1204 Flm Prod Feature Profile Middle of Nowhere
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Transcript of 1204 Flm Prod Feature Profile Middle of Nowhere
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7/29/2019 1204 Flm Prod Feature Profile Middle of Nowhere
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44 F IL MM AK E R FALL 2012
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45FILMMAKER FALL 2012
LOVEon the
outside
Middle of Nowhere writer/director Ava DuVernay
PHOTOB
Y
LIZ
O.
BAYLEN
The paroled convict stands at the gate,
a dufel bag in his hand. He and the
guard exchange words. Maybe one
o them cracks a tired joke Id say Seeyou later, but I hope that I dont. Maybe
the guard tries to ofer a heartelt lie lesson.
Regardless, the gate swings open, and the
prisoner walks through it to his reedom. His
crew might be there to pick him up, or per-
haps he just takes the bus. A new lie awaits.
Many films have opened with these im-
ages, but not Ava DuVernays Middle of No-
where. The writer/directors second eature,
or which she won the Best Director Award
at this past years Sundance Film Festival,
is dramatically centered around the person
missing rom the above scene: the woman
the convict has let behind. A compelling
Emayatzy Corinealdi plays Ruby, a med
student (and cineaste) who has put hereducation on hold while she earns money
to pay the lawyers who will help her hus-
band, Derek (Omari Hardwick), cut short
his eight-year sentence. Shes the one who
takes the bus, joining other wives on the
brie, strained visits that are no substitute
or a real marriage. But as the parole hear-
ing approaches, theres news that both
jeopardizes Dereks release and challenges
the devotion Ruby has shown to him. Add
in the flirtations o Brian (David Oyelowo),
an afable bus driver, and theres more than
AVA DUVERNAY won the Best Director prize at Sundance
for her second dramatic feature, Middle of Nowhere, a heartfelt
and complex tale of a woman discovering her own identity while
fighting for the parole of her convict husband. A writer, director
and also distributor, DUVERNAY is releasing the film through
a partnership between her own African-American Film
Festival Releasing Movement and Participant Media.
Producer NEKISA COOPER learns more.
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46 FILMMAKER FALL 2012
enough in Rubys world and DuVernays
film to passionately replace that ex-con
drama weve seen so many times before.
Indeed, Middle of Nowhere is all about
what DuVernay describes in the interview
below as the interior life of black women,
and, as she notes, thats a subject matter theAmerican studio system blatantly ignores.
DuVernay has been trying to make Middle of
Nowhere since 2006, finally doing it indepen-
dently after Hollywood turned its back. Lead-
ing up to the film for her have been a series
of documentary shorts and features; a debut
narrative feature, I Will Follow; and, of course,
AFFRM the African-American Film Festi-
val Releasing Movement. Capitalizing on her
experience working as a feature film publicist
and marketer, DuVernay launched AFFRM to
connect underserved black audiences with the
films that have played so well on the black fes-
tival circuit. AFFRM has so far released films
including Alrick Browns Kinyarwanda and An-
drew Dosunmus Restless City, and with Middle
of Nowhere it gains a powerful distribution
partner, Participant, who came on board to en-
sure that the film reaches the widest possible
audience.
To interview DuVernay we asked Nekisa
Cooper, producer of Dee Rees Pariah, who is
herself grappling with the same issues of au-
thentic content, audience building and new
models for independent features in her ownwork. Middle of Nowhere opens in theaters
October 12.
It is such an honor to be interviewing you
right now. You are an idol to many of us who
are trying to figure out how to Are you
kidding? Im just following in the footsteps
of you guys from last year, doing the exact
same thing. [Laughs]
No, youre taking it to a whole different level.
You have a model. [Laughs] We just made a
film, but you have a model. Thats different.
Well, I appreciate the good energy.
Im going to start by asking you some ques-
tions about your background. I heard a ru-
mor that you were an emcee back in the day.
