Street roots., October 10, 2014, Page 9, Image 9

9
Street roots
O ct 10, 2014
l l O
HARRINGTON, from page 8
who the audience was going to be until I got
there. And I thought, “Oh my god. What
have I done?” There’s a room full of Catholic
clergy, and I’d never shown the film to
anybody - except for the people that I know
that had been to the rough cut screening -
no one had seen the film publicly.
Generationally, we all came up in the
church at a certain time, and we were all
optimistic about changes in the church and
we were also optimistic about the world. The
film took place during Kennedy-era
Catholicism. Vietnam wasn’t in full swing
and Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated. So
there was this dreamy world. They
recognized that and everyone got a kick out
of it, even as I was saying that as time went
on that, less and less, the church was
somewhere I thought I belonged.
That crowd was great The crowd that was
really tough was the very last time I showed
it in a setting like th a t- University of
Dayton. And oh my God, it was mostly really
old- school Catholic priests. The Notre
Dame crowd was at least half Sisters,
Catholic women. But these priests Were very
upset and really berated me publicly. /
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S.Z.: Welcome to Ohio.
B.H.: At that point I was realizing this is
the old guard and they are really out of
touch. And of c o u rse ,^ the time, little did I
know just how out of touch. Frankly,
Catholicism crumbled with the priests .
scandals. .
S.Z.: I fin d myself oddly taken with Pope
Francis. He almost makes me feel like dusting
o ff my rosary a little b it...
B.H.: You know I have resisted and
resisted and resisted because I kept
thinking, "Yeah, but when is he going to
stick itfo u s? ” ! keep waiting.
I keep watching him, and I think he’s the
bomb. He keeps showing me that he is and
fm so impressed. I keep thinking this can’t
be right.
S.Z.: Is film m aking subversive?
B.H.: It can be, yeah, if you engage people
in a way (that is entertaining). And film, at
least in this culture, has always been treated
as entertainm ent So if you can ad h ereto :
that expectation and still get your message
across; you can definitely use it as a tool that
way.
I worked on a film for OPB a few years
ago called “Yofk,” which is about the Lewis
and Clark expedition, but it was through the
eyes of York who was William Clark’s» quote,
“manservant” He was enslaved to William
Clark. He was part of the expedition.
Nobody really talks much about York. He’s
mentioned in a few entries in th e journals.
B uthe was a reallyinterestingcharacter,. <
When I finished the film, I felt like I had
made this film that kind of talked about how
we think about history. I think that can be
subversive. Just think about who’s telling the
story and what that perspective is.
S.Z.: The women featured in “Welcome To -
the Club,” a film you released in 20Q4, were
“pioneers in a world that was not quite ready
for them. ” I know who Elvis is and Jerry Lee
Lewis, but how is it that until I saw your film,
Welcome to the Club: The Women o f Rockabilly,
I had never heard o f Charline Arthur?
B.H. That’s just it. Somehow the men’s,
stories surface anyway, whether you’re from
that generation or not and the women’s
don’t.; All you have to do is watch an episode
of “Mad Men.”
The women (of the film) were Southern'
women in their milieu trying to deal with
the same stuff. Janis Martin gets pregnant
and her.i'Career is ovgr.LorrieColKnsgets* s
married and her careefik over.
In those days, it was like the kiss of death,
professionally, to be a woman.
S.Z.: The film was nominated for a
Grammy and consequently, the women in the
film were added to the Rock and Roll Hall o f
Fame. That must have been pretty satisfying,
as a filmmaker, to have something to do with
that.
B.H.: A couple of them were. Well, right
after the film was done, Brenda Lee was
nominated and got into the Rock andR pll,
Hall of Fame. Wanda Jackson), j t took
longer, but she got inducted, I think it was
three or four years ago now.
I really feet proud about th a t It wasn’t
anything that any of us thought about, but it
was really cool that it happened.
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