of thinking and ends the film in a place of ambiguity. Who am I? What is my society? What is my life? She is asking all these questions. Heidi and Lore have really different trajectories.

As the father of an 11 year-old girl, I watch her viewing the world with an inquisitive, questioning eye but not always with the knowledge to interpret it. Is this early teen character-type, especially with regard to Heidi and Lore, a strong dramatic canvas to work with?

Yes, it is. Also, when we adopted our son, or when we started the whole process, he was 11. Now, he is 18. So I was thrown into his adolescence (laughs), parenting his adolescence. And I think that had a really big influence on this film because it allowed me to understand the story and themes from his perspective. I wasn’t looking at it from the point of view of a 41 year-old and trying to look back at myself. Rather I was living with an adolescent and relating that experience to the character of Lore.

The locations you chose were the sites of many horrific occurrences during the time the film is set. How did the details that history provides infuse the production and your storytelling?

It was hugely influential. We did the 'recce' four years before the film was made, or even funded, because we knew we didn’t want to use any digital effects. In the end, I think we’ve got five effects in the whole film and they are just things like bullet wounds. So we knew we had to find locations that would work on a limited budget. When we arrived in Eastern Germany, we immediately went to Goerlitz, on the Polish border, which is where one of the first concentration camps had been. That was used as a location in the film, though [initially] I didn’t even know that the site was what was left of the camp. There is no plaque or placard or anything on the site. And other locations in the film, like the armaments factory, that was a slave labour site, and we used two big houses for exteriors and then interiors, that were the homes of Jewish merchants who were taken away in the early 1930s. My husband said the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, in the house on the first day of shooting because no one knew what happened to the families.

Being of Jewish heritage yourself and being married to a German-Jew (pictured, below, with husband Tony Krawitz), what impact did dealing with this time in history and the plight of these characters have you upon you?

It has been a massive learning experience that I just didn’t realise would happen to me. What has been really good is that we have been living in Germany and we have got German friends. Germans look at their history and examine their past more than any other country on Earth, so there is a total transparency with the people we are around regarding what has happened. That taught us a lot and has also taught us that here in Australia we just don’t talk about our history and there is no transparency.

Was your teenage lead, Saskia Rosendahl (pictured, below), aware of the details of her homeland’s past when first approached about the role?

Yes, she’s a high-school student and every high-school student goes through an intensive process of looking at The Holocaust and of the German people’s involvement in The Holocaust. It is taught from the point of view that ‘They’ did it, that those people back then did it, and I think the way in which both the film and the book differs from that is that it says, “My family did it.” And that is still a very hard thing to confront in Germany. You just don’t meet people in Germany who will say, “My grandfather was in the SS.” People still find it very hard to personalise it.

You mentioned earlier that it taught you more about the role of genocide in Australia’s past...

Compared to Australia and how we deal with our history, [Germans] are about 200 percent ahead of us. We have no national day of mourning, nothing. There are massive amounts of money that go into health, education and employment programs, and that is something we can be really proud of. But until we make a big space in all our minds and in mainstream Australia that indigenous people are a part of our society and are a part to be rejoiced...well, that just hasn’t happened. Why is that? Why is it so hard for us? Why do we have this fear and hatred of these people? That [that attitude] is part of our culture, I find really fascinating. I feel very sad about it.

So how does the current social standing of Aborigines compare to that of the Jewish community in Germany?

The Jewish community in Germany is one of the fastest growing communities in the world. They feel really comfortable and welcome and are part of the national community.

DIRT ON THE UNDERGROUND: THE STEFAN POPESCU INTERVIEW

I met Sydney Underground Film Festival co-founder and director Stefan Popescu several years ago when assigned to interview him; it went well and led to my stint as a jury member on early SUFF incarnations. Expectedly, Popescu’s off-centre film tastes run the gamut from avant-garde to abrasively obtuse to downright bizarre. His charms sneak up on you; he can seem shy, even awkward, but tweak to his passions and his voice ups an octave, his stare becomes more intent and the insightful flow of educated opinion comes thick and fast. He has directed two darkly stylish, low-budget features – Rosebery 7470 (2006; haven't seen it) and Nude Study (2010; didn't like it) – that reflect his commitment to a truly challenging and unique film aesthetic.