[Laughs] That is true. When I was a teenagerI used to hang out with my friends in South
Central at this place called The Good Life. It
was a hip-hop mecca, post-riots, post-upris-
ing in Los Angeles a place for kids to gather
every Thursday night. Everybody would get
their time on the mic. It was an Apollo-like
atmosphere where you would get food and
oral praise. That was really the first glimpse
I got of what an artists life was like. I dont
come from a family of artists, and so that ex-
perience was very communal, very collabora-
tive. I loved the camaraderie championing
people and being interested in their projects.
And so, its been nice to see that evolution in
me from a teenager who was rioting in the
streets to [a woman] making films and still
being so happy to watch somebody else do it
well. You know what I mean?
I hear you. So now its 1999 and youre work-
ing in publicity. How did you get to the point
in 2006 where you made your short, Saturday
Night Life? After [graduating from] UCLA,
I started working at Fox and some PR firms.
I really loved PR firms as opposed to [work-
ing] in-house at a studio. I didnt like the idea
of working on two or three projects for the
whole year it wasnt enough for me. Theagency life provided me with the opportunity
to work on multiple projects and always in
different stages of their campaigns. In 99, I
started my own firm and [went] on the sets
of great filmmakers like Michael Mann, Spiel-
berg, Bill Condon and Eastwood. [I was] trav-
eling the world with these guys [attend-
ing] their junkets and red carpets, observing
them and hearing their stories. I was the
ultimate film lover, and some time in there I
started to make a mental transition, an emo-
tional transition, from the idea of loving filmsto making films. I started tinkering on screen-
plays and then in 2006, over the Christmas
holiday, I just decided to make something. I
took six grand and said, Just let this be my
film school. I didnt know what I was doing,
but I made a short and, from there, tried to
keep shooting as much as possible. Thats the
only way I was going to learn since I didnt
have the time and money to stop my career
and go to film school. I had to just figure it
out in another way and cobble together a film
school experience for myself. So by talking to
filmmakers while handling their publicity, I
was learning from them. And by making stuff
I was making mistakes. And thats what film
school is, right?
Were you thinking about making features
back then as well? Yes. Around 2003 I had
written this script, Middle of Nowhere. Gina
Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Bythewood
were good friends and clients at the time
and said, We really love this. We want to
produce it. So we went out and we attached
Sanaa Lathan and Idris Elba and shopped itin the traditional way that you did in 2003
when you were in black Hollywood. Youd go
to the studios and it was, Oh, wow, great
script, but we dont make movies about the
interior life of black women. [Laughs] If you
want to make that, make that, and then we
might be interested in an acquisition, right?
Thats what we heard everywhere. Gina and
Reggie were great. They got me into these
rooms. The bottom line was the rooms. They
werent ready then, and they still aint ready
now for this type of story.
By talking to flmmakers whilehandling their publicity, I was learningrom them. And by making stu, I was
making mistakes. And thats what flmschool is, right?
HOW THEY DID IT
Production Format
Digital.
Camera
Sony F35.
Film/Tape Stock
Digital.
Editing System
Final Cut Pro.
Color Correction
DaVinci Resolve at Nice Dissolve,
Brooklyn.
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47FILMMAKER FALL 2012
For sure. Thats just not what they do, and
the sooner we realize that, the better off
well be. And so, the process was me real-
izing that. In 2006, just frustrated with two
years of pitching to closed doors, I said, I
need to make something. My life is slip-
ping away over here. So I took a very small
amount of money and said, Im going to
make a documentary about my friends and
this movement thats really little-known.
So I made this doc [This is the Life] thats all
about the experience of being a teenager
and rhyming with this group of artists. And
as a publicist and marketer, I publicized andmarketed it. As I was doing that, I [thought],
Let me book it in a couple of theaters. It
just happened so organically that I was like,
Wow, Im just self-distributing this film
right now. It wasnt even intentional. So
the bug kind of hit, and it triggered me be-
ing approached by some networks to direct
other music and culture documentaries. [I
thought,] Let me take some of this money
Ive made from these films and try to make
a narrative, and that was all that followed.
So This is the Life, to My Mic Sounds Nice
to Essence Presents: Faith in 2010, now to
what you just completed, the Venus and Sere-
na piece for ESPN [Venus VS] how has your
evolution as a [narrative] filmmaker changed
as a function of the documentary work that
youve been doing?I love the documentary
space, and I love going back and forth be-
tween the two. Its a completely different
kind of storytelling, but it is still storytelling
at its core. One really informs the other. The
tools that Ive learned and picked up while
shooting the narratives [are] strengthening
the work on these documentaries, I think.
