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| Victoria Film Festival '08 Interview – Let Others Suffer director Todd Peters |
Let Others Suffer - A VERY funny movie, screening at Victoria Film Festival |
by Jason Whyte
“Imagine a world famously reclusive documentary filmmaker (Ivan Libragi) ends his 20 years of silence to make a documentary about a twitchy little want-to-be filmmaker named Todd’s attempt to make an important feminist documentary called “A Journey to Courage.” Now imagine that this Libragi character is evil to the core and wants only to document and exploit Todd and his crew’s complete incompetence. There you have: Let Others Suffer.
I can honestly say it’s the funniest (and only) movie we’ve ever made!” Director Todd Peters on his film “Let Others Suffer” which screens at this year’s Victoria Film Festival.
So you’re in a conversation with someone you haven’t met before at the Victoria fest and they ask if you have a film in the festival. What do you tell them to get them to come see your film? What’s your hook?
I imagine that this person I’ve never met would first either ask me, “Who cuts your hair like that and why?” or “Would you mind terribly if I sat at your table since it’s enormous and you’re only one guy and it’s really rude of you to hog it all for yourself especially since it doesn’t look like you’ve ordered anything and you’re just loitering here illegally anyway?”
Sorry.
Look, as a kid from Spokane Washington, I’m terrified of singing the praises of something I’ve done. That said, if I had to sell the movie to someone, I would say that they’d be hard-pressed to find a movie with a tighter, smarter, funnier ensemble cast. I would say that the movie is unusual in that it manages a tricky balance between big comedy and genuine poignancy. The movie is hysterically funny, but it’s also touching in a way that can be elusive in comedy.
I feel dirty.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background, and what led you to wanting to make films.
As a kid growing up in both Spokane and San Diego (talk about a commute), I always loved directing the other kids in my neighbourhood. I’d convince them to do scenes and plays and all sorts of crazy stuff I’d dream up. Eventually, all those kids stopped playing with me, and I ended up in grad school, at the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, critically acclaimed for the conciseness of its name. After school, I went on to perform in countless productions around the world. After years of acting in other people’s productions, I wanted to get back to what I was doing in my backyard as a kid: bossing around my friends. This movie absolutely has the same spirit of joy and camaraderie that those backyard plays had.
Tell me about how this production came together and how the film was made.
It’s really weird the way this movie came together in a kind of “the universe has a secret order” sort of way. Without knowing really why I was doing it, I started assembling the cast before we had any script or even an inkling of doing a movie or anything. I just had a feeling about this group of friends of mine who happened to be alumni of my drama school – some I studied with, some I met doing theatre. We all shared a similar sense of humour, love for the absurd, and a peculiar ease when it came to making complete asses of ourselves.
I knew there was something unusual about this group but I wasn’t sure what kind of thing we should do (i.e. a TV pilot, an indie short, live theatre, etc.) We started out shooting sketches with my childhood friend Matthew Gossin - Matthew’s a brilliant editor as well as a great director in his own right. Matthew was working on a TV show at the time with Scott Shelley (the Director of Photography). Scott saw a tape of some of our sketches, and, for some reason, thought me and my friends were very talented and he wanted to collaborate with us. He said if we ever had anything we wanted to shoot, he’d shoot it. We assured Scott that we had tons of ideas – we had nothing.
Motivated by complete panic at loosing our chance of working with Scott and Franz Moore (sound), Jeremy Rabb (the co-writer) and I scrambled for ideas. After considering a bunch of possible stories, we decided on a fake documentary about documentary filmmakers that stumble on the (true) story of the mysterious disappearance of my for-real grandfather.
Please tell me about the technical side of the film; your relation to the film’s cinematographer, what the film was shot on and why it was decided to be photographed this way.
The movie was shot in a documentary style because making a movie about a documentary filmmaker making a documentary about a group of want-to-be documentary filmmakers that wasn’t, in fact, shot as a documentary seemed just impossibly confusing. We worked really hard at making the movie have an authentic documentary feel. We have lots of motivated camera moves and focus adjustments to create the impression that the guy holding the camera didn’t know what was going to happen next. We also kept the camera really far from the action at times because the fictional filmmakers were “stealing” a shot of unsuspecting subjects. In general, we were very careful never to use a nice clean reverse angle, or any other shot that a real documentary filmmaker could never get. In the editing process as well, we use jump cuts and stolen shots to make the movie seem pieced together from available footage.
