11/8/22
Newletter152
The Crack of Dawn
When I made my movie Running Time (1997), and it actually turned out pretty well, I thought, “This movie is perfect for film festivals. It’s quirky, unique, black & white, all in one continuous shot, and stars Bruce Campbell, how can it fail?” The film then didn’t get into: Sundance, Telluride, Toronto, NY or Vancouver. So I then began submitting to the second-tier festivals. I got a call from Slamdance, the half-assed competition to Sundance, and they said, “Running Time is the best first movie we’ve ever seen. We’d love to show it.” I said, “Well, that’s great, except it’s my fourth movie.” They said, “Oh, then we can’t show it. We only show first movies.” I asked why and they replied, “I don’t know, that’s just the way it is.”
The film had no trouble being accepted into the many film festivals that don’t mean a thing and won’t help the film get released. Still, I had only been to a few film festivals in the U.S., so why not check them out around the world? Particularly if they’re paying to fly me in and put me up.
I arrived at the screening at the New York Underground Film Festival an hour early. The festival was held at the New York Film Academy in lower Manhattan. I got out of the cab to find at least a hundred people milling around on the corner in front of the school. An hour early. This was going to be great. I sat on a bench in the middle of the boulevard so I could take in the whole picture. The door of the building next to the school opened, a man stepped out and announced, “Tap Dogs, now seating.” All one hundred people went into see Tap Dogs. There wasn’t a single person left in front of the film academy. By nearly showtime possibly 50 people had arrived, and were scattered throughout a 250-seat theater. As the lights dimmed, 200 hip-looking, kinda punk, black leather jackets, kooky hairdos, all showed up at once and filled the theater. Ah, New Yorkers. So, to be a spoiler of my own movie, Running Time, has a misleading ending. You think everything has gone to shit, but it hasn’t. So, I just sat there waiting to see how this tough-looking crowd was going to accept sentimentality instead of bleakness. At the end of the movie when the boy and girl kiss, the pierced, black leather, hipsters all sighed audibly in happiness – they were all a bunch of softies.
The best festival was the Helsinki Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland. Of the many film festivals I’ve been to, this was the only one that ran on time, had consistently good projection, and all the seats were filled. I had two screenings of Running Time and two screenings of Lunatics: A Love Story. This was in October, and one of the screenings of Lunatics was outside, in a big courtyard. It was possibly 50 degrees when we started and the sun had just set. That’s still warm in Helsinki. All 100 seats were full of people in parkas with hats and mittens, but they were not the slightest bit uncomfortable or irritated. In fact, this seemed like their happy temperature. The film killed. It was a great screening. I did an hour-long Q&A, and the Fins asked nothing but interesting questions in fluent English. Unfortunately, by then it was maybe 35 degrees and I was frozen. Still, it was a terrific screening.
When I showed Running Time at the Phoenix Film Festival it was, no shit, 115 degrees. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen the use of overhead sprinklers at outdoor cafes. The water has evaporated by the time it ought to reach you. All I could think was, “You’re in a water shortage, in the middle of the desert, and you’re flagrantly wasting water? This can’t last.” That was 25 years ago. Anyway, my dad and his second wife lived in Scottsdale at that time, which is right there. The screening was at Arizona State University in 500-seat house, and maybe there were 25 people, including my dad and his wife. At the end of the film the woman who ran the festival got up in front of the theater and said, “The winner of 1st place is Running Time.” As I stood up I received a smattering of applause. I stepped up to the woman and put out my hand to accept the award and she said, “Oh, we don’t have anything for you. We’ll send you a certificate in the mail.” They did too, and I’ve got it somewhere. And I’m very proud.
As we say here in Michigan, Go Blue.