In the early 90’s a small group of kids gravitated to Aaron Rose’s Alleged Gallery in New York City. It wasn’t so much a gallery as hang out spot that used to be a storefront, but to pass time this group–loosely knit through skateboarding and punk music–experimented creatively. They were the dispossessed losers of suburban America and as Mike Mills, whose one of them, says, “If you’re not dispossessed, why make art? Why try to save your life by making something?”
Having fun creating only to look back and realize that creating was your survival, then having to negotiate getting back to that fun spot so you can survive is the path of Beautiful Losers. Aaron Rose’s documentary is a painfully funny coming-of-age story about some of today’s most influential artists and it follows one rule: Don’t take us seriously. …Read more
Natural Causes is a personal movie about that couple who everyone knows shouldn’t be together. Everyone except the couple, that is. Michael Lerman, Alex Cannon and Paul Cannon did what, I think, young filmmakers should do more of–have your idea, get some actors and shoot it before you have time to think about it. That way you learn something fast.
We talk about the creative fertility in breaking up and the invention of the “Awesome Cam.”
Liz Mermn’s Shot in Bombay weaves a complicated web of Bollywood intrigue. The film follows the making of a Bollywood gangster film based on real events (Shootout at Lokhandwala), complete with interviews of the hardened cops 15 years after the notorious shootout. Another layer of the Bollywood-meets-underworld tale is that leading man Sanjay Dutt keeps getting pulled away from the set to fight an ongoing court battle involving illicit weapons possession. I talked with Liz Mermin about Bollywood, gangsters, and celebrity worship.
Steve Conrad took two actors known for broad comedy, Sean William Scott and John C. Reilly, and cast them in something dark and fresh. The Promotion plays to their funniest qualities, but also allows for some darker moments of real middle-class anxiety and racial tension. I talked to writer/director Steve Conrad about some of his decisions for this unusual comedy and how it all began in a grocery store parking lot.
What I didn’t expect from Beautiful Losers was how much fun it would be to watch a documentary of the most unpretentious, unmoody and successful artists of my generation. All the artists (Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Thomas Campbell, Margaret Kilgallen, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, Aaron Rose) seem like they’re unconsciously competing to steal the show and win biggest laugh (Harmony wins, in my book). But the best part of Aaron Rose’s movie is how it transcends its genre and becomes a coming of age movie like I’ve not seen in a doc before.
Aaron Rose is the director, but his legendary Alleged Gallery was the incubator for these artists in the early 90’s. I talk to him about being at the center of this scene back then and what it meant for him and his buddies to “grow up.”
SXSW 2008: Aaron Rose interview
(Written transcript after the jump) …Read more
Kevin Buist
FilmCouch #114: The Final Show
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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