Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
With theSundance film festival in full swing, everyone wants to know the prospects of Asheville’s independent film, Anywhere, USA. As best I can tell, it’s got a lot of tough competition:
The Globe and Mail cites Anywhere as part of a trend:
More indie films than ever are being produced, but the public appetite may be waning.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, revenues from indie distributors and specialty divisions dropped 11.9 per cent to $1.16-billion in 2007 from $1.32-billion in 2006. In the midst of a writers strike, which hampers publicity efforts for smaller films, the industry is in a quandary. In a pre-election year of uncertainty, a failing economy and an apparently interminable war, the national mood is uneasy. American navel-gazing has rarely been deeper or more intense.
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The current American self-doubt is not just political, but personal. The Sundance Film Festival’s director, Geoffrey Gilmore, told Variety that the films on view this year are surprisingly “not as political or social issue-oriented as last year. There’s more personal expression about the daily aspects of lives, about people’s state of mind. The fact is that the world around us is a very troubled place.”
Financially, the picture looks grim as well. Here’s a business story on IndieWire that’s telling:
Whether the no-budget, no-star projects are viable theatrically remains a key question among many independents today, especially after a fall in which even high-profile specialty releases with names faced challenges and crowding at the box office.
“The odds are against you,” warned a group of producers reps … when asked back in October about the prognosis for narrative features made today without name talent attached.
“The combination of the strike and the increased number of distribs will mean that the films deemed by the ‘acquisitions cabal’ to be commercial will go for big big bucks,” noted Roadside Attractions’ Howard Cohen. But, he noted, “That may only be two or three films, though.” “There will be a bunch of sales less than a million, and most films will go begging,” Cohen prognosticated.
So much for the bleak outlook. You go here to listen to a podcast with Jardine talking about his made-in-Asheville indy flick.
Here’s the companion story, with a more optimistic view. A few relevant parts:
When the festival is literally overrun by Hollywood each January, and mainstream fare such as a Barry Levinson film has its premiere there, it is gratifying to see a film shot on video with no actors (save a 10-year-old) and edited in a garage competing in the Dramatic Competition.
Such is the case with Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine’s Anywhere, USA, co-written with his wife, Jennifer MacDonald, starring their daughter, and shot in their hometown. Chusy, who is Venezuelan-American (his name rhymes with juicy), set out to make a subjective portrait of what he saw as his America.
“The presumption was that that take on America would somehow hold water, or at least other people would find entertainment in that portraiture,” Chusy says. “It’s not to me an all-encompassing portrait, it’s just a very personal portrait.”
Chusy and Macdonald formed a company called Found Films, and Anywhere, USA is very much a part of their gestalt. “Our strategy in making this film was to use what was available to us – what we found. What we found was on the streets. The cast was all from the streets, so to speak, in Ashville, N.C., where we made the film. Locations were found. We used friends. Whatever we could find, we used to make the film.”
Jardine, somewhat prickly with the local media, seems particularly talkative when it comes to jawing about cameras:
To capture these unusual acted moments, Chusy decided to shoot on Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 at 720. They had tried the Varicam, but it was too bulky for their run-and-gun style. When they heard the HVX was coming out, they actually delayed production to give it a try.
“We chose that camera because it was unobtrusive to actors,” Chusy says.
“These are non-actors. So, it was a small camera, yet it delivered a pretty extraordinary punch. I also love the fact that it had–because you couldn’t put prime lenses on it, the close-ups have this incredibly strange deep focus, so it creates its own aesthetic, this plasticity that I’d never seen before.
“I kind of fell in love with that look. There’s something very odd about it. That oddness is a great combination for this film that was very personal–and odd, in a good way. By odd, I’m saying it’s peculiar in the sense that it’s perfectly personal. … I was just astounded by its results, and I said, ‘Yeah! Let’s go with this.’”
Jardine, downright effusive, on being included in Sundance:
“It’s a shock to us that we’re in the festival,” Chusy says. “The shock is even exacerbated by the fact that we’re in the Dramatic Competition, a little film like ours. On a personal level, it ranks behind kissing my wife for the first time or seeing my children born–but close! It’s amazing!
What it means for our film is it’s a validation for the idea that you can make a film that’s pretty polished, but done in a way that’s completely homemade. Because of the democratization of the equipment, the relative low cost of entry, you can pull off a film like this, and the film can also make it into Sundance with films that, though I haven’t seen them, I suppose they have considerable budgets behind them and stars and all that stuff. And, it’s kind of neat that a film like ours would get validation.
When you make a film intimately with a small crew and then you spend time editing yourself, you start thinking, ‘Are these suppositions as presumptuous as you think they are?’ And, ‘What am I doing? Who’s going to find this entertaining or moving?’ And I guess Sundance, who are ultimately arbiters of taste in a way, have said, ‘You know what? We suspect you may be right in that little cave of yours in the garage where you’ve been editing.’ Maybe, in essence, the film is more than just chewing gum for the eyes and ears.”
There you have it. Go see the movie if it ever plays here in Ashvegas and decide for yourself.
