JUST TALKING 22/11
The participants of the last Just Talking session that took place on Saturday, November 22nd at the Old Pump Station were: filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner (Goliath/Independence Days), director Azazel Jacobs (The GoodTimes Kid & Momma’s Man/Independence Days), director Gerardo Naranjo, (I’m Gonna Explode/International Competition), film critic Ray Pride and Programmer Mimi Brody.
‘I wanted to be faithful to the teenager’s point of view, and send a letter of hate to the adults’, admitted director Gerardo Naranjo. ‘The film is not autobiographical, but I returned to my hometown and recreated the environment where I grew up. The film wants to show the feelings of two kids that have to suddenly grow up in a week. They think they have escaped, but they are caught in a trap and they find out that being a couple is not only about fun, but about responsibilities too’. While talking about the film reality of Mexico he said: ‘People in Mexico are “stupidized” in front of television, and blame us for making art house films, festival films. There are only about 15 directors who try to make honest films, who are not interested in making blockbusters’.
‘The idea of the story came to us on the way to and back from work’ said David Zellner. ‘We were seeing all these dead cats on the side of the road, and were wondering about their owners and the difficulty of facing such a loss. We chose a cat because there are a lot of films about dogs and we wanted to see the audience’s reaction because people tend to have strong opinions about cats. They either love them or hate them’. About his collaboration with his brother he said: ‘We’ve been doing home movies together since we were kids, so this is a extension of that. We have a similar taste in films and the same sensibilities, which is very important, but we have different skillsets. I write and direct, Nathan is producing and editing’. Nathan Zellner added ‘We have the same goals and it kind of works itself out, each one brings his own strength on the table’.
‘Momma’s Man started as an imagination of how comforting it would be to return to your parent’s house’ said Azazel Jacobs, whose father, wellknown experimental director Ken Jacobs, acts in his film. ‘My films are different than those of my father’s, so it was something new for him too. We both had a role to take and soon the father and son relationship was not an issue. And I think it’s really cool for a parent to see his kid working in front of him. The film proves also the trust that my parents have shown to me, they didn’t judge the movie until it was finished’.
‘The GoodTimes Kid, the film we shot together with Azazel, was a film that we did above all for ourselves’, noted Gerardo Naranjo. ‘And it changed our lives. Azazel went on to make Momma’s Man, and I was able to do Drama/Mex and although the film didn’t have a distribution, I am more proud of it than any other of my films’, said Gerardo Naranjo.
Mimi Brody said ‘I am programmer for the Billy Wilder Hall of the UCLA Film and TV Archive, and member of the programming committee of the Los Angeles Film Festival’. She commented on the films of the Just Talking participants. ‘All films have a very good sense of space. In Goliath the leading character is from the working class and his house reveals it in an effective way. My favorite scene is when the character turns on the electric can opener to call his cat. Momma’s Man is very interesting because for fans of Ken Jacobs, it was thrilling to see how his house looks like!’
‘There is something that those three films share in common. In America they use the word quirky as something pejorative’, said Ray Pride to the four directors. ‘When someone does not like Juno or any other “small” film, he calls it quirky. But the truth is, whatever is happening in the world of production or distribution right now, people have the need to work in smaller groups and more human conditions. So, that’s why I would use the word idiosyncratic to describe your films. I appreciate a lot that there are films genuinely idiosyncratic like yours’.
