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September 7, 2006
About A Son
AJ Schnack's new documentary, Kurt Cobain About A Son, will be premiering in Toronto on Sunday. Ever since I discovered AJ's blog last year, I've been following the progress of this project with a great deal of excitement. As you might gather from this recent interview with Schnack and Cobain biographer Michael Azerrad, it's not a typical documentary; the promise of this unique, elegaic form, in concert with its subject matter, has put this at the top of my to-see list.
Over the past few months, AJ has been posting a series of entries on the process of making the film. In a recent conversation with his cinematographer, he included an image of a dead bird - which reminded me of an image from my first attempt at a feature film, Lullaby.
Lullaby had ties to Kurt Cobain as well - or rather, it touched on my personal feelings on the man and his myth and what he meant to all those kids, a few years older than me, who had heard his voice and practically worshipped at his feet. It was only an allusory connection, and I had longstanding plans to deal with the subject more throuroughly in another film - but then Van Sant made Last Days, and then I learned about AJ's documentary, and I gradually realized that the film I had in my head wasn't a film at all but merely an ephemeral desire to explore an idea and capture a feeling, an essence, an answer to some question I wasn't quite sure how to word. Maybe I'll figure it out someday, or maybe (and more likely) little figments of the intentions behind this phantasmagorical project will seep into other films I make. For the time being, I'll leave the specifics to filmmakers who actually know what they want to say.
Which is why I can't wait to see Kurt Cobain About A Son. Best of luck to AJ this week, and next.
As an experiment of sorts, I made my final cut of The Outlaw Son available for download through its MySpace page for the last three weeks. It was downloaded a total of thirty three times before I removed the link last night. I hope those folks liked it, in spite of the 320x240 Quicktime file; that sort of resolution does a film like mine no favors at all.
I'm starting to let more people see it. Kat Candler watched it last week and gave me a glowing endorsement, which really made my day (especially her comment on the performances). One of the people who inspired the film also saw it recently, and thought it was gross. I sorta saw that coming, but I was hoping for a slightly better adjective.
Posted by David Lowery at September 7, 2006 12:56 AM
Comments
Darn, I didn't realize it was online. I would have checked it out. Anyway, best of luck with it.
Posted by: Aaron at September 8, 2006 1:55 AM
David,
I watched Outlaw Son with Kat. I loved it. I thought the writing was excellent as was the execution and I fell in love with your characters. Thanks for giving them depth and life. I wouldn't expect less of you, but it was just good, they were whole and the short is very fine work.
Posted by: stacy at September 9, 2006 11:32 PM
Thanks for the good wishes David. Would love to see Lullaby sometime. Also, did I read right that you came to LA and we didn't get together? For shame. Please let me know if you head this way again... Will be great to finally hook up.
AJ
Posted by: AJ Schnack at September 25, 2006 3:53 PM