WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt, US, 2008, 80 mins)
If a person can't afford dog food, then they shouldn't have a dog. --A grocery clerk sets Wendy straight
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Once upon a time, the great character actor L.Q. Jones (The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue) directed a little post-apocalyptic picture called A Boy and His Dog. To some, it's best known because Jones directed it. To others, it's best known because Don Johnson starred in it. Either way, the title has a pleasingly matter-of-fact ring.
The same could be said about the third film from Old Joy's Kelly Reichardt. Wendy (Michelle Williams. Meek's Cutoff) may not be living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, like the dog lovers in A Boy or I Am Legend, but her situation isn't that much different from the homeless father and son in Cormac McCarthy's The Road (coming to the big screen later this year). All these duos have is each other. All Wendy has is her dog, Lucy.
When she first comes into view, Wendy is romping with Lucy in the Oregon woods as her humming permeates the soundtrack. In most movies, young person plus canine companion = good times. Wendy, as it turns out, is driving to Alaska to work in a cannery. Except for the golden retriever, she could be cinematic sister to Emile Hirsch's vagabond in Into the Wild as she's also traveled some distance to get to the Northwest, but she doesn't connect with other people the way he does. A glimpse at her notebook indicates that she originated in Nebraska or passed through it on the way to the West Coast. And that she's running out of money.
When her car won't start and the dog food runs out, it's clear that a world of hurt awaits. Yes, Wendy and Lucy is that kind of movie: the kind where the protagonist's situation goes from bad to worse before ending somewhere more enigmatic. As in Old Joy, Reichardt makes Wendy's trip into disappointment and diminished expectations one worth taking. Vittorio di Sica did the same in Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D. (the story of an old man and his dog), but it's tricky territory to navigate. And when Wendy breaks the law to provide for Lucy, the fix is in.
Wendy and Lucy opens at the Varsity Theater on Fri., 1/23. The Varsity is located at 4329 University Way NE. For more information, please call (206) 781-5755. As with Old Joy, Reichardt adapted the script from author/co-writer Jon Raymond's collection Livability (the original story is called "Train Choir"). Images from the IMDb (Michelle Williams and Lucy) Rotten Tomatoes (Don Johnson in A Boy and His Dog), and Oscilloscope Laboratories (Lucy, the director's dog), the new distribution company formed by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.
A Chat with Tia Lessin (click here for part three)
Actually, he’s having us out to the Traverse City Film Festival next month.
He [Michael Moore] created the film festival a few years back. He renovated
a theater in Traverse City that he owns, so he’s inviting us to show the film.
That’s great, because that really, in a way, puts his stamp on it, as well.
Here’s another person saying: This is something I think you should see.
Like most everybody with any kind of conscience in this country, he had strong feelings about Katrina, so he was really happy to see this political, emotional film.
I read about how you ended up in New Orleans, and why you made the film,
but how did Kim and Scott, these specific people, come to your attention?
In the National Guard Armory, which you see in the film with the soldiers return-
ing; across the parking lot was the Red Cross shelter where Kimberly and Scott had arrived that night with 25 people in a truck, so their community—their friends and neighbors—were staying there, and they were down the road in a trailer, so they had this footage, they knew they had a story to tell, and they spotted us from the street.
How funny.
[Lessin and Deal originally intended to make a film about the
redeployment of the National Guard from Iraq to New Orleans.]
[image]
The view from Kimberley's attic
The story that Kim and Scott tell is that they saw us, we looked important, and
they honed right in. So that’s really how the film begins, with Kimberly essentially interrupting the interview Carl was doing with the head of the Red Cross shelter. Some people call it serendipity, some people call it fate—it happened to be Carl’s 40th birthday. Look, there are a lot of people with incredible stories to tell, and they’re not really extraordinary storytellers like Kimberly. I think that was really—
the footage she had was important ultimately, but also her voice, her ability, and
her invitation for us to get on the road with them to see how their story turns out.
That’s amazing that she found you.
And we were looking for a story to tell, there’s no question about it, and we also realized that it was the personal story that was lacking, that we weren’t seeing in
the news media, and we objected to how the residents of New Orleans were being characterized. They were either victims or they were looters, and Kimberly and Scott presented this opportunity to tell a story of survivors, of powerful resourceful people who were nobody’s victims, so they were looking for someone to help them get the story out, we were looking for someone…our objectives were aligned, let’s say that.
And you end up getting their community’s story out, too—not that Scott and Kim-
berly wouldn’t be interesting enough, but other people come on board, as well. I wanted to ask you, and I know you don’t have much time to go in to detail, but I’m sure not everyone realizes she had a baby at Sundance. I’m wondering how else their lives have changed since the film, because they go through so many changes during the course of it, through moving to Memphis, and other things that happen.
The thing I’m starting to think about Kim and Scott is that they have used ev-
ery crisis in their lives as an opportunity. I mean, they’ve been through a lot of storms—whether related to Katrina or not—and they have emerged from the other end stronger, and so they decided to have a baby, and not just to have a baby, but they decided they were in a good place where they could have a baby, and where they had created a good environment in which that would be possible. Kimberly has also recorded a new album, and they created a record company called Born Hustler Re-
cords. You can look at the website at bornhustlerrecords.com. She's selling it in con-
junction with the film’s release, so some of the songs you hear on our soundtrack are on this album, and many more. And they’re raising this beautiful little girl. And
I guess the one other thing, she’s been traveling around with this film. And unfor-
tunately, she wasn’t able to come to Seattle, but they’ve been to New York, they’ve been to Utah. They’ve been able to see audiences respond, really emotionally, to the film and their story, and I think that has been life-changing for them.
