235: Focus on Flyover

Movie Meltdown - Episode 235 This week, we're back for our annual coverage of Flyover Film Festival. It was a terrific line-up of films this year, and we continue our on-going interview series on directors as we sit down with three amazing independent filmmakers.   First we talk to David Lowery, director of "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" starring Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster and Keith Carradine. Next we talk with Jillian Schlesinger about her film "Maidentrip". Her documentary features years of footage chronicling 14 year-old Laura Dekker's journey as she attempts to become the youngest person to sail around the world. And we round out the episode talking with Calvin Lee Reeder, director of "The Rambler", a surreal odyssey starring Dermot Mulroney and Lindsay Pulsipher.   And as we address the specifics of loitering around film fests, we also mention... Star Wars, furniture building, Scarecrow Video, a children's guide to film making, acid westerns, Monica Vitti, better home sound systems, America's greatest living surrealist, looking at raw footage, Labyrinth, Wild and Woolly Video, The Shooting, Pioneer, Storytelling... in all forms, digging ditches and playing rock and roll, fighting to shoot on film, the Canary Islands, The Hired Hand,trusting your instincts, evolving as a filmmaker, shredded by rats, Woody Guthrie, editing is my strong suit, the universal growing-up process, psychotronic, Desolation Row, being a schizophrenic director, Cat's Eye, Guy Clark, Repo Man, the American troubadours of the West, Monte Hellman, I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse, I was trying to hatch a new plan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Videodrone, The Hustler, there's a television show... a movie... and a band within the movie, pretty faces and big explosions, fighting a Government to pursuit her dream, St. Nick, the spirit of the project, being a skater kid, 'Z for Zachariah, Don't Look Now, using a camcorder, collaborating with someone,  1 2 3 4 5 6 hamster, Walker, live your life courageously, Townes Van Zandt, Ride in the Whirlwind, David Gordon Green, an unholy pile of trash in his front room, lighting with practicals, having a very specific time period and subject, being 6'8" tall, artistic integrity, what is the narrative that naturally exists, using older equipment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Jerry Jeff Walker, being a forklift driver and Jerkbeast.   "You walk past all the trucks and all the crew members, and it really comes down to you and the cinematographer and the actors."