Popescu (pictured, above) is a delight to interview; his responses generally begin with “Mmm, that’s interesting” or “Wow, good question”. And I have always thought he looks like the result of a three-way between Janeane Garofalo, Luke Wilson and Griffin Dunne. Wisely, I kept those opinions from him before we chatted via phone about the 2012 SUFF event, which launches this week in Sydney’s inner-west. Here is the edited text of a long conversation which covers an NSFW version of local soap Home & Away, the bureaucracy of an inner-city council, the Aurora shootings, James Franco and bestiality....

Screen-Space: Ok, so how are you dealing with another round of this Festival madness?

Popescu: It’s always crazy but it’s manageable. Every year, I always think ‘Next year will be easier’, because I know the ropes and everything is in place but it is never like that. Every year something wacky happens (laughs).

Screen-Space: What’s happened this year? Oh, you’re on the record by the way.

Popescu: Oh, ok. That’s cool (laughs). The whole Mr Doodleburger thing. Firstly, tracking Mr Doodleburger and then (having him) agree to his first public appearance. I don’t know if you know who Doodleburger is...

Screen-Space: No, I don’t.

Popescu: ...but he’s the guy who redubs Alf Stewart from Home & Away. He’s become this cult figure after (local current affairs show) Today Tonight and A Current Affair tried to track him down but couldn’t. They could only say how horrible he is and when I saw (his redubs), I thought ‘Man, he is awesome!’ (laughs) He’s got to come to Sydney Underground!

Screen-Space: Where did you have to take the festival this year to make it grow? The website looks slicker. There’s seems to be an element of... well, not less underground or less grungey...but certainly a concerted effort to make some of the marketing that might suggest a newfound direction in what you want to achieve.

Popescu: That’s interesting. Maybe we are just getting better at it (laughs). If anything, resources were stretched way thinner this year. Maybe we are just getting better at utilising those resources and focussing our energies. For example, we finally figured out that you need to get one key-art image and design everything around that image. This is one of the first festivals when we haven’t had a professional designer on board. Actually, a lot of that is Katherine (Berger, SUFF co-director; pictured, right, with Popescu).

Screen-Space: She has always done an amazing job. Stefan, I’m playing devil’s advocate here, because I am really looking forward to seeing the films, but there’s a little sense of the mainstream in your choice of films like Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie and films starring James Franco. What makes these films underground enough to warrant their programming?

Popescu: Ok, that’s a really good question. ...Billion Dollar Movie is starting to touch on mainstream, but those guys (stars Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker) are die-hard indy talents and always will be. And, I mean, the subject matter...it is a bit like Super last year, which was such an appalling film in terms of (its relationship) to what’s mainstream. And we always need a kicker like that, something that is almost mainstream but still challenges people’s boundaries. But the James Franco film, Francophrenia (pictured, left)...it is essentially a ‘gonzo’-documentary. (Popescu gives a long, detailed description of the bizarre plot). The line between which reality you believe in, because the audience has to choose between three realities  in which Franco plays himself...well, it’s actually really, really smart. It’s one of the more cutting-edge films programmed, even though it stars James Franco (laughs).

Screen-Space: Ok, to counter that, what will really shock this year? What is catering for the really hard-core underground film enthusiast?

Popescu: Something like....um, well there are three that come to mind. Total Bad-Ass is really out there; it is contemporary Texas, sort of like the Hunter S. Thompson of today, I think. Zero Kill will be challenging to some people, this film about people’s murder fantasies in which people have to act in their own murder fantasies and then discuss it afterwards. Snuff film fantasy-type stuff. Oh, and Donkey Love, of course (laughs). When I first watched it, I thought ‘Is this a mockumentary?’, because it is done in this dark, comical way, but at a certain point you realise it is a very real documentary.

Screen-Space: Does your programming of the Wikileaks documentary (Patrick Forbes’ Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies) reflect your personal opinion?