After Hoop Dreams came out, there was some talk about the fact—and the film-
makers were open about this—there’s a point in which the electricity gets turned
off for one of the subjects, and the filmmakers pay the bill. And in the film, the lights go off, then they're back, and the film moves on. I’m wondering how you and Carl feel about this, when you’re watching people going through a crisis. Is it wrong to do something like that, or is it something you don’t even have to talk about?
First of all, Kimberly and Scott aren't just subjects in this film. They contributed to it.
I think that’s how the Hoop Dreams directors felt, too:
We’re in these people’s faces with cameras at all times, so...
Right. She also had footage, which we licensed. We paid commercial rates, so: yes.
I don’t have a problem with it. And since then, I think the issue isn’t as contro-
versial as it was at that time, but then what do you do, leave these people with-
out electricity? That’s your only other choice, at least in the case of Hoop Dreams.
Everybody has a different situation, and I think documentary filmmakers need to interrogate themselves about their relationships with—Carl’s and Tia’s situation in this world is quite different from Kimberly’s and Scott’s. We have a lot of power and privilege that we try to keep in check, and we interrogate ourselves all the time.
That’s good, and I like your clarification. It’s important to remember, as viewers, that they might be subjects to us, but not to you. That’s a good point to make.
We licensed their footage, but we pretty much kept out of their
lives as much as we could, because they had a lot to do. [laughs]
And she seemed pretty comfortable. I love that line in the film where someone asks, ‘Do you always travel around with a film crew?’ I thought that was great.
That was literally after only about a week with us. She was a natural.
[image]
Tia and Carl
Trouble the Water is now available on DVD. For more information,
please click here. Images from The Mercury News, indieWIRE, and Zeitgeist Films.
Right: Kimberly Rivers Roberts clutches a favorite photo
How did Danny Glover come to be involved with Trouble the Water; had he seen the completed film or had he seen a portion of it...?
I guess the film had been about two years in the making, so he saw the rough cut we had after we came back from the Sundance Labs, and he had heard about the film, and so he--it was actually Jocelyn Barnes, his producing partner, somebody I've known for many, many years, and I've always liked her work. She came to one of our-we were screening the film a lot over the fall to kind of hone it--and she came in, and she was pretty stunned, and we were really needing to finish things at that point, and she said, "I need to show it to him. He's really gonna love this film." And so shortly thereafter, we got a call from Danny, and he was very moved by it.
That's awesome, because I know he's not going to put his name on just anything. You can tell from his credits, whether it's a documentary or a fiction film, what's going to appeal to him. It fits in with his interests. I interviewed John Sayles last year about Honeydripper, and asked if he and Glover talked about politics while shooting, and he said, 'Yeah, we did a little bit,' because they're both such political people, but he said what they mostly talked about--and I'm sure Danny's mentioned this to you, as well--is the Haitian film he's working on.
Yeah, that's right.
John said it's his dream project, and he's working hard on that, and he has, fortunately-and unfortunately because it's kind of controversial-a friendship with Hugo Chavez, who's helping by letting him film in Venezuela. I was looking on the IMDb, and he's gathered this list of fantastic actors, so it looks pretty exciting.
A lot of high-value actors.
Yes, Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor, sounds like he's getting things
together. I hope it all happens for him, because it sounds very ambitious.
They [Glover and Barnes] have created this company called Louverture- after Toussaint Louverture, who their film is about-and so, yeah, they're helping to support a lot of filmmakers who do work that is socially rele- vant and commercially viable. It's wonderful. In other words, he's not only lending his name, they're lending their resources as a company.
He came to town [to introduce Trouble the Water].
I'm sorry I missed him.
Yeah, he flew in from Senegal. He was there for a celebration of the filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, and flew straight from there to here. That was quite lovely.
Is it true, by the way, that he has a home in Portland? If so, that's kind of convenient. He was actually here--this is the second time I've missed him--just a few months ago with Charles Burnett for a screening of Namibia.
That's what I heard, at the African American Film Festival. I know that he's got a home in Berkeley or Oakland--in the Bay Area.
So, I have to ask: Has Michael Moore seen Trouble the Water?
He absolutely has.
What did he say about it?
He saw it the first time when they flew us out there. Ask him yourself--he was very proud.
He was here recently with Sicko, but I wasn't one of the people who got the chance to interview him.
This film is quite informed by our working with him...
But Kimberly [Rivers Roberts] is really the narrator.
That's right, but there are things in our film that you can see are influenced by Roger and Me and Fahrenheit 911. And it has a strong point of view. It's our point of view, but told by an outsider, so I don't think it has Moore's voice, but it has his spirit. More to come...
Left: Kimberly and husband Scott
Oscar nominations will be announced on Thurs., Jan 22, and Trouble the Water remains a top doc contender. Though most play dates have passed, it continues at San Francisco's Sundance Kabuki Cinema through Feb 8. Lisa Schwarzbaum, David Denby, and Roger Ebert have included it on their top 10 lists. Images: Zeitgeist Films, Santa Barbara Independent, and the IMDb.
Coverage of the Seattle International Film Festival and year-round art house programming in the Pacific Northwest.
Kathy Fennessy is President of the Seattle Film Critics Society, a Northwest Film Forum board member, and a Tomatometer-approved critic. She writes or has written for Amazon, Minneapolis's City Pages, Resonance, Rock and Roll Globe, Seattle Sound, and The Stranger.
