What does your film express about todays generation?
I assume that I'm too old to be considered part of today's (or any)
generation. If this movie says something about it, and that something
came from me, it was either an act of divine Grace, a manifestation of
collective, unconscious will, or a mistake.
On the level of plot, there is an anxiety caused by the relationship
between one's personal history and current circumstances. This, in the
movie, connects to themes of transcendence (or attempted transcendence)
and a literal Second Coming of Christ in the
form of a pseudo-Buddhist-avant-garde-theatre-performer and her
supernaturally omnipresent cult of followers/collaborators. In reality,
this could be seen as a metaphor for something like Twitter or ISIS.
What social circumstances lead you to make your new film?
Matt Latham, my co-writer and the movie's
director/editor/cinematographer, put together a group of actors with no
knowledge of what the movie was going to be. All anyone knew was that it
would involves the phrases "you are your body" and "you are not your
body."
Not long after this, Matt asked me to join the group as producer and
co-writer. At the time I was going through a divorce and eager for
anything that could distract me from it, so I dove right in.
This group had a shared facebook page where we shared ideas, pictures,
videos, songs, etc. From this stream of media certain images and themes
started emerging. We took this material and started developing
characters with the actors. Eventually Matt and I locked
ourselves up for a few days and came out with an outline for the movie.
The script itself was written as we went along and revised constantly
as we rehearsed and shot.
What do you think about the PINK8 Manifesto & Punk Cinema?
I don't really know anything about the PINK8 Manifesto. I just read it
for the first time. I like lists of rules, but I tend to make them up
for myself so I probably would never adopt someone else's.
My friend Zachary Oberzan makes movies that seem to fit these rules and I think he's the best filmmaker around.
If "punk cinema" means "movies where people vomit on camera," then I'm as punk as it gets.
Whats next for you?
Matt and I just finished a documentary I directed about punk bands and megachurches called
The Complete History of Seattle.
After that, I'm re-editing DW Griffith's Intolerance to include scenes of hardcore pornography and starting work on a ten-part documentary based on the Ten Commandments.
Matt is currently in Norway finding locations for our next narrative feature, a horror movie titled
The Blood The Blood The Blood The Blood The Blood.
All our movies can be found at
www.interestingproductions.org as well as our blog which I update weekly with things very few people care about. It's the best thing on the internet.