Popescu: Yep, definitely. We always try to throw a very political one in there and we are all absolute supporters of Assange. Mind you, that documentary doesn’t necessarily paint him in the best light.

Screen-Space: Did you have any qualms programming Bobcat Goldthwaits’ God Bless America in light of the Aurora shootings (The film contains a graphic shooting scene set inside a cinema; pictured, below)?

Popescu: Well, firstly, it was programmed before that occurred. But, I guess, when you are working with cinema you are essentially working with fantasy. And then you have something like that shooting, where someone has decided to merge fantasy and reality...I mean, it’s really hard to comment on what goes on inside another person’s head. My reaction is not that it has changed Bobcat’s film, but my reaction is that I feel my secure definition of what fantasy and reality is has been challenged. When those boundaries get challenged, and they rarely get challenged, you think as a film buff, and I’m sure you felt this as well, that ‘Oh shit, what is going on here....” It was programmed so we wouldn’t have pulled it, not that we would have anyway. We encourage discussion when films that we program present challenging moments or ideas. 

Screen-Space: You mentioned that some of the local backing has dropped off this year?

Popescu: (Laughs) The only funding we’ve had for the last three or four years has been $1000.00 a year from Marrickville Council. But this year....God, it’s almost embarrassing to talk about (laughs)...there was a mix-up with their website, which said that the application could be put in up until 7.00pm, so we put it in at, like, 6.00pm, but the website was wrong; it was actually 5.00pm (laughs).

Screen-Space: Oh, no...

Popescu: Yeah! So we rang them and said “Come on, it’s only $1000 and it’s been like 4 or 5 years,” but they were like “No!” (laughs) It is so embarrassing. But the good thing is, this year we are surviving on nothing but ticket sales, purely on public support. When the people decide we are not doing something right, we won’t exist anymore.

Screen-Space: That’ll never happen, mate. Every night I have been there it has been a wild, supportive, full crowd.

Popescu: It is kind of nice. We don’t exist because some consulate says so or some embassy supports us, like other culturally-based film festivals. We are there purely because people want to see what we have to offer.       

TFF 2012 GUEST DIRECTOR ON TARKOVSKY CLASSIC: THE GEOFF DYER INTERVIEW

British-born Geoff Dyer (pictured, below) was offered the role of Guest Director of the 2012 Telluride Film Festival following the publication of his book ‘Zona’, a brilliant exploration of Andrei Tarkovsky’s classic 1979 film Stalker and its impact on the author’s life. “Zona is one of the best books ever written on a single film,” said Tom Luddy, co‐founder and co‐director of TFF. During his visit to the Sydney Writer’s Festival earlier this year, Dyer sat with SCREEN-SPACE to discuss his obsession with the great Russian work and its place in film history:  

 

When, where and, perhaps most importantly, who were you when Stalker first impacted you?

I saw it when I was in my early 20’s, so about 30 years ago, when it was first released in the west in 1981. In my time in university I had seen a lot of the canonical works of film history, so I was very up to speed with things. I guess, most important of all, I was used to this idea that really great works of art often had a little quality of boredom attached to them. I got very used to things moving very slowly. I found it a bit frustrating to watch and I went away from it, not knowing it was one of those life-changing experiences, but the film never quite left me. I’ve found that that is not an uncommon experience with Stalker. Goodness knows I’ve done other things in the last thirty years but one of the things I’ve continued to do is see the film over and over again.

Another Tarkovsky work, Solaris, holds a similar fascination for me. I must be frank and state I found Stalker (pictured, right) a challenging film to get through.

It is so interesting that you should say that because I’ve always felt the way about Solaris that you feel about Stalker! There are amazing bits in it, but I’m in that minority of Tarkovsky admirers who finds Solaris a bit of a bore. I think the Steven Soderbergh remake, with Natascha McElhone and George Clooney, is pretty good.

Admittedly, I was fortunate to have seen Solaris on the bigscreen and have only ever seen Stalker on television.

