Interview with New York film Director and writer - Alan Brown

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Alan Brown

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Almost two decades ago when I was a fashion designer living in New York I signed up for a class in Japanese at the New School. It was an intense course starting at 9h on Saturday mornings. I think I lasted about 6 classes and then dropped out. While I was there I met my neighbor on West 11th street, Alan Brown. More than 10 years ago I was looking for a present for a friend in a book store in London. I picked up Audrey Hepburn's Neck thought it looked interesting and turned to the back cover to read about its author and found out it was written by Alan Brown. I bought two copies and found it a very provacative read. I sent a message to Alan through his publisher just to congratulate him. He wrote back but I had not seen or heard from him since then. Recently when I was in NYC as a guest of the Metropolitan Museum for their Mode-Blogging panel, I ran into Alan at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. We were both there to see the work of a video artist. It was a wonderful New York reunion.

DP: We met at the New School, I was a Japanese drop out and you went on to live and study in Japan for 7 years as a Fulbright scholar. You have received many writing awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright and NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. At what point during your stay in Japan did the idea for ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’come up? Was this your first novel?

AB: The idea for AHN came to me late in my stay in Japan, after a trip up to northern Hokkaido, where the novel is set. This was my first story, but I’d written and had published quite a few short stories previously.

DP: Are there any other writers or directors in your family? Is this something that you wanted to do since you were a child? Did you direct little scenes when you were a kid? If so can you describe an early but memorable one?

AB: I didn’t grow up with any writers or directors in my family, but there are other writers in my generation, a few cousins and second cousins. I had no specific interest in directing films as a child. I went to art school, and ended up with a degree in Photography, so I suppose I was on that path without knowing it.

DP: Who is your favorite director? Did the work of any particular director inspire you to do what you do now?

AB: I like lots of different directions, and films. I like Gus van Sant, Atom Egoyan, Danny Boyle. Almodovar. As a genre, I tend to like French films a lot. I’ve liked some Oliver Stone films. Larry Clark’s Bully. It’s hard to make a list. There are some films I watch over and over again. I certainly liked Y Tu Mama Tambien. And the Australian film Lantana certainly inspired me. David Gordon Green’s first two films. The list goes on and on, as I like certain films for certain things – often for specific actor’s performances.

O Beautiful

DP: Was O Beautiful your first short film or were there other shorter ones before that?

O Beautiful (2002) is the story of Brad, a young gay victim of a homophobic agression that was left abandoned half nude in a corn field, when one of the bashers returns with remorse and a secret.

AB: O Beautiful was my first film. (It’s actually not that short: 33 min.) I had no inkling that I would direct film before that one. It was something of a fluke the way I fell into it.

DP: In 2002 you wrote and directed O Beautiful and that film won you the Future Filmmaker Award at the 2002 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and also your film was in the official selection for Sundance. WHat were your biggest challenges in making this film?

O Beautiful

AB: The biggest challenge of course was that I’d never directed a film, never even taken a film course. So I walked into it having no idea at all how the process of filmmaking worked. I did instinctively know how to work with actors, though. And I found very quickly that I had a talent for organizing and collaborating, and for getting people to work hard. That and being able to find and hire talented people who know their jobs is much of what a director does. And I also discovered, not incidentally, that I LOVE making decisions and telling people what to do. (That’s a nice way of saying I like to boss people around.)

DP: How did that immediate positive reaction to your work effect you? What doors were suddenly opened that were closed before?

Book of Love

AB: Well, it was exhilarating, and it confirmed what I was feeling: That I’d found the thing – writing and directing films – that I was meant to be doing in life. And it immediately opened the door for me to make my next film right way, the feature, BOOK OF LOVE, which actually premiered at Sundance the following year.


Book of Love

DP: Do you consider yourself politically engaged?

AB: Very.

Superheroes

DP: What was the starting point for Superheroes?

AB: I was reading about the horrible treatment returning Iraqi War vets were receiving, and it horrified and enraged me – as did just about everything connected with Bush’s war. So I wanted to say something about it as an artist.