Youre not going to always have your budgetfor the narratives, you know what I mean? I
feel like that ability to go back and forth is
giving me the opportunity to always stay
working, which is my goal right now to
create and sustain a certain momentum.
Docs, narratives, to me, theyre all [using]
the same storytelling tools.
Thats very much Spike [Lees] philosophy
too. A story is a story is a story. And talking
about Spike, we have to spend a moment
talking about the folks that have come be-
fore. Who inspires you from back in the day?
For me, particularly as a UCLA alumnus,
its Haile Gerima and Charles [Burnett]. To
be acquainted [with their work] as a cine-
phile and black student at a time when
there was unrest in our city, that harkened
back to the time when they were making
their films, when there was also unrest. A
couple of years ago, I was sitting down with
our cinematographer, Bradford Young, and
he showed me a film of Hailes Id never
seen, Ashes and Embers. I could never get
my hands on that one, and it changed a lot
for me in terms of whats possible and what
were saying with our films. And so, yeah, Iwould say Haile, Julie [Dash] and Charles
big, big influences and inspirations.
Lets spend a moment to talk about your col-
laboration with Bradford Young, and what
that has meant to your world as a fi lmmaker.
Because I am limited in my technical knowl-
edge having not gone to film school, it was
really important for me to have someone I
could talk with about the images on emo-
tional terms, in [terms of] colors and feel-
ings. I told him when we met, I cant tellP
HOTOBY
HENNY
GARFUNKEL
Actors David Oyelowo, Omari Hardwick and Emayatzy Corinealdi with Middle of Nowhere writer/director Ava DuVernay
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48 FILMMAKER FALL 2012
you which lens is going to give me what Im
thinking of in my head. I can tell you how
I want it to feel and when thats not it. But
I am not going to be able to talk to you in
[a technical] way because I dont have that
[background]. What I have is my heart and
my head and my intention and what Ive
written and what I want to say and show.
And he was able to work with me in that
way. I learned a lot from him, but I also was
very clear that I didnt want to learn these
[technical] things. Ive been obsessed with
filmmakers who paint their films in a lot of
different ways, you know? Their relation-
ships with their d.p.s run the gamut. Some
filmmakers who do have that knowledge
dont even collaborate with their d.p.s in
that way because theyre just painting a pic-
ture from a more emotional place. I saw thatearly on, firsthand, from a couple of great,
master filmmakers on their sets, and I kind
of forgave myself for starting to make films
without having all of that [technical knowl-
edge]. Bradford really helped me get there in
terms of saying, Its okay, this is valid.
Lets talk about AFFRM. You have a distribu-
tion company, and with Middle of Nowhere,
you took it a step further by making a deal
with Participant to partner on the domestic
distribution. This is incredible. Can you talk
about this model that youre building, and what
it means for filmmakers, like myself, and oth-
ers who are coming up?AFFRM was an idea
that really came out of that first documentary
experience, This is the Life the self-distribu-
tion of that, and the festivals [I worked for] as
a marketing and publicity person. AFFRM is a
very simple idea, which struck me as I was on
the festival circuit with This is the Life, going
to all these beautiful black film festivals. Hav-
ing been a publicist, I had put films into Urban
World and PanAfrican Film Festival as part of
my marketing strategy. But Id never really
gone and sat down as a filmmaker and inter-
faced with the filmmakers and festival lead-
ers. And so, I traveled all around the country,
to Seattle, to Atlanta, to Boston. There was
just one common thread these [festivals]
were led by passionate, market-driven black
people who cared about our images. Theres
no other reason to do it if youre not making
money, [Laughs] you know what I mean?