I think there is something really special about seeing the film, and seeing any serious film, in the cinema. It demands such an absolute, complete immersion in it so that you can totally transact with it and seeing it in the cinema makes that easier. But also there is something about the quality of the images and seeing them projected in a cinema. I don’t mean to be rude about your television but I think any television struggles to convey Stalker. The first time that it was shown on British television in, I guess the 1980’s, Channel 4, a very serious channel, transmitted the whole film in black-&-white. This meant that one of the great moments in cinema, when they get to The Zone and the film switches in that amazing, beautiful way from black-&-white to colour...well, the Channel 4 broadcast never let the characters and viewers get to The Zone. They were stuck in this monochrome world for the duration.

I came across this wonderful quote of yours, in which you state, “If you give yourself over to Tarkovsky-time, the helter skelter mayhem of the Bourne Ultimatum will seem more tedious than L’Avventura.”

Time is sped up so much so that we have all become habituated to films and TV shows that are cut very quickly. Stalker is a long film with only 142 shots in it, thereabouts; just these really long takes. Now, I don’t like boring films, but generally speaking the last 20 minutes of these Hollywood blockbuster when things just start blowing up and any psychological element of the film is just abandoned is incredibly boring. Tarkovsky said something very instructive and that was, “When you expand a take in a film, people’s first reaction is boredom, but expand it further and the scene takes on a quality of attention, then expand it even further and you can deliver (your audience) into a trance-like state.” (American composer) John Cage said something similar. And think about those long tracks by (Australian jazz band) The Necks or about classical Indian music, pieces of a fantastically expanded duration. Once you get over that friction of wanting time to move, then you do this beautiful thing where you move into a kind of timeless zone. To loop this point back to the film, once they get to The Zone there is no time there; it is very difficult to tell how long they have spent there.

Do readers run the risk of missing out on their own ‘Tarkovsky awakening’? Of experiencing Stalker only through your book rather on their own, via their own perceptions?

In my books, I’ve tended not to give an objective account of what I’ve written about because I don’t feel that when I decide to write a book I haven’t sworn an oath, I’m not a witness at a trial. I’m just giving my very prejudiced, very partial, highly contingent version of things. One of the weird things is that, by being as faithful as I am to that principle, maybe in the course of the book I’ll end up articulating certain feelings about the film which are shared by people who have seen it in very different circumstances and who bring to it a very different set of cultural expectations.

The New York Times said that, “Just as Stalker is about the artist himself so too is Zona.” Is it too grand a notion to suggest that Zona is Stalker remade in your image, through the prism of your existence?

(Laughs) Yeah, I guess, maybe. There is a paradox at work because I am always trying to make the writing of a book come close to sharing some of the qualities of the film. How does that work in this instance? Well, one of the qualities of The Zone is that, allegedly, it has these magical properties and is always reconfiguring itself to the beliefs and expectations that people bring to it. So I quite like the idea that Stalker maybe doesn’t exist in some absolute way but that is itself reconfiguring to where or when or who you are in your life when you see it. Zona is very much my experience of it, my version of it.

Finish this sentence. Stalker is what it is to me because...

Oh, because I can’t imagine what my life would be without my having seen it.

And, out of curiosity, what’s your second favourite film?

Well, in all seriousness I would probably say another Tarkovsky film, Mirror. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, probably Where Eagles Dare (pictured, right). Some people don’t believe Where Eagles Dare to be the work of genius that I believe it to be (Laughs).

ANTI-BULLY ADVOCATE CAPTURES TEEN TURMOIL: THE LEE HIRSCH INTERVIEW

Lee Hirsch is a filmmaker whose works provide a strong voice for those that can’t otherwise be heard. His 1993 debut, the short The Last and Only Survivor of Flora, intimately captured the memories of a 94 year-old Polish Jew; his first feature, the acclaimed Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony, celebrated the musicians who fought apartheid in song. His latest, Bully, stands strong for the down-trodden and abused children in America’s high-school (though the scourge of bullying is certainly universal). Attending the Melbourne International Film Festival, Hirsch sat down with SCREEN-SPACE to discuss the film and the tide of social change he hopes it will engender.

You have been very open about the victimisation you endured at school. How did the experience shape who you are today and lead to the work you do?

