FELDMAN INTERVIEW
	Part 4

Arne Zaslove interviews filmmaker John Feldman

Interactive Interview Part 4: Feldman background, influences, early works, first two features, artistic voice, audience, Hollywood vs. independents, what's next

ARNE: When did you start making films?

I made my first film when I was 13. It was called "A Sense of Existence" -- it's a documentary about a wildlife camp in West Virginia. It's a nature film, which is what I was interested in at the time. I wasn't interested in filmmaking. The film is a very lyrical 13 year old's vision of how the campers and adults interact with the natural world. I guess it's the film that I'll spend my life trying to match in terms of its genuineness... its un-self conscious approach to the medium.

ARNE: Were you influenced by television?

No... I rarely watched television. I rarely watched movies either. I was interested in making films and figured everything out on my own and developed my own style out of the necessity of telling a story.

ARNE: What did you study in college?

I studied biology at the University of Chicago. I was interested in science. In college I finally discovered fiction films. I ran the college film society for a year, Doc Films. I could watch 2 or 3 films a day. American directors mostly: John Ford, Douglas Sirk, Hitchcock, Anthony Mann... the masters.

ARNE: So the muse hit you in college?

Well... I don't know if it was the muse, but certainly the attraction of fiction film ... and the power... really hit me.

ARNE: So what did you do out of college?

The first job I got was writing film scripts for industry. Science based films.

ARNE: When did you start working with professional actors?

Well... I made some short fiction films with actors... one in high school... and one in college. And at that time I learned how little I knew about acting and I realized -- pretty quickly -- that I had a lot to learn. The other thing I realized was that I didn't know anything about music. I didn't even know how to communicate with musicians.

So after getting out of college, and after my first stint as an industrial script writer, I went to Temple University in Philadelphia, which has a great film department. I was given a fellowship and I was given the opportunity to learn what I needed to learn. I studied acting, theatre directing, music, and dance.

ARNE: Dance?

Dance is very closely related to film. It's visual, it exists in time, rhythm and pacing are key. Also dance is great training for hand-held camera work.

ARNE: Did you study acting as an actor or a director?

Oh, as an actor. I did very little professional-type acting, but I needed to learn what it was like.

ARNE: And what films did you make there?

At Temple University I made short -- I guess you'd call them experimental -- films. I was determined to use the opportunity to explore the medium on my own. I was frightened of mimicking other films and filmmakers. I suppose that "fear" has always been with me. I don't want my films to look like anybody else's .

ARNE: And they don't. Tell me about those films.

Well I should give you a tape. I made three: "Dry Yearnings," "The Elevator Room," and "Circus of Hostages." I'm really proud of them. In each case I tackled a very difficult form and genre... and each won me many awards, which was nice.

ARNE: And then?

I moved to London after graduate school. The theatre was a big attraction for me, but also the high level of craftsmanship in the English film industry was very attractive to me and I wanted to work there. And I found in London people who were doing in fringe theatre what I wanted to do in film -- one theatre company in particular, The Rational Theatre Company. From them I learned a lot about improvisation, and I realized that if I was going to make fiction films, my greatest asset was the talent of actors.

ARNE: We don't have time to talk in depth about your first two features, "Alligator Eyes" and "Dead Funny," but I'm curious about the connections. Do you feel there is a theme, conscious or unconscious, in your three feature films?

Well... as an artist you wear two hats, the person who is creating the work, and the person who can step away and look at it. And while I don't want to be my own critic and analyze too much, it's hard not to. So when I look back on these three films, I'm astounded by the similarities. I see things in myself that I don't understand. I wanted the films to be very different from one another. But they are not. They are all about crazy people. Why am I compelled to make films about crazy people? Well craziness is good for drama, because crazy people are different from ordinary people.

ARNE: Aren't ordinary people crazy?

I'm talking about people who are clinically crazy -- psychotic.

ARNE: Psychotic?

In "Dead Funny," Viv murders her own boyfriend then enters into a fugue state, hysterical dissociation -- amnesia. In "Bobby Ross," Bobby has a psychotic break, and in "Alligator Eyes" a blind women is so screwed up by her shrink that, in the end, she murders him. It's the story of a psychologist who manipulates his patient -- trying to create this super blind person --- and it deals with how he drove her crazy.

I'm fascinated with what goes on inside people's minds.

ARNE: Are you your game?

What's that mean?

ARNE: You are your game. Means no matter what you do, no matter how you present it... your soul and your character is going to tint and color everything you create.

Yes... you can't change who you are. In each step along the way, I have tried to develop intuitive creative processes, especially in editing. Which is why I like to shoot and edit myself.

ARNE: Any other shared obsessions between the three films?

Well.. I see that my films all explore the borderline between tragedy and comedy. "Laughing Man" ... was the original title for "Alligator Eyes," "Dead Funny," and now "Bobby Roos" look deeply at this issue, yet I don't find myself thinking or talking about this in my day-to-day life.

ARNE: Maybe as artists we have different obsessions than when we are, so to speak, "off duty?"

Maybe.

ARNE: You say you don't want to criticize your own work. Are you talking about the conscious and the unconscious? Are you -- this is two questions -- trying to help your viewer, your public, your audience, with a better understanding of themselves or society, by presenting...

I don't think that I'm trying to help my audience better understand themselves or society as much as to give them a rich and juicy story to think about, and perhaps in the process they might reach a better understanding of themselves and society.

You know, I'd like to honestly be able to say that I just want to entertain people, but I guess I want more. I want my films to provoke powerful emotions and powerful thoughts. I want my films to do what, I guess, I find lacking in so much of our entertainment... stimulate the mind as well as the heart... and as well as the hormones.

ARNE: Who is your audience?

My audience, which I hope is large, are intelligent filmgoers who want something different, but still want to be moved by a good story.

ARNE: Are you conscious of your audience when you are working?

Yes. I want to create experiences that are enjoyable, stimulating, exciting, and so forth.

ARNE: Can you discuss your commitment to independent filmmaking vs. Hollywood.

I'm committed to the idea that an artist can make a film, just like an artist can paint a picture or write a novel. And the technology is now there to do that. Hollywood is not really set up for that... yet. While there are artists who make incredible films... Coppola, Scorsese, and others, they aren't the norm, and don't fit into the studio business model. And in the old days of Hollywood, the people who I would call great artists, John Ford ... Hitchcock or even Frank Borzage probably didn't call themselves artists at all, at least not in public.

ARNE: What's next?

Well.. no more films about crazy people. I've done that. I want to make "Jacob's Secret."

ARNE: I read that script years ago. A wonderful wonderful script.

And I want to make educational videos... for kids and for adults. And I want to do some teaching.

Now that you have a three year old?

Well... sure.

ARNE: Thank you for taking the time.