Tribeca Film Festival - Behind the Screens - "Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha" - May 1, 2008

Tribeca Film Festival
Behind the Screens – Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
Directors Guild Theater
May 1, 2008

Legendary independent filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song) participated in a discussion lead by film producer and DVRepublic Founder Warrington Hudlin during the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival after a screening of Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha, written and directed by Van Peebles. Confessionsofa “chronicles the adventures of a man who, armed only with a can of contingency cash, swims his way to New York, joins the merchant marine, romances women of all ages (and an amorous gorilla), and dances for his life in the court of Zampoughi.”

Before the screening of Confessionsofa, Tribeca programmer Aaron Dobbs welcomed Van Peebles to the stage. The always humorous and candid Van Peebles laid out some ground rules to the audience saying “laugh a lot” and “white folks don’t have to be scared or nothing.”

Confessionsofa has been my favorite film I've seen so far at Tribeca. It's hard to put a finger on exactly how to describe this film. It's sort of an epic low-budget experimental comedy musical filled with Van Peebles's trademark charm and bravado, but with less of a political message than previous works.

At the conclusion of the film, festival volunteers collected ballots from the audience for the Cadillac Award. Dobbs then welcomed back Van Peebles to the stage along with Hudlin. This is the second time this year I’ve been to a discussion that Hudlin moderated. The first was back in February at a Tribute to St. Clair Bourne at the Museum of the Moving Image, which Van Peebles also attended. Hudlin’s moderating style remained the same, that being of a more participatory nature by allowing members of the audience to jump in anytime.

Hudlin: Other black filmmakers stand on the shoulders of Van Peebles who literally founded black cinema. You paved the way, but how did you find your own way?

Van Peebles: I’m known somewhat as a fighter. People ask me, how did you know you could beat this guy? I didn’t know. A courageous person is never without arms.

Hudlin: You went ahead and did it your way. What is your creative process?

Van Peebles: In an old Mad Magazine, there was a section called “Things you’d like to see in the movies.” I just make the things I’d like to see. I don’t try to be clever about it. I just try to say what I have in mind. If something’s funny to me, how can I put that funniness in cinema?

Hudlin: In both Sweetback and Confessionsofa, there seems to be this character off camera. What resonates with you in having this character?

Van Peebles: This makes me think of a funny situation. [Before Van Peebles continued to answer, he asks his cast & crew to stand.] Momma told me to praise the bridge you stood on. Paul, my second assistant editor, a young white man from Minnesota who doesn’t have a lot of ‘hood in him, called me the other day. I told him to add in a lot of “um hmm” into the film. I just put in what I’m thinking. This movie was on a constraint with finances. I thought it would be easier to do the music first. Music is an integral part of the story. I find it interesting to let people see the trajectory and evolution of it. My choice is not me, but clarity for the subject.

Hudlin: A lot of your film’s titles allude to the anatomy. Is this a coincidence?

Van Peebles: The title explains the story. The memoirs of a wanderlust…let’s translate that to Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha. I like the iambic pentameter and the cadence of it. A question I often get is what is the message? There are a lot of subliminal messages. People will pick them up at different levels in their life.

Audience Question: Why does the opening title sequence give credit to the Diaspora?

Van Peebles: A zillion people helped me make this movie and they’re not all on camera. I wanted to do a shout out to those folks. I had a huge amount of assistance all over the world.

Audience Question: Where are we now in terms of black cinema?

Van Peebles: I am pretty much a loner and a maverick. What I wanted to do was no just open the door for black cinema, but for all independent cinema.

Audience Question: Was the sex scene with you and the character Rita uncomfortable?

Van Peebles: I liked it. When you shoot sex scenes, there are always problems like; I have to make sure the lighting is right. When I made Sweetback, I caught the clap, but that’s beside the point.

Audience Question: How long did it take you to do this project?

Van Peebles: 75 years, duh!

Audience Question: How did you use technology to paint this film?

Van Peebles: The credits at the end say “edited and painted by.” It’s like a painting to me. I started as a painter and sculptor. The texture, color and shading tell the story subliminally. All these tools are there. Why fight a battle with one hand? You have a zillion hands. People don’t use them.

Audience Question: What were some of the challenges in making Confessionsofa versus Sweetback?

Van Peebles: This technically was much more ambitious than Sweetback. This time I didn’t have to carry a gun. Everything was a challenge.

Audience Question: How did you go about casting? Has your process changed since Sweetback?

Van Peebles: No, sometimes you cast people for their experience and sometimes for plasticity. Sometimes you take a person who doesn’t have acting experience, but they can play for the character.

Audience Question: Why did you premiere Confessionsofa at Tribeca?

Van Peebles: Tribeca is in New York and I’m lazy. Tribeca is a great vessel. Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro funded Panther when no one else would.