I think I shut it out for a long time. I think it drew me to the kinds of movies I make. It drew me to activism, to stories about the underdog. I got out of school really quickly and didn’t go to college for a whole year, instead just throwing myself into film which is where I found some meaning.”

In a nation with an estimated 13million bullied children, how did the production zero in on the subjects that made it into the film?

The biggest breakthrough was getting access to a school. The school came first; having a place where we could film and be in the hallways, be allowed in the principal’s office and in the lives of the teachers and students was the hardest to source. When we got the ‘yes’ in Iowa it was a huge breakthrough.

And the decision to focus on Alex?

Alex (pictured, right, with Hirsch) we met on the first day and somehow we just felt he was bullied, though a lot of kids in that school were dealing with it. Other kids we found because their parents had written in to websites or posted YouTube videos about what they were going through. We found Ja’Meya’s story just be searching Google News.

How did the school in particular and the community in general react when the bullying that took place there was exposed?

I think they have been pretty amazing in standing by this movie and standing by their choice to open themselves up to potentially be embarrassed. It takes a lot of courage to be willing to let people see your dirty laundry, so to speak. It sparked a lot of intense conversation in the district, in the school community. At one point there was a full-page editorial in the newspaper in Sioux City; a Sunday paper, front page, top to bottom, that said ‘Bullying Must Stop’ and that that attitude must start here, in our town. I think it’s been cathartic for them. I think they are happy that it is not in theatres anymore (laughs).

One of the saddest moments in Bully is when Alex’s sister reveals she is being singled-out for abuse just for being his sister. It destroys the sanctuary Alex has as a member of a tight, loving family.

The family unit is so important, it is all a lot of these kids have. I love The Libbys, I think they are an amazing family. But, yeah, some of those scenes are just heartbreaking. For me, that scene between Alex and his mum, when he says, “If they are not my friends, then what friends do I have?”; wow. Alex is such a good kid, so funny and likable, it is really emotional to watch him. Sorry, I got off topic, but my point is adults sometimes just don’t know what to do. Alex has Aspbergers, which complicates things; he is IAP, which requires a whole plan to cope with. His life is made up of all these intricacies that is very hard to navigate.

When Alex’s parents become aware of his suffering, their visit to the school leads to the film’s most infuriating scene.

That experience of families going to schools and saying, “This is happening to my kid and what are we going to do about it?” and then getting brushed off is really intense and really real. On our website are a lot of resources to help parents navigate that.

I suppose the greatest result would be for Bully to become a kind of time-capsule piece, a document of a world we once lived in but, thankfully, doesn’t exist anymore. Is that reality closer?

Yeah, I think we are getting there. I think the notion that we have, over time, put things behind us (is a positive). At some point, mankind figured out that it was probably best that we didn’t drink and drive. Generally speaking, most people adhere to that; next it will be texting and driving.  Domestic abuse is something that was very similar to bullying, at a certain point, where victims thought they were alone and that no one would back them, but society changed for the better. I see bullying taking the same course.

The film makes the point that if one person stands up, others will be inspired and soon “we will have an army”. What are the first steps the individual and the community can take to start fighting against bullying?

If you’re a student, look around. See the kid who is isolated and reach out to them and take a stand. For communities, I think it is important to create conversation on the topic of bullying. We are working with the US Conference of Mayors to facilitate town-wide conversations. Hold the Town Hall and get educators, experts, kids and ask these questions. Screen the film together and then ask these questions. Just talking about it is a really big first step.

Visit the website The Bully Project for further information regarding anti-bullying initiatives. Contact Village Roadshow on 02 9552 8600 for information on how to arrange community screenings of Bully.

CRISPIN GLOVER ON WERNER HERZOG

A chat with Hollywood iconoclast Crispin Glover turned into a breathless account of one man's admiration for his idol, German 'bad boy' auteur Werner Herzog.

Having just wrapped his tour of Australia, many of those who viewed his one-man show/screening sessions will be intrigued by the world-view of a certain Crispin Hellion Glover. To say that he is ‘idiosyncratic’, ‘eccentric’, even ‘slightly loopy’, is an understatement.