Scott Shelley, Matthew Gossin, and Franz Moore (sound) have years and years of experience making real non-fiction films and TV shows. This was absolutely invaluable to us in making our movie feel authentic. Those guys are the best team anyone could hope for, and I’ll work with them for as long as they’ll have me.
Out of the entire production, what was the most difficult aspect of making this film? Also, what was the most pleasurable moment?
The most difficult aspect was having to sit in the editing room day after day staring at my evil head. It didn’t really occur to me in pre-production that by playing the central character, I would eventually have to wade through hours of footage of my own dumb face. Not that I don’t enjoy gazing at myself in the bathroom mirror while brushing my teeth or plucking my eyebrows, but there are limits.
The most pleasurable moments are hearing theatre audiences laugh. We kept telling ourselves the movie was funny and compelling to watch, but when you’re so involved in every little detail and you watch the thing a million times, you loose touch with what’s funny or interesting about your movie. To sit in a full theatre and hear people laughing at these jokes you’ve worked and re-worked is an absolute dream come true.
Who would you say your biggest inspirations are in the film world (directors, actors, cinematographers, etc)? Did you have any direct inspirations from filmmakers for this film in particular?
There are so many filmmakers that I love. I am just in awe of Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Jacques Tati, and especially Woody Allen and Robert Altmen. I also am such an admirer of Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, and Ricky Gervais. Those guys sort of own the fake documentary genre and I think they’re just brilliant. I’m a huge fan of anyone that can make me laugh in a way that speaks to my humanity.
Above all, I would have to credit the great Eastern-European pioneer, Ivan Libragi, whom I was lucky enough to get to know during our filming. He is in my estimation (as well as his own) “THE GREATEST GENIUS THE WORLD OF FILM HAS EVER KNOWN.”
How has the film been received at other festivals or screenings? Do you have any interesting stories about how this film has screened before? If this is your first festival, what do you think you will expect at the film’s screenings at Victoria?
We’ve been lucky enough to have very energetic, loud-laughing audiences at our previous screenings.
I’m hoping that the fact that I grew up very near Canada for a significant portion of my childhood will endear me to the Victoria audience. I’ll be clear: I’m not above renouncing my American citizenship if it means we can get more Canadians to buy tickets to our two screenings.
If you weren’t making movies, what other line or work do you feel you’d be in?
Years ago, I made ends meet working in a Manhattan candle store called “Candle Shtick.” As a result, I have always felt a kinship with terribly punned names for businesses. I feel like I could make a good living coming up with them. I’ve thought up a store that sells fountains called “Lost and Fountains,” and a fragrant maritime business called “Rose, Rose, Rose your Boat.” I think there’s definitely an untapped market out there that truly speaks to my talents.
How important do you think the critical/media response is to film these days, be it a large production, independent film or festival title?
I think every independent producer hopes to find distribution, so getting the word out about your film is crucial. Stamps of approval from festivals like Victoria as well as various media outlets have an enormous impact, so we’re very appreciative of anyone who talks up our film. To those who don’t like our film, we very much hope they write about it only in their personal diaries which they never let anyone else read.
If your film could play in any movie theatre in the world, which one would you choose?
I’m not picky. I’d be perfectly happy if it played in every movie theatre in the world.
If you could offer a nickel’s worth of free advice to someone who wanted to make movies, what nuggets of wisdom would you offer?
I would say surround yourself with great people and give them the time and space they need to do their best work.
I’ve also tried surrounding myself with terrible people and stifling their every impulse, which is equally gratifying.
What do you love the most about film and the filmmaking business?
I like swag, even though I don’t like the word very much. It sounds dirty or mean-spirited, but the free gift part is really sweet. I would say my favourite swag item would be a muffin basket or a major distribution deal.
A question that is easy for some but not for others and always gets a different response: what is your favourite movie of all time?
“King Of Comedy” was the first movie that I really loved. It was the first time I felt like I got what it was that made movies great. There have been many others I’ve loved since then, but it was such a seminal experience as a kid that it’s tough to beat. As is so evident from this interview, I’m a sucker for the marriage of comedy and pathos. People always say about me, “That Todd is so very funny and so deeply pathetic.”
This film will be screening at this year’s Victoria Film Festival, which runs February 1st to 10th, 2008. For more information on this film, screening times and general information about the festival, point your browser to the VFF’s official website HERE. – Jason Whyte, efilmcritic.com
link directly to this feature at http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=2366
originally posted: 02/01/08 05:55:13
last updated: 02/07/08 17:01:35
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