And there was a disconnect between [these
festival directors and the goal of] helpingthese festival films be seen again. Because
theres no acquisitions frenzy around Urban
World, right? Our films are playing there and
theyre not going on to anything. Hopefully a
DVD release. And so, the idea from having
distributed my film myself and meeting all
these amazing people gelled into the sense
of, What can we all do together? I have this
certain set of tools, you guys have a certain
set of tools, what if we all got together and re-
leased films? The distribution parts are very
easy for me well, not easy, but in terms of
GO BACK & WATCH
PARIAH Dee Rees 2011 poetic portrait
of a teen coming out as a lesbian and
a poet also marked the emergence of
a new generation of African-American
women filmmakers.
MONSTERS BALL Marc Forsters
2001 drama weaves together a com-
plex emotional knot of people whose
lives connect around a state prison,with Heath Ledger, Billy Bob Thornton
and Halle Berry (who won an Best
Actress Oscar for her portrayal of an
executed convicts wife).
THE FARM: LIFE INSIDE ANGOLA
PRISON Jonathan Stack, Liz Garbus
and Wilbert Rideaus 1998 documen-
tary captured the reality of life inside
Louisiana State Penitentiary, the larg-
est U.S. maximum security prison.
P
H O T O
C O U R T E S Y O F A F F R M
Omari Hardwick and Emayatzy Corinealdi in Middle of Nowhere
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49FILMMAKER FALL 2012
figuring out the marketing and the publicity,
which is 80 percent of distribution, I already
knew how to do that at a very high level. That
part wasnt hard. But the other 20 percent
was really hard making relationships with
the [theater] chains, getting them to under-
stand that it is not just me, Ava, doing a one-
off film but that I Will Followwill be the first
of what I hope will be many films throughAFFRM. I had to create relationships with ex-
hibitors and my fellow distributors the same
way I created relationships with the press in
1995. And so, the first release was I Will Fol-
lowin March of 2011 and this is now,Middle of
Nowhere. By the time your piece hits, we will
have announced the growth of AFFRM with
new ancillary deals. Were going to take the
films from the theatrical space, which was
our sole focus at our launch, full through the
ancillary pathways VOD, DVD, a retail la-
bel, etc. So thats exciting.
Yes, indeed. The producer Karin Chien and I
have been having a lot of conversations lately
about international sales for black and brown
films. How do you feel about the international
sales piece of this? Have you brought on an
international sales agent? I can say from my
vantage point, Im a bit frustrated. We soldPa-
riahs international rights to Focus, and theres
not been very much movement on that front.
In spite of their best efforts, theyve not found
international outlets for the film beyond Can-
ada. Their usual international partners seem
to be in the same space most of our domestic
industry is about black and brown film over-
seas no international sales potential. And,my question is, if hip hop and fashion and other
things that evolved from our culture can sell,
why cant this content? Thank you. You said
youre frustrated; Ill say that Im infuriated.
I was trying to be diplomatic. [Laughs] Its
some bullshit. There is ineptitude, ignorance
and arrogance at a level that is astounding. It
is a groupthink and a group failure. For Mid-
dle of Nowhere, we went into Sundance with
not as many jitters as a lot of our counter-
parts because I wasnt looking for a distribu-
tion deal. I went in saying, Were opening in
October, and if theres a like-minded partner
who will come with us and do it, thatd be
awesome. And if not, were opening in Oc-tober. It would have been really disingenu-
ous of me to create a distribution company
so early on and not put out my own film
that is getting so much attention through it.
And it was a beautiful experience because
there was a flattering array of offers, none
of which were right for us. Will every film I
It needs to be part o our DNA asflmmakers to know what the world islike outside o our set, to understand
what the business o flmmaking is. Tatsmy big fst in the air.
see page 78
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TOUCHDOWN DANCEfrom page 35
That must be great as a perormer, right?
COOPER: It is, especially because youre
almost dancing. Im someone whos always
aware o where the camera is. I actually love
that part o filmmaking, as opposed to be-
ing on stage. I love it. So, when you start
to dance with the camera operator to therhythm o the scene, its very exciting.
It is when it becomes like a unit. COOPER:
Yes. And we actually did have a dance scene
at the end o the movie, which we had no
time to shoot. It was ucking crazy. Theres
400 other actors as the audience, and were
sitting there trying to put this thing together.
You had your routine down by that point, right?
COOPER:The routine we had down, but how
do you film that dynamically and personally?
