Home Media Magazine - November 23-29, 2008 - (Page 18) PIPELINE Harmony Korine with Samantha Morton on the set of Mister Lonely. www.homemediamagazine.com A ‘Border’ Tour By John Latchem DOCUMENTARY Like many Americans, indie filmmaker Chris Burgard was concerned about illegal immigration and border security. As he studied the issue, he decided to film a rally sponsored by the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (the MCDC is a separate organization from the better-known Minutemen Project). What he learned there inspired him to delve deeper into how illegal immigrants enter the United States. His subsequent film, Border, chronicles many of the problems encountered by those trying to maintain security at the U.S.-Mexico border. “The local cops are outgunned,” Burgard said. “American ranchers are getting hurt. Mexican citizens are getting hurt. The guys who are making out are the cartels, the politicians and big business.” L O N KORINE ELY MISTER • • • • • By Billy Gil ften misunderstood as the enfant terrible of the indie film world, Harmony Korine, the gifted screenwriter of Kids and filmmaker of Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy, has returned with TALENT Mister Lonely, out now on DVD TALK from Genius Products and IFC. Mister Lonely will no doubt fuel the admiration — and derision — aimed at Korine, whose latest film concerns a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who joins a commune of celebrity impersonators as well as a troupe of nuns who discover if they pray hard enough, they may jump out of an airplane and land on the ground safely. Korine spoke with Home Media Magazine about his latest film, its DVD extras, and the long gestation period between this film and his last one. O two separate ideas … and even though these ideas didn’t connect in any narrative way, I thought they spoke the same ideas. There was a poetic punctuation or something, like the two stories danced with each other. I HM: It was quite a bit of time between movies for you. When did you first gather the ideas that would come to be Mister Lonely, and how long did it then take you to write and make the film? still haunts me is the three stooges with the hula hoops. It was one of those things I should have found a place for but just couldn’t. There was that scene with the boy in the bus that was really funny. I HM: Your films are given mixed reviews, and this was no exception. Why do you think some critics and viewers have such trouble with your work? Korine: Around the time of Julien DonkeyBoy (1999), I kind of was pretty much lost. I wanted to stop making films. I was pretty much living like a tramp. My reality had become insane. I thought the most admirable thing would just be to disappear. I did different odd jobs. I would mow lawns … I did these different things. I went and traveled around America and just spent some time around jungles and things. I really didn’t even think about making movies. I felt like I had done that and the rest of my life would just be something else, I HM: In the interviews included something away from that, but on the Mister Lonely DVD, you then, you know, it was a strange talk about two images that helped thing that had happened. Enough time had directly inspire the film: a Michael Jackson impersonator wandering a city, and nuns jumping out passed. It wasn’t anything miraculous, but of airplanes and landing safely. Where did those I had just accumulated enough ideas and images and could feel again. … I’ve always images come from? Korine: I hadn’t made a movie in a long felt you can’t make movies without some time. I spent time in the jungle in South form of love. When I felt like I had love America. I had heard about this bar in the for movies again, I thought I could do it jungle where people would drink beer with again. this sloth. So I went there this one night I HM: The deleted scenes each stood alone well. and started hanging out with these Indians Why did you choose not to include those scenes? and people there. I just started imagining, Korine: A lot of them I liked, some of them dreaming of nuns jumping out of airplanes are just as good as anything in the actual on bicycles, like doing tricks in the clouds. movie, but literally it’s one of those things I also had this idea of impersonators. I that happens in all my films, I shoot a lot started thinking of what it would be like and make things up as we go and it’s imposto have them all living together in this sible to put everything in there just because communal setting. I spent some time in of length and pacing and stuff. Some of a commune as a child. … It started out as those scenes that are deleted, the one that Korine: That’s just the kind of films I make. I don’t think I would even be able to make a film that had kind of a unified reaction or some kind of consensus reaction. I just thought that, especially in my earlier films, it was just provocation. I just wanted to throw a bomb at things. Sometimes it’s fun just to watch things explode, just to blow shit up and document the explosion. At the same time, I feel very strongly about a certain kind of film. … It’s not that I don’t like commercial films, I would just rather not make movies than have to change that. I HM: Mister Lonely is warmer than your other films, even though it’s still dark and sad. Why? Korine: I think just because movies are like moods. You make a film, at least I make films, and they reflect your mental state at the time of making them, or a whim or a tangent. I wasn’t interested in making the same kind of film. I think there are lines that connect through the films, but in the end I hadn’t made a movie in a long time and … I wanted to make something that was slightly more hopeful or bigger in some way. I HM: Are there any plans to revisit any of your previous films or projects on DVD or Blu-ray? Korine: I would definitely be into it, if someone proposed something that was really interesting. It’s been 10 years since Gummo. But I don’t even own any of my own films. I don’t sit around and think about it too much. The victory is in the making them and that they exist in some capacity. I just try to keep moving. But at the same time sure, it would be great to do something special. With footage filmed in October 2005 and April 2006, Burgard describes a region of America that has developed its own unique culture, but that in many respects has evolved little from the days of the Wild West. Burgard illustrates several routes used by coyotes — smugglers paid to illegally bring people into the United States. Because smuggling activities are lucrative and often involve drugs, Burgard said, the coyotes are accompanied by armed paramilitaries who often are better equipped than U.S. Border Patrol agents. In his effort to document smuggling activities, Burgard and his film crew camped along one of the main routes, using a night-vision camera to record a group of armed border crossers. “The adrenaline was pumping,” Burgard said. Despite his harrowing experiences in making the film, Burgard was unable to find a distributor. So he took Border on tour, arranging screenings in major cities and selling copies of the DVD through his own Web site. For three months, Burgard visited such markets as Texas, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Washington, D.C., and shipped more than 15,000 DVDs. In one theater in Northern Wisconsin, Burgard said his movie outsold a “Harry Potter” movie. “I’ve spent the better part of the past year hearing from big studio distributors that it’s a good movie, but it won’t sell,” Burgard said. “But I’ve taken it to theaters. I’ve sold it online.” Through word of mouth, Burgard landed a distribution deal with Passion River, which releases Border Nov. 25 at $24.95. He was even asked to screen the film for the U.S. Senate. Home Media Magazine November 23–29, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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