Hudlin: Tribeca has a sense of mission of international diversity that’s distinct from other festivals. Peter Scarlet (Artistic Director) really gets that we’re a world community. As Tribeca continues to grow and mature, it will be a premiere festival.

Audience Question: When will you make your next film?

Van Peebles: That’s dangerous. I open the door and all these ideas come out, so I slam the door shut. I’m hoping to make my novel The True American as a film next. I’m harnessed by the finances. Confessionsofa had no financers or distributors. I wanted this film to be made this way. When I sell it, then I’ll do another one.

Audience Question: Have you developed a strategy to get past constraints?

Van Peebles: My strategy is not a single way. I started off writing. The great advantage of writing is it’s not that expensive. As a writer, I didn’t know why people were so difficult with me when I pitched it to them. Learn your craft so you can do what you have to do and how to manipulate your media, then make it within the confines of your budget.

Hudlin: If you watch what he does, there’s a DNA in his work. He takes people that are off camera and takes them on a journey. He lets black people win. Sweetback is a perfect example. He fights the power and prevails. That’s the lesson we as filmmakers have to take.

A Tribute to St. Clair Bourne - February 10, 2008

A Tribute to St. Clair Bourne
Museum of the Moving Image – Astoria, NY
February 10, 2008

(L to R: Armond White, Esther Iverem, Warrington Hudlin, George Alexander, Clyde Taylor and David Schwartz)

(Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles in the audience)

At the Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday, critics and scholars were in person to discuss the career of and show clips from documentary filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, who died in December 2007, and made more than 40 films, mainly about African-American culture and politics. His subjects included Paul Robeson, John Henrik Clarke, Gordon Parks, Langston Hughes, and Making of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. The discussion was organized and moderated by Warrington Hudlin producer of such films as House Party and Boomerang, and the founder of DV Republic.

The panelists included Clyde Taylor, professor at the Gallatin School and writer for the PBS documentary, Midnight Ramble: The Life and Legacy of Oscar Micheaux; George Alexander - business entertainment columnist at Black Enterprise magazine and author of Why We Make Movies; Esther Iverem, journalist, poet and author of The Time: Portrait of a Journey Home; Armond White , film critic at New York Press and author of The Resistance: Ten Years of Pop Culture That Shook the World and Rebel for the Hell of It: The Art-Life of Tupac Shakur.

The Museum’s David Schwartz opened the presentation by remarking that Hudlin had the idea to do this tribute to Bourne, who was a prolific filmmaker. Schwartz thanked Hudlin for arranging the tribute and said that Hudlin would someday get a tribute of his own. Hudlin joked, “When I’m alive!” Schwartz continued by saying that this would be one of the last programs at the Museum before it undergoes construction at the end of the month.

He then introduced Nonso Christian Ugbode of the Black Documentary Collective, who presented a short clip montage that he cut himself of Bourne’s work. Afterwards, the panelists each presented clips from a selection of Bourne’s films.


Clips Presentation:

Clyde Taylor (CT) - Clip from Let the Church Say Amen (1974)
Taylor said he chose this clip because it was a breakthrough film for Bourne and was made at the point when they got to know one another. Bourne had created his own production company at the time. This film became his ID or calling card. Taylor initiated an African-American film society in San Francisco and invited Bourne to show his film there. They became close friends. This clip is one that reflects a cinema verité style of filmmaking that follows a young seminary student, showing the connection between religion and the black experience.

George Alexander (GA) – Clip from Langston Hughes: The Dreamkeeper (1988)
Alexander said that Bourne was a generous and giving soul. He got to know him during the centennial birthday celebration of Langston Hughes at the Museum of Natural History. Alexander didn’t know Bourne too well at the time, but knew his work. Alexander worked on Bourne’s book and viewed all his films, and got to know him very well and they became good friends. This clip shows the idea of cultural authenticity, which is the notion that the subject of the documentary was talked about. If you do work about a community, you also have to show the social context.

Esther Iverem (EI)– Clip from Making ‘Do the Right Thing' (1989)
Iverem said as a young journalist, she was very impressed by the use of journalism on screen in Bourne’s films. She respects real stories a lot more than most narrative films she has to review. She had corresponded with Bourne through email. He was very active with the online community. When he was going through issues with his health, he was still interested in helping other people with their careers. This clip combines so many of his interests and emphases like social activism. It captures so much of what was happening in New York City in the 1980s.

Armond White (AW)– Clip from John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk (1996)
White said he met Bourne in the 1980s when he was an editor for the New York City Sun. He went to Bourne’s Upper West Side apartment for an interview. Bourne was a very principled and humane person. He didn’t talk like other filmmakers. He came from a family of journalists. It was the journalism aspect Bourne brought to filmmaking that made him special. White showed two clips. The first was the opening sequence of the film. He said this clip helps to show that movies don’t fall out of the sky. People collaborate with one another. The montage gives a sense of Bourne’s style. This is a film of self-identification. Bourne reflected on his own life as a filmmaker and as a n African-American. The second clip is of John Henrik Clarke sitting in a leather chair in a room with books and African sculptures. It evokes a professor’s office or a middle-class family’s den, like that of on TV’s “Father Knows Best.” This documentary has a rich, story-like quality. One of the only Bourne films that is in distribution.


Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A

Hudlin then opened the panel discussion, a mix between his own questions to the panelists and also comments and questions from the audience. [FYI, among those in the audience was filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, whose Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song was a pioneering African-American independent film of the early 1970s.]

(WH) How long had you known Bourne?

(CT) Since 1976. It was an important moment for black independent cinema, but documentaries were happening as well from such people as William Greaves. Bourne kept that leadership with the Black Documentary Collective.

(WH) What were some of the choices he made with his documentaries?

(CT) He was committed to handheld cinema verité. No narrator. More personal and intimate. In later years, he got better funded. Archival footage is very expensive. In the later years, he made films of people with profiles of greatness such as Paul Robeson, but he was not the ‘PBSification’ mode.

(WH) When you interviewed Bourne for your book, did he talk about any challenges?

(GA) He talked about how independent film was about to change. Up until Spike Lee, documentary filmmakers were making films about real life. The Spike Lee made narrative films that were entertaining in a realistic way. For John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk, he employed an MTV editor using quick cuts. In terms of getting funding, frequently people who controlled the money had little experience with African-American stories. Filmmaker Julie Dash talked about the same struggle to incorporate realistic elements. It was always challenging.

(WH) In your book We Got to Have It, you talk about the consumer’s appetite. How are African Americans responding to documentaries?

(EI) Can’t say that there has been an explosion in our documentaries and African Americans responding to them. What audiences are going to see versus quality of the films is a different thing. In recent years, filmmakers like Michael Moore get a lot of credit for documentaries being played in theaters. A lot of times, these films aren’t made by black filmmakers.

(WH) Are there any advantages or disadvantages to fiction vs. non-fiction films?

(AW) It’s a choice. You take a risk of not interesting an audience. Most movie goers aren’t interested in documentaries. Bourne took a risk because documentaries tell things to audiences that fiction cannot. I wouldn’t put him in the same sentence as Michael Moore. Moore degraded documentary filmmaking. Bourne believed in the truth of history.

(WH) Will anyone defend Michael Moore? He and I are personal friends. When he sold Roger & Me for $4 million, he called me and asked if I needed some money. Fahrenheit 9/11 is the only documentary that has reached blockbuster status.

(GA) Moore is aware that audiences evolve. People want to see something that entices them.

(AW) Moore has changed the form. Popular films aim to entertain more than to inform. His films are aimed toward a particular political mindset. Bourne didn’t play around with the truth or history.

(EI) Bourne had integrity, but we don’t have to honor that by throwing someone else under the bus. It doesn’t mean that Moore isn’t sticking to the facts. Just because he uses those techniques, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have integrity.

(Audience Comment) I worked with Bourne and he wouldn’t want us knocking down filmmakers like Moore.

(Audience Question) I am amazed and appalled that only one of Bourne’s movies is in distribution. What can we do about it? How do we get his films into circulation so future generations can see his work?

(CT) There’s a movement out there to get his films in a box set. Something is in the works.

(Audience Question) Was Bourne working on anything up to his death?

(CT) A project about the Black Panthers. He got some extraordinary interviews. He also wanted to have a book done on his photos.

(EI) He was also developing some fiction narratives. Might depend on who owns the actual rights to his work.

(Audience Comment) The Black Documentary Collective will catalog his work.

(Audience Question) Why wasn’t a clip from Half-Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks shown?

(EI) I would have chosen that clip to screen, but Bourne was the producer, and not the director of that and the Museum chose to screen just clips from films he directed. Half-Past Autumn was on HBO. It was one of his films where he was able to break through the ceiling.

(GA) It still fits his desire to chronicle important black people in history who made enormous contributions to African-American culture.

(WH) Bourne created the Black Documentary Collective. He created an infrastructure that survives him. The institution he left behind didn’t die away. What is the Collective doing these days?

(BCD Representative) We meet the first Monday of every month. We have rough-cut screenings and panel discussions.

Towards the end of the discussion, Melvin Van Peebles stood up and said, “I’m clairvoyant!” Bourne knew the problems that he wanted the public to understand. He would have wanted filmmakers to continue to educate the audience. To push forward. Keep on fighting. Hudlin reminded Van Peebles of a button he once gave him that’s a circle with a line through it that means, “No Whining, Keep Working.” Van Peebles said he just made a new feature. At the end of the shoot, he was on his knees scrubbing the floor. “You got to do the whole thing,” he said. “I do any G-d damn thing necessary!”

- Notes by The Film Panel Notetaker