How many times have we watched Dancing
with the Stars and all these shows? You seehow people shoot dancing, but [here] you
have to watch these two all in love.
Well, it seemed to me like you took a per-
son out and put the camera in. COOPER:
Yes, thats what we did. Thats exactly
what we did.
You danced with us and then she was dancing
with us.COOPER: 100 percent correct.
RUSSELL: The dancing was the whole thing
to attack unto itsel. We had to find the right
choreographer
COOPER: Who was amazing, Mandy
Moore.
RUSSELL: Mandy Moore, right. Not the ac-
tress. She has done amateur Dancing with
the Stars contests in Colorado, so shes no
stranger to local dance contests, which is
what I wanted it to eel like. I wanted it to
eel like there were some ringers.
Right.RUSSELL: Who were like, Oh, these
are scary people, theyre rom Belarus. A lot
o them were rom Belarus, or some reason.
Theyre like proessional dancers, theyre like
assassins. I wanted our people to be kind
o like i you and me did it, you know? Thedancing in Pulp Fiction meant something to
me because its about this its about their
hearts and their eyes. And that, to me, was
the most important thing. [Bradley and Jen-
nier] danced to the camera or one section
o it, but the rest o it, I wanted to do in real
time, which Im proud we did. Its just about
being with them in a two shot.
And because the choreography in the studio is
also beautiul, did you choreograph the cam-
era movements? Or, do you have so much aith
in your operator as to the camera that you can
say, Okay, do it diferently, and something
else will come?COOPER:Oh no, its like, [Da-
vids] moving with the Steadicam.
Youre walking around with it?COOPER: Oh
yeah. Its very much the same way he is with
the actors. People are ducking, booms are fly-
ing. I mean, he is steering every aspect o the
ship. So, as youre editing the movie, youre
constantly trying to figure out how much itsgoing to cost to take him out o the rame.
David, the films background is particularly
alive, like your actors. Oten when you see
films, thats not the case. Is it just contagious
because the background extras are watching
you work? Or do you speak directly to them?
How do they come to lie?RUSSELL: Theres
some union thing you have to go through be-
cause otherwise it becomes an upgrade. This
was shot or the same budget as The Fighter,
which is not a lot o money, so you have to
[be careul about] suddenly [upgrading anextra, which happens] i you give them spe-
cific direction. But Shelley [Ziegler] is rom
Baltimore. She did The Sopranos a lot, she did
Boardwalk Empire a lot. She did The Fighter.
Shes antastic, and she knows what we want,
which is to make this eel warm and alive.
She gives people specific instructions so they
are doing specific things. That persons going
to the chocolate ountain. These people are
having an argument. These people are happy
to be there and are taking pictures. These
people are flirting with each other. This guy
wants to see that girl over there.
Alright, lets talk about Jennier Lawrence
because she is just amazing. From the mo-
ment she enters, youre already in love. Shes
got such an energy, a bolt o energy in her,
such a bullshit meter that is on. And then, the
layers in which she becomes like him out
o control but not, apparently, right rom
the start. COOPER: Her acility or emo-
tional depth at the drop o a hat is kind o
[amazing]. Ive done two movies with her
now, and the second movie [Susanne Biers
upcoming Serena] we did was equally aschallenging dramatically. I mean, she had
to go to some sick places. I remember [dur-
ing one scene] Im watching her and [as an
actor] Im eeling everything that shes do-
ing. I eel horrible and embarrassed and that
Ive hurt her [character] because o what
shes doing. [But] also at the same time as
a lover o this movie, [it was] so exhilarat-
ing. [Laughs] It was like, Yes, motheruck-
ers! David was like, Thats what Im talk-
ing about. [Laughs] I remember I wanted
to scream. She was so in the pocket. Shes
suchI mean, she embodies so many difer-
ent aspects o what youd think a woman is
as a male, as a emale, as a human being.
I mean, shes so sexy and then not. Shes
quite a stunning human being.