But he is also a passionate artist and advocate of free artistic expression, a standpoint that has not only put him occasionally offside with Hollywood power-players (he bailed on Back to the Future II over issues of ‘character integrity’ with Robert Zemeckis) but also seen him align himself with other unique talents in global cinema. One such influence was the great Werner Herzog (pictured, right).

Given the opportunity to interview Glover prior to his arrival in Perth for the first leg of his performance trip, I raised our shared passion for the films of Werner Herzog. Specifically, I posed the question “Herzog has said that ‘Dreams and nightmares do not follow the rules of political correctness. Is that also relevant to your films?” In particular, I commented upon the similarities his films What Is It? and It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE share with the German director’s Even Dwarfs Started Small.

It was as if Glover’s subconscious floodgates had been opened with this most innocuous of questions. In full, here is his response (the remainder of the interview can be read at SBS Film):  

“I had toured with my Big Slide Show (a one hour dramatic narration of eight different books he has authored - Ed.) and a rough cut of the film. Norm Hill had organized my show in Seattle. I spoke with him about my interest in Herzog’s work. I had also met Herzog in 1990 at the Venice Film Festival because the publicist for the film he was there with was the same publicist for a Jersey Skolimowski film I had acted in that was only released in Poland and France (30 Door Key, aka Ferryduke, 1991 – Ed.) I had told the publicist how much I admired Herzog’s films and he arranged a dinner that was just me and Herzog and the publicist and a woman the publicist knew. Herzog was very easy to talk to and it was a great dinner. Years later Norm Hill was producing the DVD of Herzog’s films for Anchor Bay and he invited me to do a number of commentaries for the DVDs with himself and Herzog and I chose to do Fata Morgana and Even Dwarfs Started Small because those two had influence on What is it? in different ways. It is something I am very proud of in my career to have done. Years later in 2005, when I premiered What is it? at Sundance, coincidentally Herzog was premiering Grizzly Man and I went and saw his premiere and he came and saw What is it? and was incredibly supportive and has been very kind. I am very grateful to him for that. I am also very grateful to David Lynch who, years before I made What is it?, had agreed to executive produce It Is Mine (the as-yet-unproduced final film in Glover’s trilogies - Ed). This ended up leading to me making What is It? I have seen Herzog at various functions and at my house and even at the airport over the years and it always a great pleasure to speak with him and get tidbits of insight in to how he thinks about filmmaking.

As soon as I got my driver’s license when I was 16 in 1980 I attended screenings at revival theatres that were quite popular in LA before VHS competition cleared many of them away. Many of these revival theatres no longer exist such as, one of my favourites, the beautiful Fox Venice with a wide cinemascope screen on Lincoln Blvd. The films I saw that played in these venues tended to question culturally accepted truths with performances that underscored these concepts. Films played such as Ken Russel’s The Devils, Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Chinatown, Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Cassanova, John Cassavete’s A Woman Under the Influence, Orson Wells’ F is for Fake and Citizen Kane, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and Sunset Blvd, John Waters’ Pink Flamingos and Desperate Living, Todd Browning’s Freaks, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove, Werner Herzog’s Aguirre Wrath of God, Even Dwarves Started Small and Fata Morgana. I was a regular attendee of David Lynch’s Eraserhead (pictured, above) at midnight on Fridays at the Nuart. I studied actors giving performances like Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider, Timothy Carey in Marlon Brando’s One Eyed Jacks and Elia Kazan’s East of Eden, Charles Laughton in The Hunchaback of Notre Dame Brad Dourif in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Wise Blood, Peter Lorre in M Emil Jannings in The Last Laugh and Klaus Kinski in Aguirre Wrath of God. These films and performances characterized the atmosphere of cinema and acting I believed I was stepping into as a young actor. 

By 1982, at age 18, I began to act in feature films. At this time I believed contemporary film’s main purpose was to question suspect things in our culture. I enthusiastically supported the idea of questioning our culture. To help support the idea, I also questioned the film industry’s and media’s messages.  Sometimes I have felt scorned and isolated; other times I felt accepted and admired. Then, at one point, in the midst of my career, I realized that the types of films the industry was financing and distributing had changed almost diametrically from the types of films I had watched when I was 18".