Superheroes

DP: Are you trying to effect any change by drawing attention to the situation with Iraq war veterans by making Superheroes? Do you know any people that have suffered from PTSD? As part of your research did you spend any time with a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder support group? If so, what was your relationship with the group and the individuals and how did they help shape your main character?. Did you relate on any level to the filmmaker?

Superheroes
AB: Superheroes was an artistic response to a situation. I never thought of it as a didactic, ‘educational’ film. That said, of course I hope that people seeing are moved to act, to make changes. I did consult with psychiatrists who specialize in PTSD and trauma in general, and also with vets, but I didn’t spend time with any groups. I also spent an enormous amount of time on line viewing footage of PTSD groups and individual interviews. There’s an enormous amount of material available.
As for the ‘filmmaker’ character, I didn’t relate to him – except possibly in his frustration and impotence in the face of the vet’s war experience and his terrible, unknowable suffering.

DP: How was it that Book of Love was screened at both Sundance and Slamdance? How does that work?

AB: BOL actually premiered in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance. It didn’t screen at the Slamdance Film Festival actually. But during the year, in NYC, Slamdance does (or did) a monthly ‘Best of Slamdance’ series. And each year, they invite one film to screen that wasn’t at Slamdance but which the Slamdance directors admire. We were honored that Slamdance invited ‘Book of Love’ to be that film.

Book of Love

DP: How long do you spend casting your films? Again, biggest challenges in the making of.

AB: Casting is such a huge challenge, but financing is always cast-dependent. Particularly for my films, which are totally character-driven, casting is fraught with anxieties. I write for actors. Each film was a different process, but generally it takes months and months.

Book of Love - at Sundance

DP: What have your film festival experiences been like? To date, which one was the most rewarding and which one was the most intense?

AB: Hmmm. Hard question to answer. They were all intense and rewarding. That’s the nature of independent, low budget filmmaking, and making films that you’re committed to. All filmmaking is certainly physically intense and exhausting, but big budget Hollywood films aren’t often rewarding for the people involved. I’ve been fortunate in that my cast and crew have always been committed to the vision of the film. And we’re always a small group, so there’s a lot of emotional bonding, particularly with me and my actors. I’d say that my latest film, SUPERHEROES, was the most intense and rewarding artistically, because it was essentially me and two actors working together up in the country for a few weeks. It was like film summer camp, except that it was emotionally very challenging and draining material. But I loved it.


DP: Words like haunting, courageous and disturbing have been used to describe your work, What nerves do you tap into that brings out such strong reactions?

AB: I’m writing psychological dramas, people whose lives have been affected by politics, or whose personal behavior can also be considered political. And also about people in extreme situation: A gay high school boy who has been brutally beaten in an encounter with one of his attackers; a married couple facing the wife’s infidelity with a fifteen-year old boy; a returned Iraq War vet with a body filled with shrapnel confronting a just-out-of college naïve filmmaker who tries to reach out to him. These are situations fraught with emotional peril and possibilities.

DP: How long after the ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’ was published were you approached about turning it into a film? It’s been a long journey from then to now, can you take me through it? If I remember correctly, originally you were asked to write the screenplay but someone else was going to direct it?

AB: I was actually approached about the film version of AUDREY before it was even published. A producer heard me give a reading of a section of the novel in SoHo and she optioned it along with the director Wayne Wang – who was originally slated to direct. That was the beginning of the journey. The film ended up at Miramax, with various directors attached over the years. I wrote the early versions of the screenplay, but I wasn’t a director at the time. After a few years at Miramax, where in the process of developing the script, they pretty much destroyed it, making it unrecognizable. That’s a fairly common result of the studio development process. Anyway, they dropped it, and Goldwyn picked it up for about a year. And then it sort of languished. There was interest occasionally, but nothing that interested me. Finally, a French, Paris-based producer, David Barrott, read the novel while was living briefly in Tokyo. And when he approached me, I’d begun directing, so I signed on as writer and director.

DP:Will you be casting well known actors or do you prefer to work with ‘unknowns’.

AB: To be honest, I’d be happy to work with unknowns. There are so many talented, unsung actors, particularly in New York, where there’s a theatre community. But it’s hard to get a film financed with unknowns.

Book of Love

DP: I know that certainly Bryce Dallas Howard , daughter of Ron Howard, who played Heather in Book of Love, was not unknown but for the most part the rest of the cast members were, weren’t they? DId you ever meet her Dad?