RUSSELL: You know, Jennier was some-
body who we all thought, Well, shes a
little too young. I didnt know much about
her she was great in Winters Bone butI thought, Well, why dont we read her? So
she Skyped her audition rom her parents
home in Louisville, Kentucky. We already
had two or three big contenders, big stars,
because this is a very dimensional role. Then
she just came in, and I was very struck by
her personality, her energy. She dressed up
or the character in her athers den, with the
eye makeup and the hair and everything. She
really wanted it. She was willing to try to do
anything that we were working on. She just
brought a very special human-being qual-ity. I said to Harvey, I think [we should cast
her], and he goes, I think shes too young,
man. I said, I dont know. She seems kind
o ageless in some ways to me.
Lets talk about the chemistry between the
two o you when you were dancing. I mean,
that reveals so much about what was going
on when youre practicing and the first time
youre dancing your ace comes this close to
her. RUSSELL: You know what I love about
that as she gets pulled in and then she
spins out, you think thats the end o the
shot. But then she goes around.
COOPER: And the way she looks at him
when she spins out. Also my avorite thing
o hers, when theyre dancing, theres this
one [shot where] youre over [Pat] and
her hair is alling and shes kind o smiling.
[Laughs] Youre just like, What the uck is
going on? I mean, really. Were just sitting
there and were like, What? Like, holy shit.
Theres like our or five moments in that
movie where shes just, you know, stopping
the film. Its just like, Holy uck!
Yeah, its got star dust in it.
LOVE ON THE OUTSIDEfrom page 49
make go through AFFRM? No, because AF-
FRM probably cant handle the next ilms as
Im trying to increase my budgets. AFFRM
has a very speciic P&A budget which has
to be put against a speciic size o ilm. But
as long as Im making a ilm in that size that
its into the model, it will go through AFFRM.
Thank God Participant comes in and kind o
supersizes what AFFRM could do or Middle,
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79FILMMAKER FALL 2012
to help us reach a wider share of the market.
Thats been amazing. But Ive been able to
retain all rights outside of theatrical because
Participant, theyre not licensing anything.
Its a P&A partnership. I walked away from
Sundance with all the rest of the rights, [in-
cluding] international. And for the last seven
months, Ive been trying to exploit them.
And every single top international salesagent has passed, every single second-tier
sales agent, and every single C-level sales
agent who takes the blood-and-gore and
one-step-above-porn films has passed.
Wow. If I did not have my hands full trying to
figure out the domestic distribution future, I
would completely turn my attention to that.
The people who crack that are the winners,
right? Because there are films like yours that
have unattended international rights just sit-
ting there. Youre talking about hundreds of
films, current, past, classic, that have unat-tended international rights. And so, if there
was any kind of mechanism put together for
that, the world is that persons oyster. They
could have whatever they want. We would be
throwing films at them. Is it going to be hard?
Yeah. But is it impossible? There is no mar-
ket you cant tell me that. And for me, it
has nothing to do with hip-hop or sports or
anything that flourishes with black people
abroad. It has to be with knowing people who
love film. I was the first in line to see A Sepa-
ration, and they did not market to me. Im not
from that world, but thats a good movie. At
the very core of it, if these films are offered in
places where people love movies, if they are
presented as fine films, beautiful films, world-
class films, how are they not going to play?
Fox Searchlight can take Beasts of the Southern
Wild all over the world now, yes, they are
Fox Searchlight, but the bottom line is that its
playing [internationally]. However much the
industry positions that film so its a quote-un-
quote independent film, divorcing it from its
blackness, that is a black film with black faces
and its playing overseas. So yeah, its a mad-dening situation and it needs to be fixed.
I heard in an interview you did at Urban World
you said something to the effect of, A fi lm-
makers responsibility doesnt end with pic-
ture lock. Talk a little bit to filmmakers who
look to you as an example of that philosophy
and what it means in 2012. I dont know if its
about looking to me as an example as much
as having common sense. I mean, my God,
youve fought for this film! And you hand it
over to somebody and [say], Okay, well, let
me know how it goes. As a marketer and
publicist, Ive seen this. Ive represented
filmmakers and films for a dozen years, and
I would be astounded at the drive and pas-
sion and all-consuming handle on the film
that the director had during the filmmaking
process. And then, Id see them in the mar-
keting meeting and hide a little in the corner,
not knowing what to ask and what to do. Its
like, Dude, get a grip. Learn this shit. Youneed to know this. It is not over. You are still
battling for this. Do not trust. Now, film-
makers of note, they have a different situ-
ation. Theyre probably going to be with a
marketing department of a studio thats go-
ing to handle that. They dont have much to
worry about. But thats not us, you know?
