Take One (Mar 1978)

MAKING DYLAN’S MOVIE Joe Medjuck interviews Question: What three filmmakers have had the most Take One articles devoted to their work? Answer: JeanLuc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Alk. You probably remember who Godard and Hitchcock are, but perhaps aren’t familiar with the work of Alk. Nevertheless, it seems entirely appropriate that a magazine which began publishing in 1966 should have placed this emphasis on Alk’s films, since as Alk says in the interview below, during the past decade his films have been ‘‘some kind of chronicle of the times.”’ Alk began working in films in the late 50s. Of his early work, he seems most proud of The Cry of Jazz, a documentary he edited in 1958. During the 60s he edited Festival, a feature film about the Newport Folk Festival; was second cameraman on Don Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back, edited You Are What You Eat, a youth / music movie; and was cameraman as well as CO-editor with Bob Dylan on the singer’s film Eat That Document. In 1968, Alk collaborated with Michael Gray on American Revolution II, a film about the Chicago Democratic Convention, which included interviews with the Chicago Black Panthers. (Take One, Vol. 2, No. 7). Their contact with the Panthers led Gray and Alk to make The Murder of Fred Hampton, with money given them by Albert Grossman, Dylan’s ex-manager (Take One, Vol. 3, No. 9). Alk then went to Ottawa to work with Budge Crawley on Janis, a documentary on Janis Joplin which Alk edited, and for which he received co-director credit (Take One, Vol. 4, No. 6). Offered the job of cameraman and co-editor on Bob Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara, Alk returned to the States. He and Dylan co-edited the video-taped TV special ‘‘Hard Rain’’ as well, using the joint pseudonym ‘‘Gangbusters.’’ Alk began shooting Renaldo and Clara just before Halloween, 1975. Just after New Year’s 1978, he spoke to me by telephone from New York, where he was supervising press screenings of the film. Is this the movie that you foresaw, or 34 | —————— , | We . or oe EE a =_— = Ss oe a Rat 4 = Se ae = domerpl Se = = aoe ———— Es => a 2S E= = | aa = ot StS = oo —S a — ae ae; aa eet eee So a meee — — oo === _ —@— or h I" hy. : —— ——————— ——_ RS PSE A ————— ——— did the film evolve while you were making it? Alk: I can’t possibly answer that. It was a long process. It’s clear that this is’ the film that wanted to be made, the film that Bob had in his mind. Did anyone give any thought to the film’s length—that being four hours long might hurt it commercially? Alk: Dylan’s never, as far as I know, made any concessions to market considerations. We knew from the beginning that the film was going to be too long. We shot total footage of about 240,000 feet. But over a third of that was multiple camera shooting of concerts. So our final ratio of what was shot to what’s in the final film is the standard documentary ratio of 20 to 1. How many cameramen did you have on the film? Alk: There were always two cameramen with the tour, but for the four concerts we shot we used four camermen. How long did you spend cutting the film? Alk: Actual cutting took about six months. We began work on the film more than two years ago, but we were interrupted by the second leg of the tour and by the television show, so were actually in the editing room for six months. Did you first meet Dylan when you were working on Don’t Look Back? Alk: No, I’d met him in New York in the early sixties. Most of the films you've worked on could be categorized as political or musical. Is there a connection between the two for you? Alk: Obviously. The films that I’ve worked on beginning with The Cry of Howard Alk Jazz and up to the present day are, for me, some kind of chronicle of the time during which I was operating in film. Not all of these were films of my initiation; many of them were films where I was hired by someone to work on someone else’s project—like Festival. But these are the areas that interest me, and I do find a strong connection between the two things. Do you find any bind of contradiction between the two kinds of film? Alk: What kind of contradictions? Well, the differences between making a film about and with The Black Panthers and making a film with Bob Dylan. The amount of money involved, for example. Alk: I’m not interested in the amount of money either of them have. Both have said, and in some cases continue to say, very righteous things. I think this film is a revolutionary film in terms of art. It is a kind of film that has never, ever been made. It’s an extraordinary and moving film that takes people some place that they surely do not expect to go. It works. I started to say that we knew from the beginning that the film was going to be too long. There was no way that it was not going to be ‘“objectively’’ too long. The only question was, were people going to say “‘It’s too long, don’t go see it,’’ or were they going to say ‘‘It’s too long. Go see it.’’? What it turns out they’re saying is ‘‘It’s too long, when can I see it again?’’ Bob Dylan is by nature not a political person. But I think that he has probably had more effect on the political consciousness of an entire generation of people than any other single person. You can believe that Bob is fully committed to filmmaking. That we are discussing the next ¢wo films. My own personal point of view is that it’s a phenomenon, that the man who changed the face of American music has unbelievable filmic vision. And he should have an equal impact on what is potentially a great American art form. Joe Medjuck teaches film at the University of Toronto’s Innis College and is Take One’s editorial director.