AB: I didn’t meet Bryce’s dad. And actually at the time I cast Bryce, she was unknown – except in NYC as a very good stage actress who’d come out of NYU’s theatre program. I didn’t even know who she was when she came in to audition. The casting director chose not to tell me. But I cast her anyway, because she was so good.

AB: But the other leads were very well known. Simon Baker at the time was the star of his own CBS TV drama, The Guardian. And had done quite a few films. He’s since gone on to do The Devil Wears Prada, and other films. And Francis O’Connor had starred in Spielberg’s AI (she was the mother), and opposite Brendan Fraser in “Bedazzled,’ and she was the star of the Jane Austin adaptation, ‘Mansfield Park.’ So she was actually quite a big name for us. And Greg Smith, who played the boy, was at the time the star of the WB series, ‘Everwood,’ which was extremely popular, and had done some film as well.

DP: I read somewhere about you being in the process of casting “Swan Lake” a psychological thriller, what is that film about? How many projects do you work on at the same time? WHen you write films do you have specific actors in mind?

AB: Yes, I’m casting ‘Swan Lake’ right now – which seems an endless process. At this moment, I’m juggling ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’ both of which are in the casting stage, and both of which I hope to make in the next year. And I’ve just begun negotiations and the creative work on all-male version of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ which some producers approached me about earlier this year. That’s exciting to me: The opportunity to do Shakespeare. And I’m working on a screenplay, another psychological thriller, with my friend, the actor Simon Baker, who was in Book of Love. And I just finished a stageplay about the Iraq War, ‘Nights in Falluja,’ which I’m very excited about. Most of the play swirls around a gay soldier stuck in the desert outside of Falluja. I had a reading of it last week, it was the first time I heard it aloud, and I’m very enthusiastic about working in the theatre. I don’t usually have specific actors in mind when I write. I’m very open to thinking about and envisioning different actors for my roles. That’s exciting to me. I don’t like to ‘lock’ a character into a particular actor or look or interpretation. I love to see what different actors bring to it.

Superhereos

DP: Which actors would you dream to work with?

AB: Hmm. That’s a difficult question. There are so many actors I admire. Some of them are NY theatre actors whom I know personally. I don’t ‘dream’ of working with any particular actor. I would be thrilled to work with Dash Mihok (‘Superheroes’) again, and likewise Simon Baker. They’re both awesomely talented, and I feel we collaborate well. Rather than a particular actor, I’d say that I dream of working with actors who are talented, and who understand and respect the collaborative process and aren’t afraid to trust me the director- in exchange for my trust.

DP: I have a feeling that you work on multitudes of projects at the same time, what is on your plate right now?

AB: I think I answered this question above. I think I pretty much covered everything I’m working on except possibly one: a commercial screenplay I’m writing for a producer, which isn’t for me to direct, it’s just to sell and make money. It’s about a woman serial killer and real estate. Not my usual fare, but it’s been fun and a challenge. I will, however, be glad when it’s done.

DP: What would be your dream situation?

AB: My dream situation would be finding a really good producer who understands and supports my vision, and who would produce all my films. And to have financing that isn’t cast dependent, so I can cast the most talented actors who are right for the roles, not the actors who will bring in the most money in overseas and dvd sales. In other words: My dream situation would be to be able to make my films without have to worry and fret constantly about money.

"Superheroes," the award-winning feature film directed by Alan Brown and starring Dash Mihok and Spencer Treat Clark is now available on Comcast, Cablevision, Cox and Time Warner providers under the banner IFC in Theaters Festival Direct. Go check it out, and please pass this on to your friends!

Maverick Spirit Award: 2008 Cinequest Film Festival.

Best Feature Film Award: 2007 Avignon/New York Film Festival

Special Jury Mention for an Actor: Dash Mihok: 2008 Austin Film Festival

Best Feature Narrative: 2008 Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival

Special Jury Mention, Feature Film and Acting Ensemble catagories: 2008 Ashland International Film Festival

For more information go to:

http://www.ifcfilms.com/viewFilm.htm?filmId=836

http://www.superheroesthemovie.com

Later,

Diane