Right. The bottom line is we need to edu-
cate ourselves to the marketing and distribu-
tion patterns of our films. Making sure a film
reaches an audience is part of the filmmaking
process. As a filmmaker, its part of my respon-sibility. Everyones different. I understand. You
get to the end of it and its like, Im done, I
cant do any more. But ultimately, I say youre
not at the end unless your film has reached
its audience. And that doesnt always mean
theatrical. For some people, your audience
is reached in different ways. You gotta have
some idea about how that works and what
your true prospects are. I was talking earlier on
in Toronto with a filmmaker who has a script.
I said, Yeah, brother, make that. Whats your
budget? And he was like, $2.8. I said, Okay,
how are you going to make your money back?
What do you mean? [Laughs] Is that your
$2.8? Because if it aint your $2.8, youre going
to have to figure out how to make the money
back, my brother. Do you understand that
there is no current model for you to get to $2.8
with the film you just described to me? If you
are making a film beyond your means, youre
not being a responsible filmmaker. Serious. It
needs to be part of our DNA as filmmakers to
know what the world is like outside of our set,
to understand what the business of filmmak-
ing is. And so, yeah, thats my big fist in the air.And so,Middle of Nowhere, theatrical release?
Yeah. We shot this film last year in June for
19 days. The Sundance thing was a beautiful
long shot. The award, as you guys have expe-
rienced as well, adds a new level of attention
to the film. Were an L.A. film, Im an L.A. film-
maker and this is an L.A. story in a lot of ways,
so we played the L.A. Film Festival in June and
it was a beautiful blowout, a 1,000-foot gala
red carpet that kicked off our campaign for
the summer. That has included street teams
at every black summer event you can think
of, collaborating with all of the organizations
that are [in] AFFRM, over 16 organizations
in top markets around the country that have
been having weekly planning meanings about
grassroots tactics and marketing. There are
amazing things happening in each city that
are being handcrafted, customized and ex-
ecuted by leaders in their markets. You say
grassroots and think, oh, Im passing outpostcards. But how about the AFFRM leaders
who are putting together an art exhibit of work
based on the film? One of our leaders in Se-
attle petitioned the city to have city vans pick
up seniors who wouldnt otherwise have a ride
and bring them to the Friday matinee. Those
are the kind of tactics we are employing. We
dont have TV commercials, just people hold-
ing hands, rallying around the concept of a
certain kind of black cinematic image. Thats
whats been happening all summer. And last
night at Toronto we had an international pre-miere, a sold-out house.
Congratulations. Were 30 days out from
opening right now, and all were trying to do
is prove a point that these films have viability
and that there is an audience for them. And to
think beyond that opening weekend because
I dont want to get opening weekend-itis, you
know? Ive made a film that I want to live a
full, robust life way beyond October 12th.
PHYSICAL THERAPYfrom page 55
was after my law school buddy, Julius, and
I had left, he asked me what I proposed to
do. I said I wanted to make a film and I told
him that I thought this was one of those rare
films, where it was essentially two people in
a room, but with intense dramatic content;
that I could make something very powerful
very cheaply, and that in itself was a gift. It
was a doable film. And without my solicit-
ing it, he stepped up and said, Ill help you
financially. Ill put up 20 percent of the bud-
get. Now, for someone to do that unsolic-
ited was some hint to me of public accep-tance. This was a guy who normally went to
see mainstream films and he saw a fascinat-
ing story in this subject and was prepared to
gamble his money on it. And that was highly
motivating. It was not just a matter of saying,
Im going to do it on a microbudget, but of
realizing that I could do it on a microbudget
and still do the story justice. I stopped ask-
ing permission to make the film. I mean,
normally what you do is probably what you
did after Breathing Lessons. You shop the idea
around. You rub shoulders with Hollywood